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?"

Comments

HP CapShare

[ChaoticPenguin]

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...

Logitech

[DBordello]

Logitech use to make them. I am not sure if they still do (doubt it). It was black and white and about 6in wide. I never really liked it much, the software sucked at combining multiple swipes into one fluid page. It was TWAIN compatible. If you do manage to find one, I am sure it will run on the linux distro that I know you have on your Mac :)

Re:Logitech

[jdreed1024]

These were called the "ScanMan". They came in color, B&W, and Hi-Res (600dpi!) versions. They were quite useful, for their size, but the Mac versions were often bulky, had a SCSI interface (which use that stupid HDI-30 connector on powerbooks, if you have a powerbook that had a SCSI connector), and required a separate interface box for the A/C adapter and SCSI connector.

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.

Use a digital camera.

[scott1853]

Seriously. My GF has used ours to take pictures of the monitor when 98 locked up while she was writing letters.

A 2MP should probably work just fine, and if you have a laptop with you, just upload them, erase the card and grab another x pages.

Re:Use a digital camera.

[CreepyNinja]

Damn straight, just cut out the middle-man.

It is interesting to see that scanner prices have dropped with better and better digicams going on the market. It's portable, you have less resolution lost, and it's faster thanks to firewire.

Re:Digital Camera + OCR

[kalidasa]

Ah, yes, the digital version of the Hogan's Heroes approach.

Jesus Tits

[kuroth]

Try Google

What's next? "Ask Slashdot: Getting Drops Off My Cock After Pissing"?

Re:Jesus Tits

[Psmylie]

I would recommend the Ronco (tm) Electric Penis Dryer (patent pending).

Re:Jesus Tits

[Dr Caleb]

...the Ronco (tm) Electric Penis Dryer...

Typical Americans. Spend a billion to develop a pen that will write in space, and the Russians use a pencil.

Spend Millions developing an Electric Penis Dryer(tm) when the rest of the world just uses their pant leg. When will they learn? How many children could have been fed on those development costs?

Think of the children! (not to mention the shocking results of the lab testing on that product!)

Re:Jesus Tits

[AzrealAO]

Great Urban Legend.

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.htm

Handheld scanners!?

[Anonymous Coward]

Handheld scanners were useless for scanning books. Most books are too wide for a handheld scanner and you have to stitch together your scans - a VERY awkward process. And even if you can scan the whole width of the page, the roller used to detect when the scanner was moving would go off the bottom of the page of the book before you scanned the final line of text!

In short - forget about the handheld scanner idea. They do sell line scanners that read in lines of text at a time if you just need short segments. I suppose you could even take pictures of the pages with the new high megapixel digital cameras.

Lightweight Flatbeds

[SJS]

Why not go with a lightweight flatbed scanner? It'll fit in a backback, and many of them are powered from the USB/fireware/whatever connection as well.

If you put the scanner at the edge of a table or desk, you can scan pages of books quickly and easily with less distortion than you'd get from a hand-scanner. This may help make up for the slightly less convenient form-factor.

Try the discount/clearance table at your local Office Depot / Staples / Office Supply store. I always see "clearance" scanner there.

I've not actually tried this with my TiBook, so YMMV.

CanoScan

[aedan]

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

Re:Copyright

[zamokzam]

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.

Re:Use a digital camera - i second this

[Splork]

yes, i've done this as well. 1600x1200 is way more than enough for a page of text. I haven't tried running the image through OCR software, but given that canon has twain "scanner" drivers for their cameras i'll bet it would be easy.

For glossy paper and to avoid annoying the others around you it is best to not use the flash. if you're in a low light situation, get a small tripod and a book stand.

For a very good affordable 2mp camera today i recommend the canon powershot A40; search on my simon for good prices. Any 2mp camera will probably work for your needs; but why buy a crappy one?

Wafer-Thin Flatbed Scanner

[Egotistical Rant]

Some of the thin Canon models (n656U, n1220U, LiDE 20, etc.) are overall about the same size as a PowerBook, and they draw their power from the USB port; no need for a wall wart. No OSX drivers for the earlier models though...poke around Canon's site for details on what's compatible.

Scanning is slow though...I have to agree with others suggesting just using a digital camera of sufficient resolution.

Sheet Fed Solution

[JonTurner]

"they are sheet-fed, which is useless for scanning pages out of books"
Not if you tear out the pages, first.

Re:I know 499 people have suggested this,

[dildatron]

*Ding* *Ding* *Ding* CONGRATULATIONS! You are the 500th poster to recommend the same thing! You have won a prize! What do we have for him, Johnny?

Canon printer/scanner

[mblase]

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.

Then he asked the wrong question...

[bhsx]

I think you'd do well with the answer to "Ask Slashdot: How to properly use a search engine"

I think you should try playing around with different search parameters... Try these is google:

+"handheld scanner" +apple -win32 -windows -linux

+"network scanner" +nessus +linux -ethereal -ettercap

+"linux terminal server project" +openmosix -mosix

+"need for speed" +"jenna jameson" -playstation -ps2

I think if you follow the noticeable pattern above that you will no longer have such a hard time with those nasty good for nothing search engines;)

C-Pen

[ChaosMt]

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.

Here a couple

[Midnight Thunder]

Possible solutions (may or may not be Mac compatible):

• NEC Portable scanner
• Primax Hand Held Colour Scanner

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.

Re:Here's one gripe I have about slashdot.

[Jonny Ringo]

I think your post would be a good candidate for a new type of /. submission. I think we could call it "Tell Slashdot". :-)

IRIS OCR Scanner Pen

[gryf]

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.

Re:Copyright

[Audiophyle]

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.

Basically, you're not allowed

[Wolfkin]

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.

Perhaps I might be a of some help

[Aqua OS X]

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.

Powershot A40

[rice_burners_suck]

I have to second this fine person's suggestion for a Powershot A40. My sister recently invested in one and I have personally used this camera. It is very easy to use and just about any picture you take will come out magnificently, regardless of how skilled you are in photography. For a digital camera, the pictures are of very high quality. Even my camera, which is about six times the price, won't take pictures this nice unless you really understand film types, lighting situations and exposure settings. Just my two cents on this matter.