I was hoping if anyone has used these before, they might be so kind as to share their thoughts and experiences on these sorts of things. I guess I'm not really thinking of a "paperless office" but sort of a step closer with this....
I ran across this:
http://www.hammacher.com/Product/78067 and immediately saw applications in my work. I can't overstate how nice it would be to have a court document converted into an image file (which could be edited/have blanks digitally filled in). I do have numerous concerns though: 1.) comparable products (usage/price), 2.) technical issues, 3.) anything else I should know.
1.)
comparable products I'm not necessarily looking for the lowest bidder, but I also don't want to spend a mint/ don't think that is necessary. I'm aware of slot scanners where you scan one single page at a time through the scanner. That's not what I'm looking for. I like the model above because it appears you can scan a flat surface with them. This is an incredibly important feature when dealing with old county records in book forms (these things are old land/taxation records for land title research). Also, practically, the clerks don't like the idea of you taking their records and putting them through anything. They are more comfortable with you setting something on top of the paper though, as opposed to passing it through a slot if that is even possible.
2.) Technical Issues. I'm wondering about both
use and
image storage/relay. USB port to a computer is obviously the best option, though I'd be willing to look at SD cards if I had to. As far as actually using the thing, I can foresee technique issues. Clearly, I'd want something that can produce a straight, level, clear image. While I'm on that topic, if there's any way to check the image quality of the thing I've scanned this way so I can verify there's nothing wrong with it, that'd be awesome to avoid flaws. I'm hoping The device woudl be easy to keep level, especially if there are bigger pages to scan where I can combine multiple pages. Moreover, speed, how long it takes to scan an individual page, would matter. My God,
if this thing could replace that horrid Xerox copier, it would save me hundreds, perhaps thousands in copier costs as well as downtime for repairs and [shiver] toner. I'm thus, very very interested, especially if I can scan the dozens if not hundreds of pages of documents I use reasonably easily.
3.) This is something completely new to me that I am very interested in implementing in a law practice. This form has both a wide base of technologically minded and insightful people, who foresee things I cannot. Anything pop up about this you think I should know.
Thank you for your time and consideration.
Truean
Edit/PS: One of the bigger expenses of practicing law is renting space to keep all the damn records and properly file them in physical cabinets while paying for copy machines. The ability to basically nix that, and on the go, would change the game considerably.
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Topic: Using/purchasing portable handheld image scanners (Read 617 times)