[sane-devel] `Scanning' with a Digital Camera

[Daniel Reetz]

On Sat, Dec 12, 2009 at 5:44 AM, Herbert Carl Meyer <hcmeyer at gmail.com> wrote:
> Brian:
>
> >From an item on boingboing, an instructable on building a book scanner.
> Unbelievably, they wrote a windows app to convert the images to .pdf's.
> I do not think the app does ocr.
>
> http://www.instructables.com/id/SGP6LHRFTM72YMN/

I'm the author of the Instructable and a sort of lurker on this list.
Just writing to say that we have a lot better software going now. For
more, head over to DIYBookscanner.org and check out the progress. We
now use Scan Tailor, by Joseph Artsimovich, which does a bang-up job
with the scans. Runs on Mac, Linux, and Windows.

The old PageBuilder app does not do OCR, that's right. We're not quite
to that stage, yet.

Wired did an article on it recently.
http://www.wired.com/gadgetlab/2009/12/diy-book-scanner/

Cheers,
Daniel Reeetz

> Carl
>
> On Tue, 2009-12-01 at 22:38 -0600, brian at amason.net wrote:
>> Actually there are dedicated devices to do this type of thing. Goggle
>> would be nuts to build one. You have to be careful with those old books.
>> Goggle is probably using a set up similar to what the Mormons do for
>> filming the old Church Books.
>>
>> Brian
>>
>> On Tue, December 1, 2009 5:09 pm, Herbert Carl Meyer wrote:
>> > I think this is the approach google is using for google books. I read
>> > something a few months ago about a patent application involving a bit of
>> > trig to correct for tilted pages. Google it ?
>> >
>> > Carl
>> >
>> > On Tue, 2009-12-01 at 14:21 -0600, brian at amason.net wrote:
>> >> I don't see why you couldn't import the pictures into your scanning
>> >> application and manipulate them that way. The previous suggestion to use
>> >> Gimp to clean them up first is an excellent idea. Also, if you are
>> >> planning on making this a long term solution, you might want to make a
>> >> frame to hold your item to be scanned and a mount for the camera, along
>> >> with a good white light source to completely illuminate the subject
>> >> matter.
>> >>
>> >> Something that could be done for a few bucks, pick up a big cheap framed
>> >> picture from a swap meet or thrift store, get an old piece of plywood
>> >> (or
>> >> a new one, a pair of hinges, a pair of sticks screwed together at 90
>> >> degrees, a pair of brackets, and some velcro straps for the camera.
>> >> Voila,
>> >> improv scanner stand!
>> >>
>> >>        ___=======
>> >>       [___]    []
>> >>                []
>> >>      /         []
>> >>     /          []
>> >>    /           []
>> >>   /            []
>> >>  .             []
>> >> ===================
>> >>
>> >>
>> >> Definitely has a bit of a maker type of thing, and it'd be cheaper to
>> >> just
>> >> buy a cheap linux friendly scanner than make the above. Of course the
>> >> above design could be easily improved upon with the addition of a pair
>> >> of
>> >> worm screws and motors, and a control circuit. You could easily build
>> >> yourself an awesome plotter sized "scanner". hmmm...
>>
>>
>
>
>
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