Android Bluetooth Reader, Keyboard Wedge

In the past few months TEC-IT developed an Android App for data acquisition with Bluetooth and TCP. The good feedback of the Android community motivated us to further enhance this app. The result: an universal data acquisition app including keyboard wedge functionality.

The app is named GetBlue. The final version is available as slightly restricted freeware as well as commercial application. Here are the highlights:

• Android Keyboard Wedge / Virtual Keyboard:
  Captured device data can be entered into any application.
• Supported Input Devices: 
• Bluetooth SPP/RFCOMM, TCP (e.g. RFID controllers), HTTP applications and camera scanners apps like the ZXing Barcode Scanner.
• Supported Data-Sinks:
  Bluetooth SPP/RFCOMM, plain TCP, HTPP via Get and Post, Google Docs Spreadsheets, File.
• Data Acquisition Proxy / Data Switchboard:
  Acquired data can be forwarded to any supported data-sink.

Universal Data Acquisition App

Use GetBlue like an universal data switchboard: capture data from a data-source and forward it to an arbitrary data-sink. As an example you can adjust GetBlue to collect data from a Bluetooth barcode scanner and forward this data immediately to a Google Docs spreadsheet (refer to the drawing).

What is a Virtual Keyboard?

A virtual keyboard replaces the standard soft-keyboard of Android. Captured data is always made available to this virtual keyboard. Thus, data acquired from a Bluetooth barcode scanner or an RFID tag can be entered into any application which is accepting user input. This works completely independent from the selected datasource and the target app.

Call for Requests!

The internals of GetBlue are very simply to extend (e.g. new protocols, new devices, ...). Just let us know your requirements. Whenever possible we will provide you with a solution. Leave us a comment or send an email to office@tec-it.com.

Free Trial!

Install GetBlue using Android Market on your handset. Search for GetBlue manually or use this link: market://search?q=pname:com.tecit.datareader.android.getblue.demo.

We are looking forward to hearing from you!

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Free Barcodes for OpenOffice

Part 2: How to generate barcodes with OpenOffice. Also check out part 1: Using Barcodes in Google Docs

Introduction

OpenOffice is a free software suite which mimics (more or less) Microsoft Office. In Microsoft Office bar-code creation is possible via various methods (using barcode fonts, pre-created barcode images or by using a barcode add-in like TBarCode). Until now no quality bar-code add-ins are available for OpenOffice and 2D barcode creation using fonts is terrible. So I'll outline a possibility to create bar-codes without any barcode fonts and without any additional barcode software.

How to Create OpenOffice Barcodes for Free

To generate bar codes (ALL barcodes - meaning linear barcodes, 2D barcodes like DataMatrix and GS1 DataBar codes) all you need is an internet connection. The basic idea is to insert an barcode image generated by the online barcode generator of TEC-IT. This barcode generator is customizable via the URL - so it is possible to create each bar-code as required.

Note: Works on Windows only!

1) Create the required barcode using the online barcode generator
2) Scroll down to the section "Free Use of This Barcode Generator". Copy the URL (see screenshot below) into your clipboard:



3) Start OpenOffice Writer
4) Create a new document (File -> New)
5) Insert a Picture from a File (Insert -> Picture -> From File)
6) Copy the URL as created in step 2 into the filename
7) Press Enter, FINISHED

That's all. Steps 5 to 7 are outlined in the screen-shot below.

How Does it Work?

The barcode image is created online at TEC-IT.COM, you do not need to store the image locally on your hard-drive (Windows takes care of this automatically), you do not need to install software - and you can trust the generated bar-code (it will be correct!). You can open this document on each computer, the bar-code will always be visible (and printable). Of course - internet connectivity is required.
Another point of interest: This method works for all programs part of the OpenOffice suite.

Optimizing the Barcode

In order to ensure perfect readability of the bar-codes you may need to play around with the settings (especially barcode resolution and module width). readability depends on barcode symbology, data density - and of course your output device. I recommend you to create the bar-code with at least 300 dpi. Important: Whenever possible DO NOT scale the resulting bar-code image in OpenOffice.

Example

URL used: http://www.tec-it.com/online-demos/tbarcode/barcode.aspx?code=DataMatrix&data=Powered+by+TEC-IT&dpi=300&rotation=0&modulewidth=fit
Barcode: DataMatrix ECC200

Interested?

If you like this method for barcode creation with OpenOffice you can use the online barcode generator for free (for non-commercial use only). For commercial users TEC-IT recommends a local barcode server in the companies intranet.

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Google Docs and Barcodes

TEC-IT offers an Online Barcode Generator for creating dynamic bar-codes online. This barcode generator can be easily integrated in web-applications and online documents like Google Docs.

The link below explains how to integrate dynamic bar-codes into arbitrary Google documents. You do not need additional software or locally stored barcodes images!

Using Barcodes in Google Docs

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