david@ms.uky.edu (David Herron -- One of the vertebrae) (12/31/88)
What do people know about these tiny scanners I'm seeing advertised
in the magazines? What sort of interface do they use? How hard is
it to get programming information?
i.e. I'd like to think about getting one and if software doesn't already
exist to interface it to an Amiga to write it myself.
--
<-- David Herron; an MMDF guy <david@ms.uky.edu>
<-- ska: David le casse\*' {rutgers,uunet}!ukma!david, david@UKMA.BITNET
<-- Now I know how Zonker felt when he graduated ...
<-- Stop! Wait! I didn't mean to!papa@pollux.usc.edu (Marco Papa) (12/31/88)
In article <10778@s.ms.uky.edu| david@ms.uky.edu (David Herron -- One of the vertebrae) writes: |What do people know about these tiny scanners I'm seeing advertised |in the magazines? What sort of interface do they use? How hard is |it to get programming information? | |i.e. I'd like to think about getting one and if software doesn't already |exist to interface it to an Amiga to write it myself. The "handy-scanners" need a board to work. The board itself is pretty easy to do, and in IBM PCs uses either serial interrupts or DMA. ALL the ones for the PCs are made by the same company in Taiwan, and then are OEMed to various manufacturers [LOGITECH for example, see their ads in BYTE]. The prices vary from $199 to $399. They capture about 4in by 11in at the smaller res. They can work at 200, 300 and 400 dpi [more dpi -> less vertical distance]. Our company is "thinking" about producing one of these things for the Amiga, though we don't really know whether the market is large enough. -- Marco Papa 'Doc' -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= uucp:...!pollux!papa BIX:papa ARPAnet:pollux!papa@oberon.usc.edu "There's Alpha, Beta, Gamma and Diga!" -- Leo Schwab [quoting Rick Unland] -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
jimm@amiga.UUCP (Jim Mackraz) (01/03/89)
In article <14375@oberon.USC.EDU> papa@pollux.usc.edu (Marco Papa) writes:
)The "handy-scanners" need a board to work. The board itself is pretty easy
)to do, and in IBM PCs uses either serial interrupts or DMA. ALL the ones
)for the PCs are made by the same company in Taiwan, and then are OEMed to
)various manufacturers [LOGITECH for example, see their ads in BYTE].
)The prices vary from $199 to $399. They capture about 4in by 11in at the
)smaller res. They can work at 200, 300 and 400 dpi [more dpi -> less
)vertical distance]. Our company is "thinking" about producing one of these
)things for the Amiga, though we don't really know whether the market is
)large enough.
Hmm, I thought the most visible was produced by Mitsumi, of Japan. There
was another Japanes manufacturer, I recall. Anyway, I wrote software
for a PC and AppleII version of these boards a while ago. If you want a contact
in Mitsumi's USA force, ask me.
My take on these things is that they have some nice specialized uses,
and should be lots cheaper than a page scanner to find a market.
Digitizing logos works nice, business cards work great (the Microfiche Filer
demo of business cards would pair up nicely), it does dollar bills.
And if you had the software to do OCR of magazine/newspaper columns, you'd
have something special, too. You could digitize signatures for low cost, if
you had an application for that.
Without killer OCR, I'd have to wonder about how many people would have
a specialized application and buy one.
You should be able to hook one up through a parallel port, I figure. They rip
in the neighborhood of 50KB/sec.
)-- Marco Papa 'Doc'
jimm
--
Jim Mackraz, I and I Computing "Like you said when we crawled down
{cbmvax,well,oliveb}!amiga!jimm from the trees: We're in transition."
- Gang of Four
Opinions are my own. Comments are not to be taken as Commodore official policy.vinsci@abo.fi (Leonard Norrgard) (01/03/89)
In article <14375@oberon.USC.EDU>, papa@pollux.usc.edu (Marco Papa) writes: > In article <10778@s.ms.uky.edu| david@ms.uky.edu (David Herron -- One of the vertebrae) writes: > |What do people know about these tiny scanners I'm seeing advertised [...] > vertical distance]. Our company is "thinking" about producing one of these > things for the Amiga, though we don't really know whether the market is > large enough. A company in Germany sells handyscanners for the Amiga. They have an ad in Amiga 12/'88 (Markt&Technik) (which BTW is one of the best Amiga mags I've seen), on p. 135. They have two types: Handy-scanner type 2: black&white, recognices text. 598,- DM* Handy-scanner type 3: 16-graytones, recognices text. 898,- DM* * "unverbindliche Preisempfehlung", price may change "Dealer inquiries welcome" Their address etc. is: Reis-Ware Computer-Produkte GmbH D-5584 Bullay Phone: 0 65 42 / 20 86 telex: 4721802 reis d -- Leonard Norrgaard, vinsci@abo.fi, vinsci@finabo.bitnet, +358-21-654474, EET.
ditto@cbmvax.UUCP (Michael "Ford" Ditto) (01/04/89)
In article <10778@s.ms.uky.edu| david@ms.uky.edu (David Herron -- One of the vertebrae) writes: >What do people know about these tiny scanners I'm seeing advertised >in the magazines? What sort of interface do they use? How hard is >it to get programming information? >i.e. I'd like to think about getting one and if software doesn't already >exist to interface it to an Amiga to write it myself. I just read a review the other day in some European Amiga magazine (Amiga User International, I think) of a "handy-scanner" for the Amiga. It is made by a German company, and it includes the driver software, some sort of paint program, and an OCR package that can convert some common fonts into ASCII. I started reading the review, but I was scared off by the claim that it worked on an A500 or A1000 but was "difficult" to use in an A2000, and the manufacturer disclaims responsibility for any damage caused to A2000s! (From that description, I would imagine that it plugs into the CPU slot sideways or something awful like that!.) I seem to remember a price of 299 pounds for the "monochrome" version and 399 pounds for a 16-shade grey scale model. I don't remember any more details, but it was in the Dec 88 or Jan 89 issue. -- -=] Ford [=- "The number of Unix installations (In Real Life: Mike Ditto) has grown to 10, with more expected." ford@kenobi.cts.com - The Unix Programmer's Manual, ...!sdcsvax!crash!elgar!ford 2nd Edition, June, 1972. ditto@cbmvax.commodore.com
daves@hpcilzb.HP.COM (Dave Scroggins) (01/05/89)
>What do people know about these tiny scanners I'm seeing advertised >in the magazines? What sort of interface do they use? How hard is If they are anything like those handheld copiers, then they aren't as useful as one would think. (or at least as I thought.) (Neat toy though. ;-) ) Dave S.