The E-Sylum:  Volume 6, Number 20, May 18, 2003, Article 13

THE BOOK-SCANNING ROBOT ARRIVES

  The E-Sylum has touched on the subject of digitizing
  numismatic literature in the past.  A May 20th article in
  the New York Times may gives us a glimpse of the
  future - a book-scanning robot that can process literature
  faster than humans.

  "Putting the world's most advanced scholarly and scientific
  knowledge on the Internet has been a long-held ambition for
  Michael Keller, head librarian at Stanford University. But
  achieving this goal means digitizing the texts of millions of
  books, journals and magazines - a slow process that involves
  turning each page, flattening it and scanning the words into
  a computer database.

  Mr. Keller, however, has recently added a tool to his crusade.
  On a recent afternoon, he unlocked an unmarked door in the
  basement of the Stanford library to demonstrate the newest
  agent in the march toward digitization. Inside the room a
  Swiss-designed robot about the size of a sport utility vehicle
  was rapidly turning the pages of an old book and scanning the
  text.  The machine can turn the pages of both small and large
  books as well as bound newspaper volumes and scan at
  speeds of more than 1,000 pages an hour."

  For the full text of the article, see
  http://www.nytimes.com/2003/05/12/technology/12TURN.html?th

  Wayne Homren, Editor

	coinbooks.org Web

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