I want one, yet I dont even know why.

I think I just came. Now this is what BitTorrent is for.

This is like a DVD Ripper for your Kindle.

I feel like this could be simplified and make significantly less expensive with a scanner and some duct tape.

Certainly much more efficient than the 92BLS 60, but not nearly as attractive.

I'd be worried about it eating older, more fragile books. mmmmm original printings are delicious!

Does it know automatically if it skipped a page?

@Margatron:

Only if it's enjoying the narrative.

Wow! Now if they can figure out a way to archive the data in a stable way that will last more than 10 or 20 years.

Maybe they could print out a copy of the digital files and attach the pages in some way using glue and a protective "cover".

I'm getting tired of physical books. Its time to make books 100% digital and stop killing trees.

Need input. More input! No disassemble Johnny Five! : (

This is great! now when are they going to stop charging ridiculous amounts for college books that are obsolete the next year?

This thing really is awesome.
BUT
This .gif will follow me around the net until I am completely insane.

hoho heehee haha...

+ Watch video

@daftrok: Yes won't someone please think of the trees.

@Margatron: At 250 grand I would expect it to. All it needs to do is track the page # in the corner. ;)

@Oldbrass:

Luddite! (I secretly agree.)

@strider_mt2k:

I don't know, Peter, meth is a hell of a drug.

@bobman1235: I am the Lorax, I speak for the trees...

Too many robots will bring us to our knees...

The robots scan books, the robots fight fires...

The robots give us everything, our little heart desires...

At the end of it all there will be some fretting, when some damn fool engages the "Kill All Humans" setting.

Also, terrible for the spine.

Someone needs to tinker up a DIY version of this.

@ibelli:
So is your momma! OOOOOH!

@tamoko:

Yeah look for it next week. Made out of Legos.

@BasicBlack: The thing is that I was only partially funny. Obviously, scanning books is very important for easy copying but for long term data storage? Hmmm.

I was part of a group who was trying to work out the best long term data storage possible was. We went from the obvious tape storage to the hypothetical "magnetic drives in outer space". In the end, we decided that the best way was to carve it on stone and bury the stone.

I even got paid for that work! Then we went out for drinks on the company. w00t! I love I.T.

300 books an hour? I've been staring at that video for 2 hours now and it's still on the same book! Same page even!

@OMG! Ponies!:

Yay! I'll read it to my son tonight. It won't scare him; I've convinced him that he's subhuman.

Finally they've priced the phones at their actual worth.

For $250k that thing better pull the book off the shelf. It doesn't look terribly complicated, just a couple of arms running on rails, synchronized to a camera below taking a snapshot (scanners are for suckers). The quality of digital cameras today are more than enough for text. I'm willing to bet someone could make something similiar for a couple thousand.

I work at a mail house (we process bulk mailings... sorry everyone!) and our machines often times take up more than one page. It's good to see advances are being made in paper handling, assuming this thing never grabs more than what it's supposed to.

Now does it actually transfer the scanned text to a word format type text or is it all just bitmapped TIFFs and PDFs? Because it would be way cooler if it were editable text.

@toyotaboy:

I dunno. I think the work is in the developing non-destructive page turning. I imagine you would need some kind of tactile sensors to determine the amount of stress is being applied to the page and a means of reducing the stress on the fly.

Might be more complicated than it seems.

This is only for people like Google that are trying to catalog all literature in the known world (is there an "unknown world"?).

The application of this technology is on one hand useful and on the other hand disturbing. I want to be able to search through books but then if people stop printing books then what will I do when my power goes out? What will I do when skynet (Google) doesn't let me get the information I want because the corporate entity that took over from the founders has a different idea of how free information should be.

Let's not forget the library at Alexandria which was the storehouse for all human knowledge until it burned. If Google goes insolvent what happens to all that info and the access to it?

I suppose the same could have been said for books until there were public libraries. There has to be some kind of plan that ensures that the information is readable even without computers.

That said, I have no idea how to do that.

@OMG! Ponies!: You win this round!

I work for the Library at my University and our book scanners cost about $10,000 a piece, I thought that was expensive but these are just wow. I might have to show my supervisor this and see if they would put it on the wish list :)

@loadedthorn: Beautiful...now where the hell are my bins of LEGOS?

this will be great to hopefully put books that I actually read onto those electronic book readers. i want

"tearing through a whole stack of books every day"

Bit of an unfortunate choice of words there.

3,000 pages an hour? Aww, but I want it now!

@Castle1914: Actually, I work for a company that used to have a division that had every printed article and book on microfiche and was in the process of moving it to data. The data was accessible by universities and schools for a price. But, the CEO ran the company like and idiot and we split off from that portion and now he's out of a job and that part is out of business.

I've always wondered how such things were done. I must say, while the gif is pretty cool, it's somewhat of a letdown. That's not to say I actually had an idea of what to expect...

This is the first step people! First the robot armies scan in all human knowledge, next they start learning it, then they'll kill us all!

I can see this being useful for books that are hard to come by, but why not just sacrifice a copy of a book by cutting its cover and binding off and scanning it as a stack of paper?

For a personal alternative just buy a $400 Fujitsu ScanSnap and a craft knife.

Cut off binding, load, easy :)

Just make sure it's not a super $$$ book mmmkay?

@agahnim: Exactly :)

Also, terrible for the spine.

@ibelli:

Go to the Chir-"e"-practor

@agahnim: @aelver: Someone's been reading some Vernor Vinge.

Regarding the post, I imagine though they do it this way because it's cheaper. Books aren't that expensive, but they aren't $1 either. At $250,000 for a machine you only have to borrow and scan 25,000 books to come out ahead.

Check out Kirtas. Their unit will scan 2400 pages an hour and it doesn't flatten the book.

Kirtas has a scanner that does 2400 pages per hour and it doesn't flatten the spine

Honestly, I find it easier to melt the binding off a book [unless it is tied or stapled, but those are easy enough to remove], then place the pages in a normal double sided automatic scanner. Once complete, put pages back together, and rebind. The most important tool that you need to do that is a book press, which can be had for relatively cheap compared to that machine scanner.

@vertigo: The PDF Brochure says "Optical resolutions at 200 and 300 dpi are available for OCR applications..." So I guess you need some uber OCR software too on the backend.

Careful. Scanning that book could release Moloch to the internet

Hey Giz, I think you should offer a 2500 dollars to someone who can whip up the best homebrew book scanner.

I bet there are a lot of engineers out there who can do this for a lot less money.