The fastest 2xA2 scanner for books with incomparable image quality.
Features 2 digital cameras of 56 mega pixels each.

A snapshot of the whole surface takes 2 sec for gray scales, 4 sec for color.
Shortest cycle time is respectively 5 sec and 7 sec including page turn !
All competitors are far behind us !

Stop loosing time and money,
get a scanner 4DigitalBooks !

scan2page is a registered trademark of 4DigitalBooks - ASSY SA.

Introduction :

scan2page is a stand-alone semi-automatic scanning workstation that accepts all page formats from the smallest to A2++. It allows scanning any bound documents, lose sheets, fold-outs and inserts. scan2page responds to all you need to scan the most sophisticated book.

It is composed of the following essential tools :
- overhead scanner with 2 snapshot cameras
- overhead dark casing with black roof and 2 lights
- motor actuated book cradle accepting books up to 30cm, up to 30 kg
- automatic glass that allows to press the pages if needed
- 19" rack with necessary computers for image capture and scanner application
- console with 24" monitor, keyboard and mouse
- foot switch

The Scanner :

This scanner has two snapshot cameras of model CopiBook from i2S - France. Each camera takes an image of one page. At each snapshot, two pages of a book are scanned.

Taking images of left page and right page are done simultaneously. This parallel treatment allows twice faster throughput for a large surface or twice more surface for a given image resolution.

Images are taken at optical resolutions of 200, 300, 400 or 600 dpi.
Optical resolutions are not interpolated resolutions !

It is possible to scan at 300 dpi all page formats up to oversize A2++ (54cm x 75cm).
The depth of field of the scanner is about 5 cm and on the whole surface of the book, even for the largest formats !

Digital Cameras :

The scanner presents three working heights that allow to cover the following page formats :
position HIGH :         up to format A2++ (540 x 750 mm)          in 200, 300 dpi
position MED :         up to format A3 (297 x 420 mm)              in 200, 300, 400 dpi
position LOW :         up to format A4 (210 x 297 mm)              in 200, 300, 400, 600 dpi

Switching between positions HIGH, MED, LOW is done manually.
For example in position LOW a book with A4 pages may be scanned at 600 dpi.

For scanning oversize documents that are larger than the book cradle, it is possible to offset the scanner towards the operator. This allows to center the scanner on a wider surface.

If necessary, the camera heads may be brought closer to cover in an optimal way scanning pages of the book. Each camera may be locked in the right position with a handle. Cameras and optics are protected against dust.

Dark Casing and Black Roof :

The dark casing insures that light from the sides will not interfere on the image. The dark casing is designed in order to vanish light sources and to make sure that incident light does not reach the camera.

The black roof insures that light reflected from the ceiling or light from lighting of the room will not interfere on the image.

Static Lights :

Two static lights light up the book from the front and from the rear. The light is in direction of the binding of the book. That insures no shadows in the gutter. Intensity of light on the book is about 1000 LUX, that is a normal office environment in daily light.

The light source is provided by 4 lamps at 6000 K, daily light wide spectrum, with no infra red and no ultra violet  emissions.

All Digital Settings :

All features of the scanner are driven by digital settings :
- auto focus
- exposure
- optical dpi (not interpolated)
- gray mode or color mode setting

No Mechanical Shutters :

Our digital cameras have electronic shutters. Therefore shutters are not subject to replacement as in usual reflex cameras. You will not hear the "clack" sound of the shutter. There is no tear and wear you'll need to carry about. This insures that the cameras DO NOT need maintenance nor replacement of shutters.

Scanning in gray scales or in color :

1 exposure is made for a gray scale image.
3 exposures are made for a color image, in order to compose true optical R, G, B colors.

Why are our cameras better :

Two main reasons : optical DPI and optical RGB

(click to open this document)

Cameras that produce the RAW format are usually built with a kind of Bayer Matrix. Developing the RAW format takes much CPU time. Better interpolation quality needs more time and more sophisticated development methods.

The transfer function (TFT) of Bayer Matrix sensors is usually worse than for 3 Layer Matrix sensors resulting in loss of sharpness and accuracy of image pixels representing the source object.

Note that both sensors will produce the same number of expected pixels as set by the DPI value. In the case of 3 Layer Matrix the pixels will be optically representative of the object. In the case of Bayer Matrix the pixels will be an approximation of the object.

When Scanning Text :

• The output of Bayer Matrix sensors appears softer as a larger gradient of gray scale pixels surround each text character (there is usually a gradient of 3 to 5 pixels on a white to black transition).
• The output of 3 Layer Matrix sensors appears sharper as a very small gradient of gray scale pixels surround each text character (there is usually a gradient of 2 to 3 pixels on a white to black transition).

Constant Speed :

Comparatively to other scanners on the market, the speed of scan2page does not change with the size of scanned images. This is because scan2page has snapshot cameras, where image resolution and scanned surface are set b y the vertical position of the cameras.

Book Cradle :

On the motor actuated Book Cradle, may be loaded books having a thickness up to 30cm and weight up to 30 kg. Operator drives the Book Cradle by a control panel.

The platens may be manually shifted respectively to the left and to the right. Once they are placed in the right position, each platen may be locked with a handle.

The Glass :

The actuated Glass, allows to flatten the pages of a document placed on the book cradle. Motion of glass requires a source of compressed air. Available air pressure shall be 6 bar or more.

One air cleaner is connected to the chassis of the glass. It allows cleaning the working space from dust particles, usually generated by handling large numbers of paper pages.

If needed, the glass may be left in upper position. Then scanning may be done without bringing the glass to the document. Glass motion may be set to move from 10 to 30 cm. Speed of glass motion may be adjusted.

Single Click Mode :

One click on the footswitch allows to do one complete cycle. Starting with the glass in upper position, when the foot switch is pressed, the glass comes down on the book, the scanner takes the image then the glass lifts again. The operator may turn the new page.

Loading a Book :

When loading a book, the glass is left in upper position and the platens of the Book Cradle are brought down.. There is enough space to insert the largest or the smallest book and to center it on the platens. Then the glass is brought down and the platens are brought up so that left and right pages of the book touch the glass.

The book is usually placed to insure that the spine of the binding is in the empty space between the platens.

Flattening Pages :

Flattening the surface of the page with a glass provides a large number of benefits for the image :
- no undesired curves on the image from wavy paper, from bent pages
- no reflection of glossy papers, angles of incidence of light on the paper are optimal
- proportions of objects on the page are represented accurately on the image. A square remains a square (not a trapezoid) a circle remains round (not a potato).
- scanning surface may be set in the middle of the depth of field of the camera, insuring optimal focus and optimal sharpness over the whole surface of the page.
- all scanned surface is parallel to the cameras, insuring equal DPI over the whole surface

Scanning Software :

The scanning software "CopiNet" is included in the scan2page product. It offers all necessary features to capture pages, set and size cropping areas.

It also includes a number of essential enhancements for capturing images :

- Digital measuring of effective DPI of image

When scanning a book with the glass, the glass serves as a reference plane for the DPI settings of the camera.
When scanning a book without using the glass, there is no mechanical reference plane. Depending of the thickness of the book, it may be placed over or under the reference plane of the DPI settings of the camera. Therefore a book could be scanned at 305 DPI or 295 DPI instead of the desired 300 dpi. The effective DPI setting may be measured by the application that allows the user to correct the vertical placement of the book by adjusting the height of the platens of the Book Cradle.

- Setting of white balance over the whole scene of scanned image

This is most useful to insure that a reference white page has the same quality of white on the whole surface.

- Correction of lighting

This insures that scanning of a white page will provide equal quantity of light over the whole surface. If a lighting correction is not done, the image will be usually brighter in the center, that is not desirable.

- Digital chromatic correction of lens imperfections

This insures that there is no offset of RGB colors in the corners of largest square images. The best lenses have imperfections when large images are scanned. These imperfections may be observed by chromatic artifacts in the corners of a large image. When a straight black line is scanned, the gray scale transitions from the white page to the black line, may present a slight bluish or reddish aspect. These artifacts are measured and corrected to reach a perfect black - white transition.

- Embedding of ICC profiles in scanned images

The scanner may be precisely calibrated with an ICC profile. This profile may be produced by an application such as "Profile Maker Pro". The profile file (.ICC) may be embedded in each scanned image. This allows further reproduction of accurate colors.

The Process :

Operator may turn pages during the time of saving images. Operator may trigger a new scan before previous scan cycle has finished and therefore prevent loss of time between consecutive scans.

- Ergonomics :

The operator usually sits in front of the book cradle with his legs under the platens. The book remains at the same place while the glass moves up and down. The operator brings his hands to the book always at the same height that does not add extra movements subject to make him tired.
The space in front of the operator is constantly free so that the document may be seen all the time. The supervision monitor is installed in front of the operator for permanent inspection and direct comparison between the original document and the digital image.

- Throughput Calculations :

Digitization of newspapers and particularly large formats requires maximum surface and maximum image resolution. In this context it is possible to measure the lowest throughput of the scanner.

Below, we show that even in these conditions, the throughput of this scanner is still very high.

- Scanning in 300 dpi gray scales the largest format :

Normally 3 seconds is enough time to turn a page of any kind of bound document.

If the glass is used, the scanning process cycle is :

If the glass is not used, the scanning process cycle is :

case 1 :

case 2 :

Applications and References :

scan2page is particularly suitable for documents with large pages like newspapers, magazines, registration books such as civil records or land registrations.

Most demanding customers have chosen this product because of its high quality images and speed performance.
This scanner is used in service bureaus where speed is a crucial performance factor.

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