Create Your Own Digital Library
2003-07-30 01:53 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
archershipsI love books, but they take up a lot of room and aren't very portable. I'm thinking of digitally photographing the pages of my favorite books, storing them on a portable firewire drive, then selling most of them. There appear to be a number of copy stands intended for this purpose (among others), but I don't want to get something so specialized. Rather, what I would like to get is a tripod with an long arm that clamps to the tripod's center pole. At the end of the arm I'd attach a 360' ball joint, which in turn would be attached to the camera. Has anyone else done what I'm proposing? If so, what are your experiences?
[Edit:
Below is a ascii side view of what I have in mind:
[Edit:
Below is a ascii side view of what I have in mind:
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no subject
Date: 2003-07-29 11:21 pm (UTC)BTW, I love books, too, and usually prefer the real thing rather than digital copies, but I also would like to have digital copies of my books available. What I'd really like is to be able to access them via a 100%-waterproof, extremely lightweight PDA (so that I could take them in a bathtub for instance, and even have part of it underwater) or better yet, projected directly onto my retina.
no subject
Date: 2003-07-29 11:38 pm (UTC)My setup would have the advantage over the portable copy stands of having a larger flat area (no copy stand base to get in the way), and the tripod/arm combination could be used for other things in addition to being a copy stand.
Below is an crude ascii picture of what I have in mind. The tripod is on the left. The arm extends out at 90 degrees, with a camera mounted on a 360 degree ball joint at the end.
|| || || || (ball) (camera) ===================O===[ ] || == || || || || || || || /||\ (book) / || \ /------\/------\ / || \ ================ ====================================a book-photographing stand
Date: 2003-07-30 12:27 am (UTC)Also, that would take a crapload of time. Furthermore, you could not legally sell the books after making digital copies. You only own one license to that particular intellectual property, so you'd have to keep or destroy the books.
Maybe a better idea is to donate them to a local library. Then you can borrow them almost whenever you want, but you don't have to store them. However, make sure the library has lots of space because sometimes they dispose of unwanted books too.
Yeah, if every publisher let us have a choice of print format or e-book, that would rock.
no subject
Date: 2003-07-30 12:14 pm (UTC)Local libraries don't have a lot of room, so they're pretty ruthless about throwing books out. Many of my books would probably be of interest to only a few people.
incidentally
Date: 2003-07-30 12:36 am (UTC)I propose: a bookstore where you can get any book you want, any book in the world, in print, out of print, whatever, in under 15 minutes at a reasonable price. The place would be like a Starbucks-type coffee shop basically, with computer kiosks in one side where you call up all the libraries on earth to make your book selection. You choose a few options such as "hardcover or softcover", "font size" and go sit down to enjoy your delicious (high profit-margin) espresso beverage and confection of choice.
The back room or basement looks more like a Kinkos, with high-speed printing and binding machines rapidly churning out individually-customized books for the patrons. Within 10-15 minutes you get your book delivered to your table, and you can recline on one of the many soft chairs to read.
I have not researched printer technology so I'm not sure how fast a personalized book can be printed and bound, or at what cost. Also you would have to work out agreements with all the major publishers which might make the service too expensive. You have to be able to get the latest and greatest bestsellers or people will just go to Barnes&Noble regardless. However if this is feasible it would be really interesting.
I myself would be the type who would get addicted to the feeling of reading a new book "when it's still warm".
Re: incidentally
Date: 2003-07-30 03:37 am (UTC)is a market for this kind of book printing service.
The challenge is to make the whole process
automated and integrated. You know printers
and computers are not always compatible. For
this reason, we need at least one person in
standby to watch the whole process in case
something goes wrong.
I know that the magazines are printed locally.
Whenever a publisher releases issue of a
magazine, they send out a template to the local
print shop. I am wonder how easy it is to
modify such a template. Perhaps we can take
a trip to a print shop that prints magazines
for publishers.
Re: incidentally
Date: 2003-07-30 09:54 am (UTC)Re: incidentally
Date: 2003-07-31 04:28 am (UTC)convince the publishers to cooperate. They
use different kind of software to edit and
store templates of about-to-be-published books.
To make them customizable is going to take time
and energy, not to mention the risk of having
the templates stolen. I think they will go
along with it if there is a huge benefit for
them - money. If the market research tells
them that they can make more money, then
they will rush in, like a pirate seeing a
ship full of gold.
no subject
Date: 2003-07-30 12:01 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2003-07-30 05:27 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2003-07-30 12:20 pm (UTC)If I was willing to destroy the books, I could just cut the backs off the books and feed them through a document feeder into a scanner. But that would be very difficult for me to do.
no subject
Date: 2003-07-30 02:32 pm (UTC)use an arm with on-off suction cups to turn the pages. The book is held in place as the arm reaches into the middle of the right page. When the arm gets back, it releases pressure and lets the page fall back, finishing the turning operation. Some help from a page-pushing/page-holding arm may be necessary, but this wouldn't be anything new.
If the paper is the non-shiny kind and won't stick, find a way to coat it so that it's easier to stick. Shine is not a problem with proper lighting.
you're missing...
Date: 2003-07-30 05:42 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2003-07-30 07:28 am (UTC)It also seems to me that a simple flatbed scanner should be useful for this purpose....
no subject
Date: 2003-07-30 12:29 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2003-07-30 08:09 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2003-07-30 12:29 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2003-07-30 02:14 pm (UTC)I actually paid like $40 for the copy stand, which is now useless. I photographed a few pages, but didn't get around to OCRing them. My ideal device for this could be named "book2pdf".
The other thing I wanted to do is digitize my thousands of scribbles, including math, drawings and lots of handwriting. This could be done, but the resulting medium (a simple picture format) would be far from desirable. Still, I searched for ways to automate snapping (pressing the camera button for each page is a little troublesome), lighting and automatic feeding (the stack-of-paper analog of flipping) of pages with ADFs (automatic document feeders). If automated and properly synchronized, I could leave them doing their thing. But it was to be yet another idea that stayed on paper... or rather, on mind.
By the way, once this sort of process gets good enough, scanners will become obsolete. The cameras' resolution is already more than enough.
hmm
Date: 2003-07-30 05:40 pm (UTC)Re: hmm
Date: 2003-07-30 07:59 pm (UTC)But that's a fairly small problem given a decent distance, say 70cm, especially if the text is going to be OCRed.
But for the sake of the pictures and all, you can always use some good old digital geometrical transforms, or maybe a special kind of lens designed to correct that. For the former approach, laying a gridded transparent glass on top of the sheet may be helpful.
no subject
Date: 2006-04-25 06:25 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-04-25 06:35 pm (UTC)||
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Camera shots are horizontal; therefore, lay the book in a horizontal position. No ball should be used. A ball would create imbalance. Rock-hard stability is best.