Ion Audio is releasing the Book Saver, an e-reader conversion system for printed materials. According to the company, it's the "fastest and most convenient system for transferring novels, textbooks and periodicals to the digital realm."As you can see in the video below, Book Saver has two cameras that take separate images in rapid succession of each page within an open book. Book Saver works very fast - it takes only one second per two pages according to the company, which means that to copy a 200-page book will take you about 15 minutes.
The Book Saver, which will be offered in a price of $149, is indeed a great way to digitize your library, but will readers have the time and energy to really use it, when they can digitize almost any book in their library by purchasing and downloading it in no effort and no time?
Let's take for example a beloved book on my shelf - Catch 22 by Joseph Heller. It has 464 pages, which means that using the Book Saver it will take me about 35 minutes to digitize the whole book, if I won't get tired and keep doing it at the same pace. On the other hand, I can go to Amazon Kindle store, pay $12.99 (for some reason the e-book cost more than the paperback..) and have it on my Kindle in one minute. In this case, I would say I would go for the second option and maybe spend an half hour reading it instead of storing it.
What would you do? Do you see yourself using the Book Saver or you rather just digitize your library by downloading it? We'll be happy to hear your thoughts.
Yours,
Raz @ Eco-Libris
Eco-Libris: Promoting sustainable reading!
