Free Barcode Reader From Radio Shack

Skyhawk128 writes: "I was in my local Radio Shack yesterday, and as I was checking out, the manager offered me a free barcode scanner to use with their new catalog. By hooking up the scanner to your PS2 keyboard port and installing their software (Windows only) you can scan the bar codes found on most pages and be taken a web page with expanded information about that product. They claim to be able to scan the bar code on all sorts of things (i.e.- UPC codes on food, etc.) I have been too busy playing with the scanner in Notepad to install the software, but I thought this gadget might be of interest to other geeks." Several folks have confirmed that you can get a free barcode reader if you're into it. P'raps a SANE module shall soon follow? [Note from timothy:] Not all RS locations are giving them out yet -- the nearest one to me, despite telling me otherwise on the phone, refused to give me one until they had the new (bar-coded) catalogs in stock. That's at Chatham Station shopping center in Howard County, MD.

Finally!!!

A product that's can tell me more about RS merchandise then most Radio Shack employees!!!

"But sir, there's no such thing as a 'cpu fan'." (From 1998)

"Why does your motherboard need a battery? You plug it in to the wall... What do you mean by 'CMOS'?"

Scanner returns an ID number -- privacy concerns

I threw together a little quick and dirty script to decode the scanner output [razorwire.com]. But while I was doing it I noticed that the scanner sends back three things: the barcode, a code type (i.e. UPC, ISBN, etc.), and a long number that's always the same. Is this some sort of ID or serial number? Does anyone else find that creepy?

Many possibilities indeed!

I know I'll look at the back of each of my high-tech gadgets and do a quick inventory! Maybe I'll even write a simple program that stores these in some convenient manner.

However, I'd say a really cool, simple to apply use for these could be to Palms. They have a lot of application there, being portable and wireless. Perhaps I'll write this program of mine on the PalmOS.

Anyone in? =P

Its a... cat

Long after I've gone to bed the bar code scanner and the mouse will engage in the eternal predator-prey stuggle, running around my shark fin shaped cable modem until they've both tied themselves up with their own cables. I'll wake up and groggily ask my roommates, "Okay who's been fucking with the computer?"

Stupid

Pardon my negativity, but this thing strikes me as a supremely idiotic piece of hardware (at least for its intended purpose). I have to plug yet another piece of crap into my machine and, while conveniently sitting by my computer, read dead-tree periodicals and scan the codes in when I see something I like? Am I the only person here who would probably just type the damn URL in, rather than go to the trouble of picking up the thing and scanning the page? Also, how common is it to read magazines while conveniently next to your computer? I almost never do. That's what the toilet is for, and I'm afraid I don't have a terminal there yet. Am I missing something? Have people been demanding this capability? Has the lack of a magazine-computer interface been holding up the adoption of internet technology and impeding the advance of the new economy? This sounds to me like a pure marketdroid invention. No useful purpose, but at least you can slap a brand on it.

-Vercingetorix

How to get a cuecat without going to RS

You don't have to go to a Radio Shack store - in two days you can order one online.

http://www.cuecat.com/getcat_form.html

It's usually a waste of time going in there, even if everything was free.

Make your own bar codes

You can make your own barcodes online here [spatula.net].

Re:Wired Magazine too

I got a digital camera from Wired as part of the digimarc promotion. It did work, with a few caveats. For example, the camera had to be focused at a point about five inches away, which means if you're using it for videoconferencing, you'd probably have to re-focus it just to see the ad. Also, some ads worked better than others in terms of success ratio, but it really was cool to go to a URL just by holding a piece of paper in front of a camera. The hassel of getting to the point where you could hold the paper up (lanching the software, focusing the camera, adjusting white points, etc) didn't make it worth it beyond the first few ads. Notice now that there are almost no digimarc ads in Wired, at least in the latest issue.

The cat thing seems like an interesting idea, although I'm a bit upset that it seems to not be USB, and therefore probably not Mac-compatible, and so I'm out of luck (unless I got a USB adapter for it and used it on my iBook which has Linux installed...), although I'll take any free stuff Wired sends me.

Still, I can't see wholly what the point of it all is. First off, the new media-type companies that advertise in Wired tend to have company.com URLs anyway, and they're not that hard to type in. When I tried the digimark'd ads in Wired, I was hoping for some special payoff given the neat-o way that I got to the site, but I didn't. Both the advertisers and the magazine publishers need to figure out exactly *why* this would be useful, and exploit it. If I got a treat for holding the magazine up, or scanning the barcode in, the company would certainly have one foot in the door as far as attracting my attention.

The real possibilities come with blending the printed magazine with online content. If Wired stories began to have an online component that you could get to with the gizmo, whatever it was, then there's something truly useful there. And, it could provide a way of verifying that the person viewing the site is a purchaser of the magazine, so online content could be kept from jeopardizing newstand sales.

Really, when you think about it, if these URL-entering devices were around two years ago, think about what that would have meant for Pathfinder...

_pete

Thanks Rob

Great. Now 25 Million geeks are going to storm their local Radio Shack (Which most of us would never set foot in otherwise anymore. Admit it.) tomorrow as soon as they open up. We're going to have lines that make opening day of Episode One pale in comparison.

Ohh! This is perfect!

Does anyone know what barcode format it reads?? I know there are several different formats but only a couple in widespread use (UPC labels, etc).

I'm 90% done with my I-Opener [slashdot.org] mods and this thing will go nicely with my idea of putting it in the kitchen. I'll set up some software so I can scan food items I've run out of and automatically generate a grocery list and maybe transfer it to a palm pilot. Or perhaps I could scan a few things that I do have and plug that into a recipe database and have it spit back out what meals I can make from those ingredients...

This is in addition to having a convenient place to quickly check mail and get my tech news fix from slashdot of course.

Open your eyes guys!!

I can't believe no one sees the big picture here.
Why would they be giving away bar code readers?
To make you look at their catalog? Of course not!

So they start by giving away the bar code readers. If the stuff becomes popular, they will stop giving them away, and people will buy them. But that's not where the big bucks are. It's just good for the scanner factories. And I'm sure they will be happy to let other companies sell Cue:cats

Think about it: whenever you scan your can of cola or your favourite magazine, your computer connects to Cue:cat, sends the code you scanned (and probably your ID as well, I don't know -- can someone check that?). Then, their server sends back the URL of some webpage.

Now, here is where they win: if their software becomes popular, their server will be the main gateway of all bar code readers. So if you scan a book, where is it going to go? To Amazon or barnes and nobles? If you scan a DVD, the logical URL would be the corresponding record of www.imdb.com. But do you really think it will ever send you there? They have no reason to set it up that way. So here is their first advantage: they control where you go on the net. And how long before it sends you to a "Pepsi is better" page whenever you scan a can of coke.

And then, if I am right to suppose that they send your ID with every scan, they can also collect a huge amount of info about you.

I think the idea of being able to scan a barcode and get a relevant URL is cool. But the interpretation of the code should not be left to one organization only. LET'S REACT!!! We should quickly release a concurrent software for Linux, Windows and Mac, and create an open search engine. The software should be open source so you can check it doesn't invade your privacy. The gateway you use should be configurable so that if you don't like the practices of one, you can switch to another. Ideally, I would imagine a gateway in which users could vote on the best URL for a bar code.

Let's create this OPEN:Cat FAST, before Radio Shack takes over the world! http://uscan.sourceforge.net is a step in the right direction, now we need to set up the server.

Re:Not just for windows

Go to the :CueCat website [cuecat.com] for details on the reader, including the Radio Shack promotion.

They will send you a :CueCat reader and :CRQ System Software for the cost of shipping (I'm assuming this is for those folks without a Radio Shack nearby). Click here [crq.com] to link directly to the order form. Note that they won't be taking orders until August 24th.

So far, the software only supports Windows 95, 98, NT 4, and Windows2000.

car mp3 player!

i know what im using mine for! print out a list of my mp3s with barcodes next to them. who needs a keypad to type in the track number

Helpful Tip!

If you tell them you have an "older" computer then you can get two free DIN->mini-DIN converters with the device, according to their web site.

Not just for windows

About four days ago, a few people I know and myself cracked the simple cipher the reader uses, so don't bother trying yourself. Just go to this page [sourceforge.net] and see it and try out our PHP beta translator and whatever-er at this page [jounce.net]. If you wanna help, send an email to [e-mail] and let me know, as this is completely a GPL project designed to make the most out of this reader.

Other uses for the free barcode scanner...

Inventory of all your books and CD's. Maybe we can produce a database similar to the CD music databases for books and magazines.

Cheap Linux based Point of Sale terminal.

Print up yard sale tags for multiple family yard sales and total up the sales at the end of day by family.

Inventory tags for a small business.

For the institutional pharmacy, tag your drugs and tag the patient label and scan in both to ensure that the drug dispensed matches the drug prescribed on the patients' label.

Use bar coded ID tags at security stations such as convention entrances to see if the individual is allowed to enter the event.

Anyone else have any other suggestions? I have to go watch "That 70's Show" now or I would thing of some more.