Kirtas' APT BookScan 1200™: World's Fastest Book Scanner (Link)

Ever wondered how Google is going to scan thousands of books in the process of digitizing libraries?

According an essay written by Joseph Huttner, "Google recently implemented a convoy of new machines from Kirtas Technologies called the APT BookScan 1200, which is capable of scanning up to 1200 pages per hour (Kirtas Technologies). The machine works by utilizing a 16-megapixel digital camera to photograph each page, then transfers the image to local storage. Then, a robotic arm gently turns the page of the book, and the process is completed for each additional page. The digital images are then ‘cleaned’ to remove smudges and other errors, cropped, and centered. At this point, the image can be posted online, but "searching through the text is impossible".

Read Also:
Google Print secret revealed (Kevin Maney's Blog at USA Today)
Google Book Search Project (Joseph Huttner Essay)