The DIY Book Scanner

azoblue writes "Daniel Reetz did not want to lug around heavy textbooks, so he built a book scanner to create digital copies. '... over three days, and for about $300, he lashed together two lights, two Canon Powershot A590 cameras, a few pieces of acrylic and some chunks of wood to create a book scanner that's fast enough to scan a 400-page book in about 20 minutes (PDF). To use it, he simply loads in a book and presses a button, then turns the page and presses the button again. Each press of the button captures two pages, and when he's done, software on Reetz's computer converts the book into a PDF file. The Reetz DIY book scanner isn't automated — you still need to stand by it to turn the pages. But it's fast and inexpensive.'"

Comments

Re:He's just pretending

[fwarren]

He may be scanning books to pirate them. However, I am a college student as well but trying to save money by pirating the books is not my objective.

I am in my 40's and my eyesight is not what it used to be. Here is why I would buy the books and scan them.

1. To be legal and comply with the law. I may very well by the books used, to get them as cheaply as possible. But I will buy them.
2. It is much lighter for me to carry one laptop around on campus, perhaps with copies of all the books I have used for all terms up to the current term.
3. I can zoom the pages to a comfortable size to read the text.
4. I now have the ability to search through the text.
5. I can use a text-to-speech reader to listen to the book, I can even make an mp3 of the book if I so desired.

To me it sounds like a bargain

Re:I wonder if anyone in my area has such a rig?

[Thing 1]

I wonder how long the copyright will last on this book?

Based on the last 40 years of Disney legislation?

For-fucking-ever.