In an attempt to generate interest and buzz, I’ve now been spammed twice by the company Atiz. Spam isn’t unusual, but this spam is actually targeted and slightly customized. Atiz is a company selling an automated book digitizer. I presume they searched blogs mentioning competitors or book digitization, and sent emails to those individuals pushing their product.
And while I would rather not even mention their name due to their unsolicited email, the “BookDrive” does look pretty interesting. Instead of using a digital camera to photograph a book page, they basically are using a scanner head which automatically moves over the page, even adjusting for the curve.
Page turning is handled by an arm which has a sticky roller (I think) which they claim leaves no residue.
The oversized breadbox contraption connects to a Windows PC. There is a video of it in action available here. (warning fairly big MPEG video). The most glaring problem with the product is that it costs somewhere between 35,000 and 50,000 dollars.
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50 grand?? It looks like a prop from an Ed Wood Sci-Fi flick. Anyway, I don’t think I’d like Atiz’s “sticky rollers” to handle the brittle pages of my old book collection.
The book scanner probably would be useful for a college student to make some extra $$$ by illegally scanning copyrighted textbooks…
Comment by Sonny Boy 04.08.06 @ 7:13 pm