--- index: 58 title: 'Semacode - Image recognition on mobile camera phones' presentors: - 'Simon Woodside' thumbnails: small: 'http://mirror.csclub.uwaterloo.ca/csclub/semacode-thumb-small.jpg' large: 'http://mirror.csclub.uwaterloo.ca/csclub/semacode-thumb-large.jpg' links: - file: 'http://mirror.csclub.uwaterloo.ca/csclub/semacode.avi' type: 'DivX' size: '180M' - file: 'http://mirror.csclub.uwaterloo.ca/csclub/semacode-xvid.avi' type: 'XviD' size: '180M' - file: 'http://mirror.csclub.uwaterloo.ca/csclub/semacode.mpg' type: 'Mpeg' size: '180M' --- Could you write a good image recognizer for a 100 MHz mobile phone processor with 1 MB heap, 320x240 image, on a poorly-optimized Java stack? It needs to locate and read two-dimensional barcodes made up of square modules which might be no more than a few pixels in size. We had to do that in order to establish Semacode, a local start up company that makes a software barcode reader for cell phones. The applications vary from ubiquitous computing to advertising. Simon Woodside (founder) will discuss what it's like to start a business and how the imaging code works.