Blog post: https://plus.google.com/u/0/+BenjaminSt ... qypUXGbixuLinear Book Scanner is a prototype automatic book scanning device. The device moves a book face-down over linear sensors to capture page images, and uses vacuum pressure to turn pages automatically as the book moves.
YouTube video of the Google TechTalk: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4JuoOaL11bw
Source code and plans: http://code.google.com/p/linear-book-scanner/
From the blog post:
Any patents needed to build this are also open licensed (within the context of this particular scanner). The license does note that if you improve upon the scanner and thereby infringe other, additional patents, those are not covered.Hi! I work on the Google Books team. Today I am incredibly proud of some of my teammates, because after very quietly working on this project for a long time, their research and labor has finally been released as an open-source project with open patents!
This is one of the most innovative scanner designs I've ever seen, and now anybody can build one given the right materials and skills. And - get this - the total cost is only around $1500.
If it's not clear what is going on here, what they've invented is a new type of paper scanner. It can scan both sides of every page in an entire thousand-page-long book without a human touching the device at all once it starts, and it will never tear a page. How amazing is that?
Watch the tech talk video! You too can build a book-scanning cheese grater out of bits of sheet metal, a stepper motor, a vacuum cleaner(!), and parts from flatbed scanners that you can buy at Fry's.