Build your own Fullauto Bookscanner

So you want to be the next Google. You've hooked yourself up with a sweet search algorithm, set up the server farm, and have AJAX out the wazoo. Now it's time for the nitty gritty like book scanning, which you can accomplish with your very own Fullauto Bookscanner made from LEGOs and other spare gear. The crux of the system is an upside down flatbed scanner, surrounded by LEGO parts to raise and lower the book and automate page turning. It's all controlled by a laptop which also receives the scans. Now all you have left to do is deal with a few lawsuits from publishers and you're set.

[Via TRFJ]

[Allan Clark @ Feb 22nd 2006 9:41PM]

The plural of Sheep is Sheep
The plural of Lego is Lego

(Lego Brand Toys)

Otherwise, you guys give a fun, interesting, and accurate poscast... it's kinda fun to listen to you guys in Beijing, my biggest source of english words to remind me of the NYC that I miss ;)

[Brandon @ Nov 27th 2007 4:33AM]

The plural of Lego is Legos. Sure its a brand name, but so is q-tip.

I quote...

Subject: 7) Plural of LEGO

While most people point out that they just say LEGOs,
[e-mail] (Lunatic Johnathan Bruce E'Sex) dug out:

One catalogue, dated 1980, has the following on its back page:

Dear Parents and Children
The word LEGO(R) is a brand name and is very special to all of
us in the LEGO Group Companies. We would sincerely like your
help in keeping it special. Please always refer to our bricks
as 'LEGO Bricks or Toys' and not 'LEGOS.' By doing so, you will
be helping to protect and preserve a brand of which we are very
proud and that stands for quality the world over. Thank you!

Susan Williams
Consumer Services (Susan's name is a
pseudonym for the service dptmt.)

Matthew Miller, [e-mail], added:
The above quote from the catalog is often cited as evidence for "Lego"
as the proper plural, but in fact that is misreading it. Trademark law
in the US at least is easiest if the trademark is used as an
_adjective_. The point they're trying to make is that you should say
"LEGO Bricks", rather than calling the product itself either "Legos"
_or_ "Lego".

In fact, they seem to assume that "LEGOS" is the natural plural, since
that's the only one they bother to correct. So, in formal usage, both
"Lego" and "Legos" are wrong. To me, that means people shouldn't make
such a big deal about it in informal use!

http://www.faqs.org/faqs/LEGO-faq/

[Caleb @ Feb 22nd 2006 9:44PM]

Well, it beats doing it by hand.

[Arsenio @ Feb 22nd 2006 9:54PM]

This would be awsome for scanning those overpriced college books then returning them! He he he!

[paul34 @ Feb 22nd 2006 9:55PM]

If only I had the time this would incredibly cut down on outrageous textbook prices every semester...

yes, even with Half.com

[Krono6 @ Feb 22nd 2006 10:15PM]

Will this work with Comic Books? XD

[AH @ Feb 22nd 2006 10:28PM]

All the comics you can think up are already out there. You just have to know which torrent to spy on to get them.

[tdungan @ Feb 22nd 2006 10:29PM]

Great!
Now if somebody can finally develop some RELIABLE ocr software, they might actually have something useful.

[KirbyMeister @ Feb 22nd 2006 10:29PM]

Wow... that's pretty strange. Google translate is being awfully accurate today: I could actually understand the message for once! ;)

Anyway, that's a really good invention. That would be extremely cool to own.

[AND THEN YOU GET SUED!!!111oneoneone]

[Vincent @ Feb 22nd 2006 10:45PM]

i rather buy my txt books than pay for a lawyer in a lawsuit

[Dan Lin @ Feb 22nd 2006 10:48PM]

Seems easier if you use a digital camera for the capture.

[chuck @ Feb 22nd 2006 11:17PM]

this is hackaday material. stop stealing from them (oh, i know this will be linked from HAD

[Merkur @ Feb 22nd 2006 11:47PM]

I need to see if i still have my pile of lego and I'll give a try ;)

[uber0 @ Feb 22nd 2006 11:47PM]

Now if only there were instructions as to how to do this. I'd love to build one of these so I wouldn't have to carry my books everywhere.

[Hello, dwlor! @ Feb 22nd 2006 11:56PM]

I was more impressed by Google's translation. I could barely tell that it was translated by a machine.

[brian @ Feb 23rd 2006 12:37AM]

wow, just wow; no more having to buy expensive college textbooks for that guy

[Pal @ Feb 23rd 2006 1:29AM]

Uhh. The author of the site has the page in Japanese AND English. See the link at the top right? Yeah.

Just in case:
http://www.geocities.jp/takascience/lego/fabs_en.html

[Fird @ Feb 23rd 2006 2:50AM]

Is it just me, or somehow the "English" page is much more Japanese than Google's Translated ones?

[lettcco @ Feb 23rd 2006 5:12AM]

#8,

don't need no lawyer if you don't walk around the street and tell everyone and their mother you scanned the book.

[Woody @ Feb 23rd 2006 6:11AM]

Legos is a perfectly acceptable term if you use an appostrophe (Lego's).
This would indicate that it is short for Lego bricks, or Lego parts etc.

[VV @ Feb 23rd 2006 7:52AM]

#17 - no it wouldn't. It would indicate that you don't know how to use the "appostrophe" correctly.

Lego themselves state that "Legos" is incorrect. End of story.

[A @ Nov 16th 2007 12:33AM]

It will be legos. No matter what they want people to say.

[Aaron @ Feb 23rd 2006 5:31PM]

I did this years ago with an old college textbook I want to keep for reference. Having my book as a pdf is great for searches. I used a roller feed scanner, I just cut the spine of the book separating the pages. This also made it so that the pages were flat for scanning.

[Roy @ Feb 24th 2006 1:32PM]

Allan Clark, that page was originally written in Japanese, not Chinese , you ignorant fool.Gosh
Unless you think that people in Beijing is part of Japan. LOL.

[chris @ Nov 13th 2007 5:38PM]

Roy, I think Allan is in Beijing and enjoys listening to the Engadget podcast while he is there. Apparently the Engadget podcast is Allan's favored source for English dialog since he left NYC to go to Beijing.

Unless the parser in MY brain is broken and I read he post wrong.