Survey of Pen-and-Paper Computing - Human-Computer Interaction - page 20

Desktop scanners are well-suited for scanning large numbers of pages and offer
a high resolution. Modern desktop scanners feature an automatic document feeder
and scan up to 35-60 pages per minute with a resolution of 600 dots per inch or
more.
In contrast to desktop scanners, handheld scanners are small and light, so they
can be used in mobile settings. A first class of handheld scanners has a scanning unit
integrated into the tip of a pen-like device. The interaction for scanning resembles
to using a pen on a paper document. By moving the pen along the lines of text, the
document is successively scanned. A computing unit built into the pen integrates
the small fragments to one single image of the page. This approach is well-suited
for scanning individual words or short passages but is too slow for scanning entire
pages. An example is the Wizcom InfoScan2 Elite pen 1 . The pen is able to scan with
a speed of about 15 cm/s and a resolution of 400 dpi. It features optical character
recognition. This enables the pen to read the scanned text aloud the scanned text
using voice synthetization, to translate scanned text and to provide definitions for
scanned words. Users can transfer scanned data to a computer or a mobile phone
via an infrared port or via USB. A second class of handheld scanners is not used
like a pen, but is placed flat on the document, very much like a ruler. The scanning
module therefore has a larger width, which significantly speeds up the scanning
processes. This enables scanning an entire page in 4 to 8 seconds. An example is the
Planon DocuPen RC 805 2 (Fig. 2.1).

Fig. 2.1 Planon DocuPen RC 805 handheld scanner (photo copyright Planon Ltd.)

1 http://www.wizcomtech.com (all references to web pages contained within this topic were re-
trieved on 2011-10-10)
2

http://www.planon.com