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The. Very. First. Link. On. Google. http://pro.atiz.com/

If you're looking for a project, what we use at my university library to scan some of the rarest and most delicate books on the planet, is definitely achievable at home. It's simply a table with interchangeable wedge shaped foam pieces, and a rack above with two cameras pointing down. Since the book is on a v cradle, the pages lay flat. You can change the angle and position of the cameras to point squarely at the pages. There's a pedal that will snap a picture with both cameras at once, so once you've got it set up, all you need to do is flip the pages and hit the pedal. You might need to readjust if the book is particularly thick, but that's all pretty intuitive once you're used to the setup.

Probably an Atiz BookDrive. Yes, it is possible to homebrew one; Instructables has directions but it's a lot of work.

The OP's best bet, really, is to Google for "non-destructive book scanning service" and find one to do it for him professionally.

Even if your numbers are right it's so much cheaper to use 2 or 4 DSLRs with kit lenses (Canon's EF-S 18-55mm 1:3.5-5.6 IS for example has practically no distortion, so no reason to spend more than $ 175 on a lense). Most projects I've seen in the last year use the 450D, which costs roughly $ 600 including the lense I mentioned above. It features 12.2 MP and IIRC its successor will feature 15 MP for the same price. Canon is very popular in that field because they are the only manufacturer offering a stable API for accessing their cameras.

You can find further information here. There is also Atiz which offers very promising sets including software. I haven't seen their products in action yet (they don't do much business in Europe) and AFAIK they only offer book scanning devices, but the software should be able to do maps as well.

Another option is to use traditional overhead scanners. They are extremely expensive but their quality is unmatched. Zeutschel and Imageware are pretty large manufacturers.

Snapter is a bit cumbersome but that's what it does.

I suggest you use the BookSnap from Atiz. It is a V-shaped book scanner. The result of the scanned images are totally different from flatbed. See the scanned sample at there website here http://booksnap.atiz.com/samples/ .

I use the base Plustek Opticbook 3600 for scanner for Distributed Proofreaders, and I've never had problems with the software. I'd recommend upgrading from the Abbyy Finereader 6 Sprint to the latest FR professional version, though.

The Opticbook costs about $250, compared to several thousand for the cheapest planetary scanner kit with software to correct curvature, and the professional versions of these scanners are in the 10's of thousands. A lot of the people at Distributed Proofreaders (who have supplied half of the texts at Project Gutenberg) either use the Opticbook or remove the spines and use scanners with automated sheet feeders.