New Scanner Tech Watch Thread

DIY Book Scanner Skunk Works. Share your crazy ideas and novel approaches. Home of the "3D structure of a book" thread.

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freewheeling
Posts: 5
Joined: 24 Dec 2011, 18:26
E-book readers owned: Kindle
Number of books owned: 500

Instructional Document Scanners

Post by freewheeling »

I've noticed a couple of posts on the IPEVO Ziggi-HD "document scanner" and there are a few Youtube videos about using it for book scanning that look promising. The Ziggi-HD is out of production, though, and they've gone with three new 8 MP devices. I ordered the cheapest one, the V4K. It's around $100 compared to $200 for the "dual mode" VZ-R (which seems more oriented toward real time presentation) and the Wireless/Bluetooth VZ-X for about $300. The main advantage of the VZ-R and VZ-X is that they have their own video hardware so don't need a computer for presentation, and they also have built-in LED lighting and HDMI connection. But I figured that for $100 I'd get something that might work and would be much faster than a flatbed scanner. The CZUR looks like it can be purchased for under $400 but the IPEVO company looks like a solid group which concentrates on the educational teacher market so it's worth a shot.
TS Zarathustra
Posts: 21
Joined: 03 Feb 2019, 06:17
E-book readers owned: Kindle 4. Kindle paperwhite 2014, Kobo Aura One
Number of books owned: 999
Country: Netherlands

Re: New Scanner Tech Watch Thread

Post by TS Zarathustra »

This popped up on my facebook feed today. https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/shin ... ul-scanner
New scanner from CZUR. They have simplified it even more than their previous ones, while sticking with the same concept. Camera above, book below, flat on table. All corrections done in software. It's only 116 euros (with 35% discount).

I might get one, even though they are 61398% over goal, so they might have difficulties in sticking to delivery schedule in Feb 2020 8-) .
wambold
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Joined: 30 Nov 2011, 19:48
E-book readers owned: iPad, Mac
Number of books owned: 2000
Country: USA
Location: Sunnyvale, CA

Re: New Scanner Tech Watch Thread

Post by wambold »

I have a CZUR Aura.

The Shine looks like a mini-Aura, with big differences:
- more portable - smaller, laptop powered
- 13MP vs 14MP
- no optional side lights, which can help with shiny pages

I'm guessing the software will be the same. The page flattening mostly works. The biggest annoyance with the software is that the scanning data is not saved, so you have to complete any of the corrections in a session. If the program crashes (it used to, the current version seems better) or you wanted to come back to it later, you can't. I haven't tried the OCR, I've been loading into Adobe Acrobat for that.

The lighting on the Aura is not bright or even enough. The side lights are particularly bad for this because a curved page will cause them to light unevenly. I'm considering trying to get better light sources. I do use the Aura as desk lamp though.

I'm trying to recall if the Aura was late. I don't remember being annoyed so I think it wasn't, but I'm not sure as they shipped in batches. They were really good about letting people know about the production line.

I could see using an Aura or Shine if I needed something portable and could deal with some less than perfect scans.

The Aura has prompted me to dig out my Hackerspace scanning rig and finally set up the electronics I bought for it. Now I'm thinking of fiddling with the lighting by starting with the white balance on the cameras and then possibly replacing the flat light I have.

If you want samples or have other questions, just let me know.
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LA2
Posts: 23
Joined: 01 Feb 2012, 16:43
Number of books owned: 1000
Country: Sweden
Location: Linköping, Sweden

Re: New Scanner Tech Watch Thread

Post by LA2 »

I've also got the CZUR Aura back in 2019. It has a 13 MP camera, but the lense is fixed (not zoomable), so the 13 MP are spread out over the full surface, giving a fixed scanning resolution of 250 dpi. This is too low if the book has fine print, e.g. tables or footnotes. It's a fine camera, and it is a shame that so many of its pixels are wasted on the surrounding black table-top mat instead of being used on the book. I've been using this scanner for books without footnotes, such as novels and poetry. I like the workflow, which makes it easy to rescan bad images. A foot pedal is included, so you can use your hands to flip pages. Page flattening works fine mostly, but I wouldn't use this scanner to reproduce fine illustrations or technical drawings, as the image distortion is not entirely predictable. The resulting images are useful, but not great.

An example can be found here, http://runeberg.org/sanmich/0007.html
(click "Next >>" and "Full resolution")

The main difference in the newer CZUR Shine Ultra (first shipped in 2020) is that its stand can be extended for a large scanning area (and low resolution) or lowered for a smaller scanning area (and higher resolution). I think it promises 350 dpi in the lower position, which would be much more useful than 250 dpi. But I have not tried this scanner. Due to the coronavirus pandemic, shipment was delayed for many months, but are now taking place in September and October of 2020.

There is a Facebook group for CZUR Users, https://www.facebook.com/groups/455546031933183/
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