Half a croissant, on a plate, with a sign in front of it saying '50c'
h a l f b a k e r y
0.5 and holding.

idea: add, search, annotate, link, view, overview, recent, by name, random

meta: news, help, about, links, report a problem

account: browse anonymously, or get an account and write.

user:
pass:
register,


       

Please log in.
Before you can vote, you need to register. Please log in or create an account.

Reuse old smartphones as semi-industrial/shopfront barcode scanners

  (+4)
(+4)
  [vote for,
against]

We are gonna have a bad time with E-Waste with all these smartphones going outdated soon.

Most of them have the commonality of having an audio port. And sometimes a usb port.

So why not repurpose these smartphones as OCR scanners, for barcodes like QR codes.

Just output the code over a serial port via audio or usb. As for the display, you could display QR codes, if needed as well.

The cable could be a typical usb that simulates a serial host, or an audio port that outputs serial signal.

The serial signal can then be read directly for custom/embedded systems, or can simulate a usb keyboard for easy entry of data for the common user.

-----

Keeping everything as 'serial', also will reduce vectors for exploits.

-----

Could allow wifi connection, but might be safer to just disable it entirely.

-----

Serial :- Old school UART

mofosyne, Oct 06 2014

[link]






       I'm all for recycling but smartphones aren't designed to last, and definitely aren't designed for industrial use. I had an old Android phone that I was using as an OBDII scanner for a while but 6 months after I got a new phone it was already hard to keep the software up to date and the hardware working on the old phone.
DIYMatt, Oct 06 2014
  

       Old smartphones are/will be valuable for their rare Earth metals. They're less rare in phones than the Earth...
bs0u0155, Oct 06 2014
  

       Once more, with feeling!
RayfordSteele, Oct 06 2014
  
      
[annotate]
  


 

back: main index

business  computer  culture  fashion  food  halfbakery  home  other  product  public  science  sport  vehicle