We have a freezer full of stuff, and I have a manual written list (using a list app) for keeping track of it all. Due to the manual nature of it we only use it for keeping track of meat/seafood, and it has its pros/cons.
Boyfriend and I were just talking about how cool it could be if we could scan the existing barcode on the item to check things in and out of the freezer, and additionally capture other things like frozen veg etc, and even items on the basement pantry shelves.
I’m googling the snot out of this idea and am finding things like barcode scanning apps, but they all seem to serve the purpose of looking the thing up online, not capturing it, say, into an Excel document.
Does anyone out there do anything like this at home and could you help get me started on what I’d need to put something like this into place?
I googled ‘scan barcode into excel’ and got quite a number of results. Here’s the first one that appeared to be for a phone (as opposed to an actual, dedicated, barcode scanner), free, a good amount of 5 start reviews and usable at home
But I didn’t actually read too much about it, it might not work for your application.
However, this seems like more work than it’s worth. Who wants to find their phone, unlock it, pull up an app, let the app load and scan an item just so they can grab a waffle.
I have a feeling that unless the two of you are really, really anal about this, you’re not going to keep up with it and spend a lot of time reconciling the database to what you actually have on hand.
You might be better off getting a dedicated (and always up and running) scanner. I’ll bet you can get a USB scanner and connect it to a raspberry pi that’ll run the software and database. From there, you can set up a network shortcut on your regular computer (and/or phones) to the database so you can see what’s going on. You might even be able to add a second scanner for the basement.
Of course, this is going to involve some purchases and learning how to work with a raspberry pi (not that hard, but still another hurdle). But, at least for me, I’d be far too lazy to do this on a phone, but an actual scanner might work. It’s just like how I have all my credit cards loaded up on Android Pay (like Apple Pay), but honestly, it’s faster just to use my actual credit cards rather than screwing around with my phone.
I think part of the problem is that you’re using the wrong search terms. If you’re wanting a scanner for grocery items, an International Standard Book Number scanner isn’t likely to help you.
Most require a direct link via USB or wireless to you computer. All it does is translate the barcode in the number you see on the bottom. More expensive readers can store the data in the reader and download it later to the PC.
This leads to the catch. That number has to correspond to a product in a database in the PC.
You could find a downloadable UPC (Universal Price Code) database which goes into the hundreds of millions of items. upc database - Google Search which is way overkill for your use and will only works for specific mass marketed products. For example, 90012380001 = Campbell’s Chicken Noodle Soup 8oz, etc.
For your purpose, you would probably have to generate your own barcodes, print them on labels, attach them to your food and scan them with the reader. You would have to create a code for each item, with each specific as you want. For example. 000001 = Chicken thighs, 1 lb, 000002 = Chicken thighs 2 lbs, 000003 = Chuck roast 1lb, etc.
The code would have to be scanned to a PC and would need to be interpreted by a program (Excel would work) that has a database that when you scan 000001, converts that to Chicken thighs, 1lb which you’ve previously entered as an item. If you want, it could subject or add to the existing inventory that you’ve entered into the database.
Sounds like too much work? It is unless you’re dealing with hundreds or thousands of items,
I stated the barcode info has to be sent to a PC. Actually you could do everything in a phone with a barcode reader app and a spreadsheet program. The basics remain the same.
Note that there’s a difference between a UPC (which is both a unique number and barcode) and the unique number and barcode a supermarket generates to put on their 1lb of chicken thighs. As stated above, a UPC is a Universal Price Code requiring an application and fee to GS1. Once generated, that number is unique to your product worldwide.
Unlike a UPC, the supermarket generates their own unique number and barcode just as you could do at home. If you took that printed label to another supermarket, it wouldn’t be recognized by the system because it’s not entered into their database.
EAN is the European equivalent to the the UPC and may be seen on products meant for sale outside the U.S.
Ack- I think that was my brain-swap mistake in terminology. I work for a book publisher so I had ISBN in my head when thinking “UPC”
Yeah, I considered the idea of sticker-labeling but that’s prob more than I wanted to get into- more manual than what I’m doing now.
In my imagination it seems like it could be doable to “translate” an existing barcode into “chicken thighs” on a doc, but unless a scanner-gun type thingie exists that could do that, my lack of programming skills might make it a non-starter.
But, as was noted by Didi44, these codes will only be useful for things where the packaging is made by the manufacturer. So bags of frozen vegetables, sold as a uniformly-priced package, probably yes. Packages of chicken prepared in the supermarket and sold by weight, probably not. For the latter, the code is likely from a special section of UPC reserved for such things, starting with “2”, with the next five characters being the “real” item code, and the five after that encoding the weight (and then a one-digit checksum).
Interesting app, but for the reasons I stated above, it only works for actual UPC codes in its database. So prepackaged, national products. Custom barcodes and numbers wouldn’t be there as well as anything repackaged either by yourself or the store.
I just had some thoughts inspired by Alton Brown.
Take a picture of everything you in your freezer and take a picture of it’s placement there. Check it off with a printout or on your phone with a photo editing software.
Organize your items by menu. If you’re going to make stew, put the meat and frozen veggies in the same area to be taken out at the time .
Organize in layers. Top to bottom. Front to back. In whatever pattern that makes sense to you. Oldest, most often used in the front/top, newest/least used in the back would be a good method.
Make a map of the layers/areas of your freezer. If you really want to organize, use containers to separate the areas.
You only mention your boyfriend, but if there are others who add/remove things from the freezer, everyone be diligent to religiously mark everything in or out. Without this discipline, the best barcode program would be useless.
Granted. But what the OP is asking for is a magic app that somehow knows everything and magically keeps track of changes with no effort on their part. That’s not happening. For all the good reasons you said and a whole lot more.
As any dev as learnt to the chagrin, building magic is impossible. Building something useful is not. It’s up to the sales force to walk the customer’s expectations back from the magic threshold.
The “value” of this app is simply to show the OP what can actually be done. And perhaps by reading about a concrete implementation, or even downloading & trying the software themselves, they’ll learn about the art of the possible and about what of their wishlist is needs and what is wants.
Heck, they might even get lucky and discover this is just the thing for what they really need, not what they thought they needed at first.
I’ve heard of this sort of thing (kitchen inventory systems) as an example of what will be possible in future “smart home” systems. Perhaps UPC barcodes will be replaced by RFID tags on all packaging. So as items are removed from the refrigerator or pantry for consumption, they’re marked for replacement in your shopping list. (And RFID tagging of grocery items might allow for a more automated shopping experience in the store. You walk the cart through a portal that scans and reads all of the RFID tags on the merchandise, figures the total and charges your account.)
I agree. I see this a lot when people say “Well, with AI, anything should be possible!” What they fail to understand is that AI can only build upon what the programmers can conceptualize and enter as code to build on.
It’s here in a limited sense with Smart Fridges using cameras (an automation of my thoughts above) that allow you view the contents of your fridge remotely. It’s not here yet AFAIK, but all it would take is a live video camera to track when you add/remove things and UPC/personal barcode scanner to add items. Add something like Alexa and it can generate a shopping list and even find the best prices for you on or offline.
The live monitoring of items is already done with self checkout registers. Once you’re scanned the item, there’s a camera monitoring the bagging area. Remove anything that’s been scanned and you’re prompted to put it back. Add something you didn’t scan and you’re prompted to remove it. I think some registers also monitor the prescanning area. I think I’ve been prompted “Did you scan everything?”.
The Amazon Go stores work on a much larger scale of the same concept as show in this video. As Linus points out, there’s little or no RFID tags., Instead everything, including you, is constantly monitored by the multiple cameras. The AI knows what items are and aren’t on the shelves. Just to 03:30 where he points out that the food items have unique non-UPC codes on them so the system can recognize them.
Even placing the item, in this case Tampons in a different area and picking it back up again doesn’t fool the system.
So how did Linus steal the Tampons?
He deleted from his ‘cart’. As he says, there’s no (at the time of the video) Amazon just writes if off if it’s a small enough purchase. Same as they’ll sometimes say you don’t have to return a “damaged” item you bought online.
It’s not an inventory system, but I use the app from my favorite grocery store. When I use up an item, I scan it into my phone and add it to my list. That works for local products, too, since the store’s app knows its own stuff. The app also has a “buy it again” feature, so I can look back at that yummy stuff we liked before – what was it?
I’m sure the store is loving having all that personal information about exactly the stuff I like, but I like the convenience of having my list already made when I go to the store.
Right- 2d barcode readers are just basically a way to generate keyboard input. As in, the UPC barcode just encodes a 12 digit number. If you scan a 1 oz bag of Cheddar and Sour Cream Ruffles (what I happen to have in front of me), the bar code is “028400090179”, which is printed in numbers below/beside the barcode itself. And most bar code scanners will just fill in text boxes and the like with those numbers- they do the conversion internally.
That doesn’t really tell you much though; you still have to look that up somewhere to find out that it’s a bag of Ruffles.
You could I suppose, write yourself a MS Access application to handle your freezer inventory and use the scanned UPC codes as one of your keys, but then you’re really getting into the design of an inventory management application far further than you probably want to. I’ve done it for work before (an evidence inventory tracking app for a digital forensics practice), and it’s a LOT of work.
You’re probably better off just keeping it on a clipboard hung on the freezer somehow.
As I stated above, it could relatively easily done in Excel with lookup tables and if/then formulas that would work based on which column you choose to populate. Scan to column A, reduce inventory. Column B, increase inventory. Probably take me a couple hours. But a fraction of that time for someone who’s good at Excel.
May be worth it for hundreds of items, not likely for a few dozen. And as with everything computer related, Garbage In, Garbage Out. It’s only as good a you diligently scanning everything out and in. And how well you enter and update any new items.
I worked for a PV company and would have to scan in dozens of panels every week for inventory and warranty purposes. I figured out how to make the scanned code automatically advance to the next cell, but if I missed or double-scanned a panel, I’d sometimes have to start all over since it was quicker that way.
Yes, I’m probably wishing for magic that doesn’t exist (completely yet, although that CozZo app will be fun to play around with), but I’ve tried several different inventory methods which have been problematic for one reason or another:
• A paper inventory isn’t sortable, needs to be written/erased/modified- I did this for several years but it was limited/frustrating/full of arrows, cross-outs, stuff written up the side, etc
• I have used a list app which does sort and categorize, but there I am standing in front of the open freezer typing in the entries when we get a shipment of meat, and then I’d question how long has a thing been in there like that rando ham bone from…which Easter dinner was that?
It feels like with every other updated tech-ie thing I have I’m still running some form of a manual pantry so I’ve got this UPC library fantasy running in my brain…check it in/check it out. Click boom done.
That’s still a ton of work for “a freezer full of stuff”. I mean, unless it’s a freezer full of small half-ounce bottles of various spices, we’re talking in the realm of probably 250 items at most.
I even looked into this for our own freezers/fridges a while back; there’s no good way to do it on such a small scale that doesn’t involve an undue amount of effort- you still have to log everything you take in/out, and STILL do periodic “physical inventory” to see what’s actually in there and reconcile it to your log. Even if doing it in Excel would be pretty quick up front, you’ll still spend a ton of time keeping it updated.
I found out that it was still easiest to just inventory the fridges/freezers every now and then and keep an updated list.