Yes, the idea was to make a small, gun shaped device for inventory, and in/out movements. Long ago I started prototyping a small device with:
Hardware
- ESP32 (3€ dualcore MCU with wifi and bluetooth)
- A 3.2’’ touchscreen dispay (supported by littlevgl)(like this one)
- a 2D barcode scanner module like this one
Total estimated BOM cost is: 50€ (for single quantity).
For reducing the BOM cost, one can use an external camera, and implement the barcode recognition algorithm on the ESP32 an example implementation here, but did not tried myself). This will slash the BOM cost in half (total estimated is 20€)
Software
Littlevgl supports the dynamic instantiation of GUI elements, so the first idea was to implement a reduced Tryton client in micropython (or C/C++).
This approach has some advantages (like auto-update of the interface, and no custom code required), but a bit difficult to implement correctly (IMHO).
The more feasible approach is to have some custom made program for the task, and implement the necessary API in Tryton via a custom module.
Project status
The project was on hold because I was waiting the support of the touch controller in Littlevgl (now there is an implementation).
Now I’m round-robing between projects, so this one is waiting in line 