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Japanese Researchers Develop World's Fastest Book Scanner

An anonymous reader writes "IEEE Spectrum reports that Tokyo University researchers have developed a superfast book scanner that uses lasers and a high-speed camera to achieve a capture rate of 200 pages per minute. You just quickly flip the book pages in front of the system and it digitizes the pages, building a 3D model of each and reconstructing it as a normal flat page. The prototype is large and bulky, but if this thing could be made smaller, one day we could scan a book or magazine in seconds using a smartphone." The article mentions Google's similar dewarping system; the difference here is speed.

16 of 138 comments (clear)

  1. Did someone say lasers? by davidwr · · Score: 3, Funny

    Does it come with a shark-mount?

    --
    Knowledge is how to play a game, intelligence is how to win, wisdom is knowing what game to play.
    1. Re:Did someone say lasers? by Pojut · · Score: 3, Funny

      That's an add-on, Sir. But if you act today and bump up to the "Premium" model, it comes WITH the shark-mount. Buy our "Ultimate" model, and it even comes with the frikkin' sharks!

    2. Re:Did someone say lasers? by kandela · · Score: 4, Funny

      Forget the shark-mount. I have to turn my own pages!?

      Oh well, I guess I'll just stick to buying books that are advertised as page turners.

      --
      Conservation of angular momentum makes the world go round.
    3. Re:Did someone say lasers? by TubeSteak · · Score: 3, Funny

      Does it come with a shark-mount?

      Warning: Do not look at shark with remaining eye.

      --
      [Fuck Beta]
      o0t!
  2. Prior Art. by 0100010001010011 · · Score: 5, Funny

    Johnny 5: Alive!

    1. Re:Prior Art. by necro81 · · Score: 2, Funny

      Damn! I had mod points this morning.

    2. Re:Prior Art. by Hurricane78 · · Score: 2, Funny

      Need input! Input, input, input!

      --
      Any sufficiently advanced intelligence is indistinguishable from stupidity.
  3. Here we go... by trurl7 · · Score: 4, Funny

    1) Yes, but does it run Linux....
    2) Imagine a beowulf cluster of these...
    3) I can't understand 200 pages/minute, what's that in LOC/furlough?
    4) I can't read you insensitive clod.
    5) In Soviet Russia, the book scans the book scanner...wait that's not quite right...ah, got it, ... the book scans you!
    6.1) Scan books real fast
    6.2) Tie into massive database that indexes every perceivable medium on the planet
    6.3) Get sued by publishers.
    6.4) ....
    6.5) Profit!!
    7) How fast can it build a 3d model of Natalie Portman with hot gritz?
    8) The CIA will use this to scan every page of the manuscripts you've stored in your apartment and will come for your tin foil.
    9) Netcraft confirms: reading is dying...
    10) A book scanner is like a car that drives really fast over a highway full of book pages...

    Someone needs to fix the above list for me.

  4. Re:Copyright by bb5ch39t · · Score: 4, Funny

    You're absolutely correct! The researchers need to immediately be jailed for contributing to copyright violations. Scientists! They never think about how their inventions will impact our Corporate Overlords.

  5. Re:Faster method by necro81 · · Score: 3, Funny

    Cutting the spine off a book you already own may or may not be sacrilege. But doing that to your friend's book might strain your relationship.

    The employees at Borders were not amused when I wheeled my band saw in. They demanded that I pay for the book I'd just sawed up and scanned. I told them "I'm certainly not paying money for that book now, look how ruined it is! Besides, I already have a copy," as I waved my thumb drive in their face.

  6. Re:Copyright by Darkness404 · · Score: 4, Funny

    I know! Can you believe that even now you can go into Borders or Barnes and Nobel and -read- an entire book! And guess what? The employees there think its perfectly natural! There was a man there who said he had spent -3- hours just reading a book and drinking coffee! Talk about outrageous!

    --
    Taxation is legalized theft, no more, no less.
  7. Re:Faster method by vlm · · Score: 2, Funny

    The employees at Borders were not amused when I wheeled my band saw in. They demanded that I pay for the book I'd just sawed up and scanned. I told them "I'm certainly not paying money for that book now, look how ruined it is! Besides, I already have a copy," as I waved my thumb drive in their face.

    Someone with real balls would have asked for a cash refund. "Clearly my copy of the book is faulty, can I get cash refund, or just instore credit?"

    (just kidding)

    --
    "Science flies us to the moon. Religion flies us into buildings." - Victor Stenger
  8. Re:This is Masatoshi Ishikawa by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

    High-speed robot hand... from Japan.

    No comment.

  9. I'm not impressed by Locke2005 · · Score: 2, Funny

    Sure, it can scan 200 pages per minute... but I could swear I saw it's lips moving as it was reading!

    --
    I've abandoned my search for truth; now I'm just looking for some useful delusions.
  10. Re:Faster method by Mista2 · · Score: 3, Funny

    I just place my kindle on my scanner, hit scan, then next page. Rinse and repeat. 10 minutes later I have the book ripped. Then a little OCR work converts to text. this still takes a little time though as I'd have to proof read afterwards as well. Once I've done a few, I'll look at finding out how to re encode as a .mobi file.