[bksvol-discuss] Re: More information on Plustek 3600 scanner
- From: "Jana Jackson" <jana@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: <bksvol-discuss@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Wed, 1 Sep 2004 10:29:32 -0500
Hi, Guido! What are the specs on the new Epson 4180? Does it rival the
1660, or have they come out with another new model that does?
Jana
----- Original Message -----
From: Guido Corona
To: bksvol-discuss@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Sent: Wednesday, September 01, 2004 9:10 AM
Subject: [bksvol-discuss] More information on Plustek 3600 scanner
I have found the following information about the new Plustek 3600 scanner
on the Plus tek site:
Plustek's patent pending SEEtm (Shadow Elimination Element) Technology
includes a specially designed edge and lamp. This technology allows for
"zero edge" scanning which means the scanning module can scan right up to
the edge of the scanner where the book spine is placed. The book can
therefore be scanned with the pages completely flat on the glass to avoid
the annoying book spine shadow and distorted lines of text which occur when
the books are scanned on a traditional flatbed scanner.
Plustek has already received a patent on its specially designed lamp with
curved ends. This lamp allows the correct amount of light for a good scanned
image at both ends of the scanning module.
Patent Pending SEEtm Technology incorporates this curved lamp with a
unique edge design.
Only 6mm from the outer edge to the start of the scan.
The information above seems to imply that this device is a two-sided
bookedge scanner, that is a scanner with both the left and the right side
of the glass platen reaching the edge of the scanner. The active scanning
surface probably reaches one quarter of an inch from the physical left and
right edges. of the Even illumination of the entire page is ensured by a
lamp which does not end at the edge of the scanner, but curves downwards
along the right and left sides of the scanner to ensure best illumination of
book spines. Optical resolution is rather underwhelming -- only 1200 DPI --
but that does not really matter as OCR engines are optimized for 300 DPI and
400 DPI operations for normal fonts. The scanner uses a CCD sensor instead
of a cheaper CIS sensor, which is good news. The scant information on the
Plustek site indicates the interface is a simple USB 2.0, rather than fast
USB or high speed USB. I am not sure if that will ensure scanning without
starts-stops at 400DPI in grayscale. Oh yes, grayscale is supported. I
did not see any indication of scanning speed.
No indication of duty-cycle either, so we do not know if this is a flimsy
device or one built for durability. Price is identical to the new EPSON
4180.
We will see what Kurzweil and hopefully FS have to say about this Plustek
scanner after actual tests on their respective products.
Guido
Guido D. Corona
IBM Accessibility Center, Austin Tx.
IBM Research,
Phone: (512) 838-9735
Email: guidoc@xxxxxxxxxxx
Visit my weekly Accessibility WebLog at:
http://www-3.ibm.com/able/weblog/corona_weblog.html
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