Xerox launches camera phone scanning software

Nov 16 2004 - 02:07 PM ET | Camera

Xerox announced new software yesterday that turns megapixel camera phones into document scanners. The new process involves four steps: # Capture the image on your phone. # Apply Xerox software to correct for blurring. # Convert image to black and white, like a conventional printed image, and eliminate any shadows and reflections. For handwritten text or writing in color, as might be found on a whiteboard, apply color saturation and white balance contrast techniques. # Compress the image making it easy to send and print. Xerox uses a G4 fax compression format, producing images one-tenth the size of JPEG, which is standard for mobile image transmission. The result? A 250Kb JPEG image becomes a 15Kb G4 fax image. The final product can then be sent via Bluetooth or MMS to a desktop computer that can use character regognition to make the image a text file. It's not known when this technology could become common place.

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