I'd love to see some improvements made to the barcode scanner for mobile apps.
The following features would be fantastic:
-
Symbology restrictions
Many of us that make use of the barcode scanner component already know exactly what symbologies we want to scan. Allowing programmatic access to filter specific symbologies would help us reject unexpected scans. -
Support for camera selection
Many modern mobile devices have multiple rear-facing cameras.
A UI option that allows the user to switch between all available cameras could increase successful barcode reads.
The default camera that is currently chosen by the barcode scanner component doesn't always have the ideal focal length or ability to focus on a barcode correctly.
Letting the user choose between cameras would be a great solution to this problem. -
Improved accuracy
In a higher percent of cases than expected, the barcode scanner component either fails to read a barcode, or reads the barcode incorrectly.
It would be great to see an increase in scan accuracy. -
Improved user experience
Recently, we've been demoing Microsoft Power Apps for some mobile applications.
While Power Apps has its own quirks, one component they have implemented really well is the barcode scanner.
The features that impressed me the most:- UI option for users to change between multiple rear-facing cameras.
- When the barcode scanner component is open and a valid barcode is detected, a bounding box is overlayed on top of the barcode, and the resulting string value of the barcode is shown. If the user is satisfied with the shown value, they can capture/confirm the scan by pressing a confirm/checkmark button.
My description above may not have done any justice, so feel free to check out Microsoft's documentation on it here.
It would be great to see the mobile barcode scanner get an overhaul, as we have some really cool applications that could make use of the improvements!
