Robust Recognition of 1-D Barcodes Using Camera Phones

In this paper we present an algorithm for the recognition of ID barcodes using camera phones, which is highly robust regarding the the typical image distortions. We have created a database of barcode images, which covers typical distortions, such as inhomogeneous illumination, reflections, or blurriness due to camera movement. We present results from experiments with over 1,000 images from this database using a Matlab implementation of our algorithm, as well as experiments on the go, where a Symbian C++ implementation running on a camera phone is used to recognize barcodes in daily life situations. The proposed algorithm shows a close to 100% accuracy in real life situations and yields a very good resolution dependent performance on our database, ranging from 90.5% (640 x 480) up to 99.2% (2592 x 1944). The database is freely available for other researchers.