Creating a simple barcode scanner app in Python:

In this blog post, we will explore how to create a simple barcode scanner app using Python.

Method 1: Using the pyzbar Library

We will explore involves using the pyzbar library, a Python wrapper for the ZBar barcode scanning library. First, let's install the necessary library using pip:

pip install pyzbar

Now, let's write our barcode scanner app:

import cv2
from pyzbar.pyzbar import decode

def barcode_scanner(image_path):
    # Load image
    image = cv2.imread(image_path)

    # Decode barcodes
    barcodes = decode(image)

    # Loop over detected barcodes
    for barcode in barcodes:
        barcode_data = barcode.data.decode('utf-8')
        print("Barcode Data:", barcode_data)

# Provide the path to the image containing the barcode
image_path = 'barcode_image.png'
barcode_scanner(image_path)

Output:

Barcode Data: 1234567890

In this method, we first import the necessary libraries: cv2 for image processing and decode from pyzbar.pyzbar to decode the barcode. We then define a function barcode_scanner that takes the path to the image containing the barcode as input. Inside this function, we load the image, decode the barcodes using the decode function from pyzbar, and print the decoded data.

Method 2: Using the ZBar Command-Line Tool

Another method to create a barcode scanner app involves using the ZBar command-line tool along with Python's subprocess module. 

sudo apt-get install libzbar0

Now, let's write our Python code to call the ZBar tool:

import subprocess

def barcode_scanner(image_path):
    # Call ZBar tool with subprocess
    result = subprocess.run(['zbarimg', '--raw', image_path], capture_output=True, text=True)
    barcode_data = result.stdout.strip()
    print("Barcode Data:", barcode_data)

# Provide the path to the image containing the barcode
image_path = 'barcode_image.png'
barcode_scanner(image_path)

Output:

Barcode Data: 1234567890

In this method, we use Python's subprocess module to call the ZBar tool zbarimg with the --raw option, which outputs only the decoded data of the barcode. We then capture the output and print the barcode data.