V2R Business Card Reader app for iPhone and iPad
Developer: V2R Vision to Reality GmbH
First release : 18 Feb 2016
App size: 0 Bytes
The V2R iOS Business Card Reader is a business card reader that attaches great importance to avoid anything that might cause security concerns (cloud computing or storage other than in iTunes) or that is annoying when working (ads, limitations of functionality).
Furthermore, there are no restrictions of functionality that one would have to unlock through in-app purchases, no ads, no access to location data or other features that are actually not needed by a business card reader.
Your privacy is the top priority: there is no processing or storage in the cloud, no dissemination of the data collected (unless you export contacts), and no tracking of the user behavior - your data belongs to you!
The Functionality
Business cards are detected, whether rectangular, square, oriented in portrait or landscape mode, if rotated by 90 or 180° or 23°; special formats such as round or oval cards can also be read - due to lack of edges the app may state "no card found", but you can scan the photo anyway. Sources of contact data are photos taken in the app, or images that are stored in the Camera Roll.
The text recognition uses OCR on your device; 20 languages are supported (the two Norwegian variants are counted only as one language); the scanner operates locally without a connection to any server or a cloud.
The entire text found will be stored, so that e.g. opening times of restaurants and any other information is retained, which cannot be associated with traditional vCard contact data fields. An image of the business card is saved together with the contact; you can view the data collected and always compare it with the original information on the business card; even handwritten notes remain available.
Besides the standard data fields you can also define custom data fields which will be stored with the card as well as included when exporting the contact.
There are two list views in the app: a vertical view with sorting by date, name and company, search function and quick access bar. A click on one contact there brings you to the horizontal view, sorted by date, from which you can call contacts directly or send them a text message or e-mail.
An export to the iPhone contacts is possible, but does not take place automatically - the user should retain control over which contacts go to the phonebook. Who would seriously like to have added all scanned business cards to the iPhone Contacts? If needed, calling, texting and mailing is possible from within the app.
Export of one, some or all contacts in VCF format (vCard 3.0) via email or SMS (only for individual contacts; contains only name, company and phone numbers); there are a number of freely usable converters that convert the vCard format on a Mac or PC into CSV, so that an import of the data is possible to virtually any other software.
The user interface can be configured to either German or English.
The Multicard mode
You can scan several cards in one photo.
Clear, the better the light conditions are, the better will be the scanning result. You can benefit from good light conditions, scan very many cards in a short time, and complete the review and correction at a later point in time, under worse light conditions (at the stand at a trade fair, in the hotel room, in a train or plane, …).
Planned Features
Are you missing some functionality? Well, plenty of further features are planned for coming releases. But theres no roadmap yet, nor fixed release dates. Please contact me (best by mail) in case a certain feature is of great importance for you; I will consider such a request in my release planning.