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dmehling posted on August 6, 2007, 7:46 pm
I need to determine the best imaging method for my book scanning
robot. Up to this point I have been thinking of using a standard
digital camera to capture the images. However I realized with the
limited battery life and storage capacity of a standard camera, I
would have to purchase an additional AC adapter and use a camera
capture software program which usually only works with higher end
cameras. All in all the cost would be at least $400 but probably
closer to $500. It seems reasonable that I could probably get a
decent web cam at a lower price that could give me a good enough
quality image. Most of the web cams I have looked at have a 1.3
megapixel capability but with software enhancement can take a picture
of about five or six megapixels. Would I be able to record a fairly
good image of a page so the text is legible?
robot. Up to this point I have been thinking of using a standard
digital camera to capture the images. However I realized with the
limited battery life and storage capacity of a standard camera, I
would have to purchase an additional AC adapter and use a camera
capture software program which usually only works with higher end
cameras. All in all the cost would be at least $400 but probably
closer to $500. It seems reasonable that I could probably get a
decent web cam at a lower price that could give me a good enough
quality image. Most of the web cams I have looked at have a 1.3
megapixel capability but with software enhancement can take a picture
of about five or six megapixels. Would I be able to record a fairly
good image of a page so the text is legible?
Si Ballenger posted on
Re: web cam versus digital camera
Probably not. Cameras generally don't do well taking pictures of
flat surfaces up close. Get a cheap flat bed scanner instead.
Re: web cam versus digital camera
A flatbed scanner is totally out of the question. It is much too
difficult for imaging a book and is too slow. A regular digital
camera can do a great job of taking a picture of a single page. I
would definitely not be taking a picture up close. What I really want
to know is if a web cam can take a still image that approaches the
quality of a digital camera.
JGCASEY posted on
Re: web cam versus digital camera
A web cam is no where near the the quality of a digital camera.
Web cams are noisy and most I think are just 640x480 resolution.
My digital cameras highest resolution is 2048x1536 and is a few
years old. You don't say how you intend to download the images
to a computer or what optical character recognition you intend
to use? The slow part with the camera might be downloading
each image to the PC.
--
jc
Re: web cam versus digital camera
To give a quick answer, NO. You generally get what you pay for.
If you want to go cheap (wanting to use a "webcam" is a warning
sign) you will generally get cheap results. Your camera questions
are probably more appropriate for the below news group.
rec.photo.digital
BRW posted on
Re: web cam versus digital camera
Don't be fooled by claims of software being able to increase your
resolution. The camera's resolution is what it is. It cannot be
improved with software.
Sure, the software can interpolate pixels and make a bigger file, but
that just "fuzzifies" everything. It doesn't increase resolution.
BRW
CoyoteBoy posted on
Re: web cam versus digital camera
This annoys me, the likes of "CSI" who take a photo taken by a digital
camera and despite the object they are looking at being about 10x10
pixels and jpeg'd into 3 sections of the same colour they claim its
possible to clarify it and end up with an image that looks like a
vaguely compressed 800x600 shot of it including text - how annoying.
Zopilote posted on
Re: web cam versus digital camera
Here's something I tried after reading this thread. I used a Kodak Easy
Share CD40 that I got refurbished for $70 about a year ago. With a 512mb
card in it it will take about 614 pictures at a 4 megapixel level. I took
some pictures of a paperback book I'm reading and ran it through some OCR
software. The text came out fairly well. I would still have to clean up some
of the mistakes if I was making it an ebook.
If you're going to do a whole book, 614 pictures are going to cover most
books.
Tinker
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