software to automatically remove fingers?

Discussions, questions, comments, ideas, and your projects having to do with DIY Book Scanner software. This includes the Stereo Data Maker software for the cameras, post-processing software, utilities, OCR packages, and so on.

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Adam32
Posts: 29
Joined: 28 Jun 2014, 08:55
Number of books owned: 500
Country: United Kingdom

software to automatically remove fingers?

Post by Adam32 »

I have just purchased a Fujitsu Scansanp SV600 scanner which is a nice piece of hardware and does a good job of scanning books. Despite this I am not very impressed with the post processing software. With the Fujitsu software It is quite a tedious job of having to go through each page of the book and remove my fingers. Does anyone know if there is any software out there that can automatically recognise fingers and remove them from images automatically?

I know I could define a crop area in acrobat, however many of the books I am scanning seem to have margins in different places, so this does not work. One option I though about is wearing some brightly covered gloves (a color in sharp contrast to the book I am scanning - e.g. Red ) which may make it easier for software to detect.

I know I could just use a piece of glass and not use my fingers to hold the page, however my main requirement is speed of scanning (I have a lot of books to digitize) and I don't want anything that will slow the scanning process down.

So any ideas of post processing software to accomplish what I want? I don't mind free or commercial software - my only requirement is what does the job the best.

Many thanks
Adam
duerig
Posts: 388
Joined: 01 Jun 2014, 17:04
Number of books owned: 1000
Country: United States of America

Re: software to automatically remove fingers?

Post by duerig »

Have you tried Scan Tailor? There is a sub-forum devoted to it with installation instructions, etc. I recommend watching the tutorial video. One of the important things it does is that it detects the text within the page pretty consistently. This lets you make sure that margins remain consistent and any peripheral obstructions like fingers should just go away in most cases.

The other piece of software people here use a lot for post-processing is Book Scan Wizard, but I haven't tried that yet.

Best of luck.
Adam32
Posts: 29
Joined: 28 Jun 2014, 08:55
Number of books owned: 500
Country: United Kingdom

Re: software to automatically remove fingers?

Post by Adam32 »

Thanks Duerig for your suggestion. I downloaded Scan Tailor today and it seems to be doing a very good job at recognizing the text and thus removing fingers. So am really happy with it. The only thing that I find does not work so well is the deskew and it does not sort out wavy text. For this I seem to be getting the best results with omnipage or abby fine reader image tools.
LauraKK

Re: software to automatically remove fingers?

Post by LauraKK »

Hi,

For finger removal issue you mentioned, I'll recommend CZUR ET16 Plus and its book scanning software.

Generally speaking, I and my friends compared operation of CZUR ET16 Plus to Fujitsu Snapscan SV600 (Fujitsu is sending their SV600 to some hospitals in Vietnam for trial). The result is ET16 Plus has a lot of advantages over SV600, have more function for hardware and especially for software our products overwhelms as a lot of function SV600 doesn’t have.

Smart processing software of CZUR flattens the curved pages automatically while recognizing and cropping fingers from the final scan. In this way, scanned file is clean, clear and finger-free every time.

BTW, CZUR costs less than Fujitsu and I think the former one is much more cost-effective.
It's also a high-speed book scanner which takes only 1-2 seconds to scan a single or dual pages. I'd like to say that CZUR may be a better choice.

Learn it on official website and Amazon page.
Official website:http://www.czur.com/product/et16/software
Amazon:http://amzn.to/2np6woS

BR
L.Willms
Posts: 134
Joined: 21 Sep 2016, 10:51
E-book readers owned: Tolino Shine
Country: Germany
Location: Frankfurt/Main, Germany

Re: software to automatically remove fingers?

Post by L.Willms »

Adam32 wrote: 28 Jun 2014, 14:41 Does anyone know if there is any software out there that can automatically recognise fingers and remove them from images automatically?
Some book scanners which I have to use in libraries do have that built in.

Examples:
"Bookeye" scanners by Image Access used at the German National Library (with USB connectors removed!)
Zeta bookscanner by Zeutschel

Those are, of course, costly and not open source and not DIY
BillGill
Posts: 139
Joined: 18 Dec 2016, 17:13
E-book readers owned: Calibre, FBReader
Number of books owned: 7000
Country: USA

Re: software to automatically remove fingers?

Post by BillGill »

I have been having some problems with fingers showing up around the book. It isn't a huge problem for me, but I have considered getting some black gloves. That way the fingers would blend into the background and pretty much disappear. I haven't tried it, but it might be at least a partial solution.

I'm not sure what kind of very light gloves are available in black, but I"m sure there must be some. I'm picturing the debonair master thief in an old movie pulling on his black silk gloves before he executes his daring burglary.

The reason they haven't been a problem for me is that I use AABBYY Fine Reader. It just inserts the fingers as pictures in the text. I can very easily delete the pictures.

Bill
dpc
Posts: 379
Joined: 01 Apr 2011, 18:05
Number of books owned: 0
Location: Issaquah, WA

Re: software to automatically remove fingers?

Post by dpc »

I'd try something like these, as they are cheap and would offer a bit of grip that would help to turn pages: Harbor Freight 9 mil Black Nitrile Gloves

If I were using my thumbs in the outer margins to hold the book open while shooting (i.e. not using a platen to hold down the pages), I'd use a blue colored glove and then replace a range of blue with the margin color.

With your tower scanner I'd try taping some black construction paper across the platen to mask off the areas above and below the page so your hands don't show up at all. You could also tape some black paper "wings" to the cover of the book (or black velvet fabric) and let that drape over the exposed areas of the platen. That might get in the way when flipping the book over and turning pages though.
BillGill
Posts: 139
Joined: 18 Dec 2016, 17:13
E-book readers owned: Calibre, FBReader
Number of books owned: 7000
Country: USA

Re: software to automatically remove fingers?

Post by BillGill »

Thanks, I had been thinking something like that for the gloves. I just hadn't been motivated enough to do the research. Now I have gotten somebody else to do it for me. That's always good for us lazy people.

Bill
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