September 9th, 2011

HP Releases A Faux 3D Scanner For The Masses

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First off, this isn’t what you’re thinking: this scanner doesn’t actually allow you to scan objects in 3D but it allows you to scan physical objects. Think of it as a larger camera. That said, the HP TopShot scanner is clearly a bold move for the beleaguered HP. The $399 MFP prints, copies, and scans and has a special arm that swings up to scan 3D objects. For example, you could place a model on… → Read More

February 24th, 2011

NEC Develops First Contactless Fingerprint-Finger Vein Combo Scanner

NEC today announced it has developed the industry’s first contact-less biometric authentication system that can read both fingerprints and finger veins. According to the company, the “HS100-10 Contactless Hybrid Finger Scanner” is extremely difficult to deceive and makes it possible to authenticate people with close to 100% accuracy. → Read More

September 17th, 2010

Robots To Flip Through And Scan 170 Page-Books in 1 Minute

Scanning or copying books will get a lot more comfortable in the future, thanks to the Ishikawa-Komuro lab at the University of Tokyo. The lab has already developed an awesome prototype of a camera that shoots “3D” pictures of pages while a human quickly flips through a book (see video below). → Read More

May 19th, 2010

Canon's imageFORMULA P-150M portably scans documents into your Mac, no lie

Does your Mac need a new scanner? (I think I’ve had the same scanner for like 10 years. The Mac driver is still for PPC processors, that’s how old it is.) I ask because I needed a fun way to segue into a brief discussion of the Canon imageFORMULA P-150M, which, as you may have surmised, is a scanner that works with your Mac. → Read More

May 19th, 2010

Evernote coming to Canon scanners

The Evernote news just doesn’t stop, does it? Hot on the heels of Evernote integration with Lexmark printers and Fujitsu scanners comes word that Evernote will be integrating with the new P-150 scanners from Canon. → Read More

May 11th, 2010

Review: Doxie document scanner

This is a great scanner for occasional scanning of single pages. It doesn’t have an auto document feeder, so you’re not going to use it for large scanning jobs. You’ll use it to scan your W-2, or old family photos, or that newspaper clipping your mom saved from when you did something famous in your home town. For $129 it provides a good deal of functionality, including the ability to send your… → Read More

May 6th, 2010

If you're going to scan, scan right with the CanoScan 9000F

Let’s be honest: scanning has become a necessary evil. But as long as you’re doing what has to be done, you may as well do it right. I got decent results scanning 35mm film with an old bargain scanner, but if you’re planning on re-printing them (or re-printing prints, or what have you), you want the highest resolution possible. The 9000F will do up your film at a massive 9600x9600DPI. Yeah, it’s… → Read More

February 10th, 2010

Fujitsu ScanSnap S1300 hits the streets: An impressively powerful portable scanner

Sure, I know what you’re thinking: scanners are a bit boring. But Fujitsu hopes to tempt you with some of its delicious ScanSnap S1300 features including direct to PDF scanning as well as scanning directly into Excel spreadsheets. That’s right: you can recreate a printed Excel sheet just by sliding it through the scanner. Cool, right?

The S1300 is a mobile scanner which means it should fit in… → Read More

January 2nd, 2010

iConvert Photo Scanner promises simple 4×6 snapshot archiving

You don’t really have to start in on your New Year’s resolutions until Monday. Friday was pretty much a gimme and now it’s the weekend, so just rest up for whatever thing you’re going to try to do for a week before quitting. If digitizing old-timey family photos is on your list, this new-ish scanner is powered via USB cable and features simple one-button operation. → Read More

October 13th, 2009

Full body scanners at airports reveal your junk

Full-body scanners are being tested in a variety of airports. I didn’t get the pleasure of using one on my recent trip to Japan, unfortunately, so I can’t provide a first-hand account of what it’s like. I suspect it’s quite unremarkable to walk through one of these. That won’t stop people from being outraged over the fact that some TSA goon sitting in a sterile room somewhere where he can’t see… → Read More

August 3rd, 2009

Did you know that your iPhone is also a document scanner?

Oh, look, a legitimately clever use of the iPhone, and one that’s not hard at all to replicate at home. Essentially, you set your iPhone on a raised surface, then you snap away using the phone’s camera. Congratulations, you’ve just created an inexpensive document scanner. → Read More

May 29th, 2009

CrunchDeals: USB photo converter for $50

If you’re thinking of scanning all your old photos using a traditional flatbed scanner, let me be the first to tell you what a royal pain in the ass it is. I’ve done it a few times in my life and I put it up near the top of the list of things I don’t want to do, right underneath “helping someone move”. → Read More

November 24th, 2008

Pandigital has itself a portable scanner, for photos!

This is a scanner produced by someone by the name of Pandigital. It’s called the PhotoLink Handheld Scanner. It’s portable! Right, so it’s a portable scanner with a max resolution of 1800×1200 at 300dpi. That’s roughly 60 percent of the resolution Getty—they’re like the Associated Press of photography—uses. You can scan photos up to 4×6-inches in… → Read More

November 13th, 2008

Handheld barcode scanner/printer combo from HP

I’m not one to get overly excited about the technology behind transportation logistics (or am I?) but this thing from HP looks pretty cool. It’s basically a handheld wireless-enabled barcode scanner that can also print quick-drying ink directly onto boxes. So if you work at, say, UPS, you scan a box coming in, that info is transmitted wirelessly to your warehouse servers, and then you print… → Read More

September 29th, 2008

Slides 2 PC, the $100 slide scanner

If you have old folks sitting quietly at home, get them this and give them something to do. Slide scanning – along with vinyl record conversion – is one of those things that our elders would love to get around to but don’t quite have the time or resources to do it correctly. This $100 Ion model, however, will let my mom and pop import those pictures they snapped at the… → Read More

September 4th, 2008

Document scanner for your iPhone (or any phone)

I hate scanners. Hate ‘em. They’re slow, noisy, and they take up too much space. Here’s a departure from the traditional scanner that aims to truly offer no-bullshit document archival. It’s simply a tower for your iPhone (could probably use any phone, though) that uses the camera to take snapshots of the documents underneath. Best of all, you’ll likely have all your important documents… → Read More

August 11th, 2008

Canon updates and upgrades CanoScan line

Canon announced today three new additions to their scanner line. The film and document scanner CanoScan 5600F and two document dedicated models, the LiDE200 and LiDE100. A few new upgrades have been added across the board. Besides powering up faster and scanning quicker, users now have the option of using the new Auto Scan Mode. A dedicated “SCAN” button is incorporated which lets the scanner… → Read More

April 22nd, 2008

Photo to digital picture converter looks pretty easy

Anybody who’s had to scan a big fat pile of old photos into their computer knows that it suh-huuucks. So along comes the ingeniously named “Photograph to Digital Picture Converter” from Hammacher Schlemmer for $150. It’s got a 5MP CMOS sensor with an 1,800 dpi resolution that basically takes a digital photo of whatever regular photo you slide down into the tray. The device… → Read More

June 25th, 2007

Epson Perfection V200 Photo Scanner: 3D Object Scannnig for $99

Stand-alone photo scanners like Epson’s just released Perfection V200 are great for folks who used film cameras during the stone age to take pictures. Whereas those of us who reached full statue during the digital camera boom have less use for them, others could do far worse than this Epson offering. Its 4800 dpi resolution should hold up just fine even when scanning images at the maximum… → Read More

October 2nd, 2006

Battle Test: DocuPen RC800

The DocuPen RC800 is a full color 24-bit scanner that looks like pen — hence the name. It is capable of producing full page scans from its compact case. It includes a conspicuous looking carrying case intended to protect it during travels. The design allows you to select from black and white, standard color or high 24-bit color. It also has resolution options ranging from 100 to 400 dpi. The… → Read More