The ScanTent
The ScanTent is the optimal solution for scanning loose or bound documents on the go – with low cost and high quality (have a look to the example images at the bottom of this page).
In combination with the DocScan app it enables you to hold a document with both hands and to scan it with your smart phone without pressing any button. DocScan takes the picture automatically once a page is turned, and stops as long as the same page is presented to the camera.
The mount on top of the ScanTent enables you to place the smart phone in a convenient way and thus guarantees an optimal viewing angle and a constant distance. If daylight is not sufficient white LED strips provide a uniform lighting that maximize image quality. Disassembling the ScanTent and its low weight allow for compact transportation.
DocScan
DocScan is an Android app designed for the ScanTent. It detects pages in the live preview and makes high quality scans. An automatic series mode takes an image once a page is turned. It therefore enables you to scan books or documents quickly without interacting with your mobile. Please report issues concerning DocScan here.
Example images
The images below come from a ScanTent campaign carried out in February 2020 with the Tyrolean Regional State Archive. We scanned about 45,000 images with the support from 7 students. We used the smartphones from below.
Huawei P20 – Camera model: CLT-L29 – full image
Huawei P10 (=Honor P20) – Camera model: VTR-L29 – full image
Samsung S8 (3 years old) – Camera model: SM-G970F – full image
Samsung S10 – Camera model: SM-G970F – full image
Camera Resolution
We have tested eight different smartphones and measured their resolution if mounted to the scantent. You can see their field of view and resolution in the illustration below. DocScan does not support the Nokia 7 Plus Tele and iPhone 7.
QR Code Generator
DocScan is capable of reading QR codes, which encode special information about documents – such as document title, name of archive, or date. By simply scanning a QR code with DocScan, documents can be automatically created. If you want to see how it works fill out the forms in the following and download the QR-Code by clicking on it. In real world projects you could generate QR codes from an Excel file and use these QR codes during your scanning campaign in order to get all metadata directly into your documents on Transkribus.
Generate
Generated QR-Code
The ScanTent was developed as part of the READ project by members of the Computer Vision Lab of the Technical University Vienna (Markus Diem, Stefan Fiel, Florian Kleber) and the Digitisation and Digital Preservation group of the University of Innsbruck.
