DIY Book Scanners Turn Your Books Into Bytes. For nearly two years, Daniel Reetz dreamed of a book scanner that could crunch textbooks and spit out digital files he could then read on his PC. Book scanners, like the ones. The Cambridge Latin Course (CLC) is a series of textbooks published Cambridge University Press, used to teach Latin to secondary school students. First published in 1970, the series is now in its fifth edition, and has sold. Benefit with Springer Free eTextbooks are revolutionizing the college scene as students take advantage of a host of free etextbooks available online. We’ve taken the time to compile a comprehensive list of over 800+ free online textbooks that you. DIY Book Scanners Turn Your Books Into Bytes. For nearly two years, Daniel Reetz dreamed of a book scanner that could crunch textbooks and spit out digital files he could then read on his PC. Book scanners, like the ones Google is using in its Google Books project, run into thousands of dollars, putting them out of the reach of a graduate student like Reetz. But in January, when textbook prices for the semester were listed, Reetz decided he would make a book scanner that would cost a fraction of commercially available products. So over three days, and for about $3. Canon Powershot A5. To use it, he simply loads in a book and presses a button, then turns the page and presses the button again. Each press of the button captures two pages, and when he’s done, software on Reetz’s computer converts the book into a PDF file. The Reetz DIY book scanner isn’t automated–you still need to stand by it to turn the pages. But it’s fast and inexpensive.“The hardware is ridiculously simple as long as you are not demanding archival quality,” he says. The guide has sparked more than 4. It has also spawned a website, DIYbookscanner. Indonesia, Russia and Britain have contributed hardware refinements and software programs. Now wearing a large black coat and a carrying a duffel bag that’s stuffed with a scanner made from laser- cut plywood, Reetz goes to conferences to show how anyone can create a machine to scan all the books they own. As consumers turn to e- readers — about 3 million are expected to be sold by the end of the year — they are also looking for ways to bring their old textbooks and paperbacks into the digital world. And a small group is discovering that the best way to do that is to create a scanner yourself. The scanner is also helping digitize out- of- print books and help people with disabilities get features like text- to- speech that publishers won’t offer or are downright opposed to. A DIY book scanner also raises questions of piracy and copyright. The basic question being: Do you really own a book in all its forms when you buy a book? At the same time, ironically, the DIY book scanner is helping new create new tools to make copyright information more accessible. Tulane University is building a scanner based on Reetz’s design that would let it digitize its collection of copyright documents. That is expected to help the university develop a web- based service called . Not to mention that the design of the scanners means that you have to open the book binding wide and press it flat, which can damage the book. Instead, book scanners are designed to hold the book open at a 9. A cradle holds the book face up so that it is gentle on the binding. This kind of scanner is also faster, because it can capture images of two pages simultaneously, using a camera instead of a scanning element. But commercial book scanners that are completely automated cost anywhere from $5,0. The $5. 0,0. 00 Kirtas book scanner, for instance, can capture 3,0. Reetz’s scanner cuts that cost to a bare minimum: All you need are two basic digital cameras and some readily available construction materials. All the software and post- processing programs are open source and available for free. But creating the system required a few hacks and a dash of ingenuity. Inexpensive digital cameras are ideal, but they have limitations. For starters, you need to hold down a button to click a picture. And the two cameras in a book scanner need to be synchronized. Reetz found a program called Stereodatamaker for Canon cameras that could synchronize multiple cameras and flash. All users have to do it is download it to a SD card and insert it into their camera.“The cameras are running hacked firmware and it works pretty well,” he says.”Then we take it to a whole new level for processing the images.”Daniel Reetz shows his DIY book scanner. That would be with some help from Scan Tailor, an open source application written by 2. Russian programmer Joseph Artsimovich. Scan Tailor can take the raw, scanned images of the book and split the pages, add or remove borders and process all of the images into a single file.“You absolutely need post- processing software for digitizing books,” says Artsimovich. That would depend on who you talk to, says Pamela Samuelson, a professor at University of California at Berkeley, who specializes in digital- copyright law. Trade publishers are almost certain to cry copyright infringement, she says, though it may not necessarily be the case. Google was recently forced to pay $1. But not so individual users who already own the book, says Samuelson. If you scan a book that you have already purchased, it is “fine, and fair use,” she says. Publishers today sell digital versions to customers who already own hardcover or paperback versions of the same book.“You cannot look at this idea from the perspective of whether the publisher can make extra money,” says Samuelson. Most of us want the convenience of buying digital books for the Kindle, Nook or Sony Reader.”And unless, it becomes a hotbed of pirated content, the DIY scanner is unlikely to have a Napster- like end, says Samuelson. Check out the video below of Daniel Reetz talking about why DIY scanner is fun. DIY Book Scanner Introduction and Motivation from Daniel Reetz on Vimeo. The DIY book scanner looks like this, from different angles. Top Photo: DIY book scanner/Daniel Reetz. Second photo: Daniel Reetz shows his DIY book scanner. Skip To: Start of Article. If you’re going to sell a book online, you need to know how much it is worth. To get a quick idea, search for the book title on Google, which will typically return results that include the book’s current price. 10 thoughts on “ Another study points to advantages of printed textbooks ” KiltBear June 27, 2011 at 6:19 pm “I have some difficulty paying careful attention to long passages on my computer,” Does it matter if the. 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