NeoMedia Technologies, Inc (NEOM)

[RationalObserver]

I don't disagree that the trend is toward megapixel cameras on camera phones, but they are still a minority, as best I can tell, at least in the US and Europe. As I've said elsewhere, even if a megapixel camera without macro focus can read some product codes under some conditions, it doesn't mean that they are really usable in that mode. There may be important difficulties with framerates (the image is many times as large as with VGA), with motion blur (requiring a very steady hand), that just aren't going to go away.

My guess is that the way most camera phones in Japan do bar code reading is by the introduction of a macro capability. This is NOT an expensive item, per se: it only requires a cheap mechanism to change the offset of the lens from the sensor. For some reason, camera manufacturers resist introducing this feature. Maybe in Japan they have already been persuaded that it's worth it.

One further possible solution to this problem is the introduction of autofocus -- I gather the Nokia N93 phone coming out in July will feature this. That might be the best possible solution, because it wouldn't require any input from the user.