Atiz rolls out "first consumer book ripper," the BookSnap

We've certainly seen plenty of book scanners before, but upstart Atiz has now rolled out what it claims to be the very first "consumer book ripper," although with a price of $1,595, that title is certainly ripe for a challenge. Still, it looks like the system should get the paper-to-PDF conversion job done quite nicely, with a promised scanning rate of 500 pages per hour (although that partly depends on how fast you can flip the pages -- no robot arm here, unfortunately). The "ripping" itself is done by a pair of digital cameras (not included), and it seems that only a select number of Canon cameras are compatible with the device (at least officially). Atiz also apparently offers a DIY model, but those looking for a more polished solution can order the ready-made BookSnap directly from the company right now.

[prokanda @ Nov 13th 2007 4:31PM]

soooo.. it's 1600 bucks, you have to bring your own cameras, and it doesn't flip pages...

.........did I miss something?

[Jimmy @ Nov 13th 2007 5:02PM]

I read the press release twice and no, you did not miss anything. They are apparently trying to charge $1600 for a stand and some imaging software.

[Bobs @ Nov 13th 2007 5:22PM]

I agree, all this is is a stand, it does nothing on its own. i could build the same thing with 50 cents worth of wood blocks

[hh83917 @ Nov 13th 2007 6:48PM]

Yes... and you have to bring 2 cameras...one on right and other on the left.... The max price for this V shaped cradle should be like 70-100 bucks...

[blurry @ Nov 13th 2007 10:27PM]

Easier and cheaper solution: Get a dual-sided high-speed scanner. There's a great fujitsu one (in the $300 range) that even comes with Acrobat and can dump output straight to PDF files. So take a book to Kinko's and pay them $5 to chop off the binding. Take it home and run it through said dual-sided scanner. You can PDF a book in a very short amount of time, provided you don't care that you've more or less destroyed it in the process (ok, so you could get the book re-bound in some cases but no guarantees there)

Before you think I'm out of my mind picture being able to walk around campus with a large pile of your books with full-text searching (thanks to OCR) and not developing a serious back injury in the meanwhile.

[Billy Fiul @ Nov 14th 2007 12:06AM]

The cost of their "Snapster" software is 49$

So you're paying $1,546 for a a stand with some lights.

LOL, kiss my sweet ass, Atiz! I'd rather make my own fucking book stand than buy your overpriced piece of crap!

[FunkMaster @ Nov 14th 2007 4:03AM]

It looks like you would be paying for the software mostly. The BookSnap scanning software and BookDrive Editor that comes with this is much more advanced than the simple little $50 Snapter program they sell.

The stand really does look pretty neat since it would save you the time of engineering all the angles to eliminate the glare and keep the margins in the same place as you scan through the book.

I think only Canon cameras are supported because they're the only ones that can be controlled remotely from PC software when plugged in.

Cut the price in half and I'd totally buy it just for the amount of time it would save me.

[Branko Collin @ Nov 15th 2007 5:18PM]

Not to defend Atiz, but: A) similar devices start at USD 10,000 (that's ten thousands dollars), and B) a flatbed scanner is not useful when you're scanning rare books.

As for the person who can build one of these for 50 cent: I will gladly pay you 50 USD if you could make me one of these. That excludes the camera, but includes the cradle, the (full spectrum) lighting, the glass platter, the cabling and the software (not Atiz' Snapter, please). So, when can I expect delivery?

[mattbrown @ Nov 13th 2007 4:32PM]

This is awesome! Hopefully this will help dramatically increase the library at Google Books.

[muddyh2o @ Nov 13th 2007 4:33PM]

can't someone get us a flipper?

[Khris @ Nov 13th 2007 4:38PM]

The answer to a question no one asked.

[Matt @ Nov 13th 2007 10:03PM]

I don't know... I think the question has been asked. Everyone knows that in the future we won't be lugging around big heavy textbooks... the idea of a Star Trek like "Padd" with a semester's worth of textbooks loaded onto it has been floating around since I was in middle school (ie 15 years ago) and probably longer.

So the desire is there. And as you know, there is a burgeoning market for reading devices -- still too expensive, but coming down in price and getting more capable. Now all we really need are the titles. If a DIY scanning system like this really became popular, it would do the same thing MP3s did ten years ago: Only after college kids started ripping all their CDs to MP3s and sharing them online did the music industry slowly start to wake up to the fact that there is demand...

Of course, odds are that a bunch of science and history textbooks torrents won't be as popular as the latest blockbuster, but if it ends up costing publishers a critical mass of sales, this could help to spur more electronic copies of textbooks (with fair DRM policies).

Anyway, just my two cents.

http://www.beforeisleep.net

[Dave @ Nov 14th 2007 12:46AM]

"the idea of a Star Trek like "Padd" with a semester's worth of textbooks loaded onto it "

That's how I feel when I'm googling on my iPhone in the middle of nowhere.

[FreeRange @ Nov 13th 2007 4:39PM]

Honestly, I thought this was a device that would tear books in half. Imagine the nerdy "Will it tear?" videos with copies of Milton and Shakespeare on the ripping block...

[parr @ Nov 13th 2007 4:50PM]

honestly, i'd probably be more likely to spend $1600 on something that demolished books rather than this.

pathetic. =/

[melloncollie @ Nov 13th 2007 7:21PM]

Get out of your "Fahrenheit 452" mindset.

[robothouse @ Nov 13th 2007 8:42PM]

@melloncollie

It's Fahrenheit 451...

[Jordan @ Nov 13th 2007 9:17PM]

I honestly thought that too before reading past the title...

[Scott @ Nov 14th 2007 1:04AM]

It does look like the two wedges could drop down guillotine style. And is that a Bible sitting next to it?!

[Ian @ Nov 13th 2007 4:42PM]

so basicly its a bunch of metal with a book holder... and its $1595. right because that makes a lot of sense

[bob sakamano @ Nov 13th 2007 4:53PM]

this just goes to show that some people are much smarter than us

[letstakeawalk @ Nov 13th 2007 4:55PM]

By my calculations, this would have paid for itself in 3 semesters (History Major). Of course, seeing the smiling face on the clerk when I returned my all texts before the cutoff - while it's still 100% refund time - always brightened my day. PDFs on my PDA and laptop = easy studying and never bringing the wrong book. I did it the hard way: a $60 scanner and plenty of sugary sodas...

[Matt @ Nov 13th 2007 9:56PM]

Although your tenacity is appealing... you are aware that you essentially stole all your books, right?

[letstakeawalk @ Nov 18th 2007 5:55PM]

Thanks Matt, for your response.

My interpretation of the Copyright Law justified my actions through several points:
1. Facts cannot be copyrighted.
2. The textbooks were reproduced for non-profit, educational use.
3. The files are not accessible to any filesharing network, and were never distributed in any fashion, physical or electronic.

My interpretation may be incorrect, discuss...

[eddy_88_nite @ Nov 13th 2007 5:01PM]

Wow i thought this was for ripping books apart...this has got to be one of the stupidest "first" whatever inventions yet. Right up with the water bottle with the phone holder.

[Jeremy K. @ Nov 13th 2007 5:21PM]

It's really not useless... it's just overpriced.

[tidx @ Nov 13th 2007 5:05PM]

I am still an advocate of the circular saw and scanner with adf method

[Wes @ Nov 13th 2007 5:22PM]

radial arm saw works better

[Lemmiwinks @ Nov 13th 2007 5:08PM]

Funny, it seems like this thing *is* the DIY model...

[Denver_80203 @ Nov 13th 2007 5:11PM]

No flipper? Time to break out Lego again....

[DCmachead @ Nov 13th 2007 5:19PM]

the cheapest one on the market besides that lego model that does flip pages auto for you will run you $150,000.00 and i saw it does exactly the same thing as this book "ripper".

[DCmachead @ Nov 13th 2007 5:21PM]

i mean besides flipping the pages of course.

[tiuk @ Nov 13th 2007 6:13PM]

if this actually did page turning, it'd be way cheaper than buying textbooks.

[Tavis Veighey @ Nov 13th 2007 6:25PM]

Why would anyone go for this overpriced POS, when you can have this fully automated scanning system!!!

http://www.engadget.com/2006/02/22/build-your-own-fullauto-bookscanner/
Place a book in the device, walk away. You can then eat, sleep, watch TV, Go to work! It takes care of everything!

[peter @ Nov 13th 2007 6:52PM]

You might just go ahead and add the "Ripoff" tag to this poc.

[Jayman @ Nov 13th 2007 10:51PM]

I think they have a good software that come with. http://booksnap.atiz.com/software.html

[scott @ Nov 14th 2007 2:08AM]

I'm sure a page flipper add-on with a "Clap-on, Clap-off" trigger mechanism will be optional for $1500 soon.

[3waygeek @ Nov 14th 2007 8:35AM]

Is it just me, or is the only ripping here being done by Atiz? $1600 for a frame and some lenses/mirrors; sounds like they're charging about $1500 too much.

[wrabbit @ Nov 14th 2007 9:55AM]

I almost got a heart attack when I read the title, I thought somebody invented a device that automatically (literally) rips books O_o

Once I started reading the article I realized I was wrong and quickly calmed down, which was promptly followed by another near heart attack due to the $1600 price tag for what basically amounts to a camera stand.

This site is getting dangerous for my health ;)

[Miss Fr3sh @ Nov 14th 2007 6:18PM]

It looks like the "ripped" off Google's version they use for their book search project

[catbeller @ Nov 22nd 2007 11:13PM]

I think you pay for the optics which are undistorting the image presented to the cameras. Remember that the book is presented at an angle so one doesn't have to crack the spine to flatten it out. Or I might be wrong, and the distortion removal is in software.

[Joe @ Dec 6th 2007 11:45PM]

This seems expensive! Also, I like to have a hard copy of my book. I feel like I absorb more the material when I can underline and have a physical copy of the books. Besides, I can get books for so cheap anyways using http://www.smartbookfinder.com. I don't see any use for this at least for myself. However, I admit the technology itself is kinda cool.

[Michael Eutzy @ Aug 6th 2008 1:40AM]

Does anyone know how to get their books ripped? Did you all get one of these? Is there a third party that will turn your books into PDF's so I can carry books in my rig and don't have to worry about the clutter.

[Nathan @ Oct 24th 2008 12:06AM]

Ok...I see all the $1600 WHAT comments, and couldn't help but mentioning...

I work somewhere that own a piece of equitment that does the same thing...except with bigger books. We paid 60K for our scanner, and got an awesome deal, (it came with a camera)... http://www.zeutschel.com/products/grayscale_scanner_os7000.html