User:Riaotdoc/Hovercam

HoverCam Document Scanner

HoverCam Document Scanners are a series of document imaging and video presentation devices made by Pathway Innovations and Technologies Inc., located in San Diego, California. Despite the fact these devices carry the word "scanner" in their names, they are fundamentally different from traditional scanners. Traditional scanners, either the flat-bed type or the "pass-thru" type like typical scanners equipped with automatic document feeder (ADF), the imaging sensor is a linear CCD array. The CCD array can pick up one row of pixels at any time. In order to scan a page or a picture, the imaging sensor needs to move relatively against the medium being scanned. HoverCam breaks this tradition by employing a 2-D CMOS array, similar to the sensors found in digital cameras and web cams. Because of this, HoverCam can "scan" a whole page of document, picture, or even 3-D objects in a single exposure.

What differs HoverCam from typical digital cameras and webcams is the that HoverCam is specially designed to capture document that lays flat on a matte (included as part of the package). The optics and imaging sensor are mounted at the end of the foldable imaging arm, which when extended, goes in perpendicular to the vertical supporting arm. There is also a built-in LED light source inside the imaging arm. When the imaging arm is folded into the supporting arm, the entire scanner reduces to a stick that is 21" tall and takes about 4" by 5" of desk space. The scanning matte can be either be rolled up or left alone on the desk.