QR Code Scanner

QR (Quick Response) codes are two-dimensional barcodes which are widely used on machine-readable optical labels. iOS do provide a way to read the QR codes by using AVFoundation framework from iOS 7 onwards. This framework provides set of API's to setup/open the camera and read QR codes from the camera feed.

UIViewController scanning for QR and displaying video input

import AVFoundation
class QRScannerViewController: UIViewController,
     AVCaptureMetadataOutputObjectsDelegate {
   
    func viewDidLoad() {
        self.initCaptureSession()
    }
    
    private func initCaptureSession() {
        let captureDevice = AVCaptureDevice
            .defaultDevice(withMediaType: AVMediaTypeVideo)
        do {
            let input = try AVCaptureDeviceInput(device: captureDevice)
            let captureMetadataOutput = AVCaptureMetadataOutput()
            self.captureSession?.addOutput(captureMetadataOutput)
            captureMetadataOutput.setMetadataObjectsDelegate(self,
                 queue: DispatchQueue.main)
            captureMetadataOutput
                .metadataObjectTypes = [AVMetadataObjectTypeQRCode]
            
            self.videoPreviewLayer = 
                AVCaptureVideoPreviewLayer(session: self.captureSession)
            self.videoPreviewLayer?
                .videoGravity = AVLayerVideoGravityResizeAspectFill
            self.videoPreviewLayer?.frame =    
                self.view.layer.bounds

            self._viewController?.view.layer
                .addSublayer(videoPreviewLayer!)
            self.captureSession?.startRunning()
        } catch {
            //TODO: handle input open error
        }
    }
    private func dismissCaptureSession() {
        if let running = self.captureSession?.isRunning, running {
            self.captureSession?.stopRunning()
        }
        self.captureSession = nil
        self.videoPreviewLayer?.removeFromSuperLayer()
        self.videoPreviewLayer = nil
    }
    
    func captureOutput(_ captureOutput: AVCaptureOutput, 
        didOutputMetadataObjects metadataObjects: [Any]!, 
        from connection: AVCaptureConnection) {
        guard metadataObjects != nil && metadataObjects.count != 0 else {
            //Nothing captured
            return
        }

        if let metadataObj = 
            metadataObjects[0] as? AVMetadataMachineReadableCodeObject {
            guard metadataObj.type == AVMetadataObjectTypeQRCode else {
                return
            }

            let barCodeObject = videoPreviewLayer?
                .transformedMetadataObject(for: 
                    metadataObj as AVMetadataMachineReadableCodeObject)
                 as! AVMetadataMachineReadableCodeObject
        
            if let qrValue = metadataObj.stringValue {
                self.handleQRRead(value: qrValue)
            }
        }
    }

    private handleQRRead(value: String) {
        //TODO: Handle the read qr
    }
    private captureSession: AVCaptureSession?
    private videoPreviewLayer: AVCaptureVideo
}

handleQRRead - will be called on a successful scan initCaptureSession - initialize scanning for QR and camera input dismissCaptureSession - hide the camera input and stop scanning

Scanning QR code with AVFoudation framework

Prior to iOS 7 when you want to scan a QR code, we might need to rely on third party frameworks or libraries like zBar (opens new window) or zXing (opens new window). But Apple introduced AVCaptureMetaDataOutput from iOS 7 for reading barcodes.

To read QR code using AVFoundation we need to setup/create AVCaptureSession and use captureOutput:didOutputMetadataObjects:fromConnection: delegate method.

Step 1

Import AVFoundation framework and confirm to AVCaptureMetadataOutputObjectsDelegate protocol

Step 2

QR code reading is totally based on video capture. So to capture continuous video create an AVCaptureSession and set up device input and output. Add the below code in view controller viewDidLoad method

Step 3

Implement AVCaptureMetadataOutputObjectsDelegate delegate method to read the QR code

here metadata object can give you the bounds of the QR code read on the camera feed as well. To get the bounds simply pass the metadata object to videoPreviewLayer' s transformedMetadataObject method like below.