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Portable Scanner Solutions for Research?
Fished asks: "Lately, I'm finding that I need to do a lot of research in Libraries -- remember those? I'm tired of feeding dimes to the copiers, and would like to buy some kind of portable scanner to go with my Powerbook. Unfortunately, I can't seem to find one that will work. Back in the eighties, this were as common as dirt: they were small, four inch wide scanners that you could run over the page. Also, while I've found three portable scanners for PC's (from Antec and Pentax) even if I could somehow get them to work with Mac OS X, they are sheet-fed, which is useless for scanning pages out of books. Does anyone still make the old-fashioned Hand Scanners, and do they make them for Macs?"
That'll do it, yes sir.
Several years ago, HP ha a product called CapShare. A really cool handheld scanner that has an on-device LCD screen that you can perform simple functions like editing, rotating, etc. with. You can then transfer via infrared to your laptop or, better, to a printer! Unfortunately, this product has now been discontinued. I used it for a while, and it was great, except for one thing -- most of the pages that I need to scan from the library are bound -- and the words near the spine tend to become unreadable...
I have seen several versions of small flatbed scanners; not much bigger than my notebook. Although not designed for portability, they are light and compact. As long as you can find a place to plug thenm in, I think this would be a perfect solution. Plus, they can be had for under $70 retail.
Pricewatch.com has a whole section for Mac compatible scanners but I didn't see any that were hand-held..
It's a scanner, translator, etc all in one, even has memory upgrades!!! http://www.quick-pen.com/
Canon make USB powered scanners. They are slim and would easily fit in a briefcase. There are OS X drivers available. I've got at a CanoScan N670U on my iMac and it works fine. There is X OCR software available but I don't have any.
aedan
I've used (and use) the HP Capshare but I find it too badly designed, ergonomically and electronically (almost a study in bad design), to make for pleasant scanning. Nowadays, I generally use a Sony Vaio notebook and a USB scanner, a CanoScan 670U. The Canon scanner is powered via the USB 1.1 port so I needn't bring a brick to the library, and I can choose exactly the type of scan necessary for the material I'm using (everything from B&W text through 600dpi full color). I don't think the scanner weighs two pounds, it's only about an inch thick, and the scan area is 8.5"X11". And it cost under a $100 at CompUSA.
Here's a couple of things to think about with this setup:
1: dont use the flash (that's why you use a tripod)
2: set the book up at perpendicular as possible to the camera (to get a nice, flat picture)
3: be quiet (turn the sound off of your camera)
4: Dont get caught
Ed Wedig
Graphic design services
docbrown.net
Fuji S602Z in Macro mode and Textbridge 8.0. Take it as a 6MP tiff file (19MB) at 6in. to 12in. from the page (distance didn't seem to matter) and I got it all. Worked on my copy of Unfinished Tales printed in 1966.
Fascism should more properly be called corporatism, since it is the merger of state and corporate power.
You are right about that. It is harder than you think to move at a perfectly constant speed so the image scans in without stretch or distortion. Not to mention, scanning to 4" wide swaths and stitching them together (even with good software) takes time. I had two of these scanners, and while they were neat I certainly hope I never have to use one again. If there was any demand for them, they would be plentiful. Fortunately, good ol' supply and demand took care of them and they are now happily scanning our landfills.
If you had nuts on your chin, would they be chin nuts?
Don't you hate it when everybody else uses Windows and you chose a Mac just to be 'Different'. Now you can't find the hardware you want, the software you want, and the performance sucks compared to Windows.
Well, at least you're 'cool'!
Take a look at this. http://www.pc-cameras.philips.com/manuals/english/ win/pcvc690k/index.html
That is a webcam which is also designed to be used as a scanner, it even comes with OCR software.
"It's fun to violate the D-M-C-A" - Village People Redux
Everyone and their mothers are saying to use a digital camera. One of these would make it easier. Copy stands are basically like tripods for shooting straight down. I once saw a foldable one on ebay for $10. It was just a board with a hole in it and four legs. You fastened the legs onto the board, put your camera's lens through the hole, focused, and took the picture. Lights would help a little, but with still media (like books), you can do long exposures without risk of motion blur. --Dan
Canon also offers a color scanner cartridge which is compatible with their two portable bubble jet printers. Not an ideal solution, perhaps, but very portable and apparently Mac-compatible up to OS 9 (which might include Classic under OS X).
Otherwise, according to Apple's own site, Canon's LiDE 30 is the most portable flatbed scanner I can think of with OS X support. Now, a flatbed isn't good for travel, because it's easy to bump around the components and damage it internally. The printer cartridge might be your best bet.
It'll let you scan entire pages of text manually as well as "feed" scanning small documents (things like business cards and receipts). That's the only scanner of that type that I know of. ER .
I understand and appreciate your problem. I have tried many solutions, and I believe the c-pen 800c is the best solution I've tried for my research needs. There is another pen based solution, WizCom QuickLink SuperPen which I've also tried. I did not like the wizcom because it was not as comfortable to use or as accurate. It also actually had a moving part. :) Both have SDKs to write your own software, however, the only one I could get access to was the c-pen, which made it even more of a favorite of mine. The cpen can also act as a mouse and can do some gestures in addition to being able to input text through "writing" (in big letters) on the page. Both companies are barely alive it seems, but it's a niche market, and I hope they survive. They both have some fantastic functionality, such as translation and barcodes. Of course c|net did the normal bribed review, but I guess the cpen wasn't out at the time. Both are upgradeable and can load extra programs or dictionaries and such. I wouldn't want to go back to college with out one.
Hey, if this has at all been useful, please feel free to buy me one! I miss having it around.
Democrats and Republicans only disagree about how to enslave you
I must admit that there doesn't seem to be much around, but then again this simply from searching Google. And for those of you content with scanning bar code from books, then there are fancy iMac coloured bar-code scanners.
Jumpstart the tartan drive.
I've successfully done this, bring a camera to library/archives and taking pics.
Some suggestions:
- Get a camera that has a B&W (really greyscale) mode. Some do, some don't. It matters because it makes the files much smaller and you can fit a lot more pages onto the memory card.
- Don't use the USB or even firewire connection to transfer pictures. It's infinitely easier and battery-saving as well to get an adapter (if you have a laptop, a PCMCIA one) that can read the memory card directly; the OS will just treat it like a disk.
- If you can, put a sheet of non-reflecting glass over the page you're photographing. This is what they do when they make microfilm form books. But if you are going to carry around a sheet of glass, you might as well lug a scanner.
.sig withheld by request
Wrong.
h tm
http://www.snopes.com/business/genius/spacepen.
I saw this product at the Mac Business Expo here in Seattle last week. It looked pretty slick. It scans the page, runs it through OCR, and inserts the text right into whatever app you have open. It will do one line at a time or multiple lines. It obviously does not do images, but if you want text, I recommend it. I would have bought it, but I'm in school instead of working these days. Check out: www.irisusa.com I saw the demonstration (manual and interactive, not scripted) running under OSX.
#-#
Ad Astra Per Aspera
A rough road leads to the stars
look up C-Pen
the original ones were independant which you download, but the latest one is a USB hand scanner.
I am doing a PhD and it is excellent - I just go to the library with my toshiba and hoover up stuff directly into reference manager. very quick, very accurate
Great Urban Legend.
m
A) NASA didn't invent the pen, Fischer did, and sold it to Nasa, and it didn't cost Billions.
B) Pencils are terrible in space, all the little graphite dust gets into the electronics, causing shorts. Not a good idea on a space craft.
NASA never asked Paul C. Fisher to produce a pen. When the astronauts began to fly, like the Russians, they used pencils, but the leads sometimes broke and became a hazard by floating in the [capsule's] atmosphere where there was no gravity. They could float into an eye or nose or cause a short in an electrical device. In addition, both the lead and the wood of the pencil could burn rapidly in the pure oxygen atmosphere. Paul Fisher realized the astronauts needed a safer and more dependable writing instrument, so in July 1965 he developed the pressurized ball pen, with its ink enclosed in a sealed, pressurized ink cartridge. Fisher sent the first samples to Dr. Robert Gilruth, Director of the Houston Space Center. The pens were all metal except for the ink, which had a flash point above 200C. The sample Space Pens were thoroughly tested by NASA. They passed all the tests and have been used ever since on all manned space flights, American and Russian. All research and developement costs were paid by Paul Fisher. No development costs have ever been charged to the government.
Because of the fire in Apollo 1, in which three Astronauts died, NASA required a writing instrument that would not burn in a 100% oxygen atmosphere. It also had to work in the extreme conditions of outer space:
1. In a vacuum. 2. With no gravity. 3. In hot temperatures of +150C in sunlight and also in the cold shadows of space where the temperatures drop to -120C
(NASA tested the pressurized Space Pens at -50C, but because of the residential [sic] heat in the pen it also writes for many minutes in the cold shadows.)
Fisher spent over one million dollars in trying to perfect the ball point pen before he made his first successful pressurized pens in 1965. Samples were immediately sent to Dr. Robert Gilruth, Manager of the Houston Space Center, where they were thoroughly tested and approved for use in Space in September 1965. In December 1967 he sold 400 Fisher Space Pens to NASA for $2.95 each.
Lead pencils were used on all Mercury and Gemini space flights and all Russian space flights prior to 1968. Fisher Space Pens are more dependable than lead pencils and cannot create the hazard of a broken piece of lead floating through the gravity-less atmosphere. http://www.snopes.com/business/genius/spacepen.ht
I use the same scanner, although they call it the CanoScan LiDE 20 now. It works with OS X, so my Powerbook G4 is happy. It scans well, it's portable, and it works with Macs, and it's about the same size as the Powerbook, so you could throw it in your carrying case most likely.
Spend a billion to develop a pen that will write in space, and the Russians use a pencil.
I hate to be an OT stick-in-the-mud, but I've seen this jab quite a bit and I have to respond. Simply put, it's BS. Read about it here.
Evil is the money of root.
At least, in Pennsylvania.
Recently my wife did some geneaology research in Pennsylvania for my mother-in-law. She intended to use her digital camera instead of feeding the copy machines, but all of the libraries, record archives, and courthouses she visited refused to allow her to do so, and even required she sign an agreement stating she was familiar with the rules of the place, all of wihch were about how she could not use scanners, cameras, or other copying mechanisms other than the copy machine provided by the library.
Property law should use #'EQ, not #'EQUAL.
First off, I -highly- advise that you post this question over at the MacNN.com forums. There are lots good Mac geeks there, and you'll probably get better responses.
But now my 2 about this scanner issue. First off, portable scanners are hard to come by. I noticed that both epson and canon do not make such devices.
OS X 10.2 supposedly has TWAIN support built into it. From what I hear you can now scan in Preview.app, which is cool. If you can acquire a portable USB scanner that supports TWAIN I would imagine that it would just "work" in Preview.app.
OS X 10.2 has fantastic device support. Typically, OS X supports just about whatever perhiperal I toss at it, regardless of whether the device ships with a "Mac OS" logo on the box.
If you can find a portable TWAIN USB scanner, I'd just purchase it. Don't worry if the device comes with Mac drivers or not. If it doesn't work, return it (so make sure you purchase something from a large computer store). However I'm betting it will work.
"Things are more moderner than before- bigger, and yet smaller- it's computers-- San Dimas High School football RULES!"
The heir to the hand scanner you mention is the CPen Pen Scanner. It seems like this is exactly what you're looking for.
"
Google Search: http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q="pen+scanner
If you just want to scan some short segments, you might wamt to try a Pen scanner. There is one called IrisPen II specifically for the Mac from http://www.irislink.com/, that I saw at a local trade show. It's OS X compatible, but it required a reboot before they could demonstrate its use. Also, it is pretty bulky and works only while plugged into the computer. There are other stand-alone versions of the same idea, but I'm not sure if they're Mac compatible. Google it!
Otherwise a digital camera works pretty well.
I have one which I'll gladly sell to you. :-)
That having been said, get a Logitech QuickCam 2000 (or QuickCam Pro). It's USB, it's small, it's a good resolution, it comes with a small desktop tripod. The advantage is that in addition to using it to take pictures of printed matter, you can use it to take pictures of the microfilm reader displays. You can't do that with a scanner. It paid for itself twice-over when I did a research project two years ago. On the downside, however, it doesn't work with Linux (AFAICT) or MacOS.
There is no sig, there is only Zuul.
http://maccentral.macworld.com/news/9911/10.scanne r.shtml
This looks like a good solution.