CamReader

"CamReader, including barcode scanner is superior image processing software that is designed for mobile terminal (cell phone etc).
CamReader enables you to develop superior image processing application on the resource-limited devices."

CamReader is provided by MEDIASEEK Inc. and is now available on almost all Japanese phones. I have seen their barcode scanner application and its really cool. Qr codes are being used widely in Japan for almost everything and MediaSeeks QR decoding engine comes pre installed on almost all KDDI devices. The devices have a cool optical focus assembly that allows the devices to focus on the code. I was looking through the documentation but since it was all in japanese, I wasnt able to make out how the embedded application actually works. I believe the calling application has to the set the zoom to a pre defined level and then invoke the decoding engine. More on this when I fond out how it really works.

Why is CamReader so interesting ?? not only does it offer barcode decoding but there is mention of OCR, Facial Recognition and even motion detection. Talk about using the camera on the device :-)... I am not sure if there is a working version of CamReader that supports all this but if it does then we have killer app in the making here. A single application that does everything. I was trying to find out their presence in the US and European markets but I guess they havent yet launched here.

As of right now, the application is primarily BREW based. I guess the next platform to cover would be Symbian as this is where the money is in Europe. I am looking forward to a public extension on Qualcomm's rack specially for Motion Navi. There is a lot of potential here specially since games are the biggest money makers in the business.

Wonder if they have a version for Brew devices in US.