Glossary: DIY Book Scanners and Scanning

Built a scanner? Started to build a scanner? Record your progress here. Doesn't need to be a whole scanner - triggers and other parts are fine. Commercial scanners are fine too.

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Glossary: DIY Book Scanners and Scanning

Post by ceeann1 »

I have run into many new terms reading the forums. Some of them are for cameras, some for computers, and others for yet more specialized pieces of hardware. Please if you have a moment stop here and define those special terms for those folks who are newbees.

newbees = a new member to the forum who is still figuring out the language and the ideas in DIY Book Scanners.
heh ... I spell newbee different, its cause I am BIFF, or rather was... in my time, but I tend to like things plain speak, its more democratic and the various short forms, slang, shorthand texting, and anacronyms drive me a bit crazy.

Thanks =D

Thanks for all the kind words and thanks for the kickin' replies!!!
A different sort of organization may be more suitable and I am open to the idea of this being used for now untill it gets unwieldy. I leave that to Daniel and Petaybee (TPTB).

Petaybee= The Powers That Be (TPTB) from The Powers That Be, a book written by Anne McCaffery and Elizabeth Ann Scarborough.

monostable multivibrator = a circuit in which one of the states is stable, but the other is not—the circuit will flip into the unstable state for a determined period, but will eventually return to the stable state. Such a circuit is useful for creating a timing period of fixed duration in response to some external event. This circuit is also known as a one shot. A common application is in eliminating switch bounce.

R/C = Radio Controlled, in example R/C airplanes (radio controlled airplanes)

'A' size or 'A' series paper sizes = a set of paper sizes established by the International Standards Organization (ISO) that ranges from 2A0 (the largest) to A7 (the smallest). The size of the paper goes down as the number goes up, and each is half the size of the previous i.e. two A4 sheets make up an A3 piece and two A5 sheets make up an A4 sheet.

'A' size -- size in millimeters -- approx inches
2A0 -- 1,189 x 1,682 mm -- 46.8 x 66.2 in
A0 -- 841 x 1,189 mm -- 33.1 x 46.8 in
A1 -- 594 x 841 mm -- 23.4 x 33.1 in
A2 -- 420 x 594 mm -- 16.5 x 23.4 in
A3 -- 297 x 420 mm -- 11.7 x 16.5 in
A4 -- 210 x 297 mm -- 8.3 x 11.7 in
A5 -- 148 x 210 mm -- 5.8 x 8.3 in
A6 -- 105 x 148 mm -- 4.1 x 5.8 in
A7 -- 74 x 105 mm -- 2.9 x 4.1 in

AFAIK = As Far As I Know, internet slang

100 Watt standard light bulb emits about 1710 lumens

lumen (lm) = the luminous flux of light produced by a light source that emits one candela of luminous intensity over a solid angle of one steradian.

luminous flux = Also called luminous power, is the measure of the perceived power of light. The total power output of a light source adjusted to reflect the varying sensitivity of the human eye to different wavelengths of light.

radiant flux = measure of the total power of light emitted by a source.

Candela = One candela of luminous intensity is about the luminous intensity emmitted by a common candle (not quite sure what a common candle is but this seemed close enough for understanding the above)

Steradian =
Steradian (sr).jpg
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Last edited by ceeann1 on 11 Dec 2010, 20:04, edited 8 times in total.
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Re: Glossary: DIY Book Scanners and Scanning

Post by ceeann1 »

spamsickle posted 30 Nov 2010, 22:49

"Keystoning" is when the image of a rectangular page appears as a trapezoid (like the "keystone" at the top of an arch). It's caused by perspective, when the "film plane" isn't parallel to the plane of the page.
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Re: Glossary: DIY Book Scanners and Scanning

Post by reggilbert »

dear ceeann1,

your glossary thread is a great idea, but i am thinking that thread structures are not well suited to the purpose past a relatively small number of entries -- the terms do not appear in the headers, and this site appears to be searchable only within individual forums (such as "hardware" as a whole), not within individual threads.

i am wondering if instead you might want to ask daniel to create a glossary forum. then each term would be its own thread, with its own thread title, more easily eyeballed, or searched for via the site's advanced search function, which allows limiting searches by forum. also, if each term is a thread, people who wanted to supplement an existing definition could do so easily and clearly by adding to the thread via replies to it.

reg
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Re: Glossary: DIY Book Scanners and Scanning

Post by daniel_reetz »

I'm happy to let the glossary thread go as it may -- when it gets too thick we'll move it over to the wiki.
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Re: Glossary: DIY Book Scanners and Scanning

Post by Moonboy242 »

Noobie (var: noob, Newb), adj: 1. Someone who is new, or inexperienced.

Sorry. It's one of those old words that has been commandeered by the L337-speak crowd online. :mrgreen:
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Re: Glossary: DIY Book Scanners and Scanning

Post by steve1066d »

Here's my stab at a list:

AWB: Automatic White balance.

CHDK: A replacement firmware for many Canon cameras that allow more configuration, as well as an external shutter release for those cameras that don't have it. http://chdk.wikia.com

dewarp: The process of taking images of pages of a book and flattening them with software so it looks like a flat page instead of curved page. This is an issue if you don't use a platen or otherwise flatten the pages of a book.

deskewing: The process of taking images that are slightly rotated and fixing them.

DPI: A measurement on how many dots per inch there are in an image. For scanning 200-300 DPI is recommended for general use and OCRing. For images taken by cameras it needs to be calculated. It is a fact of how many megapixels the camera is, and how much of the field of view the page is taking, and how big the page is.

DSLR: Digital SLR. A type of camera with interchangeable lenses. They generally offer better quality and flexibility over point and shoot cameras. However, for scanning a disadvantage is that is possible to wear out their internal mirror mechanism after thousands of pictures. They also tend to be more expensive.

gPhoto: A software package that allows the user to remotely take and transfer photos. It seems to be available only on older point & shoot as well as SLR cameras. http://www.gphoto.org

gutter: The crease between the two pages of an open book.

keystoning: When the image of a rectangular page appears as a trapezoid (like the "keystone" at the top of an arch). It's caused by perspective, when the "film plane" isn't parallel to the plane of the page.

macro: A feature of a camera that allows it to take close up pictures of object. It is usually best to avoid macro setting by keeping the camera further away from the page.

Point & Shoot: Your standard type of consumer camera.

RAW: A format of images on some cameras that is not pre-processed, and not compressed. While it is possible to start with these images for scanning, they are very large and require additional post-processing, so it is generally best to use high quality jpeg images as the source.

shutter speed: In a camera how long the shutter is open for. For example 1/60 is 1/60 of a second. This isn't real critical for scanning because the book and the cameras should be stationary.

shutter release: The button on a camera that takes the picture.

OCR: Optical Character recognition: Software that can take a scan, and determine the text on the page. Text that has been OCR'd can be copy and pasted, or searched, or put on devices with smaller screens.

platen: The portion of the scanner that holds down the pages of a book. In the standard scanner it is a v shaped part with glass or plexiglass sides.

SDM (Stereo Data Maker): A common software that is based on CHDK that allows two canon cameras to be fired at the same time, by using modified USB cables and a switch. http://stereo.jpn.org/eng/sdm/index.htm

ST (Scan Tailor)
: Scan Tailor is an interactive post-processing tool for scanned pages. It performs operations such as page splitting, deskewing, adding/removing borders, and others. http://scantailor.sourceforge.net/

White Balance: The setting on a camera to set the light type. Different types of light make a big difference on the final color of a scans. Cameras have settings like "tugsten" "cloudy", "daylight" or manual. The goal of setting the white balance is to make the resulting colors accurate.
Steve Devore
BookScanWizard, a flexible book post-processor.
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Re: Glossary: DIY Book Scanners and Scanning

Post by daniel_reetz »

steve1066d's post was so valuable that I changed this post to a "sticky".
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PTP (and Pictbridge)

Post by reggilbert »

Picture Transfer Protocol

The is a camera capability of interest to people on this forum for its potential to enable remote firing of cameras and remote viewing (on a PC) of recently taken shots. Posts on forums that discuss PTP sometimes note that different cameras implement PTP differently, so a camera cannot be assumed to have a capability simply because it supports PTP.

Excerpts from Wikipedia:

"Picture Transfer Protocol (PTP) is a widely supported protocol developed by the International Imaging Industry Association to allow the transfer of images from digital cameras to computers and other peripheral devices without the need of additional device drivers. The protocol has been standardised as ISO 15740. It is further standardized for USB by the USB Implementers Forum as the still image capture device class. USB is the default network transport media for PTP devices. USB PTP is a common alternative to USB MSC, as a digital camera connection protocol. Some cameras support both modes. . . . PTP does not specify a way for objects to be stored – it is a communication protocol. Nor does it specify a transport layer. However, it is designed to support existing standards, such as Exif, TIFF/EP, DCF, and DPOF . . . Both Microsoft and Apple include PTP support in their operating systems, from Windows Me onwards (excluding Windows CE), and Mac OS X v10.1 onwards, respectively. . . . PTP on Linux and other free software/open source operating systems is supported by a number of libraries, such as libgphoto and libptp, libraries used by applications such as digiKam and F-Spot."

Pictbridge

It seems PTP is part of the capability of many cameras called "PictBridge." A Google search for "ptp pictbridge" suggests that PictBridge-enabled cameras are often usable by PTP-reliant PC software. According to a Web site called PCTechGuide:

"In December of 2002, the Camera & Imaging Products Association (CIPA) started an initiative which had the goal of a global standard to enable direct printing from digital cameras on appropriately equipped photo printers, independent of the model or manufacturer of the camera or the printer. The standard was christened the Direct Print Standard (DPS) and the commercial products that resulted from the initiative are referred to as being "PictBridge" compliant. In PictBridge, USB is used as a physical layer, and Picture Transfer Protocol (PTP) is used as the transport layer protocol."

See this link for a fairly technical elaboration of the above.
Last edited by reggilbert on 06 Jan 2011, 01:21, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Glossary: DIY Book Scanners and Scanning

Post by russca »

Polarizing filter
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Among other things polarizing filter allows you to remove unwanted reflections from non-metallic surfaces such as water, glass etc. There are two kinds of PF: Linear and Circular. The latter is mostly used with modern cameras. In amazon's product reviews I read Linear PF do the job just fine on modern cameras. Basically it's an attachment to a lens on DSLR and some Point-and-Shoot cameras. It might be a good way to reduce or get rid of reflection from V-shaped platen when scanning books. Thanks, Misty, for mentioning PF in one of your posts. :) Did some digging and I have to say I am stunned. It's a must-have.
Reflection_Polarizer3a.jpg
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Source: Wikipedia
Tim

Re: Glossary: DIY Book Scanners and Scanning

Post by Tim »

steve1066d wrote:Here's my stab at a list:
To the terms that have already been mentioned, I would only add a few, mostly to fill out the photography terms that come up around here. I would also add your Book Scan Wizard, since I see a lot of people referring to it as BSW, but you can do that better than I. Feel free to improve my wording on any of these. I release them as public domain to make it as easy as possible to add to the glossary. Not that it was a major contribution or anything, and I'll edit this post if I think of more.

Aperture: The size of the opening of the camera's shutter. Aperture sizes are reported in F-numbers which are inversely proportional to the aperture size, so a 5.6 aperture setting is smaller than a 4 aperture setting. Aperture, along with shutter speed and ISO setting, determines the image's effective exposure by determining the amount of light that reaches the camera's sensor and the sensitivity of the sensor to the light. Some point and shoot cameras only have a minimal real aperture setting and instead fake a higher f-number by filtering out some of the incoming light. Aperture settings around 5.6 tend to result in pictures with the greatest sharpness.

Bridge camera: a type of digital camera with usually better sensors and lenses than a compact point and shoot camera, but with a single lens that cannot be changed. They often have a wide zoom range however and may also be called super-zoom, ultra-zoom or similar.

Exposure: The amount of light that the image sensor captures and stores as the picture. Higher exposures can wash a picture out to the white end of the spectrum, called over-exposure, while lower exposures can lose color and under-expose. Aperture, shutter speed, and ISO setting determine the exposure.

ISO setting: The sensitivity of the camera's sensor (or film) to the light that reaches the sensor. Higher ISO settings can give more exposure, or a brighter resulting picture, for the same aperture and shutter speed. However higher ISO settings result in more noise or "grain" in the resulting picture. Different cameras drastically differ in the amount of noise for a given ISO setting.

Mirrorless Interchangeable Lens Camara (ILC): A type of camera between a compact, point and shoot camera and a DSLR. They offer picture quality and sensors that overlap with some DSLRs, have some range of lens interchangeability, but don't have optical view finders. Examples are the Micro Four Thirds systems from Olympus and Panasonic and the Samsung NX and Sony NEX cameras.
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