[MW Forums]

Omni Group's founder and former interface designer, Wil Shipley and Mike Matas, have teamed up to start a new Mac OS X software development company called Delicious Monster Software. Delicious Monster's first release is Delicious Library. Scheduled for release on November 8, 2004, Delicious Library is used to create a card-catalog of books, movies, music and video games. The software includes barcode scanning support through Apple's iSight Webcam, high-res 3D renderings of your media's covers, Address Book and iCal-coordinated checkout, automatic syncing with iPods, two-click purchases through Amazon.com, and native XML file format. Delicious Library will cost US$39.95, and Delicious Monster will also sell an optional wireless Bluetooth laser barcode scanner for $174.95. more

[d_escartes]

excellent-sounding product - especiallly as one can use the iSight as a bar-code scanner.
Only 1 prob thought - (Euro)aesthetics. The Monsters go to all the trouble of giving their product the highly-sophisticated Apple look only to mar it with a megacheapo looking 'wood' fascia on the shelves.
Does anyone know of any similar products/progs where the iSight can be used as a barcode reader BUT where we are spared americano interpretations of mattters arborial? Perhaps its designed just for the american market - but if they burn the wood bit and rejig it for the European I'd buy it straight-away
Many thanks for any product recommendations

[stevedave]

I've tried a similar product that employs an iSight as a barcode scanner and I couldn't get it to work, not even once. It's called Booxter and other people seem to have had a lot of luck with it so it wouldn't hurt to give it a try.
I'm sure there will be more than one view option in the software, I would assume at the very least there will be one that only shows the covers, minus the entire shelf image. I think it looks kinda kitschy cool but I can also see it getting tiresome if you have hundreds of items to scroll through.
Regardless, I can't wait to test this software out.

[spudly]

Yeah... you're right. They really do need a version with a really sleak Scandanavian design where the shelves would start to sag after a few months of use. If not that then at least give us some naked Greek statuettes and let the USER make the choice whether to use Doric and Ionian scrollbars. It would make the software SO much more usable!

[kwill]

In reply to:

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From the Delicious Library Web site: Instead of only showing your books, CDs, DVDs, and video games in a big, ugly, hard-to-read table, we show them on beautiful photorealistic wooden shelves that look just like the ones you'd see at the library or video store, with DVDs looking like real DVDs and books looking like real books.

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Apparently there are list views in addition to the eye-candy style bookshelves. In fact, list views are shown at the bottom of the page under Library Screenshots.

In reply to:

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Re: iSite scanning: Delicious Library reads every single frame of digital video; seeking out, targeting, and instantly decoding any visible barcodes. This results in a seamless process of scanning that lets you import about 750 items an hour (assuming you can move your arms that fast). At that rate the staff of the new downtown Seattle Central Library could import all of their 1.4 million books into Delicious Library in just over 5 hours.

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Help me with the math here: 750 x 5 = 3750 so it would take 374 scanners and operators to process 1.4 million books in 5 hours. /forums/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/blush.gif

[Nobody]

yes, it's assuming that each employee has a scanner.

[kwill]

I have loved the "coolness" factor of iSight since its introduction but frankly don't currently see it as viable business tool (only one client and two vendors use it). The dual-purpose incentive of being a barcode scanner and communication device is compelling. I would love to hear from customers who have success with the iSight and the Monster software.