scanning barcodes into html forms

I would like to create a specification for scanning bar codes into HTML
forms. It seems to me that with possibly some minor additions to html
spec, or just interpreting it with bar coding in mind, it could be great
for data entry. I know that much of this is a browser area, but there
are some minor tidbits of information that the browser could use to make
this much more practical.

Here are some of my ideas:

<scan_enable> tells browser that this form is intended for scanning and
to turn on or enable scanning device.
<scan guide="textID" prefix="ID" type="code39" length="10"> Specifies
fields that scanned input could be guided to. Modifiers for guiding
input into fields could be specified, such as prefixes, bar code types,
and lengths.
<scan_autosubmit> automatically submits form after last field is
scanned.

The actual syntax is not important to me. I just want to make bar code
scanning via a browser practical. Believe me, if you have ever
programmed data collection systems, you would know why I want to make
this happen so much.

-Ryan Cole

Received on Thursday, 3 June 1999 18:03:39 UTC