New technology increases bulk scanning efficiency

December 10, 2012

For anyone scanning large documents in scanners built for smaller pieces of paper, the time spent folding, organizing and matching up can feel inefficient and frustrating. A new type of document scanning technology will allow larger documents to be matched up by the scanner itself, and allow users to import with 20 percent of the effort.

 

Fujitsu Laboratories announced the creation of a scanner that allows A3 size sheets of paper – double the size of a typical 8-inch by 11-inch page – to be scanned by A4 scanners – the size of standard, legal pad paper – in a much more efficient way than in the past. Currently, to scan larger pieces of paper – A3 size – in a smaller scanner – A4 size – the paper would need to be folded in half, and run through the scanner for each side. If the paper is double sided, the paper would need to be run four times. Now, the larger piece of paper can be cut in half and run through the two-sided scanner which will be able to detect and match up the two halves to create a PDF.

Fujitsu presented the new document scanning technology last month at the Conference on Pattern Recognition, and hopes to eventually allow documents even larger than A3 to be imported through smaller scanners.

The Japanese laboratory explained that although more offices are becoming “paperless” and relying moreĀ  on document scanners to support their transition, many are still using A4 scanners to import A3-size documents. Currently, the scanner is not available, and for offices making the transition to a digital documents – especially those using A3-sized papers – bulk scanning services can efficiently scan files to allow businesses to focus on their more relevant tasks.