Cognex Mobile Barcode SDK for Android

It is important to recognize that there are several fundamental differences in the capabilities of smartphones and tablets as barcode scanning devices. These differences result in a user experience different from purpose-built scanners, impacting the design of the mobile barcode scanning application.

These differences and the general impact they have on your application are the following:

• A smart phone does not have a dedicated hardware trigger. Without a hardware trigger, the application program is generally responsible for initiating the scanning process, which results in accessing the built-in camera, displaying a preview screen if required, and analyzing captured frames from the video stream for barcodes.
• A smartphone, unless otherwise configured, does not have an aimer. Generally, the application program provides a live-stream camera preview on the mobile device screen, thereby allowing the user to see what the camera sees and can then position the device over the barcode.
• Mobile device orientation may need to be considered. Most users hold and use a mobile device primarily in a portrait orientation for barcode scanning, which is generally sufficient. However, most mobile device cameras have a higher resolution along their landscape orientation. When scanning very long or dense barcodes, reorienting the device to landscape can be beneficial and even necessary.
• Image analysis and barcode decoding is performed in software on the mobile device which can be a CPU intensive task. It is highly recommended to only enable the symbologies and features of the SDK that your application needs.

The cmbSDK makes these differences as transparent as possible to the application developer and the user. By following a few simple guidelines, you can develop applications that work and behave the same when using for example an MX-1000 mobile terminal, or just the built-in camera of the device.

Without a hardware trigger, mobile devices must use alternative methods to initiate barcode scanning. There are three common methods used:

• Application or workflow driven trigger: The application code or the business logic/workflow of the application starts the scanning process. In other words, when the user of the application has reached a point where a barcode needs to be scanned, the application invokes the scanning module. In simple programming terms, this is akin to calling a function like "startScanner()".
• Virtual trigger: The application program provides a button on the screen which the user can use to start/stop the scanning process. Depending on the application design, the user may be required to press and hold the virtual button to keep the scanner running. This is similar to the workflow driven method as the button from the user interface is used to invoke the scanning module.
• Simulated trigger: One of the buttons on the mobile device, typically the volume-down button, is used to simulate a hardware trigger. When the user presses and holds this button, the scanner starts/stops just like when a trigger is pulled on a purpose-built scanner. This method is not commonly used as users find it non-intuitive and inconvenient.

The cmbSDK supports all three methods, any of which (or multiple) can be used in an application.

Unlike purpose-built scanners, mobile devices do not have a built-in aimer. Barcode aiming is generally accomplished by providing a live-stream preview from the camera on the mobile device display. The user can then reposition the device until the barcode appears in the field of view and is decoded.

The cmbSDK simplifies this task by providing a built-in preview control that can be displayed fullscreen, partial screen, and in either portrait or landscape orientation.

The cmbSDK also supports "passive" aimers: devices that attach to the mobile device or its case that use the LED flash of the device as a light source to project an aiming or targeting pattern. The advantage of these aimers is that an on-screen preview is no longer required, as the mobile device can project an aimer pattern similar to a purpose-built scanner. However, note that using the LED flash for general scanning illumination is not available because the mobile device flash is used for the aimer.

Mobile devices support developing applications for either portrait orientation, landscape orientation, or auto-rotation between the two. The cmbSDK fully supports all three options for both the presentation of the barcode preview as well as the scan direction. Most barcodes can be scanned by a mobile device regardless of the orientation of the application and/or the mobile device.

For scanning "square" barcodes like QR, Data Matrix, and MaxiCode, any orientation can be used. However, for scanning long or dense barcodes like a large PDF417, using landscape orientation is recommended or even necessary. Mobile cameras have a higher resolution along the "height" of the image in portrait mode. For example, 1280x720 is a commonly used resolution. This means that scanning barcodes using portrait orientation provides 720 pixels of data along the horizontal axis, while landscape orientation provides 1280 pixels on the horizontal scan line for barcode decoding.

With multi-core CPUs and dedicated image processors, today's handheld devices have significant computing power and provide an ideal platform for efficient  and cost-effective barcode decoding. It is still recommended for developers to optimize their barcode scanning applications. The cmbSDK is optimized specifically for mobile environments, but image analysis and barcode decoding is still a CPU intensive activity. Since these processes share the mobile device's CPU with the operating system, services, and other applications, developers are advised to limit their applications to only using the features of the SDK that they need.

Application optimizations include the following:

• Enable decoding only for the barcode types the application needs to scan.The cmbSDK supports the decoding of almost 40 different barcode types and subtypes, and while you can enable all of these, it can negatively impact performance and introduce unexpected errors
• More enabled symbologies can lead to slower performance and sluggish decoding, leaving the user with an inaccurate impression of the SDK’s capabilities.
• False reads are possible, especially when some of the weaker symbologies, like Code 25, are enabled without proper consideration and configuration of more advanced features. Advanced features like minimum code length and barcode location reduce false reads with the weak symbologies, but they also reduce performance, as they are not intended to be enabled and used at the same time.  
• Using an optimal camera resolution. By default, the cmbSDK uses HD images (typically 1280x720) for barcode decoding. This resolution is sufficient for most barcodes, unless they are very small or dense. You can use a higher, full HD resolution, but these images are significantly larger, and thus require more time to analyze and decode. 
• Using an appropriate decoder effort level.The SDK has a user-configurable effort level that controls how aggressively the SDK performs image analysis. Like most other settings, the SDK uses a default value (level 2) that is sufficient for most barcodes. Using a higher level can result in better decoding of poorer quality barcodes, but at the price of slower performance.

For these reasons, when the cmbSDK is initialized for use with the the mobile device's built-in camera, no barcode symbologies are enabled by default, and the application must only enable the symbologies it needs. As most barcode scanning applications only need to scan a handful of symbologies, this behavior encourages the developer to use the SDK in an efficient manner.

Perform the following steps to install the Android cmbSDK:

1. Download the Cognex Mobile Barcode SDK for Android.
2. Start Android Studio and add SDK AAR file as module to your project:

• Right click your app module, select New > Module > Import .JAR/.AAR Package, and click Next.
• Browse the SDK .AAR file in the File name field and click Finish.
• After the new module is available, right click your app module again, select Open Module Settings, and choose Dependencies tab.
• Click the + sign on the bottom of the dialog and select 3 Module dependency.
• Select cmbsdklib from the popup and click OK.
• The cmbsdklib module should be available now under the Dependencies tab.

3. To communicate with MX readers, install MX Connect app from Play Store on your mobile device.

If you plan to use the cmbSDK to do mobile scanning with a smartphone or tablet (with no MX mobile terminal), then the SDK requires the installation of a license key. Without a license key, the SDK will still operate, although scanned results will be obfuscated (the SDK will randomly replace characters in the scan result with an asterisk character). 

Contact your Cognex Sales Representative for information on how to obtain a license key including trial licenses which can be used for 30 days to evaluate the SDK.

After obtaining your license key, add the following line in your application's AndroidManifest.xml file, under the application tag: 

<meta-data android:name="MX_MOBILE_LICENSE" android:value="YOUR_MX_MOBILE_LICENSE"/>

Next, put your key in place of YOUR_MX_MOBILE_LICENSE. 

<application 
android:allowBackup="true" 
android:icon="@drawable/ic_launcher" 
android:label="@string/app_name" 
android:theme="@style/AppTheme" > 
<activity
android:name=".ScannerActivity" 
android:label="@string/app_name" > 
<intent-filter>
<action android:name="android.intent.action.MAIN" />

<category android:name="android.intent.category.LAUNCHER" /> 
</intent-filter>
</activity>

<meta-data
android:name="MX_MOBILE_LICENSE" 
android:value="g/9ytJzcja+sxt4DTEDxR4hp6sZh9bmL97vUx+EE9uY=" />

</application>

The second way to add the license key is explained in the example below:

// init connection to Phone Camera
            case 1:
                readerDevice = ReaderDevice.getPhoneCameraDevice(this,
                        CameraMode.NO_AIMER, PreviewOption.DEFAULTS,
                        rlPreviewContainer,"SDK_KEY");

Previous SDK versions accessed the MX mobile terminal via direct USB Device or USB Accessory connection. These methods are now deprecated, and you should connect to an MX mobile terminal using the MXConnect application. (See Step 4 .)

The cmbSDK provides an easy factory method, DataManSystem.createDataManSystemForMXDevice() to create a DataManSystem for the MX mobile terminal over the MXConnect application.

Please remove any DataManSystem.createDataManSystemOverUsb() and DataManSystem.createDataManSystemOverUsbAccessory() methods from your project, and also remove the USB_ DEVICE-ATTACHED and USB_ACCESSORY_ATTACHED Intent filters and meta-data from the AndroidManifest.xml file.

You can also delete the USB and accessory descriptor xml files from the XML folder. You can also use and migrate to Barcode SDK to access the MX mobile terminal. 

The cmbSDK has been designed to provide a high-level, abstract interface for supported scanning devices. This includes not only the MX series of mobile terminals, but also for applications that intend to use the mobile device camera as the imaging device. The intricacies of communicating with and managing these devices is encapsulated within the SDK itself: leaving the application to just connect to the device of choice, then using it.

The primary interface between your application and a supported barcode scanning device is the ReaderDevice class. This class represents the abstraction layer to the device itself, handling all communication as well as any necessary hardware management (e.g. for smartphone scanning). 

Perform the following steps to use the cmbSDK: 

1. Initialize a Reader Device for the type of device you want to use (MX reader or camera reader).

2. Connect the Reader Device.

3. Configure the reader (if necessary).

4. Start scanning. 

Initialization, connection, and configuration generally need to be performed only once in your application except for the following cases: 

• An MX reader may become disconnected (times out from disuse,dead battery, etc.). A method has been provided to handle this case, and is discussed in a later section.
• Your application has been designed to allow the user to change devices.The cmbSDK is explicitly designed to support this: your application simply disconnects from the current device and establishes a new connection to a different device. The provided sample application has been written to explicitly demonstrate this capability. 

Perform the following steps to set up and start using the cmbSDK:

1. Import the following package members:

import com.cognex.dataman.sdk.CameraMode;
import com.cognex.dataman.sdk.ConnectionState;
import com.cognex.dataman.sdk.PreviewOption;
import com.cognex.mobile.barcode.sdk.ReadResult;
import com.cognex.mobile.barcode.sdk.ReadResults;
import com.cognex.mobile.barcode.sdk.ReaderDevice;
import com.cognex.mobile.barcode.sdk.ReaderDevice.Availability;
import com.cognex.mobile.barcode.sdk.ReaderDevice.OnConnectionCompletedListener;
import com.cognex.mobile.barcode.sdk.ReaderDevice.ReaderDeviceListener;
import com.cognex.mobile.barcode.sdk.ReaderDevice.Symbology;

2. Provide needed UI elements:

• ViewGroup container (like RelativeLayout ) for the camera preview

• ImageView nested inside theViewGroup container with matching size as its parent for showing the last frame of a preview or scanning session:

The below examples use the following:

private RelativeLayout rlPreviewContainer; 
private ImageView ivPreview;

3. The following interfaces are necessary to monitor the connection state of the reader and receive information about the read code:

public class ScannerActivity extends Activity implements OnConnectionCompletedListener, ReaderDeviceListener {
....
@Override
public void onConnectionCompleted(ReaderDevice reader, Throwable error) {
if (error != null) {
// READER DISCONNECTED (ERROR OCCURED)
} }
@Override
public void onConnectionStateChanged(ReaderDevice reader) {
if (reader.getConnectionState() == ConnectionState.Connected) { // READER CONNECTED
} else if (reader.getConnectionState() == ConnectionState.Disconnected) { // READER DISCONNECTED
} }
@Override
public void onReadResultReceived(ReaderDevice reader, ReadResults results) {
if (results.getCount() > 0) {
ReadResult result = results.getResultAt(0);
// USE String symbologyName; String code; Bitmap frame; VARIABLES IN YOUR APPLICATION
if (result.isGoodRead()) {
String symbologyName;
String code = result.getReadString();
Symbology symbology = result.getSymbology(); if (symbology != null) {
symbologyName = symbology.getName();
tvSymbology.setText(symbologyName); } else {
tvSymbology.setText("UNKNOWN SYMBOLOGY"); }
tvCode.setText(code); } else {
tvSymbology.setText("NO READ");
tvCode.setText(""); }
Bitmap frame = result.getImage();
ivPreview.setImageBitmap(frame); }
// READY TO SCAN AGAIN }
@Override
public void onAvailabilityChanged(ReaderDevice reader) {
if (reader.getAvailability() == Availability.AVAILABLE) { // READER DEVICE IS AVAILABLE AND CAN BE CONNECTED
} else {
// DISCONNECT DEVICE
} }
.... }

4. Instantiate a ReaderDevice object.

The cmbSDK provides two different reader class initializers: one for scanning using an MX mobile terminal (like the MX- 1000 or MX-1502) and another for scanning using the built-in camera of the mobile device (Android Phones, Android Tablets, etc.).

Initialize a Reader Device object for MX readers using the following factory method: 

boolean listeningForUSB = false;

ScannerActivity.readerDevice = ReaderDevice.getMXDevice(ScannerActivity.this); if (!listeningForUSB) {

readerDevice.startAvailabilityListening();
listeningForUSB = true; 
}

The availability of the MX mobile terminal can change when the device turns ON or OFF, or if the USB cable gets connected or disconnected. You can handle those changes using the following ReaderDeviceListener interface method (implemented in Step 3 above): 

public void onAvailabilityChanged(ReaderDevice reader);

Barcode scanning with the built-in camera of the mobile device can be more complex than with an MX mobile terminal. The cmbSDK supports several configurations to provide the maximum flexibility. This includes the support of optional, external aimers/illumination, as well as the ability to customize the appearance of the live-stream preview.

To scan barcodes using the built-in camera of the mobile device, initialize the ReaderDevice object using the getPhoneCameraDevice static method. The camera reader has several options when initialized. The following parameters are required:

• Context
• CameraMode
• PreviewOption
• ViewGroup

The Context parameter simply provides a reference to the activity you are currently in.
The CameraMode parameter is of type CameraMode (defined in CameraMode.java) and it accepts one of the following values:

• NO_AIMER: This initializes the reader to use a live-stream preview (on the mobile device screen )so the user can position the barcode within the camera’s field of view for detection and decoding. Use this mode when the mobile device does not have an aiming accessory.

• PASSIVE_AIMER: This initializes the reader to usea passive aimer, which is an accessory that is attached to the mobile device or mobile device case that uses the built-in LED flash of the mobile device as a light source for projecting an aiming pattern. In this mode, no live-stream preview is presented on the device screen, since an aiming pattern will be projected.

• FRONT_CAMERA: This initializes the reader to use the mobile front facing camera of the device, if available (not all mobile devices have a front camera). This is an unusual, but possible configuration. Most front facing cameras do not have auto focus and illumination, and provide significantly lower resolution images. This option should be used with care. In this mode, illumination is not available.

All of the above modes provide the following default settings for the reader:

• The rear camera is used.
• The zoom feature is available and a button to control it is visible on the live-stream preview (if displayed).
• The simulated hardware trigger is disabled.
• When start Scanning( ) is called,the decoding process is started. (See PreviewOption.PAUSED below for more details).

Based on the selected mode, the following additional options and behaviors are set:

• NO_AIMER (NoAimer)
  • The live-stream preview is displayed when the startScanning() method is called.
  • Illumination is available, and a button to control it is visible on the live-stream preview.
  • If commands are sent to the reader for aimer control, they will be ignored.

• PASSIVE_AIMER (Passive Aimer)
  • The live-stream preview will not be displayed when the startScanning() method is called.
  • Illumination is not available, and the live-stream preview will not have an illumination button.
  • If commands are sent to the reader for illumination control, they will be ignored, since it is assumed in this mode that the built-in LED of the mobile device is being used for the aimer.

• FRONT_CAMERA (FrontCamera)
  • The live-stream preview is displayed when the startScanning() method is called.
  • The front camera is used.
  • Illumination is not available and the live-stream preview will not have an illumination button.
  • If commands are sent to the reader for aimer or illumination control, they will be ignored.

The PreviewOption parameter is of type PreviewOption (defined in PreviewOption.java), and is used to change the reader’s default values or override defaults derived from the selected CameraMode. Multiple options can be specified by OR-ing them when passing the parameter. The available options are:

• DEFAULTS: Use this option to accept all defaults set by the CameraMode.
• NO_ZOOM_BUTTON: This hides the zoom button on the live-stream preview, preventing a user from adjusting the mobile device camera’s zoom.
• NO_ILLUMINATION_BUTTON: This hides the illumination button on the live-stream preview, preventing a user from toggling the illumination.
• HARDWARE_TRIGGER: This enables a simulated hardware trigger (the volume down button ) for starting scanning on the mobile device. This button only starts scanning when pressed. Iit does not need to be held like a more traditional purpose-built scanner’s trigger. Pressing the button a second time does not stop the scanning process.
• PAUSED: If using a live-stream preview, when this option is set, the preview will be displayed when the startScanning() method is called, but the reader will not started decoding (i.e. looking for barcodes) until the user presses the on-screen scanning button to actually start the scanning process.
• ALWAYS_SHOW: This option forces a live-stream preview to be displayed, even if an aiming mode has been selected (e.g. CameraMode == PASSIVE_AIMER)
• HIGH_RESOLUTION: This will use the device camera in higher resolution. The default resolution is 1280x720. With this option is enabled, the resolution will be 1920x1080 on devices that support it, and the default one on devices that do not. This can help with scanning small barcodes, but will increase the decoding time since there is a lot more data to process in each frame.
• HIGH_FRAME_RATE: This will use the device camera in 60 FPS instead of the default 30, and provide a much smoother camera preview.

The last parameter of the ViewGroup type specifies the container for the live-stream preview. If the parameter is left null, a full screen preview will be used.

Examples

Create a reader with no aimer, no zoom button, and using a soft trigger:

ScannerActivity.readerDevice = ReaderDevice.getPhoneCameraDevice( ScannerActivity.this,
CameraMode.NO_AIMER,
PreviewOption.NO_ZOOM_BUTTON | PreviewOption.PAUSED, rlPreviewContainer);

This starts a preview with the scanner paused and a soft trigger button to toggle scanning. After pressing the soft trigger button, the rlPreviewContainer should look like this:

The viewfinder in the above image has an active scanning surface, a result of having set active symbologies. For more details on this topic, see Configuring the Reader Device).

From Android 6.0 and above you need to request permission from the user to access the phone camera.
If the phone camera cannot be opened due to permission issues the onConnectionCompleted(readerDevice, error) callback contains a CameraPermissionException in the error parameter.
You can check for this exception type with the instanceof operator and request permission within the Activity.

if (error instanceof CameraPermissionException)
      ActivityCompat.requestPermissions(((ScannerActivity) this), new String[]{Manifest.permission.CAMERA}, REQUEST_PERMISSION_CODE);

Please note, that you need to implement ActivityCompat.OnRequestPermissionResultCallback interface in your Activity to catch user permission result.
To handle user response in onRequestPermissionResult(…), you may use the following code to retry connecting to the PhoneCamera.

@Override
public void onRequestPermissionsResult(int requestCode, @NonNull String[] permissions, @NonNull int[] grantResults) {
    if (requestCode == REQUEST_PERMISSION_CODE) {
        if (grantResults.length > 0 && grantResults[0] == PackageManager.PERMISSION_GRANTED) {
            if (readerDevice != null && readerDevice.getConnectionState() != ConnectionState.Connected)
                readerDevice.connect(ScannerActivity.this);
        } else {
            if (ActivityCompat.shouldShowRequestPermissionRationale(((ScannerActivity) this), Manifest.permission.CAMERA)) {
                AlertDialog.Builder builder = new AlertDialog.Builder(this)
                        .setMessage("You need to allow access to the Camera")
                        .setPositiveButton("OK", new DialogInterface.OnClickListener() {
                            @Override
                            public void onClick(
                                    DialogInterface dialogInterface,
                                    int i) {
                                ActivityCompat.requestPermissions(ScannerActivity.this, new String[]{Manifest.permission.CAMERA}, REQUEST_PERMISSION_CODE);
                            }
                        })
                        .setNegativeButton("Cancel", null);
                AlertDialog dialog = builder.create();
                dialog.show();
            }
        }
    }
}

Before connecting, set the ReaderDeviceListener object to receive events: 

readerDevice.setReaderDeviceListener(ScannerActivity.this);

See Step 3 for details.

Additionally, you can enable sending the last triggered image and SVG from the reader: 

readerDevice.enableImage(true);
readerDevice.enableImageGraphics(true);

After initializing the ReaderDevice and setting a listener method to handle responses from the reader, the connect method can be invoked, which takes a OnConnectionCompletedListener (see Step 3  for details) as parameter: 

 //Make sure the device is turned ON and ready
readerDevice.connect(ScannerActivity.this);

If everything was done correctly, the following listener methods are called with the new ReaderDevice status information. The onConnectionCompleted method (passed as parameter of connect) is also invoked as the connection process completes, providing a Throwable object, if there was a connection error. 

 public void onConnectionStateChanged(ReaderDevice reader);
public void onConnectionCompleted(ReaderDevice reader, Throwable err

Activate scanning 

readerDevice.startScanning();

You can stop scanning with the following: 

readerDevice.stopScanning();

The onReadResultReceived listener method (see Step 3 ) is invoked as a barcode was decoded by the reader, or the scanning process has finished. 

After connecting to the scanning device, you may want (or need) to change some of its settings. The cmbSDK provides a set of high-level, device independent APIs for setting and retrieving the current configuration of the device.

Like in the case of initializing the Reader Device, there are some differences between using an MX reader and the camera reader for scanning. These differences are detailed in the following sections. 

The MX family of mobile terminals provides sophisticated device configuration and management, including saved configurations on the device itself. In general, these devices come from Cognex preconfigured for an exceptional out-of- the-box experience with most symbologies and features ready to use.

When custom reconfiguration is desired, this is typically done using either the DataMan Setup Tool, or the Cognex Quick Setup as these tools can be used to distribute saved configurations easily to multiple devices, thereby greatly simplifying configuration management.

However, it is still possible (and sometimes desirable) for the mobile application itself to configure the MX device:

• You can have multiple scanning applications, each of which requires a different set of device settings.
• You may simply want to guarantee that the certain options are in a “known” state and not rely on the fact that the device has been preconfigured correctly. 

Much like an MX mobile terminal, the cmbSDK employs a default set of options for barcode reading with the built-in camera of the mobile device, providing a good out-of-box experience. However, there are two important differences to keep in mind: 

• The cmbSDK does not implement saved configurations for the camera reader. This means that every time an application that uses the camera reader starts, it starts with its defaults. 

• The cmbSDK does not enable any symbologies by default: you as the application programmer must enable all barcode symbologies your application needs to scan. By requiring the application program to explicitly enable only the symbologies it needs, the most optimal scanning performance can be achieved. This concept was more thoroughly discussed in the Overview section. 

Individual symbologies can be enabled using the following method of the Reader Device object: 

public void setSymbologyEnabled(final Symbology symbology, final boolean enable, final OnSymbologyListener listener)
readerDevice.setSymbologyEnabled(Symbology.DATAMATRIX, true, null);
readerDevice.setSymbologyEnabled(Symbology.UPC_EAN, true, null);

All symbologies used for the symbology parameter in this method can be found in ReaderDevice.java. 

Examples 

 /* Enable QR scanning */
readerDevice.setSymbologyEnabled(Symbology.QR, true, null);

The same method can also be used to turn symbologies off: 

/ * Disable Code 25 scanning */ readerDevice.setSymbologyEnabled(Symbology.C25, false, null);

You can implement the method for OnSymbologiesListener: 

@Override
public void onSymbologyEnabled(ReaderDevice reader, Symbology symbology, Boolean enabled, Throwable error) {
if (error != null) {
/* Unsuccessful
probably the symbology is unsupported by
the current device, or there is a problem with the connection between
the readerDevice and MX device
*/
} else {
// Success }
}

If your reader device is equipped with illumination lights (e.g. LEDs), you can control whether they are ON or OFF when scanning starts using the following method of your Reader Device object: 

readerDevice.setLightsOn(true, null);

Optionally, you can implement the interface method for OnLightsListener, which is the second parameter of the method. 

public class ScannerActivity extends Activity implements .... OnLightsListener .... { ....
@Override
public void onLightsOnCompleted(ReaderDevice reader, Boolean on, Throwable error) {
if (error != null) { // Unsuccessful
} else {
// Success }
} }

Keep in mind that not all devices and device modes supported by the cmbSDK allow for illumination control. For example, if using the built-in camera in passive aimer mode, illumination is not available since the LED is being used for aiming. 

If built-in camera is used as reader device you have the possibility to configure zoom levels and define the way these zoom levels are used.

There are 3 zoom levels for the phone camera, which are:

• normal: not zoomed (100%)
• level 1 zoom (default 150% on Android)
• level 2 zoom (default 300% on Android)

You can define these zoom levels with "SET CAMERA.ZOOM-PERCENT [100-MAX] [100-MAX]" command. It configures how far the two levels will zoom in percentage. 100 is without zoom, and MAX (goes up to 1000) will zoom as far as the device is capable of. First argument is used for setting level 1 zoom, and the second for level 2 zoom.

When you want to check current setting, you can do this with the "GET CAMERA.ZOOM-PERCENT" that returns two values: level 1 and level 2 zoom.

Example

readerDevice.getDataManSystem().sendCommand("SET CAMERA.ZOOM-PERCENT 250 500");

There is another command that sets which zoom level you want to use or returns the actual setting: "GET/SET CAMERA.ZOOM 0-2".

Possible values for the SET command are:

• 0 - normal (un-zoomed)
• 1 - zoom at level 1
• 2 - zoom at level 2

You can call this command before scanning or even during scanning, the zoom goes up to the level that was configured.

If the scanning is finished, the values is reset to normal behavior (0).

Example

readerDevice.getDataManSystem().sendCommand("SET CAMERA.ZOOM 2");

The cmbSDK includes a method for resetting the device to its default settings. In the case of an MX mobile terminal, this is the configuration saved by default (not the factory defaults), while in the case of the built-in camera, these are the defaults identified in Appendix B, where no symbologies will be enabled. This method is the following: 

readerDevice.resetConfig(null);

Being an async method, you can monitor its completion using OnResetConfigListener interface passed as an optional parameter to the method. 

public class ScannerActivity extends Activity implements .... OnResetConfigListener .... { ....
@Override
public void onResetConfigCompleted(ReaderDevice reader, Throwable error) {
if (error != null) { // Unsuccessful
} else {
// Success }
}

Every Cognex scanning device implements DataMan Control Commands (DMCC), a method for configuring and controlling the device. Virtually every feature of the device can be controlled using this text based language. The API provides a method for sending DMCC commands to the device. Commands exist both for setting and querying configuration properties.

Appendix A includes the complete DMCC reference for use with the camera reader. DMCC commands for other supported devices (e.g. the MX-1000) are included with the documentation of that particular device.
Appendix B provides the default values for the camera reader’s configuration settings as related to the corresponding DMCC setting.
The following examples show different DMCC commands being sent to the device for more advanced configuration.

Examples 

//Change the scan direction to omnidirectional 
readerDevice.getDataManSystem().sendCommand("SET DECODER.1D-SYMBOLORIENTATION 0", ScannerActivity.this);
//Change live-stream preview's scanning timeout to 10 seconds 
readerDevice.getDataManSystem().sendCommand("SET DECODER.MAX-SCAN-TIMEOUT 10", ScannerActivity.this);

You can also invoke DMCC query commands and receive their response in the OnResponseReceivedListener.onResponseReceived() method. 

//Get the type of device connected readerDevice.getDataManSystem().sendCommand("GET DEVICE.NAME", new OnResponseReceivedListener() {
@Override
public void onResponseReceived(DataManSystem dataManSystem, DmccResponse dmccResponse) {
if (dmccResponse.getError() != null) {
// Unsuccessful
Log.e("DMCC_ERR", “GET DEVICE.NAME failed”,dmccResponse.getError());
} else {
// Success - Use the following result fields:
//int mResponseId = dmccResponse.getResponseId(); //String mPayLoad = dmccResponse.getPayLoad(); //byte[] mBinaryData = dmccResponse.getBinaryData(); }
} );
}

When using Mobile Camera, cmbSDK allows you to see the Camera Preview inside a preview container or in full screen. This preview also contains an overlay, which can be customized in many ways. The cmbSDK camera overlay is built from buttons for zoom, flash and closing the scanner (in full screen), a progress bar indicating the scan timeout, and lines on the corners of the camera preview.

To use the legacy camera overlay, which was used in the cmbSDK v2.0.x and the ManateeWorks SDK, use this property from MWOverlay before initializing the readerDevice:

MWOverlay.overlayMode = MWOverlay.OverlayMode.OM_LEGACY;

The LEGACY overlay has limited customizability, so it is preferred to use the CMB overlay.

When using the CMB overlay, you can copy the layout files found in the Resources/layout directory into your project and modify them as you like. The files are: cmb_scanner_partial_view.xml used when the scanner is started inside a container (partial view), and cmb_scanner_view.xml when the scanner is started in full screen.
After copying the layout that you need (or both layouts),  you can modify them, for example by changing the sizes, positions or color of the views, removing views and even add your own views, like an overlay image. The views that are used by the cmbSDK (zoom, flash, close buttons, the view used for drawing lines on the corners, and the progress bar) are accessed by the sdk using the android:tag attribute, so if you can change everything about those views, make sure the android:tag attribute remains unchanged, otherwise the cmbSDK will not be able to recognize those views and continue to function as if those views were removed.

Both the CMB and the LEGACY overlay allow you to change the images used on the zoom and flash buttons. To do that, all you need to do is to make sure your images have the same name as the ones used by the cmbSDK. You can find the images and names used in the sdk in the Resources/drawable-mdpi and drawable-hdpi directories. While the other resolutions are optional, these two must contain your images with the correct names, so that the proper images will be displayed by the cmbSDK.

Both the CMB and the LEGACY overlay allow you to change the color and width of the rectangle that is displayed when a barcode is detected. Here's an example on how to do that:

MWOverlay.locationLineColor = Color.YELLOW;
MWOverlay.locationLineWidth = 6;

With a properly configured reader, you are now ready to scan barcodes. This can be done by calling the startScanning method from your Reader Device object.

What happens next is based on the type of Reader Device and how it has been configured, but in general:

• If using an MXreader, the user can now press a trigger button on the device to turn the scanner on and read a barcode.
• If using the camera reader, the cmbSDK starts the camera, displays the configured live-stream preview, and begins analyzing the frames from the video stream, looking for a configured barcode symbology.

Scanning stops under one of the following conditions:

• The reader found and decoded a barcode.
• The user released the trigger or pressed the stop button on the live-stream preview screen.
• The camera reader timed out with out finding a barcode.
• The application itself calls the stopScanning() method.

When a barcode is decoded successfully (the first case), you will receive a ReadResults iterable result collection object in ReaderDevice listener method, already implemented in Step 3.

@Override
public void onReadResultReceived(ReaderDevice reader, ReadResults results) {
 if (results.getCount() > 0) {
  ReadResult result = results.getResultAt(0);

  // USE String symbologyName; String code; Bitmap frame; VARIABLES IN YOUR APPLICATION

  if (result.isGoodRead()) {
   String symbologyName;
   String code = result.getReadString();
   Symbology symbology = result.getSymbology(); 

   if (symbology != null) {
    symbologyName = symbology.getName();
    tvSymbology.setText(symbologyName); 
   } else {
    tvSymbology.setText("UNKNOWN SYMBOLOGY");
   }

   tvCode.setText(code); 
   
  } else {
   tvSymbology.setText("NO READ");
   tvCode.setText("");
  }

  Bitmap frame = result.getImage();
  ivPreview.setImageBitmap(frame); 
 }
// READY TO SCAN AGAIN 
}

In the above example, ivPreview is an ImageView used to display an image of the barcode that was scanned, and tvCode is a TextView used to show the result from the barcode. You can also use the BOOL from result.isGoodRead() to check whether the scan was successful or not.

When a barcode is successfully read, a ReadResult object is created and returned by the onReadResultReceived method. In case of having multiple barcodes successfully read on a single image/frame, multiple ReadResult objects are returned in the ReadResult object.

The ReadResult class has properties describing the result of a barcode read:

• is GoodRead() (boolean) : tells whether the read was successful or not
• get ReadString() (String): the decoded barcode as a string
• get Image() (Bitmap): the image/frame that the decoder has processed
• get ImageGraphics() (String): the boundary path of the barcode as SVG data
• get Xml() (String): the raw XML that the decoder returned
• get Symbology (Symbology): the symbology type of the barcode.This enum is defined in ReaderDevice.java.

When a scanning ends with no successful read, a ReadResult is returned with the goodRead property set to false. This usually happens when scanning is canceled or timed out.

To enable the image and imageGraphics properties being filled in the ReadResult object, you have to set the corresponding enableImage() and/or enableImageGraphics() properties of the ReaderDevice object.

To see an example on how the image and SVG graphics are used and displayed in parallel, refer to the sample applications provided in the SDK package.

Not all supported devices provide SVG graphics.

To access the raw bytes from the scanned barcode, you can use the XML property. The bytes are stored as a Base64 String under the "full_string" tag. Here's an example how you can use a XML parser to extract the raw bytes from the XML property.

try {
    XmlPullParserFactory factory = XmlPullParserFactory.newInstance();
    factory.setNamespaceAware(true);
    XmlPullParser xpp = factory.newPullParser();

    String tag = "";

    // the raw bytes will be stored in this variable
    byte[] bytes;

    xpp.setInput(new StringReader(result.getXml()));
    int eventType = xpp.getEventType();
    while (eventType != XmlPullParser.END_DOCUMENT) {
        if (eventType == XmlPullParser.START_TAG) {
            tag = xpp.getName();
        }
        else if (eventType == XmlPullParser.TEXT && tag.equals("full_string")) {
            String base64String = xpp.getText();
            // Get the bytes from the base64 string here
            bytes = Base64.decode(base64String, Base64.DEFAULT);
            break;
        }
        else if (eventType == XmlPullParser.END_TAG && tag.equals("full_string")) {
            tag = "";
            break;
        }
        eventType = xpp.next();
    }
} catch (Exception e) {
    e.printStackTrace();
}

By default, the image and SVG results are disabled, which means that when scanning, the ReadResults will not contain any data in the corresponding properties.

To enable image results, invoke the enableImage() method from the ReaderDevice object:

readerDevice.enableImage(true);

To enable SVG results, invoke the enableImageGraphics() method on ReaderDevice object:

readerDevice. enableImageGraphics(true); 

There might be cases when a device disconnects due to low battery condition or manual cable disconnection. These cases can be detected by the onConnectionStateChanged() method of the ReaderDeviceListener interface. 

The following table lists the various DMCC commands supported by the cmbSDK when using the built-in camera for barcode scanning. 

The following table lists the defaults the SDK uses on startup for the camera reader.

Observe these precautions when installing the Cognex product, to reduce the risk of injury or equipment damage:

• To reduce the risk of damage or malfunction due to over-voltage, line noise, electrostatic discharge (ESD), power surges, or other irregularities in the power supply, route all cables and wires away from high-voltage power sources.
• Changes or modifications not expressly approved by the party responsible for regulatory compliance could void the user’s authority to operate the equipment.
• Cable shielding can be degraded or cables can be damaged or wear out more quickly if a service loop or bend radius is tighter than 10X the cable diameter. The bend radius must begin at least six inches from the connector.
• This device should be used in accordance with the instructions in this manual.
• All specifications are for reference purpose only and may be changed without notice.