Building a Camera-Based Menu Scanner with React Native

The idea of building a mobile menu scanner—an app that lets users point their phone at a restaurant menu and instantly get nutritional info or translations—is both exciting and practical. Thanks to modern tools like React Native and Expo Camera, creating such an app is more accessible than ever. In this post, I’ll walk you through the essential steps for building a camera-based menu scanner app, focusing on the React Native ecosystem, image capture with Expo Camera, and building an AI-powered text extraction and analysis pipeline. Why Build a Menu Scanner App? Menu scanner apps solve real-world problems: they empower users to make healthier eating choices, navigate foreign menus, or quickly compare dishes. These apps leverage mobile OCR (Optical Character Recognition) to turn photos into actionable data, blending computer vision, machine learning, and slick native interfaces. Before diving in, let’s break down the core components: Camera integration : Capturing images of menus in real