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fluff

macrumors member
Original poster
Jan 2, 2008
61
3
Anybody hear if anyone might make an App that does something similar to http://www.scanr.com/ ? You take a picture of a business card with your phone, and then it would automatically add everything into your contacts...I think that would be super helpful and with the camera on the 3GS it is now possible...thoughts?
 
Anybody hear if anyone might make an App that does something similar to http://www.scanr.com/ ? You take a picture of a business card with your phone, and then it would automatically add everything into your contacts...I think that would be super helpful and with the camera on the 3GS it is now possible...thoughts?

I would get that app in a heartbeat as long as it were maybe $5 or less. That is a fantastic idea! My wallet can't hold any more business cards.

Doesn't evernote do something like this?
 
Anybody hear if anyone might make an App that does something similar to http://www.scanr.com/ ? You take a picture of a business card with your phone, and then it would automatically add everything into your contacts...I think that would be super helpful and with the camera on the 3GS it is now possible...thoughts?

That is quite an interesting idea and would be something relatively easy to implement given all the APIs and new capabilities with 3.0. Too bad I know absolutely nothing about creating applications! :)
 
That is quite an interesting idea and would be something relatively easy to implement given all the APIs and new capabilities with 3.0. Too bad I know absolutely nothing about creating applications! :)
Relatively easy? Since you admittedly know absolutely nothing about creating applications, you shouldn't be making that judgement. As an iPhone developer, I can tell you it's not that easy. First, you would need some kind of OCR to convert the picture into text. Then, you have to deal with the plethora of layouts of the data on cards. For example, is that a person's name or a company's name? Shall I go on?
 
Relatively easy? Since you admittedly know absolutely nothing about creating applications, you shouldn't be making that judgement. As an iPhone developer, I can tell you it's not that easy. First, you would need some kind of OCR to convert the picture into text. Then, you have to deal with the plethora of layouts of the data on cards. For example, is that a person's name or a company's name? Shall I go on?

Well, what I was saying is you could attach that image to the contact which wouldn’t require creating some kind of image to text program and I don’t think that would be difficult given the phone already has a built in camera and an ability to put images on contacts.

For the record, there’s also no reason for you to be rude, I was just making an assumption, if it’s wrong that’s OK, but you don’t have to make it personal. ;)
 
It wouldnt be easy, but CardScan does it with scanning them, and somehow ScanR does it as well....They have the ability, just not sure if the iphone can handle it...

Also, scanning the image and adding it to the contact is not what I am talking about, I am talking about the OCR and actually adding all the data to a contact...Sort of like a vCard ..
 
Dunno, my guess would be first that there are a lot of fonts that the app would have to recognize, and second that after reading the card and converting it all to text, the app user would have to assign fields to the text, such as 'Jack' is the first name, 'McGill' the last, and 'Mitsubishi Motors' the company, and etc etc...

Sounds like a huge task for a developer, with higher chances of mistakes happening and disatisfied customers.. add in the usual bugs that occur in all apps, and it'd really have to be worth all the time and effort to make a polished app.
 
As stated above Evernote will do this if the picture is good enough. Evernote can scan images for text on the PCs I think but not sure on the iPhone. My girlfriend uses this technology to store her receipts after she scans them within Evernote for tracking each month.
 
As stated above Evernote will do this if the picture is good enough. Evernote can scan images for text on the PCs I think but not sure on the iPhone. My girlfriend uses this technology to store her receipts after she scans them within Evernote for tracking each month.

I use Evernote for receipts & business cards also. Works fine, but yes, you do need a steady hand if using the iPhone to take photos of the business cards. I wish it had an "export to address book" option.
 
Well, what I was saying is you could attach that image to the contact which wouldn’t require creating some kind of image to text program and I don’t think that would be difficult given the phone already has a built in camera and an ability to put images on contacts.

For the record, there’s also no reason for you to be rude, I was just making an assumption, if it’s wrong that’s OK, but you don’t have to make it personal. ;)

I have noticed A LOT of very rude comments on macrumors. Some buyers remorse going around?
 
I just contacted IRIS.com. They make the Card Iris for Mac. Maybe they can help.

Anybody hear if anyone might make an App that does something similar to http://www.scanr.com/ ? You take a picture of a business card with your phone, and then it would automatically add everything into your contacts...I think that would be super helpful and with the camera on the 3GS it is now possible...thoughts?
 
hey guys.. THERE IS AN APP LIKE THAT!!!

I have been using it for MONTHS and paired with GROUP HUG its the single most used app on my iphone..

Its called CARD SNAP and its by far the best thing ever

Just be aware.. if yo have a 3G with the lower res camera, you should get the griffen clarify case. Its a nice case, and has a little lense that lets you take MUCH MUCH better close up pictures..
 
Oh yea.. And I have taken pictures of some business cards with some CRAZY layouts, nuts fonts, and pale colors.. Even one that was a wrinkled up in my pocket.. I have not had one business card NOT come out.. or come out wrong.

Every single card I snap comes up in my contacts correctly. LOVELY app.. can't believe these developers aren't marketing this the way it should be. It was an app that I was waiting for the day the 2.0 update came out.
 
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