Post something about yourself here (The Hello Thread)

[bchapman]

Hello everyone!

My name is Ben and I've worked around law libraries for 15 years or so. I'm the IT director at Emory University School of Law in Atlanta, Georgia. Before switching careers into the wonderful world of law school IT, I was a lawyer with a medium-sized corporate-oriented law firm in Tulsa, Oklahoma for five years. I have a strong interest in Linux-based tool-chains, and am especially fond of Python and Django. We use Linux for all sorts of things at work (LAMP, LTSP, Myth, etc). I have worked with Unix/Linux since 1991, when I bought a NeXTStation (which I still have). I am also very interested in handhelds, starting with a Palm PDA in 1996. I currently have a Bookeen Cybook, an iPod Touch, Nokia N770 and N800, an old AlphaSmart, and just acquired a Droid android-based phone.

Currently (May, 2010), I'm about halfway through building a standard scanner - I have to decide which way to go with the platen design. Once everything is built, I'm planning to use a Canon A560 and a Canon S5IS as the scanning cameras - this will feed to an old PC running Ubuntu with gPhoto, following some of the suggested Linux workflows. I hope to contribute back to the project in some way and I am amazed at all of the interesting creativity in this community!

[gsloop]

Ok, Greg here...

I've read a few of the post here.

I do computer consulting work for a living. (Mostly networks, security, and such.)

But I'm a big reader - always have been.
I'd like to perhaps convert my books to electronic format - or preserve other documents both in a full raw format, and also as OCR'd in something like PDF.

I've got a Kindle1 - a craigslist acquisition - until something better comes along. (The NotionInk tablet that's coming later in 2010 looks really like the general form of what I'd really like. Something a bit more general purpose than an EPaper device like Kindle/Nook et al, but still great for reading. Also a larger display that will handle PDF's of larger format stuff.)

Part of this reasoning is that I may well be headed back to school. I'm headed the opposite way than most of the posts I've seen here.

I'm probably going to head the other way - to psychology instead of tech. [I am much more suited for "feeling" and emotive based work, and as many of you know, Tech/IT isn't generally much of an emotive workspace.]

So, having those texts available, should I do the big plunge, would be nice.

But that's not the main basis for wanting to build my own scanner. (I've got a sheet fed duplex 50 IPM scanner now, but even then, you have to destroy the book to scan it. And it doesn't handle things like glossy magazine material well either.)

I just like having technical (really all my docs) available on the PC. I can share with friends more easily, and can search them more quickly. I can haul a library that will kill you to physically haul around in book form and look up what I want and need at will.

I also read widely. And having all that material together is nice. Sometimes my daughter wants to read Ann of Green Gables, and then I want to read Ender's Game. Where else but ebooks could you do this at will.

So, a friend and I (Portland Oregon in case anyone wonders where we are) are planning on building one to share. We would welcome any others in the neighborhood to join in. We'll try to make ours as portable as possible - so sharing it would be easier.

I'm also interested in developing a VM image that could be fairly hardware independent. It would allow for a lot easier collaboration.

Comments are welcome. (I'm at greg s at sloop . net - just remove those pesky spaces.)

Thanks for all everyone elses input. We'll see how far we make it in the next couple of months - I'm a notorious procrastinator and I get sidetracked a lot too. So, if we get a working unit anytime soon, it should be chalked up to a miracle.

Cheers!
-Greg

[Wulfgar]

Howdy all!

I found your forum from Instructables.

I'm interested in book scanners so that I can put my collection on my nook. Also, my wife is getting more impatient by the day regarding the massive collection of books and magazines in the house, so I'd like to get everything digital to conserve space.

But most importantly, I ask myself "What good is having this massive collection if I can't reference anything when I need it?" I want to digitize my collection so that I can do text searches and start using what I got, ya know?

I'm the alpha in my geek circle, so high tech doesn't scare me. I'm here to learn.

[Pagnol]

I'm interested in book scanning mainly because I would like to turn a bunch of printed dictionaries of philosophy, sociology and some languages into indexed digital dictionaries I can feed Goldendict or similar programs with. It's such a joy to look up articles simply by pointing the mouse on the specific word on the screen. I find this especially comforting when writing an essay or translating a text, even more so with respect to the fact that one dictionary does not always provide you with the information you're looking for, thus looking up a word in several dictionaries at once is essential. Sometimes an article in the Oxford English Dictionary is better than the corresponding article in the Collins, sometimes it's the other way around. Unfortunately most dictionaries are not available digitally and most of those that are available have to be used in conjunction with a special program which is a real pain in the ass (and does not run on Linux). Therefore I've begun writing a small command line program that simplifies the conversion of a scanned and ocr-ed dictionary into an indexed one.

I've just finished constructing my slightly modified version of Daniel's "New Standard Scanner" (though I haven't got the cameras yet). I'm going to post some pictures as soon as I've got the cameras and fixed some minor issues.

[pomo81]

You can imagine my joy in finding this forum. I've been scanning texts for archival purposes for nearly 20 years. I've spent the past two days scouring this forum and getting introduced to fantastic software I had not known about. Abby, Omnipage, and Paperport I'm familiar with; Scan Tailor and ScanKromsator are new to me and had been desperately needed.

I don't have much need for OCR, but fast flatbed scanning is a must. In nearly 20 years, I have not come across a flatbed scanner that is faster than the old -- and big and heavy -- HP 4C scanners, which can do 4 300 dpi 1-bit (black and white) legal-sized scans in one minute. Opening up a book on the glass and doing two facing pages at a time will yield 240 scans (480 pages) an hour.

All of the "fast document" scanners seem to have a speed rating only on the ADF, not the flatbed, which seem to be terribly slow. I think some of the Epson flatbed scanners might be able to come close to 4 legal-sized 300 dpi, 1-bit scans a minute, but I'm not certain. The old AGFA SCSI scanner did 3 scans a minute.

I have no idea whether I can get my HP 4C, which can still be bought new or in very good condition on Ebay for nearly nothing (it's the shipping that costs), and required SCSI card to work on a Vista or Windows 7 machine, as I have mine connected to an XP machine.



I'm always on the lookout for a faster flatbed USB 2.0 scanner, but I've seen nothing. I'm thinking about a digital copier that can be connected to a PC, as I'd like the flatbed scanning time to be just as fast as a copier. I'm also thinking of going the route of a photo box with two SLR cameras.

Anyway, I just wanted to throw in a word on these old 4C scanners and finally take part in this forum, which I had sorely needed the past 20 years and found only two days ago.

[MIGUELPARDO]

Hi, My name is Miguel, and we are constracting a DIY scanner in Madrid (i think is the first one). I will inform of our steps throught mails, blog and tweeter. You can see our workshop under http://medialab-prado.es/article/taller_de_digitalizacion. It was booked in 8 hours, so i tj¡hink there are planty of interest about the workshop. I´m a formal sculptor converted in graphic designer and working as production manager in a small publishing house (over 100 years history on our shoulders). I´m very interested in liquid content, open and free content, and open and free culture(s).There are millions of textes waiting to be scanned and open to public. Of course, they have to be always copyright-free ;>)

[JDSimmons]

My name is James Simmons. I made the "Bargain Book Scanner From A Cardboard Box" and have scanned two books with it which I hope to donate to the Internet Archive, and I'll probably do many more. I have a small collection of older books that I want to share.

I am a computer programmer by trade, since 1978, and I got involved in e-books when I participated in the Give One, Get One promotion of the One Laptop Per Child project. I was disappointed in the e-book reading Activity for my new XO laptop so I learned Python and wrote my own, plus another Activity for reading comic books, and later an Activity to search the Internet Archive and download books to the XO laptop Journal. These are all available on http://activities.sugarlabs.org and are named Read Etexts, View Slides, and Get Internet Archive Books respectively.

My next project was to write a FLOSS manual on programming Activities for Sugar, the operating environment for Sugar. The book is called "Make Your Own Sugar Activities!"

I more or less finished this up and thought about what else the platform needed. The answer was more e-books in more languages, plus the knowledge to use them and create them. That led to another book, in progress, which I am working on with some help from a group called the Rural Design Collective. To write this book I first had to learn the subject matter and that led me to this website.

I don't know that I'll ever make a proper book scanner, but the one I have is a vast improvement over my flatbed scanner.

I'd love to hear anyone's feedback on "Reading And Leading With Sugar", which you can look at in progress at

http://en.flossmanuals.net/ReadingandSugar/Introduction

Send feedback to nicestep@gmail.com

[dwoodcock]

Hello,
My name is David, I'm currently attending college and have changed my major twice now. Electrical Engineering (I got all the pre reqs done and accepted into the bachelors program) then decided it wasn't for me after the first semester. Then started my Business Administration degree and after a year of that decided i wanted to become a Pharmacist.

I've been doing a bit of reading on the forum and think i have the jist of making the scanner. Only questions I have is best camera settings. And then what you need to do after you have used Scantailor to crop and skew images. What software are most people using to OCR scans and turn into a pdf?
Thanks Dave.

[mranderso]

Hello, my name is Mark. Used to do computer stuff back when I worked. Book buying has been transitioning from atoms to bits.

Have scanned a few books with a snapscan, but not real happy cutting off the bindings.

Had been thinking of constructing a book scanner for some time, but thought it would be too difficult with my limited supply of tools. Couple of weeks ago I saw Ben's Tulane CIP scanner at an art show and was impressed by the use of salvaged materials. Figuring I could do that, I'm half way thru a quick and dirty/doesn't have to be perfect build. Rediscovering my lack of skill and lack of patients at woodworking.

Will provide photo if I manage to finish construction before I render useless the work I've done so far.

[smandal]

I live in US. Back in college days (1990s) in India, I used to give books/journals/manuals/magazines to local photocopier guy. Even today in India, photocopying is a home business. I was never satisfied with the quality of copies, especially of thick books near the bindings.

I have attempted copying with my personal flatbed scanner in last 10 years and that did not turn too well. OCR(Optical Character Recognition) on scanned books was not accurate. OCR inaccuracy was very high near the binding of the book. Fixing the OCR inaccuracies was a serious time consuming job.

I came across this site a month back as I was looking for a better way to scan books on google. The advent of cheaper 8+ mega pixels digital cameras has definitely changed the scanning landscape a lot. Here is my first attempt to build a book scanner: http://self-sufficient-future.blogspot. ... setup.html


Thanks for creating this site. You guys rock!