This article was taken from the January 2013 issue of Wired magazine. Be the first to read Wired's articles in print before they're posted online, and get your hands on loads of additional content by <span class="s1">subscribing online.
Sofie Quidenus uses robots to build digital libraries. "I knew nothing about robotics when I started, but I felt that there would be a huge demand for book digitisation," the Austrian entrepreneur says. Her robot scanners have helped to digitise 80 per cent of all European national-library books. Her next chapter: the ScanGuru, a book-scanner that allows home users to turn books into ebooks.
Vienna-based Quidenus founded her company in June 2004. Her first design was a robotic finger to flip sheet-music pages so performing musicians could keep their hands on their instruments. "Turning pages is the major bottleneck for book digitisation," says Quidenus, 30. "So we started building a robot to make ebooks."
Qidenus Technology now sells a dozen models -- the RBS Full costs from €70,000 (£50,000). The book rests in a cradle and the glass "V" descends to flatten the pages, which are photographed by two cameras and digitised. The "V" then ascends, and the robot finger turns the page. It can digitise up to 3,000 pages per hour at 500dpi resolution.
Qidenus counts the Google Book Project, the Library of Alexandria in Egypt and several national libraries in Europe among its clients, and it has received €1 million from Austrian investors. The next step is to bring the technology to the masses. "The ScanGuru will be smart, but very simple," says Quidenus. "We want people to use it at home."
qidenus.com
This article was originally published by WIRED UK
