A scanner that is a V shaped device on the desk that you can put a book on that will scan 2 pages at once. Be able to not crush the book onto a flat plate scanner. This would assist in that a lot of times I scan a book 2 pages at once I will get a big black area in the gutter where the spine is because I didnt mash it down hard enough. This makes OCR not work. Many books I scan are 100-150 years old, and damaging them just to scan a page in is not an option. There are scanners that take a picture looking down into the book, and then have to extrapolate the curve of the page. A "V" scanner would even alleviate this.-- rmtmaine, Sep 25 2002 Robot Book Scanner http://sfgate.com/c...3/05/19/BU52555.DTLWell baked now! [PiledHigherandDeeper, Oct 04 2004] Another approach http://www.nytimes....ircuits/08howw.htmlA handheld scanner: hold it at right angles to the text, and it can follow the curve of the page. [DrCurry, Oct 04 2004] (?) Atiz BookDrive http://www.atiz.com/BookDrive.phpFully automated book scanner. Bring money. [bristolz, Feb 23 2006] Google did it! https://code.google...inear-book-scanner/V-shape: [rmtmaine]; 2 scanner heads: [half]; weight retainers (me); vacuum page turner (Google) [lurch, Nov 16 2012] A camera-based V-shaped book scanner built from garbage https://www.instruc...-Trash-and-Cheap-C/Instructables no longer tells you when an instructable was posted (boo) but this was posted in or before 2011 [notexactly, Dec 03 2018] Hm, yes. Somewhat recondite, if you ask me. Also, the wrinkle that it's going to be difficult to scan close to the apex will be an expensive one. Which will make this an expensive item which only you and a few copyright libraries -- and maybe not even then -- would want. Still, because this is an original idea, I give it a technical [+].-- General Washington, Sep 25 2002 I don't see this being terribly expensive. An ordinary scanner is not very expensive. I'm visualizing a glass or plastic inverted "V" made with relatively thin material and a good thin point on the V. The book is then placed face down with a page on each face of the V. It seems that dual conventional scanning mechanisms would easily be able to scan the 2 pages at once.
Someone possessing more knowledge about the particulars of antique book bindings and scanner mechanisms will need to work out the angle of the "V" and the design of the scanning mechanisms.-- half, Sep 25 2002 In software, it's a dual scanner; but in hardware, it's just a single with a fold in the middle of the plate and sensor bar. Probably LED scan lighting; replaceable or adjustable spectrum for various old inks. Be sure to put some spring-loaded retainers on each side to carry the weight of the book - you most likely don't want the point to split the binding.
Most of your books should be openable to 90 degrees, I would think?-- lurch, Sep 25 2002 Good idea, austere. But the perceived depth would be too great for the illumination-reflection effect of scanners, wouldn't it? And besides, if you're doing that you might as well use a camera?-- General Washington, Sep 26 2002 This is definitely Baked, in the form of both photocopiers and scanners. I'm sure I saw it at a trade show sometime. I'll try to track it down and post a link.-- 8th of 7, Sep 26 2002 Don't believe that even in software it needs to be a dual scanner if its just a v shaped sensor bar.-- rmtmaine, Sep 26 2002 You're right, it wouldn't be a requirement, but I thought it would be nice to get separate images for the two pages when you wanted them. The other options are single scan, split the image; or scan two passes, once for each side. (The cheap version would use a regular bar tilted up, so you turn the book around for each page...)-- lurch, Sep 26 2002 Great idea. I listen to books on my 90 minute daily commute. My computer generates the reading voice from text files. Every other weekend, I spend 4 to 6 hours scanning books for the next week's commute.
I've gone through the books you can get through the audio clubs. I've gone through the books-on-tape at the library. I don't like banal books, so very little of what I want is available, particularly technical material for work.
Unless you are scanning books at this pace, I doubt you can understand wonderful this sort of device would be.-- Cowbell, Dec 20 2002 Hi; Joined just to vote and reply to your idea.
I have often wished for something like this to exist. Bake it and I'll buy it. But only as an addon to my existing scanner. I only scan the occasional book.
Genn-- gemm, May 21 2003 F*ck me, that's clever.
I don't agree with [froggie]'s curved track, though; it's technically challenging and would stop the scanner being used for flat scanning.
What you need is a clear V-shaped adaptor for a conventional A4 scanner and morphing software to correct for the perspective.
This aftermarket product would be easy to design and prototype, cheap to produce and could retrofit all existing A4 scanners, without being a permenant conversion.
Please mail my 1%-gross royalties to the email address on my HB profile page. :-)-- FloridaManatee, May 22 2003 You're missing an obvious solution. Just design a scanner that is extremely thin. You could nearly close the book on it then scan. The scanning head could be 'double sided' so it scans both pages at once. Basically it's 2 sheets of glass with a scan head between. http://members.rogers.com/seyeklopz/2sidebookscan.gif-- Seyeklopz, May 30 2003 Book scanners already exist. Look at Minolta PS 7000, BookEye and Zeutchel. The Minolta uses a dynamic focal plane and compensates for curvature via an algarithym while the others use a large depth of field.-- dtbro, Jun 17 2003 Actually, there is now an automatic book scanner that turns pages and scans them at 1200 pages per hour. It's a young company in the Rochester area, NY. Check out their website at www.kirtas-tech.com. They even have a cool demo on their site. It looks like it's gentle enough for rare books. The Only caveat: it's a very pricey toy ($150K).-- deepersight, Aug 23 2003 //Marked For Deletion\\: This item is illegal.
My God man, don't you realize that this is a Circumvention Device?! I'll have the RIAA on you I will!
(I'm joking of course.)-- Madcat, Aug 24 2003 even nearly 2 years later I have yet to see a device that is cheap enough <$1000 and non-complicated enough to do this job. I even at one point purchased 2 Umax 300 scanners and took them apart to start building the scanner, but I am afraid i am just not adept enough.
Anyone want to build this?-- rmtmaine, Jun 10 2004 The tight tolerances required to build this properly likely will elude most hobbyists unless they can use a scavenged scanning mechanism intact.-- bristolz, Jun 10 2004 If you found a standard scanner with the edge of the scanning area close to the physical edge of the scanner, then you might be able to hang the book over this area and scan one page at a time.-- Ling, Jun 10 2004 Hah! That's nearly exactly what I had first tried to write, [Ling]. I was trying to say that if the active scanning area was close enough to the case edge then you could be assured that the scan would capture into the gutter area of the book. But my words were clumsy and so I gave up.
I think the newer, and thin, Canonscan LiDE scanners might work but most scanners have a fairly large case boundary around the glass plate.-- bristolz, Jun 10 2004 [bristolz], yeah, I had three goes as well!-- Ling, Jun 10 2004 Off topic for a moment: Can anyone here tell me what the name is for that characteristic of rubber, and rubber-like materials, where the surface is so pliable that it is almost sticky? Think about those little sticky hand toys that kids throw on walls (and ruin paint).
Is it hysterisis?-- bristolz, Jun 10 2004 Tack or tackiness? They used the term "tackiness" on a web page I found describing microstructures of very sticky rubber. May or may not be what you're looking for.-- Worldgineer, Jun 10 2004 I've actually been asking around at libraries, trying to find one of these. I think you'd need a triangular prism with the same refractive index as glass (or air), though with a gradient from the thin to the thick edges to compensate for the longer light path to the scanner head.-- Elmer Phd, Jun 15 2004 maybe you can try a not-so-expensive book scanner www.plustek.com-- william520, Jul 29 2004 thixotropic ?-- csea, Jul 30 2004 This device should or might instead be just a photocopier or an add on for a photocopier. Then you could make copies without that horrid black gutter in the middle of every copy made. These could then be scanned easily. I am currently working in a copy shop where course packs for University are made, and 9 of every ten pages in course packs have places that are basically unreadable because it is not always possible to mash the spine of a book or periodical down hard enough on a copier to get rid of the black gutter.-- rmtmaine, Jan 07 2005 No, not thixotropic, but thank you for the suggestion.-- bristolz, Jan 07 2005 cohesion? adhesion? ...-ivity?
I thought there'd be a better scientific name for "stickiness" but couldn't find one.
The kid's toy is called the "Wacky WallWalker." Had a good deal of family fun in a cabin in Colorado some years ago with a couple of these!-- csea, Jan 07 2005 The Atiz BookDrive DIY is exactly just that. It cradles the book on the V-shaped plane and two overhead digital cameras will shoot the images of the book. www.atiz.com-- neoportal, Aug 26 2006 Back when I was in college I always thought the libraries should get a copier company to create a V-shaped copier for them. I actually sent a letter to Xerox about making one. I think school libraries would eat that up. Students just DESTROY books smashing them down on the copiers. And now that I'm in school again I want a scanner that's made to allow you to open the book at a 90 degree angle.
Turns out there ARE two fairly low cost options for scanning books. A company named Plustek (www.plustek.com) makes a scanner called the OptiBook specifically for this purpose. Rather than a V-shape (which would be fairly difficult to engineer, and thus costly) they simply have the scanner glass come right up to the edge of the chassis. That way you can open the book 90 degrees and scan one page. After you scan all the pages it will put them all in a PDF for you. Brilliant.
A second option is a truly amazing handheld scanner called the DocuPen (www.docupen.com). It's not really a pen scanner, but it is shaped like a long pen. It uses a lithium-ion battery, fits easily into a backpack or briefcase and can scan in full color, 400 dpi. You just put it at the top of the page and sweep it down the page.
So both these options allow you to scan a book with it only open 90 degrees.-- danfluidmind, Apr 18 2008 Check out the uber-cool *open-access* Google book scanner. Either they were reading this idea, or they've got people who think a lot like us.-- lurch, Nov 16 2012 // they've got people who think a lot like us //
That's possibly the most terrifying statement of the millennium ...-- 8th of 7, Dec 03 2018 random, halfbakery