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Barcode Scanner (application)

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This is an old revision of this page, as edited by Srowen (talk | contribs) at 18:31, 8 May 2016 (Updated count of ratings, Distimo -> App Annie URL change, update most-downloaded apps wiki link). The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.

Barcode Scanner (aka ZXing or Zebra Crossing)
Developer(s)Sean Owen, Daniel Switkin, ZXing Team
Initial release1 March 2008 (2008-03-01)
Stable release
4.7.8, 3.5.3 / 8 November 2015; 8 years ago (2015-11-08)
Repository
Written inJava
Operating systemAndroid
LicenseApache License 2.0
WebsiteMain site
Google Play
Barcode Scanner scanning a QR code

The application Barcode Scanner is an Android app, from the open source project ZXing (short for Zebra Crossing), that allows a user to scan 1-D or 2-D "graphical barcodes" with the camera on their Android device. The program turns that scan into the original data that is represented by the barcode. This allows the user to get to web addresses, geographical coordinates, small pieces of text, and much more just by pointing their device's camera at a barcode. In this way the Android based system works almost like a conventional Barcode Reader except that it is only composed of commodity hardware and this software application.

There are many different types of barcodes that are supported by this application, in addition to the original 1-D barcode. These are commonly provided on products such as food, books, clothing, DVDs, and most other products sold commercially. When the Barcode Scanner application scans the 1-D barcode on one of these types of items, it can automatically search the web for that product. With this functionality, the application can enable the user to quickly do comparisons between the price of an item they are looking at in a store with prices from online retailers.

The most common 2-D barcodes that can be read by this application are QR code and Data Matrix barcodes. QR codes are often embedded in websites so that when users are browsing the website on their desktop or laptop and want to transfer a link, product, or application to their Android device, they can quickly point their camera at the screen and using the Barcode Scanner application, get that data from the website.

This is one of the most popular overall Android applications, as listed by Google Play, with over 600,000 ratings and over 126 million user installs as of May 2016.[1][2]

See also

References

  1. ^ "BarcodeScanner". Google Play.
  2. ^ "Barcode Scanner App Ranking and Store Data". AppAnnie.
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