When you want to duplicate a page, it is scanned by the machine, which then uses built in OCR (optical character recognition) software to recognise text on the page. This can be coupled with a spell check option, to minimise the risk of making 100 copies of a mistake. It would also allow for basic editing of the text (using built in fonts, or by duplicating characters found elsewhere on the page), and area deletion (for example, just copying one article from a page of a newspaper, blanking out uneeded areas. The removes the need for a seperate PC and software, and can reduce wasted copies and toner usage.
-- choaderboy, Sep 01 2004

our old Xerox used to do the OCR bit of this. Don't understand the font-replication bit of your idea (is it doing OCR or NO? ), but otherwise, I can see plenty of benefits of including a text editor in your photocopier.
-- neilp, Sep 01 2004


UnaBubba: The 7450c is just a scanner - it still needs a PC and a printer... My suggestion refers to a photocopier (Xerox machine).

Neilp: I'm thinking that if the font is not recognised, the software would allow you to construct new words and sentences by actually cutting and pasting characters from other parts of the document. To be honest, it's not a integral part of the idea. The main concept is to give you more control over your copies.
-- choaderboy, Sep 01 2004


I'm not quite getting how the text editing interface would work. No PC? No keyboard? No mouse?

Just a touch screen monitor with a stylus? A tablet PC maybe style interface? Blink once for a, twice for b...?
-- half, Sep 01 2004


The photocopier in my office has a touch-screen b&w LCD that is easily the size of a pda screen. An onscreen keyboard would suffice. Or voice recognition :D
-- choaderboy, Sep 01 2004


our Ricoh 3250 here has OCR and can scan directly to word doc as well as pdf. It is also a printer/scanner/photocopy/fax. Add the text editor and a keyboard, and you would be done.
-- reap, Sep 01 2004


All these products you mention need a PC for any editing - the idea is to take the PC out of the equation. Imagine a letter you are sending out to 100 people, and you need to change ONE small detail for a different 100 people. Rather than scanning it to PC, opening up an editor and then sending it to the printer, you could just select the text straight from the photocopier and change it in a few seconds.

One Machine instead of two.
-- choaderboy, Sep 01 2004



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