IT abroad: Japan rapid scanning system can digitize a book in one minute

Japanese researchers headed by Masatoshi Ishikawa made up their mind to facilitate a laborious process of books’ digitization. The team at the University of the Graduate School of Information Science and Technology (University of Tokyo) developed a prototype of the rapid-speed scanner capable of digitizing a book in one minute.

The scanning system works with a camera that can capture up to 500 photographs per second enabling it to record about 170 book pages in 60 seconds as a person thumbs through them.

The system adjusts for the distortion caused by the curvature of the moving pages by measuring their 3D forms using infrared beams, so that the images can be electronically "flattened" to look like the original.

What is more, the researchers are considering the creation of a robot to turn the pages automatically and more neatly. The technology to rapidly capture 3-D images of fast-moving objects could be also used in a variety of applications from robotics to industrial and automotive design. It could also come in handy in development of a safer and more comfortable driving system. The next step will be loading of the technology into the eyes of future generation robots.