How to Use Your Cameraphone as a Scanner

Have you ever had a killer brainstorm session that ended with someone saying, "Alright, who's going to copy all this down?" I certainly have.

Enter scanR. In this situation I just take out my trusty cameraphone, take a quick pic, and then email it to my scanR account. A few moments later, I receive an email containing a link to my "whiteboard" in PDF or JPEG format. I can then forward this "whiteboard" on to the group so everyone has it. I love this because then you are able to record all the meaning conveyed by position, colors, and font (as well as any sketch ups) that are not transferable to a typed up medium.

It also works with books, magazines, and documents.The other day I was doing research at the library, and once I found what I needed I realized I didn't have any change to make photocopies. No worries, I just snapped a few photos, sent them to scanR, and I received a link shortly thereafter. With documents you can actually select to receive them in text format. Yep, all OCRed and everything.

You can also scan business cards and scanR will send you a corresponding vCard. Unfortunately this only works if you have a cameraphone with at least 2 megapixels. My Dash is only 1.3 so I haven't been able to try it.

All this reminds me of an old episode of Mission Impossible, not the old series, but the one that ran from '88 to '89.I remember Peter Graves sneaking into an office and pulling out a document scanner that was about the size of a king size candy bar. As he quickly scanned the "secret" documents the music crescendoed and someone burst into the room. I'm not sure what happened next but I do remember thinking, "Man, that thing is so cool!" Now I've got one of my own. :)

Comments

[Wabi Sabi Me]

Great tip! One more use for the iPhone LOL!