ZXing 1d/2d Barcode decoding source code released

By Sean Owen, Google Print Ads Team

Recently in the New York Times, we placed a small graphic as part of a Google Print Ad. You aren't looking at one of those eye focus games (It's a sailboat! Or a shark!) but a two-dimensional barcode. Those of us who already know what it is pulled out our phones and "clicked" it with the camera, and were connected to the advertiser's web site. "Wha?", you say? See http://www.google.com/printads/barcode. While this kind of thing has been a common sight in Asia for years, this ad is one of many signs that the technology is arriving in Europe and North America.

But Advertising is only part of the story here. Engineering is also involved and we want to improve the quality and availability of barcode reader software available to developers and end users. So today I would like to announce the "ZXing" (from: "zebra crossing") project, an open-source, Java, multi-format 1D/2D barcode reader which can be built into a reader application for Java and Java ME -- and later, Android.

This project began as a 20% project and is not yet complete, so opening it up is a bit of an experiment. It's not yet the Best Barcode Reader Ever, but it's looking pretty good. For now we want to find those those who can make use of and help improve what's here, so that those good ideas are shared to all developers and everybody wins.

Developers can find the ZXing project on Google Code, and we hope you'll join us on our Google Group and tell us about what you like and don't like about the code.

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Class projects and science on Google Code

Posted by Brian Fitzpatrick, Open Source Team

I'm always tickled when someone finds a creative use for one of our products that never even occurred to me. So when George K. Thiruvathukal told me that he is having his Open Source Practicum students use Google Code to host their projects for his class this semester, I had one of those "Why of course!" moments.

George is a Computer Science professor at Loyola University of Chicago (my alma mater!) and he felt that using Google Code would be an ideal way to introduce his students to open source best practices, software development tools, and collaborative software development at the same time--a perfect match for a class on writing open source software. He also had his students label their projects with comp412.cs.luc.edu, so he just has to search for label:comp412.cs.luc.edu on Google Code and he can quickly find out what his students have been up to (although maybe that's not so good if anyone has been procrastinating!).

But George had some other ideas--he also wrote an article for Computing in Science & Engineering (CiSE) magazine called Project Hosting: Expanding the Scientific Programmer's Toolbox (pdf). His article encourages scientists to consider sharing software in the manner that open source communities do, and he uses Project Hosting at Google Code as an example of how to do it.

I think that these are both great ideas and we'd love to see more classes and scientists using Google Code for their open source work. If you're using Google Code for something interesting or unusual (and open source!), be sure to let us know.

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