Read binary QR Code with AVFoundation

Question

Is it possible to read a binary encoded QR code with AVFoundation?

I can get a AVMetadataMachineReadableCodeObject object of .type AVMetadataObjectTypeQRCode, however this only has a stringValue property, which won't work, because the data contained in the QR code can't be converted to a string friendly representation.

Should I use ZXing instead?

Thanks

Answer 1

The raw data does exist in your AVMetadataMachineReadableCodeObject, but it's not available through a public getter.

However, you can use KVO to extract it, but Apple might reject your app. Also, future iOS versions might change their private APIs and your code could become invalid (because of the hardcoded private keys).

Swift:

readableCodeObject.valueForKeyPath("_internal.basicDescriptor")!["BarcodeRawData"]

Objective-C

[readableCodeObject valueForKeyPath:@"_internal.basicDescriptor"][@"BarcodeRawData"];

I tested this for iOS 8 and 9.