* ScanR cleans up, translates and converts images
Today I have a curious and rather interesting Web application for your delectation: scanR.
ScanR is a service to which you can send an image – a business card, a document, a whiteboard drawing – and a cleaned-up version will be sent back to you (low lighting, shadows, blurring, and skewed orientation are all corrected for). That’s all there is to it but what a great concept!
Say you are in a meeting and someone draws on the whiteboard – you whip out your cell phone with built-in camera (1-megapixel or better resolution is required), take several shots to get all of the board at a reasonable resolution, and send to scanR via Multimedia Messaging Service (MMS). Alternatively, you could use e-mail, a custom application called scanR Mobile for Windows Mobile 5.0 and Palm OS, or an add-on widget on your Google home page.
You will receive an activation code at your return address. You then go back to the scanR Web site and enter the code to enable your account. This account establishment process is clever as it prevents accounts being added that are never used.
As soon as activation is complete, your enhanced images are returned as PDF files. ScanR also extracts words from the input documents and turns them into tags in the output documents which makes the contents easily searched for using Google Desktop or the search service in the forthcoming Microsoft Windows Vista release.
The results are remarkable for whiteboards (see the examples) and impressive for documents (see examples).
Currently in closed beta the service for business cards could be absolutely amazing as it will also include translation to vCard format.
The service itself is free and is planned to stay that way. The only charged for items are the scanR for Palm Treo 700w and Windows Mobile 5.0 applications. Other premium services are planned.
Based in Palo Alto, scanR is funded by $4.65 million of venture capital led by Trinity Ventures and Thomvest International.
