Smart, Intelligent, Flatbed-like Scanners?

MessageDrivenBean asks: "In a Windows-based terminal client environment, I'm looking for a smart flatbed-like scanner. It is okay to connect a scanner to a local USB-port and tunnel that scanner to the remote application on the terminal server. But actually scanning a page produces a lot of data and with a small bandwidth connection it takes like 10 minutes to get all the data in the application. Besides, I only need 2 specific small parts of the page in 300dpi, and JPEG is just fine, no need the get raw data. Does Slashdot know of an intelligent scanner that exposes some sort of API to be efficient in a low-bandwidth terminal client environment?"

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[bscott]

Hey Slashdot, I need a Bluetooth-equipped eggbeater which can distinguish barcodes from Mandarin Chinese, in the dark, but it should run a Posix-compliant OS and not cost more than $74.92 (Australian) - and here's the hard part: because I'm using it in a preschool, it has to be phlegm-proof. Is anything like this shipping now, or soon? (compliance with the 1713 Treaty of Utrecht is optional but would be nice)