I was wondering about scanning barcodes using the iPhone and found that pic2shop (a free app) lets third part iPhone apps and even web pages access its scanning software through a simply URL scheme interface.
Their developer documentation has an example iPhone app, but not an example web page. However, I made a web page using their interface in about 5 minutes (see PHP source of barcode reader).
If you have an iPhone you can try it out and scan a bar code now, although you need to install pic2shop first (but it is free).
By allowing third party apps to use their software they encourage downloads of their app, which will bring them revenue through product purchases. Through free giving they bring themselves benefit; a good open access story.
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I think it would be a great idea to incorporate barcode label design in to more everyday life. Having seen that the iphone has app’s that you can download to scan and compare prices of food online, as well as an app that tells you the content of the food. Would look in to it myself, get a bit of use out of my printer. Great start, just hope they keep developing the idea!