Post something about yourself here (The Hello Thread)

A place to introduce yourself, and to meet other awesome people.

Moderator: peterZ

MerlinMags
Posts: 11
Joined: 10 Sep 2012, 12:24
E-book readers owned: Kindle
Number of books owned: 1000
Country: UK

Re: Post something about yourself here (The Hello Thread)

Post by MerlinMags »

Hi, my name is Magnus and I live in the UK. I'm keen to build a book scanner and OCR the pages so I have searchable files to use for research projects on books relating to my favourite author, Arthur Ransome. I find the ability to instantly search 100 books for a particular word is amazing. Helps me find themes/objects/people that link certain books together. Helps me find the page I want without flicking through for half an hour. Helps me analyse writing style, even.

I really love old books. The smellier the better. Sadly I have had to cut down on buying paper books as I just dont have the money (large bookshelves are damn expensive too). I own a Kindle and think it is a brilliant invention for reading free books (out-of-copyright classics) but I still hanker after real books when I can. The Kindle comes into it's own when I want to look up a phrase in one of 100 books when I've gone for a 10 mile walk in the countryside.

My main focus in building a book scanner is to keep it as cheap and simple as possible. Having 3 kids means not much spare time or money! I have a garage full of junk to re-use. Once I have got a scanner working I would like to focus attention on making it portable, but that can wait until I've actually got through the first 10 books.
mutandis
Posts: 4
Joined: 26 Mar 2011, 13:33

Re: Post something about yourself here (The Hello Thread)

Post by mutandis »

Hi all,

My name is Dave and I'm a book addict from Baltimore, MD. USA. Isn't that how these support groups work--admitting you have a problem is the first step?

This is my first attempt to join the community. I've been lurking here off-and-on ever since I stumbled upon the 80/20 builds that other members have completed. They're beautiful and represent my ultimate goal however for my first attempt I decided to order Daniel's DIY book scanner kit.

I realize that Daniel's design goals are somewhat different than mine (i.e. - mechanical trigger for use where electricity isn't available) but I'm hoping by building the DIY kit, I'll eventually learn enough to add some fancier features. For example, I'd like to have two buttons on the handle: 1) "Capture" and 2) "Re-do" which would be a sort of "macro" to delete and re-take the last two pages. Maybe I'm misunderstanding how things actually work, or the software-side of capturing makes this idea unnecessary, but it's the #1 problem I imagined having. I could easily see myself trying to go too fast and getting "sloppy" during the capture phase. If I had a monitor displaying camera output while capturing, the best upgrade I could make would be to have my "re-do" button working before doing any serious scanning.

Anyway that's me, I look forward to meeting more of you once I start diving into my build.

Cheers!
Mutandis (Dave)
Esgrimidor
Posts: 2
Joined: 23 Sep 2012, 13:34
E-book readers owned: baseingenieros@gmail.com
Number of books owned: 10
Country: Spain

Re: Post something about yourself here (The Hello Thread)

Post by Esgrimidor »

hello everyone from Tenerife, Canary Islands.
I hope to learn to scan a book without "any" effort.
I am trying one and is a difficult thing the first time.
I am using a home scanner.

Best Regards
Archive5
Posts: 5
Joined: 26 Oct 2012, 11:15
E-book readers owned: 1
Number of books owned: 100
Country: USA
Location: Missouri, USA

Re: Post something about yourself here (The Hello Thread)

Post by Archive5 »

Hello,

My name is Robert and I'm from Missouri. I'm very interested in building some equipment and
get started on digitizing some materials. I've read through various sections on the forum hoping to
find solutions to fit my requirements. There are so many ideas and ways to build equipment, it's
difficult to choose when you like some feature from all of them.

I have no experience with professional scanning or digitizing equipment however, I've scanned many
documents over the years and, in the old days, shot 35mm on a copy board set-up.

If it's acceptable to everyone, I would like to post what I want to do and perhaps someone will guide me
to what they know works best for my application. I don't know if this is the correct thread to do that but
I have to start somewhere.

I want my projects to be as versatile as possible due to the wide range of materials I encounter.

My goal is to build equipment that is somewhat portable (not built into walls, etc). I know that I will
be making or buying several pieces to handle the various sizes. I also would like to build with the future
in mind. Will I be able to expand and upgrade the main components and software?

Types of Materials I will be digitizing:

50-yr or old or older paper items, maps, booklets, passports, tickets, photos and books.
At some point I may need to add microfilm, microfiche and negatives.

Sizes: Postage stamp to Maps although the majority being Letter, Legal or Ledger sized.

Photos: B&W, Sepia and Color very small to group photos similar to those of Military Units.

Quality: Some are old and yellowed newsprint. The text is usually typed but also handwritten
with variations of quality.

None of my materials are subject to copyright.

I would like to buy as many"Plug & use" components to the projects as possible because I'm not
experienced with wiring or building circuit boards etc.

I would like the end result of each project to be simple to use so hopefully, there's some way to build
the systems I want without spending a fortune.

I'm unfamiliar with much of this but if I can see photos and plans and you mind some dumb questions,
I can build it.

Thanks in advance, any help is very appreciated!

Robert
Archive5
Gortan60
Posts: 7
Joined: 02 Nov 2012, 08:02
E-book readers owned: Kindle
Number of books owned: 1100
Country: Ireland

Re: Post something about yourself here (The Hello Thread)

Post by Gortan60 »

Hi all, my real name is Gerry O'Mahony but online in most places I would be found as Gortan60. I live in a small village in Ardmore called Ardmore, in a county called Waterford along the southern coast of the island. My attraction to DIY book scanners stems from the fact that I want to start a small business collating, documenting and making digital copies of school record attendance books here in Ireland. If I was in a position to purchase a fully fledged commercial scanner then I would go for an Atiz model but sadly my funds do not presently allow for that dream scenario. Hence my interest in DIY scanners.

My scanner needs to be able to take up to A2 size and be portable, even if that means using a trolley or lifting aid to lug them about. The nature of the books I intend to document means that the schools that own them are not allowed by law to let them be taken off school premises. Except when the school closes down permanently. Then the books are sent to central Government in Dublin, locked away and never seen again. A shame.

These books contain information like pupils names, dates of birth, parents occupations, classmates and so on...a veritable mine of information....see here for a small blog I admin...http://www.irishrollbooks.blogspot.ie/

I hope to either purchase one of Daniel's kits or make my own...time and work situation will determine which.

Bye for now.
Atlantius
Posts: 2
Joined: 30 Nov 2012, 09:31
E-book readers owned: Kindle 3
Number of books owned: 0
Country: Bulgaria

Re: Post something about yourself here (The Hello Thread)

Post by Atlantius »

Hey guys, nice to join the community. I'm from Bulgaria and for a couple of years now I'm a big fan of ebooks and scanning. For now I've scanned books with a pc scanner but it takes a lot of time (without destroying the book of course).
I've been looking the forum for some time and since I want to build my first diy book scanner I decided to join. I want to build something more complex than the cardboard scanner and less complex (and a lot cheaper) than the CNC and i just want to build it myself. I'm not much of a hardware store guy and angle grinder and etc. kinda guy but i will get some tools and start building one. I have to start from somewhere, right? :)
I'm work as programmer, web designer and computer hardware and software support (overall a pc guy :D ) and I'm good with the second part of ebook job :)
Glad to be here and i'll keep you posted on my project.

Cheers
trundler
Posts: 4
Joined: 26 Dec 2012, 13:29
E-book readers owned: iPad
Number of books owned: 700
Country: Canada
Location: Toronto
Contact:

Re: Post something about yourself here (The Hello Thread)

Post by trundler »

Hello! I am an academic and dj, living in the vital, beating heart of Canada (Toronto). I became aware of this community through reddit and was instantly engaged. I have ZERO technical/engineering expertise, and am coming at this with high hopes and an open mind (and a large collection of books).

I plan on asking many many (hopefully useful) questions (it's what I do) so be forewarned! heheh.

From what I've learned about this community through a few weeks of lurking, people seem to be active, supportive and approachable- and I am counting on these characteristics to help guide me through the technical aspects and finer processes of building a book scanning device.

I look forward to the learning!
kelling
Posts: 1
Joined: 01 Jan 2013, 17:36
Number of books owned: 0
Country: United States

Re: Post something about yourself here (The Hello Thread)

Post by kelling »

Hello..
I'm in the Northern Suburbs of Chicago.
I'm exploring my options for buying, building,and/or further developing, with a design engineer, the DIY Book Digitizing
I'm also exploring the idea of opening access to a "Hacker Space" like area for digital archiving.

If my funding is finalized in the next few days the "Hacker Space" area would be up and running within 30 days.

I'm scouring the forums now but if anyone from the Chicago area has working knowledge in these areas.. I would love to hear from you.

Kelling
hughmunro
Posts: 6
Joined: 06 Jan 2013, 15:46
E-book readers owned: nook, ipad
Number of books owned: 0
Country: US

Re: Post something about yourself here (The Hello Thread)

Post by hughmunro »

Greetings all,
My name is Hugh Munro and I'm in Asheville, North Carolina.
My material of choice at the moment is aluminum and I hope to be building a collapsable, portable, lightweight scanner in the near future.

I hope that I can use the scanner to digitize local historical records, art books and sic-fi novels that I have.

Thanks and hope to be interacting with all of you soon.

Hugh
User avatar
daniel_reetz
Posts: 2812
Joined: 03 Jun 2009, 13:56
E-book readers owned: Used to have a PRS-500
Number of books owned: 600
Country: United States
Contact:

Re: Post something about yourself here (The Hello Thread)

Post by daniel_reetz »

It's really great to see people introducing themselves again. Welcome to the forums, all!
Post Reply