I'd love to own one of these! Actually, it is more likely to be found in libraries. The book2net Spirit is a high resolution book scanner that is designed to replace photocopiers. By eliminating the need for paper, toner, and maintenance, libraries can reduce costs. The Spirit can easily be attached to a cost recovery system or coin-op to generate revenue.
The book2net Spirit is simple to use. It has to be simple, as it is intended to be used by the general public in libraries. The user places a book on the flat bed of the scanner and presses a button to capture images of the book. He or she then must manually turn the page and push a button again to create an image of the next two pages. Each push of the button requires about one second to create the image of the two pages. The actual scan requires 0.2 seconds while the remainder of the time is consumed by image processing software in the scanner's built-in PC.
The book2net Spirit has no moving parts, which should significantly reduce maintenance requirements. The lack of moving parts also makes the book2net Spirit ideal for scanning old or delicate materials. It also requires no paper and no toner, making it cheaper to operate than photocopiers.
All control is performed from the included touchscreen; there is no keyboard or mouse required. Images can be saved as single page JPG, PDF, TIFF, JPEG2000 or as multipage PDF or TIFF files.
The scanner typically takes images of two pages at a time in its 13.82-by-19.21 inch (351 x 488 mm) scanning area. Newspapers and oversized books can be scanned one page at a time.
The high resolution images can be saved to a USB flash drive or can be sent as attached files in an email message. If the user doesn't have a flash drive available, he or she can send the images to himself or herself or to anyone else via email. At the library's option, each image may have an embedded, custom-made watermark.
The book scanner weighs 53 pounds (24 kg). book2net Spirit devices are already installed at the Library of Congress, the British Library, the University of Toronto, McGill University, and many other libraries.
If you want a book2net Spirit in your living room, you will have to pay more than $10,000, depending on the options selected. Obviously, that's not cost effective for private individuals but is rather cheap when compared to similar units designed for use in libraries and elsewhere.
You can learn more about the book2net Spirit book scanner at http://www.book2net.net or watch a YouTube video at http://youtu.be/NtFzvvZcaXY or click on the image below:
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