Our company has a potential job to "scan" millions of pages of old documents. The client is asking us to use a digital camera. We have seen systems that use a digital camera in a "box" that looks much like an over head projector set-up that processes images at the rate of 2 images per 10 seconds. The digital camera is placed at the top of the "over head projector" type system while the book lays falt below it. The image is captured and then the page is either turned manualy or automaticaly.

The task is to scan these old documents while keeping them in the original book. The flat bed scanner is not as consistent as we want, when we turn the book over to put it on the glass. Microfilm is ruled out due to customer preference.

Can you please refer us to a company that can provide this type of system? Thank you.

Can you please help me to find a supplier of this item?

-- Troy Gamble (gm9289@chollian.net), September 30, 1998

Answers

A company called Truvel used to make a scanner of the design you mention, but I don't know if they're still in business. (My last contact with them was over 5 years ago.) A key issue will be how much resolution you're trying to get on the page itself (actually, how many pixels you're trying to end up with). You may find that the best solution is a digital studio camera of some sort on a copystand setup.

If you're truly talking about millions of documents, there are a lot of systems issues to be considered, starting with how you're going to handle the documents, moving on to file naming and workflow, storage requirements, and image processing. This is the sort of thing I've consulted on, although I have precious little bandwidth these days to allocate to it. - Email me if you're interested, maybe we can work something out...

Meanwhile, I think the best approach is indeed to think "camera" rather than "scanner," and look at the sort of resolution you can get from digital studio cameras. If you can live with about 2Kx2K pixels, look at Leaf and Megavision/Calumet. Sinar Bron makes a version of the Leaf with some special tweaks for studio work. If you need significantly higher resolution, you'd need to go to scanning camera backs, but their throughput would be significantly lower (and file storage a much bigger problem, due to the dramatically larger files). Makers of scanning backs include Dicomed and PhotoPhase. (Dicomed also makes a single-shot studio camera back.)

This should get you started: Most of the manufacturers I mentioned will have web sites where you can find more info. Calumet out of Chicago has a pretty well-staffed professional digital division that could give you a lot of guidance, they may be a good starting point also. Watch out for system issues though: A million high-res digital images is nothing to be sneezed at!

-- Dave Etchells (web@imaging-resource.com), September 30, 1998.

Sorry, forgot to mention this in my prior post: Go to the "search" link on this forum, and type the phrase "National Archives" to find a thread that covered some of this same ground previously.

-- Dave Etchells (web@imaging-resource.com), September 30, 1998.