Scanning books

Books are inherently two dimensional, so why would it take a 3D system to scan one?

That’s a good question, and there’s a very interesting answer posted on the Point Grey web site under the heading of “Perfect Book.”

The issue is that books of course have a spine and so dislike being opened out flat. This system, offered by Zeutschel of Germany, gets around that by using structured light to determine the curvature of the pages while the book rests face-up. That information is then used to correct the page images, warping them into their flat equivalents.

Take a look at the video for a better explanation of how the system works.