Post something about yourself here (The Hello Thread)

[freemab]

I'm Bruce Freeman and will show up various places as freemab. I'm a member of IXR, a makerspace out of the InfoAge Museum in Wall, NJ. We are interested in making a book scanner. We may start with the cardboard box-type scanner as per Instructables, but there's interest, at least, in making a "more professional" device.

But my question is whether there are currently ANY other plans available for ANY scanner designs. So far I have not found any on this website, but I've only begun looking.

The design using laser-cut plywood would actually be a disadvantage to us because we don't have that capability. By contrast, we are quite capable of fabricating a steel frame, and I would prefer to go that route. However, we've decided at least to work up a cost estimate for whatever is "state of the art" in DIY book scanners.

BTW, the bungee cords in the video strike me as NOT the way to go on the book-lift. I'm not ready to propose a particular alternative, but I've "levitated" hammers of 16# to 55#, so a book would be easy. If somebody would point out the appropriate place to discuss these things, I'll contribute there.

This is also the wrong place to discuss design details, but maybe somebody can save me time by pointing out where I'd find more info or discussions on a few other topics:
* Use of polarized lighting to reduce glare.
* Use of museum glass to reduce glare.
* Use of low-inertia optics to photograph both pages with a single, centrally-mounted camera.
* Any work on a balanced book-inverting device (for a camera mounted below the book), preferably incorporating automatic page-turning.

[daniel_reetz]

A hearty welcome to all new members - thanks for the introductions!

freemab, have you seen this? viewtopic.php?f=1&t=1192

[fixiemama]

hey i'm ginger. i work at the internet archive in the books group and i get to turn on the floodgates to send over 100,000 books out for digital lending to library patrons all over the world. Now, if people would just hurry up and notice that they can read books for free online!

if you live in california, you can now borrow books online, in your browser or on (most)web-enabled devices, for free, forever. all you need is an account at openlibrary.org. north carolina, too. you heard it here first.

it may be possible to get files uploaded to openlibrary, although that's subject to squashing by the guy we report to.

oh and i'm also into cycling and turning cartwheels.

[The Sardonic Sardine]

Hi Everyone!

My name is Andre and I'm from Singapore. I'll be returning to the University of Melbourne, in Australia, to continue with my Bachelor of Arts degree (majoring in Literature) next month. I just finished serving my two year military conscription less than a week ago and am really keen to get back to my studies.

I suppose I got interested in DIY book scanning about three or so years ago while I was still studying. One of the key difficulties that I faced was actually gaining access to books during assignment periods. The huge problem was that academic books, given their low publication numbers and hence limited availability, weren't readily available to all who wanted them for reference. Imagine a whole group of people wanting the same book, but the university library having only one copy of it. Even when I did manage to get a book, I would always bear in mind that others might be in equal need of this reference source. A lot of my earlier years were therefore spent photocopying copious amounts of material to be used only once.

My thoughts eventually moved on to scanning and looking into what devices were available. The horror! The horror! Commercially available personal scanners suck for scanning books (I think you all know this and the multitude of reasons why). So in my quest I've somehow stumbled upon DIY book scanning.

Here I am.

Hello everyone. My name is Andre and I scan books.

[thinkJason]

Good afternoon from Denver!

I've been a long-time lurker on this community, wishing to build a scanner to digitize my ever-increasing library of books. I'm an academic researcher in the communications discipline, and I find myself reading academic journals on a daily basis both for work and personal interest. Thanks to the iPad, I've created a digital research workflow that saves me from printing forests worth of articles only to leave the lonely annotated documents wasting away in a filing cabinet. In light of this digital discovery, I've been seeking ways to digitize my library, both at work and at home. Reading on the iPad has changed my life, not only by digitizing my research library, but by saving my back from carrying around stacks of papers on a daily basis.

Over the years, I've managed to accumulate an ever-increasing library of books. I love reading for knowledge, I love sharing that knowledge, and I love referencing that knowledge in my academic pursuits. As much as I would love carrying all my bookshelves around with me, I'm certainly not strong or crazy enough to do so. As such, with the advent of ebook readers, I know that it's possible to carry all that knowledge with me. This, then, is my goal.

I've looked over countless plans available in this community, and the one thing I've seen missing is aesthetic appeal. I want to build a scanner, and I want to build something I can be proud of. I want a device I can display in my library; one that is pragmatic in its application and beautiful in appearance. Dan's most recent (as of this writing) CNC designs are a step in the right direction. That design is one which I would feel proud to display.

I don't know of any other members in the Denver area, but I would love to work with other people in achieving these goals. I'm hoping that I can find another member with access to a CNC machine who I could pay to mill the parts. I look forward to contributing to the community here with my experiences and improvements, as I certainly love coming up with new ideas to improve everything I encounter.

Dan, thanks for putting this community together. You've filled a hole in my life that the iPad created, and I'm grateful.

[strider1551]

I've looked over countless plans available in this community, and the one thing I've seen missing is aesthetic appeal. I want to build a scanner, and I want to build something I can be proud of. I want a device I can display in my library; one that is pragmatic in its application and beautiful in appearance.

Welcome thinkJason! I rarely stray from the software sections to check on hardware, but have you seen Translucent's build? It's the slickest looking one I've seen, and would be right at home on display, especially if the decor is a more modern style.

[daniel_reetz]

thinkJason, thanks for the introduction. FWIW, there is a hackerspace in Denver that says they have a CNC wood router. I'd get in touch with them, first! Here's their site.

If you start working with them, I would love love love for this to be the first or among the first of the new CNC scanners to be made in a hackerspace. I love using those kinds of examples in my talks.

Also, Sardonic Sardine/Andre, I love your user name.

[thinkJason]

thinkJason, thanks for the introduction. FWIW, there is a hackerspace in Denver that says they have a CNC wood router. I'd get in touch with them, first! Here's their site.

If you start working with them, I would love love love for this to be the first or among the first of the new CNC scanners to be made in a hackerspace. I love using those kinds of examples in my talks.

Also, Sardonic Sardine/Andre, I love your user name.

Dan,

Nice find! I'll look into them in the future for subsequent builds. I've already contracted rob to cut the parts in his space and ship them over, but I'm sure once I finish this build I'll end up drumming up further interest on my campus.

Welcome thinkJason! I rarely stray from the software sections to check on hardware, but have you seen Translucent's build? It's the slickest looking one I've seen, and would be right at home on display, especially if the decor is a more modern style.

strider1551,

That is a pretty classy build! I lean more towards neoclassical than modern, but Translucent has an impressive piece of hardware there!

[dc0dr]

Hello, Hello Thread,

Greetings from Quebec, Canada.

I own about a large collection of books and comic books. Most of the comics, I also have in digital format. My wife and daughter are also avid readers so we own three Sony eReaders for reading epubs and pdf. I also have an Android tablet that I use to read comic books. I recently read Lone Wolf and Cub (8300 pages in 27 volumes) plus the entire Walking Dead (92 chapters so far) series.

I speak english and french, my native tongue. The last few years I have replaced all translated books in my collection with originals. There are still quite a few popular books, in english and french, that haven't been converted to ebooks, so I'd like to lend a hand. I do some proofreading for a french ebook group but I'd like to go through the whole process myself so I'm not depending on others for scanning and conversion.

I did try to scan some books with a flatbed scanner but I found the process tedious (my scanner isn't a speed demon) as well as damaging to my books. I want to build my own scanner, probably a book liberator because of its compact and elegant design. I already have bought two dirt cheap 5.1mp cameras, and I have plenty of leftover material (I built a garden shed last summer) so I think I'm all set. Oh, and I want to build a cradle using Daniel Reetz's design. I will post pictures when I'm done.

Good day,

[daniel_reetz]

If you build a Book-Liberator style machine, we'd love to see a review of it here. Welcome!