Youssef Chaker
I am working on a web application that is supposed to decode the barcode on US based driver's licenses (like: https://groups.google.com/forum/#!searchin/zxing/driver$20license|sort:relevance/zxing/oAly4HH3Yvg/uLZhm8EYPrkJ).
Currently I'm in the prototype phase, and discovering what is possible and what is not.
The app is supposed to let the user upload an image of the back of the DL, or take a picture of it with their phone.
I've used a sample image that was taken by a phone, which works, but then trying to take an image live for the same DL, using the same device does not work, unless you try really hard to get the right focus and alignment.
My question on this is, if we move to a native app, can we implement something that has a higher rate of success (something like what mobile banking apps do when they auto capture the image of a check)? or will that not help at all? and we're stuck with the same success rate because PDF417 barcodes are just a pain?
Then there's another issue we're experiencing: using the same image, that is successfully decoded in its original format, once it is sent as an MMS we no longer can get zxing to successfully decode it. Obviously in this case the carriers are resizing the image and causing a loss in quality, but it doesn't seem significant enough to not be able to detect the barcode.
I've attached the images I'm using, the one named 'sample-va' is the original one which gets successfully decoded, the other one is the one we're receiving through SMS, and does not get decoded.
What are my options in this case? is this a limitation of the technology? or is there a way I can get it to work?
Thanks in advance for your help.
Here's my setup:
Linux box
using the executable jars with this command:
java -cp javase-3.2.0.jar:core-3.2.0.jar com.google.zxing.client.j2se.CommandLineRunner #{path} --try_harder --possibleFormats=PDF_417 2>&1
where #{path} is replaced by the path of the image.
