Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!usc!orion.oac.uci.edu!news
From: mnelson@vmsa.oac.uci.edu
Newsgroups: comp.sys.handhelds
Subject: Barcode for the 48sx
Message-ID: <25F6AB07.12150@orion.oac.uci.edu>
Date: 8 Mar 90 18:40:07 GMT
Sender: news@orion.oac.uci.edu (Network News)
Organization: University of California, Irvine
Lines: 20


	One feature that I would really like to see is a barcode reader
built into a calculator.  It would be quite nice to be able to pick up
a book written for the 48 and suck in the programs without having to deal
with any sort of extra peripherals.  Since the 48 has both input and out-
put photodiodes, would it be feasible to make them work together as a 
barcode reader?  One obvious question is whether the black marks of the code 
would be discernible from the white background that they are printed on
when viewed in the infrared.  I'm a little too busy to look for the optical
properties of various publishers' media, but maybe somebody else out there
has experience in this sort of work.  Then, of course, there is the problem
of making the ir i/o do exactly what you want, but that doesn't seem like
an insurmountable problem.
	Maybe this is a completely un-doable project, but I can dream,
can't I?

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  Matt Nelson, Physics Dept., University of California, Irvine, CA 92717
  (714)856-6496  internet: nelson@psroot.ps.uci.edu   bitnet: mnelson@uci
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