We (Kurzweil Educational Systems) have just ordered one, and expect to be
able to test it within the next couple of weeks. I'll send a report to this
list, as it should be of interest.
Stephen
Thank you for forwarding this. It sounds interesting. I am just wondering what the size of the scanner is, and why this company decided that book scanning was popular enough to make a scanner especially for the purpose. I went to the address provided, and although I will look some more, I am totally unimpressed by their initial webpage. It is a mass of poorly labeled images. I haven't yet spent the time to determine whether it is navicable or not. I don't suppose someone else knows about this scanner and could tell me the size of it's scanning surface and save me the trouble? :-)
Sarah Van Oosterwijck http://home.earthlink.net/~netentity
----- Original Message ----- From: "Louise" <lougou@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx> To: "Bookshare Discuss" <bookshare-discuss@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>; "Bookshare Volunteers" <bksvol-discuss@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> Sent: Tuesday, August 31, 2004 12:39 PM Subject: [bksvol-discuss] Fw: new scanner and OCR alert
> > > New Scanner Eliminates Spine Shadow > > > > By Mike Berman > > > > Frustration is trying to scan pages from a book on a flatbed scanner. > > The solution: the new OpticBook 3600 ($249) from Plustek. > > > > It's happened to all of us _- we try to scan or copy pages from a book > > or other publication only to discover that some of the type is distorted > > or the type > > near the spine is lost in what has become known as "spine shadow." > > > > So, we end up either breaking the spine of the book to get it to lie > > flat or cut the pages out of the book, neither of which is a desirable > > solution. > > > > Enter, stage left, the OpticBook 3600. > > > > Plustek has developed what they call SEE (Shadow Elimination Element) > > Technology, which allows book pages to lie flat on the bed of the > > scanner and uses > > a lamp with curved ends to scan type close to the book's spine. The > > result is a readable, undistorted copy in eight-to-10 seconds. > > > > Of course the scanner has all of the features we've come to expect from > > a flatbed including the ability to email, copy, and scan images at the > > touch of > > a button. But the additional "book action buttons" allow us to preview, > > color scan, grayscale scan or text scan those pesky book pages. > > > > In addition, the scanner comes with Book Pilot software, which: > > > > _ It automatically rotates images as consecutive pages are scanned. > > > > _ It gives you an image preview in 3.5 seconds. > > > > _ It allows you to save images in JPG, BMP or PDF formats. > > > > _ You can convert images to Microsoft Word or PDF documents. > > > > _ You can adjust the scan frame size to fit the book size. > > > > _ You can save all the images of a particular job into one file. > > > > Plus you can scan to OCR, view images in "real time" to make adjustments > > in contrast, brightness and gamma, and categorize your images. > > > > The scanner comes with the standard software bundle (except for Book > > Pilot): NewSoft Presto Page Manager, ULead Photo Impact XL SE, ULead > > Photo Explorer > > SE and ABBYY FineReader 5.0 Sprint. > > > > Specs on the scanner, for those that are addicted to such things, are > > pretty much what we've come to expect from the new generation of > > flatbeds: > > > > _ A high-speed USB 2.0 interface. > > > > _ Hardware resolution of 1200 dpi with software interpolated resolution > > of 2400 dpi. > > > > _ 48-bit input and 24/48-bit output scanning mode for color, 16-bit > > input and 8/16-bit output for grayscale. > > > > _ Single-pass scanning mode. > > > > _ A cold cathode lamp. > > > > For more information, check out the company's web site at > > www.plustek.com. > > > >
