Why not an inexpensive android smartphone? 
ZXing is and opensource camera based barcode scanner, it support multiple formats of 1D/2D barcodes.

Higher level programming, less assembly required roughly equivalent cost, made for portability, made for connectivity, and handheld.

I was aware of ZXing, but there is no need to bring all of those headaches into this project. Stuart summed it up pretty well, my add is "higher level programming" isn't always a good thing. The scanner has hardware that accurately and efficiently scans. My instructions on use - Point the scanner, pull the trigger, hear a beep ? move on : pull trigger again. Battery life is a concern as well. My proto scanners keep a charge for about a week with a fair amount of use, and can be recharged quickly. Lastly, they survive a drop. Sure you can't play solitaire, or set up an ad-hoc network, but I don't need it too. There was a great article on HAD not long ago about keeping the goals of your project in mind. Final build cost is about $50, every time I build it. Thanks for the heads up though, I'm sure others will have projects where that approach would be of great value.