Pi and camera makes a good document camera

[hamilc]

I thought I would mention that the pi camera placed above a book or paper pad makes a good document camera. To make the camera focus at a distance of about 18 inches you have to adjust the focusing lens on the standard camera. You can carefully twist the lens and break the glue and make the camera focus on a closer object. The good thing about the pi camera is that there is very little video lag and the resolution is better than most webcams.

[RSvedman]

This paired with OCR software could be a valuable tool for fund-strapped libraries to digitize books.. and with the pi everything is scriptable, and it could even drive a page-flipper robot, making it possible to "scan" entire volumes unattended.. and with a the pi2 its even practical to run the ocr inside as well.

1 put a book in the stand
2 push button
3 get a webcopy of the book

...4 get sued for copyright violation...