You can use Workflow to OCR  (through DCC or SDK Script Activity), but since the OCR process is resource intensive, it is not recommended to have the OCR process performed on your main production Workflow server.  If you use DCC, you can set up DCC clients external to the Workflow server.  If you use a SDK Script Activity, you can set up a secondary Workflow server that runs the OCR workflow.

Barcode processing is not part of any current Workflow activity, and if you want to script it, then you will have to have a DLL (that can process barcodes) that is referenced by a SDK Script Activity.  Depending on the barcode format, you may find a free Barcode DLL that will work, or you may have to spend some money to get a DLL that can process the format you are using.  I have done both (a free DLL for Code 3 of 9 and a purchased DLL for Code 128) in the past, but I never had as good a result as what I got from Quick Fields, so I stopped trying.