<p>A prototype ultra-speed scanner capable of digitising a book in one minute will be built within two years, said the chief researcher of the team at the University of Tokyo's Graduate School of Information Science and Technology.<br /><br />The "book-flipping scanning" system works with a camera that can take up to 500 photographs per second, enabling it to record about 170 book pages in 60 seconds as a person thumbs through them.<br /><br />The system adjusts for the distortion caused by the curvature of the moving pages by measuring their three-dimensional forms using infra-red beams, so that the images can be electronically "flattened" to look like the original.<br /><br />"We believe this is the world's fastest (scanning) system as far as the technologies already published are concerned," said Yoshihiro Watanabe, who leads the research team.<br /><br />"We are considering using robots to turn the pages automatically and more neatly," he told AFP by telephone.<br /><br />The university researchers teamed up with Japan's Dai Nippon Printing this month to put the technology to practical use, with the aim of building a prototype scanner within two years.<br /><br />Japanese printing firms are diversifying into e-books, which can be read using handheld devices such as Apple's iPad tablet computer or Amazon's Kindle.<br /><br />Watanabe said the technology to rapidly capture 3-D images of fast-moving objects could be used in a variety of applications from robotics to industrial and automotive design.<br /><br />The technology could be used for quality control of industrial products, he said. "You would just scan products that come out of manufacturing lines," he added.<br /><br />"It could also be used to develop a safer and more comfortable driving system. If mounted on a car, this could take 3-D images of obstacles ahead or dents and bumps in the road to avoid them.<br /><br />"If loaded into the eyes of robots, they would be able to move much faster than humans."<br /><br />Video footage of the system can be seen at http://www.k2.t.u-tokyo.ac.jp/vision/BookFlipScan/index-e.html</p>
<p>A prototype ultra-speed scanner capable of digitising a book in one minute will be built within two years, said the chief researcher of the team at the University of Tokyo's Graduate School of Information Science and Technology.<br /><br />The "book-flipping scanning" system works with a camera that can take up to 500 photographs per second, enabling it to record about 170 book pages in 60 seconds as a person thumbs through them.<br /><br />The system adjusts for the distortion caused by the curvature of the moving pages by measuring their three-dimensional forms using infra-red beams, so that the images can be electronically "flattened" to look like the original.<br /><br />"We believe this is the world's fastest (scanning) system as far as the technologies already published are concerned," said Yoshihiro Watanabe, who leads the research team.<br /><br />"We are considering using robots to turn the pages automatically and more neatly," he told AFP by telephone.<br /><br />The university researchers teamed up with Japan's Dai Nippon Printing this month to put the technology to practical use, with the aim of building a prototype scanner within two years.<br /><br />Japanese printing firms are diversifying into e-books, which can be read using handheld devices such as Apple's iPad tablet computer or Amazon's Kindle.<br /><br />Watanabe said the technology to rapidly capture 3-D images of fast-moving objects could be used in a variety of applications from robotics to industrial and automotive design.<br /><br />The technology could be used for quality control of industrial products, he said. "You would just scan products that come out of manufacturing lines," he added.<br /><br />"It could also be used to develop a safer and more comfortable driving system. If mounted on a car, this could take 3-D images of obstacles ahead or dents and bumps in the road to avoid them.<br /><br />"If loaded into the eyes of robots, they would be able to move much faster than humans."<br /><br />Video footage of the system can be seen at http://www.k2.t.u-tokyo.ac.jp/vision/BookFlipScan/index-e.html</p>