Help with Barcode reading!

So there is this barcodes matrix

barcodes = {':...:::.:.....::::....:..::.:..:.:..:.:..:..:.::...';

':.:.:...::.:...:::....::..:.:....::...:.:...::.:..:'};

I'm trying to associate specific dots and colons to a specific numeric value to be able to read the barcode.

Given:

1 = ...::

2 = ..:.:

3 = ..::.

4 = .:..:

5 = .:.:.

6 = .::..

7 = :...:

8 = :..:.

9 = :.:..

0 = ::...

How can I write a for loop function that coverts barcodes matrix into numbers?

Answer 1

[Image Analyst]

I just answered this yesterday: http://www.mathworks.com/matlabcentral/answers/108076#answer_116773 with the very same codes. Perhaps megan is your classmates. So it looks like it must be homework, which, to be honest, means you should have tagged your post with a "homework" tag.

[Ali]

Thanks for the reply, I'm new to this website, soI just edited the tags. Thanks again!

[Ali]

Hey,

I looked at your answer to Megan, but it's is a bit different than mine. How can I translate the whole code into sets of 10 digit numbers? (The codes each represent 10 digits)

[Image Analyst]

You have to get each cell's contents. Evidently it's a string of 51 characters. Now somehow, I don't know how, but you're going to have to split that 51 characters up into substrings of 5 characters each.

% Get the k'th cell's contents in the cell array.
thisString = barcodes{k}; 
% Extract the first 5 characters.
thisSubstring = thisString(1:5);  % and so on.

Then use the look up table approach I gave Megan.