
Google Books team open sources a book scanner - cleverjake
http://hackaday.com/2012/11/16/google-books-team-open-sources-their-book-scanner
======
Simucal
I thought the design of their book scanner was very creative. It was also
really interesting to see how they were basically able to prototype the entire
thing in a day using cardboard they found around the office and a vacuum
cleaner. I read through their design document and I'm considering trying to
model all the various parts in CAD software for others to use.

However, the figure they posted of 45% of books tearing a page was a little
troubling. I'm hoping the design can be improved to be gentler on the books. I
read someone else mention that if you wanted to use this scanner on a book
then you likely don't care about possibly damaging it. If that is the case,
then why not just cut off the binding and feed the pages into a sheet fed
scanner? If you do care about the books being damaged then you would likely
use one of the more expensive automated scanners or a manual scanner.

~~~
Someone
I think the use of air pressure to pick up individual sheets of paper goes
back to card readers (as in
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Punched_card_reader>). See for example
[http://bitsavers.trailing-
edge.com/pdf/documation/M300_TechM...](http://bitsavers.trailing-
edge.com/pdf/documation/M300_TechMan_Jan72.pdf) (page 9):

 _"The riffle air acts on the first half inch of cards in the input hopper so
that they stand apart [...] This prevents the cards from sticking together"_

 _"The picker mechanism utilizes a strong vacuum to grasp the bottom card"_

So, this might seem creative, but programmers over the age of 50 or so will
find it old-fashioned :-)

Also 45% chance of a page with a teared page to me sounds much and much better
than 100% of chance of having the back completely cut away from your book.

~~~
jimktrains2
It was also 45% chance that a book would end up with a tear, not a 45% chance
per page.

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mrinterweb
A prime example of a difference between Google and Apple both on HN front page
at the same time. "Apple patents the page turn":
[http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/11/16/apple-now-owns-
the-...](http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/11/16/apple-now-owns-the-page-
turn/?smid=tw-nytimesbits&seid=auto) Then Google open sources a book scanner.

~~~
dboat
Not sure I see what you're getting at here. Care to elaborate?

~~~
jonknee
Google open sourced something related to books and Apple patented something
ridiculous related to books. Not a direct comparison as both companies have
patents, but Google does share with the community a ton more than Apple.

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stevenrace
To be clear, 'their book scanner' refers to a '20% project' by an employee -
not the actual hardware behind Google Books.

~~~
cypherpunks01
Is there any public knowledge about what the hardware behind Google Books
looks like?

~~~
DanBC
There's this snippet showing that humans are involved.

([http://thenextweb.com/google/2012/03/18/google-books-
scannin...](http://thenextweb.com/google/2012/03/18/google-books-scanning-
errors-turned-into-works-of-art/))

~~~
swohns
I'd like a comparison between human tearing of books and the machine. 45%
seems way too high.

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cmsmith
For reference, here is a camera-based DIY automatic book scanner:
[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1PE1Z4wl9fk&feature=relmf...](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1PE1Z4wl9fk&feature=relmfu)

As far as I can tell, the main advantage of the google device over this one is
the ability to keep the book open to less than 90 degrees. Though I think his
(close to) 45% damage rate is worse for the books in the aggregate. I'm sure
that it could be refined to get the error rate down, but I think that
mechanically handling the pages right near the spine (as the google scanner
does) may never be that safe.

------
NatW
I hope innovations like this could reduce the price of book scanning. I
recently used a book service in San Jose to scan all my books:
<http://1dollarscan.com>. It was good experience, with good support, but a bit
pricey with their extras.

~~~
SiVal
Sounds great until you look more closely. Here's the plan:

1) Gather up all your treasured books and send them to us 2) We'll make scans
of them 3) We'll then grind your favorite books into compost, so you can Save
The Planet! Yay!

$1500 Google design I still have to build myself that only damages 45% of my
books? No, thanks.

Scanning service that only charges me 1$/book to destroy my books for me? No,
thanks.

I think I'll just look around, thank you.

~~~
stfu
It depends on the circumstances. This service is brilliant for people outside
of the US who are interested in books published in the US. You can send books
directly from Amazon,com or from one of the used sellers. Therefore you only
pay regular postage and find most of the time used versions of a book (which
not always ship international).

When I was in Europe, I would have paid $15 for the only available used
version of a book on the local Amazon, with 1dollarscan I payed $1 book + $3
shipping + $2 for the scan.

