In all technology life cycles a product category gets smaller and less expensive over time. New markets emerge and sub-categories evolve to meet specific needs. Scanners are no different. Hand scanners were originally introduced as an alternative to expensive flatbed scanners. Hand scanners are small enough to hold in your hand. They occupy minimal desktop real estate.
In the past, a hand scanner's image quality wasn't that good. There were problems getting entire pages of text. Though they were more affordable, they weren't an ideal solution. One problem still remains with hand scanners. You use them with your hand. It can be difficult to get a straight scan. Many hand scanners offer software and guides to make sure you get straight scans. These help, but your hand movements aren't always precise. Hand scanners now offer more. They're a personal solution. Use them to do personal imaging. Here are some things you can do with hand scanners:
- Scan small images. A typical scan involves running the scanner over an image or text area. Most hand scanners come in a size that's ideal for scanning 4" x 5" photographs.
How many times have you been at business events and wanted to take a picture of everyone there for the company newsletter? If you don't have digital camera or a flatbed scanner, the picture's probably not going to make it into the newsletter. Hand scanners come with photo editing software and ways to scan the picture into any document you're working on. You get the advantage of a color scanner without the high price.
Since hand scanners are so compact they're great for scanning other small images like logos. Use them to create letterhead templates in your computer. Scan in clip art and make holiday cards. Using hand scanners is great for doing things for yourself.
Logitech (Fremont, CA 510-795-8500) has the ScanMan Color 2000 ($130) for Windows 95. Use it to scan 24-bit color, grayscale and black and white photos, images and text directly into applications. It plugs into the parallel port and scans at 400 x 800 dpi.
It has an AutoStitch feature that automatically merges multiple scans into a single image. This addresses the problem of many early hand scanners. If you wanted to scan a whole page you would have to do it in parts, then put it together. This does it for you.
The scanner is sold with Adobe's PhotoDeluxe. This makes using and manipulating photos you scan easier. Capture a 4"x 5" photo with one swipe of the scanner. To avoid crooked scans, it has StraightScan so you can see how your scan lines up before you start scanning. It comes with Xerox (Rochester, NY 716-423-5090) TextBridge for OCR, so you can read what you scan.
- Make more precise scans. Often you don't need an entire page of text. You may only need a line or two, or just a section. It's much easier to just scan the part of a document you need instead of having to cut and rearrange an entire scan of a page. Often a legal department receives long letters or documents and only a small part of the text needs to be inserted into their existing documents.
The IRISPen from IRIS (Boca Raton, FL 561-395-7831) works on this principle. It's a pen that scans like a highlighter. The text you draw the pen across gets scanned into the IRIS software program. Then paste the scan into any type of document. This lets you get exactly the text that you want.
The highlighter lets you highlight something on the page line by line and immediately put it in text form in any computer application. Open a database, Netscape or something similar, position the cursor and immediately paste in what you have on the paper. It has more functionality than a flatbed.
IRIS has another component for better business use that they sell called the Translator. Say you get a letter from Germany but you can't read it or speak it. Scan in lines of text. The Translator software will first read it to you in German with the proper pronunciation. Then it translates it for you. You can even type in a reply in English and it will translate it into German for you. It works both ways. The Translator is available in five languages.
- Contact management. Hand scanners can help you get organized. They won't clean your office, but they'll help you eliminate the small pieces of paper on your desk. If you're anything like me, you have hundreds of business cards and sticky notes strewn across your desk. Many hand scanners come with contact management software, others scan into database programs like ACT and Microsoft's Outlook.
Corex's (Cambridge, MA 617-492-4200) CardScan Plus 300 ($300) will handle all the business cards you collect. This version of the product comes with the hardware and software. Create databases and share them across a network. It has Web browser access. It scans URL addresses into the appropriate database. Access a contact's Web site by clicking the address.
Another place this kind of scanner makes sense is with palmtop computers. Use CardScan for the PalmPilot to instantly update contact information, synchronize databases and transfer contact information. Corex has a similar version that works with the IBM WorkPad PC companion.
If you have CardScan 2.0 and want to add either of these features, you can upgrade for $60. If you already have version 3.0, you can upgrade for free by accessing their Web site (www.cardscan.com).
- Scan text or images from hard to reach places. One benefit of being compact is that you can get to data or images that bigger or clunkier products can't.
It's easier to get information out of a book with a smaller scanner than to try to get the curve out of an image you scanned from a book on a flatbed scanner.
Most of the software packages that come with the scanners have a feature that lets you scan parts of pages. It lets you put the page back together automatically. This is a big advantage over early versions of the technology where you had to manually put parts of a bigger page together.
