"Scanning" with an android phone
 

There is an inexpensive way to use an android phone to "scan" book and other merchandise bar codes for fast lookups using ScoutPal Live.

Of course, the first thing you will need to do is subscribe to or begin a free trial with Scoutpal, if you haven't done so already.  (You can start with the Free Trial.)  Then browse to ie.scoutpal.com on your phone and use it to do a few ScoutPal lookups by "punching in" the ISBN/UPC using the phone's touchscreen keypad.

Then follow the steps below to use your ScoutPal subscription with the free "Barcode Scanner" app, produced by the ZXing Team.  ZXing produces the fundamental scanning driver library used by nearly every other sort of android "scanning" app.  Not surprisingly, we have found their own free app to be superior in performance and ease of use over the other, derivative apps.

Keep in mind that any camera-based "scanner" app is not really a true laser bar code scanner. Instead, it literally takes a photograph of the bar code, so the process will be like taking any other sort of snapshot: there must be good lighting, no shadows, and you will need to hold steady and get the subject into focus. It will take some practice to learn how to use the app after you get it setup by following these steps:

1. Browse the app store on your android phone to find and install the ZXing Barcode Scanner app.  Exactly how to do this will vary by phone and cell company.  For example, with an LG Ally on Verizon:
   • Press the Home key.
   • Scroll to and tap on Market.
   • Tap Apps.
   • Tap the Search button or icon. (It looks like a magnifying glass.)
   • Search for ZXing Barcode Scanner.
   • Install the application.
2. On your phone (or your computer) browse to http://www.scoutpal.com
3. Login to scoutpal.com and click on "Additional Service Addresses".
4. Copy the "direct-lookup URL" displayed at the bottom.  If you are browsing the page on your phone, tap and hold on the URL field to use your phone's built in copy functions.
5. Start the Barcode Scanner app on your phone.  Don't try to scan yet.
6. Press the phone's Menu key, and tap Settings.
7. Scroll to and tap Custom search URL.
8. Enter or paste the direct-lookup URL that you received from ScoutPal into the URL field.  If you are typing it in, you have to get every little dot and colon and slash (/) in there perfectly, use all lowercase letters, and no spaces.  (Computers are picky about things like this.)
9. Remove the sample ISBN numbers at the end of the URL, leaving just "&i=" at the very end.
10. Type in "%s" at the end.
11. The URL should now end with "&i=%s"
12. Tap OK and press the back button to return to the scanning app.
13. Aim the camera at any kind of merchandise bar code.  (Book, CD, etc.)
14. After the app captures the bar code, tap Custom Search, and ScoutPal live will do the lookup.
15. Press the back button to scan another item.
16. If there is no bar code on the next item you wish to look up, simply type the ISBN or UPC into the search field at the top of your last results screen then tap Fetch.

 

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