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We want to scan a QR code on our security badge and it should be easier for user to use their front-facing camera to capture their security badge front of it.
@Mvdelvine Pvwsons : We can change the default camera to the camera you need.
Thanks, yes I found the option and I succeeded to use the front cam. However, the default front cam image is always mirror image (you see your face on the screen just like a mirror), for instance, the letters and numbers are flipped left and right.
QR codes doesn't get affected by mirror images and i can still capture them on the front cam. But barcodes seem to be not making sense with mirror image and our scanner could not recognize any bar code at all. I actually made a mirror image of a barcode for testing purpose, and I succeeded to scan this mirror image barcode on my sample program.
Can you please modify this component to capture none-flipped image for front cam?
Can you please send an email to the owner of the component or tag them here.
Hi @Mvdelvine Pvwsons
At our end, we are able to scan successfully both barcode and QR code by using the front camera.
Mirroring behavior seems to be a little confusing. Let's try to understand the scenario with a simple example. Suppose, you wear a T-shirt, which has a simple text labeled as "A B C". When front cam is opened, it always shows the mirrored image of A B C. But when user taps on "Take photo", it saves the actual image (A B C), which is equivalent just like a third person is there just before you and took the pic. This is the default behavior while taking the photo using the front cam.
Nowadays, few manufacturers provide an extra option called "Mirror the photo taken using front cam" in camera settings. By default, this option is set to "No mirror". That means you get (A B C) only when a photo has been taken. But when a user changes this option to "Mirror the image", then the photo taken in the gallery is "Mirrored image of A B C". If this image is given as input to the barcode scanner app, it can't decode it as the text is mirrored.
So, in your camera app, if there is any mirroring option enabled for the front cam, please set that option to "no mirror" option. Hope, this solves your issue.
If it still doesn't solve your issue, please provide the following inputs:
1. Once you turn on the front camera, are you seeing the mirrored image (before clicking the pic)?
2. Once the image is saved, are you able to see the original image or mirrored image when you save the photo? Go to the gallery and then confirm
3. Which phone are you using? Does it has an option to configure the "Mirror the photo taken using front camera"? This option can be seen when you are using the front camera and then navigate to settings.
Hi,
You are right. It was neither about back & front cam nor mirror & normal image issue. I realized it was about the camera (video) image resolution of the front cam. When you create a long bar code (like "https://www.kony.com”) , the front camera won't be able to detect. If it is short like "1234567", it succeeded to capture. Back cam is better one so it can capture pretty long one,
So I suggest to improve this component to support zooming feature. If user can pinch the scanning image on the screen to zoom up into the barcode, it will prevent the resolution issue and should be able to scan the image.
What do you think?
I realized iPhone/iPad front cam doesn't have zooming feature at all. With the given fact (1.2MP+ƒ/2.2) of the front cam lens, it's not not optimal for small barcodes.
Please let us know if someone figured out how to workaround this limitation of hardware.
Hi @Mvdelvine Pvwsons ,
I couldn't think of any workaround now. But I experienced a similar problem. When we increase the amount of information in the 1 dimensional barcode the bigger it will become, and then lines width differentiation will be difficult to process by the hardware device
In general, most people encode 8-15 characters in the 1D barcode. If we keep only digits as information, that would be easy to decode. Few letters can be added. But if we keep special characters and letters only, then it will be difficult to decode
For those scenarios, we can use 2D barcodes like QR code, which can easily accommodate larger texts.