My Bookscanner works!

[Aegre Reminiscens]

Hey,

I postet months ago a Video of my planned design in this threat: http://diybookscanner.org/forum/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=187

Now I have built it and it works!


I built it with an incredible amount of Help from others. I am building this Device in the Hackerspace c-base in Berlin, and the whole group "Robolab" in c-base has now joined my Project and it really grows fast.

We are currently working on:
- A webbased Interface for Postproduction (no OCR)
- A Debian/Ubuntu/OpenWRT (havent decided yet) Image with a Webserver, on which the Postproduction-Software runs
- Automatic Page Turning
- a DIY-Kit for the Electronics of an page-turning-device

Right now 6-8 people work on these Tasks and I hope to present you some results in the near future.

Yesterday we rebuilt all the prototype-like wiring and finished the first Axis. A video (in german) is here:


I use two Ixus 100 IS, because it was not possbile to get two A590 to an accetable price in an acceptable amount of time. We had some Problems with the Cameras in the Past and I see the next Problems are just coming up (get the pictures from the camera and remote-shoot pictures without touching anything), but I hope that with the knowledge of all these people in c-base we will figur something out.

Cheers
Aegre Reminiscens

[daniel_reetz]

Beautifully done! Does your hackerspace have a webpage, so I can blog about your progress?

Edit: Oops, just saw this. Congratulations! I'll post this to the news section very soon.

[Aegre Reminiscens]

Some Pictures of my Bookscann0r

The whole Bookscanner
The Mechanics for the Counterweight
The Mounting of the Cameras

[Aegre Reminiscens]

Hey pals,

there is still work going on! Here is an Update:

We completely rebuild the vertical axis, because it was moving back-and-forth and wasn't stiff enough to work nice and smooth with our Stepper Motors. A nice side-effect is the much cleaner surface of the vertical axis. I think it looks more nice now.

I also remounted the craddle in a more rectangular way to the vertical axis and remounted the slides on the backside of the craddle, to made them more paralell. Now every Axis is much more easier to move.
I (we) are working on the autonomous-page-turning, but there are still some Problems. Today I'll continue soldering on the driver board for the two (maybe three) stepper motors and the (probably optional) Servo Motors.

The CAD-Files for the vacuum-Box are finished and another Member of the Hackerspace c-base will mill them, when he finds some time. The rest is gluing together the parts and mounting the Box at the vertical axis. At this Point, I will finally see, if my Idea of turning the Pages will work out. We wanna turn the pages by sucking them against the V-Shaped Glas-Platen. The Air will be sucked in through a small slot, at the point where the two glas-platen meet, so in the middle of the V-shaped glas-platten. By moving the V-shaped-Glasplatten upwards, the pages will hopefully stick to the glasplates. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hlOQuuLYavY this is the Principle, we are trying to realize.
The Cameras and the Lightning goes into the vacuum-Box and we wanna connect a powerful fan, or a vacuum-cleaner to this box, to have a constant low pressure in it. This will force the air to be sucked through the slot in the lower corner.

Sadly, there is no Option to get the Pictures from the Camera, so we think of building an SD-Card-Emulator. Think of it as an SD-to-USB-Adapter. Plug the SD-Card into the Camera, and the Camera thinks, its an SD-Card and not a piece of plastik with wires attached to it. The other side goes into the Computer via USB and the computer thinks its a mobile storage, like an harddrive or an usb-stick. This Part of the Project is in an very early stage.

The next Problem we are working on is the Powersource. the Ixus100 has no plug for external powersource. Canon wants us to buy an Battery-Dummy, which is not more than a piece of plastic, some wires, an NTC and a power-supply. Canon wants 60€ for this, which is incredible! We first tried to cut a dummy from styrodur (a foam), but the foam was too soft, to really do some detailed work. And the battery-dummys didn't work, because of the missing NTC. At least two other IXUS-Cameras dont check the NTC and recognized the dummy as a battery. My Ixus 100IS do check for the NTC (which is just a resistor between sense and ground, that changes resistance when getting warm)
Then I filed to dummys from a block of Acrylic-Glas, which took about 12 hours in total, but I didn't finished them yet, because I managed to get the RepRap (a 3D-Printer) in our Hackerspace running again, and now I wanna try print these little bastards, because its much easier to get the exakt shape, than with a file and hours of time.

As control-computer we've choosen a Seagate Dockstar, which is actually a complete computer with 1,2Ghz CPU, 128MB RAM, 256MB ROM, three USB-Ports and GBit-Ethernet, is only 27€. Our plan is to control the bookscanner via Network in your browser. This little Computer is absolutly enough to handle this, and probably also the Images when we managed to build an SD-Card-to-USB-Adapter.

[Misty]

Sadly, there is no Option to get the Pictures from the Camera, so we think of building an SD-Card-Emulator. Think of it as an SD-to-USB-Adapter. Plug the SD-Card into the Camera, and the Camera thinks, its an SD-Card and not a piece of plastik with wires attached to it. The other side goes into the Computer via USB and the computer thinks its a mobile storage, like an harddrive or an usb-stick. This Part of the Project is in an very early stage.

That would be a great option if you can manage. Another option would be to use an Eye-Fi card. Those are wireless SD cards which automatically wirelessly transfer photos to a computer as you shoot. It adds the requirement of a wireless network, but eliminates any reliance on extra cables.

Glad to see your scanner's still in progress! Looking great.

[Aegre Reminiscens]

Remember my first threat? http://diybookscanner.org/forum/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=187

I wrote:

I think everybody saw this Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pb6E4Hrgi9Y

The Pages are sucked via some kind of vacuum-cleaner-engine onto a corner. inside this corner is some kind of camera or scanner-device. Doesent matter for me. The whole thing is moving upwards and finally a small air blast is turning the pages over.

This is my idea: Ignore the scanning unit, and turn the pages with a vacuum cleaner, some thing to move the corner where the pages are sucked at and a small air-blast-thingy (perhaps use the exhaust from the vacuum cleaner)

and Daniel answered:

It might be easier to discuss if you made some drawings, and one thing that definitely gets people talking around here is: building something, even if it doesn't work the first time. How hard would it be for you to try turning just one page with air? If you can get a page turner going, that would be a big deal.

So, here it is!



This is a prototype of a pageturning bookscanner, successfully lifting up the pages. Currently I have to lift up the box by hand, but the mechanics for automising this, are already layin around, its just a question of mounting them.

Currently I turn the pages with my fingers, but later my finger will be replaced by a small hose wich gives an impulse of air. This small Airblast will hopefully turn the page over.

Cameras and Lights go into the Box.

Currently we use a Vacuum Cleaner for generating the underpressure, but it is much to noisy and much to powerful, so we will experiment on other devices.

I'll present this development, but also the whole DIY-Bookscanner-Idea on Monday the 31th January in Berlin in c-base during dorkbot.bln. My Talk will beginn at about 9pm.

Cheers Aegre Reminiscens

[daniel_reetz]

WOW!!!

[daniel_reetz]

Sadly, there is no Option to get the Pictures from the Camera

What about an Eye-Fi card? http://www.eye.fi/how-it-works/basics

[rob]

I am impressed! Maybe you could use some cheap muffin fans (with ball bearings, of course) for the air?

[Aegre Reminiscens]

I just hold a talk about the current development of my Bookscanner at Dorkbot.bln.
It was really great to fascinate so much people of this Technology!

As soon as the Videos are cut, I'll put up a link to my talk in here...