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 it and “scan” it (really “take a picture of it”) from different angles.
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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
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
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
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
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 scanned items directly to a number of online services (Flickr, Picnik, etc). It’s small and lightweight, which makes it a no-brainer to take with you on the go; but the form factor does present some placement issues. → Read More
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 probably overkill, but at $250 it’s bargain overkill. → Read More
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 something like a briefcase. Almost everything you scan is searchable and you can even highlight tags and search terms with a highlighter. With tax season coming up, this might be a good way to store and send all of your precious W2s. → Read More
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
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 the individual walking through the scanner gets to drool over grainy black-and-white images of everyone’s naughty bits! → Read More
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
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
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 size. It’s got the usual bells and whistles, if you can call them that: she works with all the popular memory cards out there (SD, XD, CF, etc.) and has a mini USB 2.0 port should you want to transfer you photos that way. It’s $99 for this, which, I think, isn’t unreasonable. → Read More
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 another barcode or “FRAGILE” or some other message onto the package itself, all in the blink of an eye. Check out this video to see it in action. [via Treehugger] → Read More
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 with you at all times. Worst of all, if you lose habitually lose phones, this probably isn’t a good idea. Also, it could be argued that the iPhone document scanner takes up almost as much space as a regular scanner but, hey, it costs next-to-nothing and doesn’t require power or a computer and all your documents are kept right in your pocket. corrugate iPhone document scanner – free template! [Core77 via BBG] → Read More
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 plugs into your computer’s USB port (Windows only, sorry), allowing you to manipulate your now-digital photos any way you see fit. Sure, a scanner might accomplish the same task but this doodad looks nice for whizzing through a bunch of photos in rapid succession. If Hammacher Schlemmer comes out with a 250-photo add-on tray for automating the entire process, I’m sold. Product Page [Hammacher Schlemmer] → Read More
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 14×21-inch size, to say nothing of its ability to scan 3D objects. Yup, its lid lifts up a might 180 degrees in order to scan real life 3D objects. The prank possibilities are unlimited. Perhaps, then, kids should look at the V200 a little more closely. That the scanner is only $99 not only means that a lowly blogger like me can afford it, but that you can buy two or even three and hand them out like smarties on Halloween. Epson → Read More
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 included Paperport software is reasonably intuitive and allows you to grab scans from the DocuPen without much hassle. Its onboard memory can store up to 100 lesser quality images, but it has a MicroSD expansion slot for larger storage capacities. When you’re ready to upload your scans, the device connects via an included USB cable. It is powered by a rechargeable lithium-Ion battery that is charged via USB. → Read More
