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eleybourn / Book-Catalogue

A book cataloging tool for Android phones.
https://github.com/eleybourn/Book-Catalogue/wiki
GNU General Public License v3.0
385 stars 186 forks source link

Google Goggles how-to #246

Open sanedraw opened 13 years ago

sanedraw commented 13 years ago

In Book Catalogue I choose Add by Barcode, and the barcode app installed on the phone runs. Unfortunately, I cannot get Barcode Scanner (ZXing) to read barcodes on any of my books. I installed Google Goggles, and it does recognize the same barcodes. However, it does not pass that information back to Book Catalogue (it simply goes off and does a search using Browser). What am I doing wrong? Thanks, -- Sandro

eleybourn commented 13 years ago

Thanks for letting me know. Google goggles should pass the information to the book catalogue app, so I will investigate what could be causing the issue. I'll try and have a fix by the end of the weekend.

eleybourn commented 13 years ago

Could you let me know if this is still an issue?

sanedraw commented 13 years ago

Hello,

The problem is still there, but maybe I'm just not doing it right.

I am using Book Catalogue 3.8, Goggles 1.6.1, on a Samsung GT-I5500 running Android 2.1-update 1.

  1. I launch Book Catalogue, press the menu button, tap "Add Book...", then "Add by Barcode".
  2. Given the option to complete action using: Barcode Scanner and Goggles, I tap the latter.
  3. The camera turns on, I take a picture of a book's barcode.
  4. Goggles recognizes the barcode and displays the book title at the bottom.
  5. I tap the book title.
  6. Goggles displays a screen with three main options: Product Search, Book Search, Web Search. If tapped, all three will load Browser. There are also two small icons at the top: the one on the right turns on the camera, the one on the left returns to the recognized image. Pressing the back button will eventually return to Book Catalogue, but without adding the book to the database. There doesn't seem to be a way to return the info from Goggles to Book Catalogue to populate a book record.

-- Sandro

On Sat, Oct 22, 2011 at 9:30 PM, Evan Leybourn reply@reply.github.com wrote:

Could you let me know if this is still an issue?

Reply to this email directly or view it on GitHub: https://github.com/eleybourn/Book-Catalogue/issues/246#issuecomment-2493986

eleybourn commented 13 years ago

Thanks for that. Could you tell me what phone model and android version you are using.

sanedraw commented 13 years ago

Samsung GT-I5500, running Android 2.1-update 1.

On Sun, Oct 23, 2011 at 8:05 PM, Evan Leybourn reply@reply.github.com wrote:

Thanks for that. Could you tell me what phone model and android version you are using.

Reply to this email directly or view it on GitHub: https://github.com/eleybourn/Book-Catalogue/issues/246#issuecomment-2499379

meghatas commented 13 years ago

Same issue here sadly on Android 2.2, HTC Desire.

eleybourn commented 13 years ago

Does this happen on all books you try and scan?

sanedraw commented 13 years ago

Yes. Goggles does recognise the books, so I don't think there is a problem with what is being scanned. Incidentally, the outcome is the same whether I scan the cover or the barcode--Goggles displays the title correctly, but does not return that info to Book Catalogue.

-- Sandro

On 11/3/11, Evan Leybourn reply@reply.github.com wrote:

Does this happen on all books you try and scan?

Reply to this email directly or view it on GitHub: https://github.com/eleybourn/Book-Catalogue/issues/246#issuecomment-2616471

xopher425 commented 12 years ago

Sad to see that it has been almost a year, and I'm having this same problem. Emailed developer, no response yet.

Any answers?

I have a Galaxy Prevail running 2.3.6. Book Catalogue version 4.0.7 and Goggles version 1.9

Grunthos commented 12 years ago

The problem from my perspective is that I am completely unable to reproduce it.

Can you try a few things:

If the scan failed to add the book, then:

xopher425 commented 12 years ago

I scanned the codes as suggested, and heard no beeps - neither bad ISBN nor a scan beep. I downloaded Zxing scanner, as Phillip suggested, but in 10 minutes it recognized the bar code one time, and got it wrong. I can take a pic of the ISBN with Goggles and get the correct info on the book, can look it up on Google books or Amazon, but there is no way to transfer that info over to the app. I did manually enter the ISBN and rather easily added the book to the app, was even able to change the cover pic to the version I have (using LibraryThing, I assume. Nice feature.)

I guess it's a two fold problem: 1. My admittedly crappy cheap phone that can't focus on a bar code to save its life (QR codes work well, but not UPCs), and 2. my expectation that, if the app wants me to use Goggles, then it should take the info from that (as I have NO problem getting book info using, say, the front of the book) and add it to the app. I can't just copy the text from the front of the book scan, as I'd have to spend more time copying and editing the info into all the different fields.

Any help is appreciated, love the app and desperately need it.

Thanks, Christopher Hall

Talent does what it can, genius what it must.

I do what I get paid to do.

-----Original Message----- From: Grunthos notifications@github.com To: eleybourn/Book-Catalogue Book-Catalogue@noreply.github.com Cc: xopher425 xopher425@aol.com Sent: Thu, Sep 13, 2012 10:50 pm Subject: Re: [Book-Catalogue] Google Goggles how-to (#246)

The problem from my perspective is that I am completely unable to reproduce it. Can you try a few things:

start Book Catalogue Click 'Add Book'->'Scan' scan a valid ISBN barcode check if the app makes a low beep after the scan beep (bad ISBN)

If the scan failed to add the book, then:

go to 'Help'->'Send Information' ... hopefully it will contain helpful information to track this down.

          —
          Reply to this email directly or view it on GitHub.
Grunthos commented 12 years ago

On 14/09/2012 2:51 PM, xopher425 wrote:

  1. My admittedly crappy cheap phone that can't focus on a bar code to save its life (QR codes work well, but not UPCs), and 2. my expectation that, if the app wants me to use Goggles, then it should take the info from that (as I have NO problem getting book info using, say, the front of the book) and add it to the app. I can't just copy the text from the front of the book scan, as I'd have to spend more time copying and editing the info into all the different fields.

It's a frustrating problem, mainly because I can not reproduce it. Both Zxing and goggles work for me.

We had had odd problems before with apps not working as expected; usually this is solved by reinstalling one or both. I am not at all sure it would work in this case, but it might be worth trying.

My suggestion would be:

if it fails

if it fails:

Grunthos commented 12 years ago

One more question...now that I think about this...are you using goggles to scan the barcode or the cover/details?

On 14/09/2012 2:51 PM, xopher425 wrote:

I scanned the codes as suggested, and heard no beeps - neither bad ISBN nor a scan beep. I downloaded Zxing scanner, as Phillip suggested, but in 10 minutes it recognized the bar code one time, and got it wrong. I can take a pic of the ISBN with Goggles and get the correct info on the book, can look it up on Google books or Amazon, but there is no way to transfer that info over to the app. I did manually enter the ISBN and rather easily added the book to the app, was even able to change the cover pic to the version I have (using LibraryThing, I assume. Nice feature.)

I guess it's a two fold problem: 1. My admittedly crappy cheap phone that can't focus on a bar code to save its life (QR codes work well, but not UPCs), and 2. my expectation that, if the app wants me to use Goggles, then it should take the info from that (as I have NO problem getting book info using, say, the front of the book) and add it to the app. I can't just copy the text from the front of the book scan, as I'd have to spend more time copying and editing the info into all the different fields.

Any help is appreciated, love the app and desperately need it.

Thanks, Christopher Hall

Talent does what it can, genius what it must.

I do what I get paid to do.

-----Original Message----- From: Grunthos notifications@github.com To: eleybourn/Book-Catalogue Book-Catalogue@noreply.github.com Cc: xopher425 xopher425@aol.com Sent: Thu, Sep 13, 2012 10:50 pm Subject: Re: [Book-Catalogue] Google Goggles how-to (#246)

The problem from my perspective is that I am completely unable to reproduce it. Can you try a few things:

start Book Catalogue Click 'Add Book'->'Scan' scan a valid ISBN barcode check if the app makes a low beep after the scan beep (bad ISBN)

If the scan failed to add the book, then:

go to 'Help'->'Send Information' ... hopefully it will contain helpful information to track this down.

— Reply to this email directly or view it on GitHub.

— Reply to this email directly or view it on GitHub https://github.com/eleybourn/Book-Catalogue/issues/246#issuecomment-8551719.

Grunthos commented 12 years ago

OK...in the absence of a response, I think I understand this problem better now.

I guess that people who have trouble with goggles are having trouble because they use the 'cover recognition' feature of goggles, not the barcode scanner.

If this is the case, then it's a problem we can not fix.

Goggles has no documented API and in fact just piggy-backs itself on the Zxing barcode scanner API call.

Worse, it seems that when goggles is asked for a barcode, it will happily scan (and find) a book based on the cover...but not return the barcode to the calling app.

I am still investigating a solution, but I think this a in reality a bug in goggles...

xopher425 commented 12 years ago

I haven't had time to try reinstalling everything yet. I have used Goggles too scan both the code and the cover. I get the book info both ways, but it goes to the Google book info, just as if I were using the Goggles app alone.

I did notice that when using Goggles alone there is a camera icon on the screen to take the pics. When using Goggles through Book Catalogue, it's not there (there's just the crop icon alone) and I have to use my camera button you take the pic.

I'll work on reinstalling everything this afternoon and seeing what happens.

Grunthos notifications@github.com wrote:

OK...in the absence of a response, I think I understand this problem better now.

I guess that people who have trouble with goggles are having trouble because they use the 'cover recognition' feature of goggles, not the barcode scanner.

If this is the case, then it's a problem we can not fix.

Goggles has no documented API and in fact just piggy-backs itself on the Zxing barcode scanner API call.

Worse, it seems that when goggles is asked for a barcode, it will happily scan (and find) a book based on the cover...but not return the barcode to the calling app.

I am still investigating a solution, but I think this a in reality a bug in goggles...

Reply to this email directly or view it on GitHub: https://github.com/eleybourn/Book-Catalogue/issues/246#issuecomment-8582825

Grunthos commented 12 years ago

On 15/09/2012 10:17 PM, xopher425 wrote:

I'll work on reinstalling everything this afternoon and seeing what happens.

Thanks for that; pretty sure it's a goggles problem.

If Zxing does not work because of camera, then goggles will almost certainly not be scanning barcode, and we have no way to ask it for book details...and it does not return it to us

Grunthos commented 12 years ago

This is not a bug in Book Catalogue, but a bug in Goggles. I can not see any way to leave feedback for the goggles developers, however. As of the current time, they have no extended API, and when we ask for a Barcode it is not returning one.