Questions about the LOGOS Book Scanner Robot
Hi. I was reading about the Book Scanner that LOGOS has, on page http://www.logos.com/features/bookscanner
It sounds very cool, but a few questions now come to mind please:
1) Is it possible to please see the 30-second video on that page. It does not load for me, but I would love to see the robot scanning pages of a book.
On the bottom of the Book Scanner page, there is a link to a Press Release from Kirtas Technologies. That Press Release quotes Bob Pritchett, CEO of Logos, as saying "...our team has now scanned over 1,000,000 pages from over 3,000 books since installing the product".
The PDF was created in March 2007, so one might expect that Logos may well have scanned MANY MANY times that amount now, if the project is still active.
2) Does Logos still use this machine or one like it?
3) That Press Release also spoke of a Logos project, http://www.seminarylibrary.com which I had never heard of before. Is that project still operational?
4) The signup page at http://www.seminarylibrary.com/About.aspx?content=SignUp gives the Logos phone numbers, but the web address links back to http://www.logos.com/products/details/2615 which claims that Logos does not currently sell that product. So, my question is, is that a past or future product? Is the project still operational?
I would love to hear more about the Logos project of scanning and preserving the many "at risk" books as described on page http://www.seminarylibrary.com/About.aspx?content=Purpose.
And of couse, I would love to have access to them, if its possible and I can afford the access fees.
Regards,
Jim Towler
Wellington
New Zealand
Comments
-
Jim Towler said:
1) Is it possible to please see the 30-second video on that page. It does not load for me, but I would love to see the robot scanning pages of a book.
It works for me but I had to install a Windows Media Player plugin to see it in my browser. Here's some screengrabs of it in action.
Regarding your other questions, I don't know.
Prov. 15:23
0 -
Kevin,
Many Thanks, but the video still wont work for me, using the link on the page. Maybe something to do with activeX security/firewalls/browser issues.
I looked into the link, and its to an XML file, so pulling it all apart, and a few guesses, it finally resolves to a more simple link to the real video file of http://www.logos.com/media/stream/kirtas_movie.wmv which I expect may be more accessable to people.
Anyway, I can now see the video, and I'm very impressed with how fast it works.
The page about the scanner quotes the speed as 1,200 pages per hour. So, even allowing a little to set up each new book into the machine, it seems it might be possible to do 2 books an hour, or 10 or 15 per day.
It opens the possibility for graphics-only (not OCR processed or indexed or cross-linked) copies of some works for very low cost. Clearly, the full version we are now used to in Logos 4, with indexes, searching, links, etc is where the real time, cost and value-add comes into play. Seems to me the physical scanning parts of the project is a tiny part of the work Logos needs to do for any resource we have access to.
I hope someone within Logos can reply to my questions about the project per http://www.seminarylibrary.com/About.aspx?content=Purpose
0 -
Now that I think about it, I believe that books.logos.com uses the scanned images from this project. Best of all, it's currently free because it's a "Beta."
Prov. 15:23
0 -
Jim,
I'd be happy to answer any questions you may have about Kirtas Technologies, our book scanners, software and digitization solutions.
Our new KABIS III can digitize abook at speeds up to 3,000 pages per hour, and we have made a number of additional improvements that with our current models.
Todd Whiting
Kirtas Technologies
twhiting@kirtas.com0 -
Todd,
Many Thanks for your reply and offer to answer any questions on the scaners.
My interest is really only as a Logos customer (wanting lots of cheap books) and as someone interested in robotics and machines.
I still dont have any response from Logos as to my original questions, which I would still like to hear some feedback about.
Regards,
Jim.
0 -
Jim Towler said:
And of couse, I would love to have access to them,
I assume you've explored http://books.logos.com/ This is where Logos users ought to ask for kindle like capabilities.Not that I have an opinion on it or anything. [:)]
Orthodox Bishop Alfeyev: "To be a theologian means to have experience of a personal encounter with God through prayer and worship."; Orthodox proverb: "We know where the Church is, we do not know where it is not."
0 -
Jim Towler said:
2) Does Logos still use this machine or one like it?
Yes, I'm pretty sure they do.
Jim Towler said:3) That Press Release also spoke of a Logos project, http://www.seminarylibrary.com which I had never heard of before. Is that project still operational?
4) The signup page at http://www.seminarylibrary.com/About.aspx?content=SignUp gives the Logos phone numbers, but the web address links back to http://www.logos.com/products/details/2615 which claims that Logos does not currently sell that product. So, my question is, is that a past or future product? Is the project still operational?
Jim, I don't have any official word from Logos but it appears that the seminarylibrary.com subscriptions are no longer being sold. That might be a recent development, as a search for "seminary library" on their products page still found this:
But clicking on the link took me to that same page you found which claims Logos does not currently sell the product.
Perhaps they decided to discontinue the program. Maybe a subscription-based service wasn't appealing to people and wasn't selling. Or maybe it has been superseded by http://books.logos.com and http://library.logos.com. The latter was designed for mobile devices but you can access it from any web browser. You can read and search through most of your regular Logos library books via that website.
The "at risk" seminary library books being preserved by scanning are being put up on http://books.logos.com (currently in free beta, but also intended to be a subscription-based service once it goes live; I'm not sure what the difference is/was between that and http://www.seminarylibrary.com). These old books will also probably make their way eventually into the catalogue of books people can buy for their home computer Logos libraries.
Also check out the Community Pricing program, where Logos brings back into publication (digitally) some old gems that are in the public domain: http://www.logos.com/communitypricing
0 -
Rosie,
Thanks for your feedback and comments.,
I'll keep this short, but it seems the original seminarylibrary.com site is historic and its all moved over to http://books.logos.com as you say, as did one of the comments right at the start when I first posted this.
At least some of the titles on http://books.logos.com now appear in Logos, or Pre-Pub, so it seems someone is picking up selected titles to give them a more complete processing, rather than a basic scan and OCR pass.
Regards,
Jim T.
0
