Turn your digital camera into a fax/photocopier
I have to credit blogger and entrepreneur Dan Marques for his posting on this one.
scanR makes it possible for you to use your digital camera or camera phone to make copies of white boards, documents or business cards and create PDF files that can be stored on your computer or e-mailed anywhere.
The process could easily replace the photocopier, fax and maybe a couple of other pieces of business equipment I'm not even thinking of at the moment.
The journalist in me can also think of a few other nefarious uses for the technology dealing largely with obtaining copies of public documents…but I digress.
Anyway, the process is fairly simple and free according to the website. Just snap a photo of a document, download it and send it to scanR and an enhanced PDF file is sent to your e-mail.
According to the website, the technology enhances the photographs of white boards like this, documents like this and business cards like this.
Why is this important to the bootstrapper? Because of the possibilities of operating a high function office without significant equipment overhead, of course.
I do see some potential problems, however, depending on the type of business involved.
The issue might largely be one of privacy. I don't know if I would want to send sensitive documents via e-mail to a third party site. Then again, I would not necessarily want to send them via fax either.
It might be nice to have a similar application available for download or purchase allowing private use in the home. I know it's a very anti-2.0 suggestion, but I think under certain circumstances it may fill a need. (Get the hint, software bootstrappers?')
Oh, one other point made by the website, and that is the fact that scanR allows you to make and send copies while in transit thus not requiring you to get back to the office to copy or transfer a document.
I'll check out scanR at my earliest convenience, but meanwhile, according to scanR evangelist Brandon Watts the product will also be shown off at Demo fall'06 a premier launch event for new businesses and technology in San Diego Sept. 25-27.
September 19th, 2006 at 7:16 pm
I think this is a pretty handy additional use for a camera phone or digital camara – and might try it for my personal use or anything not of a sensitive nature. From a confidentiality and privacy standpoint though, I would be even less inclined to use ScanR than fax or scan-to-email. Especially since you use MMS or email to a third party site, as Shawn mentioned, and to a generic email address – not to your own account as far as I can tell.
ScanR’s Privacy Policy online states: “We may store in an aggregated form some or all of the text contained in the images you send.” But you’re also warned in their Terms: “The Services shall not be used for any purpose or in any manner that is, or that aids or results in any purpose or activity that is, illegal; invades or infringes the privacy, publicity, copyright, trade secret, or other rights or expectations of any person”. So, user beware of the implications to your customers, employers, and others.
Maybe Brandon would be willing to address these concerns for us?
September 21st, 2006 at 2:09 am
Thanks for the nice review.
The scanR Privacy Policy is meant tell you exactly how we use information you send to scanR. We never store your images or resulting scanned data unless you ask us to. Even then no person ever views your data. scanR does however store some or all of the text that it extracts from your images. This is done in an aggregate form in order to build a dictionary to help correct text extracted from poor images. This dictionary simply contains words, like a real dictionary, and does not store sentences or pages from your documents.
The scanR Terms describe appropriate uses of scanR, which do not include illegal activities.
I understand your concern. Keeping your information safe and private is important to us and we take great measures to ensure that you can trust scanR.
September 21st, 2006 at 8:15 am
Thanks so much for addressing the privacy concerns Chris. I really appreciate it. The feature I think I can make great use of is business cards to vCard. Can’t wait for it to come out of beta!
August 20th, 2008 at 9:00 pm
is it for real?
August 20th, 2008 at 11:21 pm
It’s real. I’ve tried it. It certainly seems to work better for some documents than for others, as is the case with a standard copier. The key is to experiment until discovering which kinds of documents get the best results.
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March 16th, 2010 at 11:48 pm
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