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DIY Book Scanner

diybookscanner.org

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Re: DIY Book Scanner

#71
post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Spreads[0] is probably what you are referring to. Some backstory: I saw the diybookscanner community - which at that point mostly had Daniel Reetz [1] as its active contributor- struggle with mechanical contraptions for triggering cameras and very little software experience. I built a simple proof of concept to reliably trigger cheap consumer cameras using software. I built it on CHDK[2], the Canon Hack Development K…

Hi Mark! We had electronic and USB triggering working with SDM and CHDK before you joined. But no image transfer or control of settings by USB. We deliberately pursued mechanical triggering for places where a computer and crazy firmware wasn't an option. I donated quite a few scanners to projects and people who simply couldn't use that stuff at the digitization site. Johannes (spreads) was one of the most inspiring p…

Hello Dan! Nice to see you here!

Rereading my previous comment, I realise that part of it could be misinterpreted. The diybookscanner project was wonderful to be part of, to contribute to.

One thing I realise was particularly impressive about diybookscanner.org was how much time you spent making it an environment friendly to broad experimentation and tinkering. Exploring broadly was absolutely necessary for a project like this. Mechanical triggering, the SDM experiments I had forgotten about, lighting, glass experiments, and more.

You sowed some powerful seeds. Your effort nursed diybookscanner.org into something that still speaks to the imagination of so many people. I feel privileged to have been part of that, and I'm more than happy to give you full credit.

Re: DIY Book Scanner

#72
When I was in college the iPad had just come out. I was determined to save money so I snagged an iPad to use as my omnitextbook and built a scanner based upon one of the schematics on this site with a friend.

I would usually be the guy that made an email group for everyone to share notes and questions for classes pre all of the blackboard garbage, so I started leveraging those connections and would ask if anyone would let me borrow their book for a scanned version in return. My friends and I would have a book scanning party and would help to scan each others’ books. We’d grab some drinks, find some favorite albums and hang out all night until the wee hours taking turns scanning texts.

After one semester the setup paid for itself. I would supplement some texts with learning trackers like bitme before amazing resources came around like libgen. Good times.

Re: DIY Book Scanner

#73
post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Spreads[0] is probably what you are referring to. Some backstory: I saw the diybookscanner community - which at that point mostly had Daniel Reetz [1] as its active contributor- struggle with mechanical contraptions for triggering cameras and very little software experience. I built a simple proof of concept to reliably trigger cheap consumer cameras using software. I built it on CHDK[2], the Canon Hack Development K…

Hi Mark! We had electronic and USB triggering working with SDM and CHDK before you joined. But no image transfer or control of settings by USB. We deliberately pursued mechanical triggering for places where a computer and crazy firmware wasn't an option. I donated quite a few scanners to projects and people who simply couldn't use that stuff at the digitization site. Johannes (spreads) was one of the most inspiring p…

> (they refused to let me continue any work on the open- source project while I was employed there)

I somehow thought that was illegal for residents of California, and IMHO should be illegal nationwide on general "not indentured servitude" grounds. Then again, I guess who wants to go up against Apple's legal team to find out

Re: DIY Book Scanner

#74
post #66

At Japan in the meantime, people in book scanning community (that exists) often just cut the book spine and scan the pages using normal scanner, throw it away once all the pages are scanned. People (rightly) value room spaces than books there. It's called "Ji-sui" (scanning by oneself) and gear recommendation sites like [1] are abundant. Another reason of "Ji-sui" prevalence was the poor availability of ebooks, altho…

One business I kinda want to exist is a book warehouse/scanning operation. I send them boxes of books; they give me an app with access to digital versions of every book I send them. The whole operation is somewhere in, say, Nebraska, so storage cost is very low.

[deleted]

Re: DIY Book Scanner

#75

I remember reading about Google's book scanner that operated automatically using vacuum pressure to gently flip pages. I'd love to see an open source variety of that.

Google Linear Book Scanner https://yewtu.be/watch?v=7MNqINDm1lk

See also: https://linearbookscanner.org/

Re: DIY Book Scanner

#76

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Were you using gloves or something like that?

Unsure about IA, but gloves are typically advised against[0] unless you have a suspicion that the book will be dangerous (arsenic ink in bindings[1], dust, mold or frass (sadly)[2]). Hand-washing before is typical advice but YMMV [0] https://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/features/why-wearing-gloves... [1] https://daily.jstor.org/some-books-can-kill/ [2] https://www.ifla.org/node/93094

I get the points against gloves in your links, but from my experience my hands will constantly leave fingerprints and oil on the books no matter how much I wash it.

How do they avoid this issue? Or just don't bother?

Re: DIY Book Scanner

#77
post #66

At Japan in the meantime, people in book scanning community (that exists) often just cut the book spine and scan the pages using normal scanner, throw it away once all the pages are scanned. People (rightly) value room spaces than books there. It's called "Ji-sui" (scanning by oneself) and gear recommendation sites like [1] are abundant. Another reason of "Ji-sui" prevalence was the poor availability of ebooks, altho…

One business I kinda want to exist is a book warehouse/scanning operation. I send them boxes of books; they give me an app with access to digital versions of every book I send them. The whole operation is somewhere in, say, Nebraska, so storage cost is very low.

Similar scanning services exist in Japan as well (ex. [1]). The difference is that they kindly discard the books for you once getting scanned!

[1] https://www.bookscan.co.jp/

Re: DIY Book Scanner

#78
post #8

Nice to provide hardware hints and designs but geez that is almost the least of it. Cleverest hardware still only gets you a thumb drive full of page images. Now what? There needs to be a software workflow ending with a readable book in PDF, EBOOK or MOBI format, and there are many, many choices to be made along that path. Edit: "Finishing a book" is discussed at a very superficial level here: https://vimeo.com/user3…

Just page images? No, Czur software with its OCR generates searchable pdfs and Word or Excel files with no further input. With careful attention to the scanned area, it's easy to get .xlsx files needing zero or minimal editing. The other advantage of the Czur is the automatic correction for curvature when scanning books with narrow margins on either side of the spine.

No, I have no connection with Czur - just an enthusiastic user!

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