Usage scenario:

Your small group has a scanner in walking distance, and wants to use it for simple scanning.

  • It is not worth it to connect the scanner to the user’s computer,

  • and also not worth it to be running back and forth between scanner and computer to check the scanning progress (as is suggested by saned).

  • Mixed local/network scanning on the machine is not required (as suggested in scanbd.)

  • The scanner is connected to a machine without display but with audio hardware. In our case it is an old broken Thinkpad.

  • Maybe the scanner is a cheap crappy scanner without automatic document feeding etc.

This script will poll the buttons, scan according to two pre-sets (you could make the scripts more complex if desired) and publish the result on a Windows share.

Communication with the user is done through speech synthesis software.

End user experience:

  • The Windows share is added once through “Connect Network Drive” in Windows or as a smb:// Bookmark in Nautilus, possibly by a local “Computer Expert”

  • User has something to scan, takes the papers to the room with the scanner. He puts each sheet on the scanner and pushes Button 1. When the scan is finished, he does the same with the next sheet and so on. At the end, the user pushes Button 4 to signal he is done scanning.

  • User goes back to his computer, copies the finished PDF file out of the network share. If necessary, he launches Adobe or another software to fix up any rough edges in the scan.

  • User could also print this document to some printer in yet another room, after reviewing that everything is in order.

Script to do it:

You can grab your copy here: scanbtn.tar. Detailed information is inside the README file therein. Enjoy!