Visioneer OneTouch® with Kofax® VRS® Technology
“There is nothing more powerful than an idea whose time has come.” It’s not often that Victor Hugo gets quoted in the world of document imaging. So you should already be expecting something spectacular. Two technologies that have shaped and influenced the art and practice of making document scanners easy to use and dramatically enhanced image quality have come together.
In 1998, Visioneer changed the way that users interacted with their scanners. Previously there were multiple steps to scan a document or photo. Launching software, setting resolution, paper size, prescan, color depth, cropping, saving, etc. And the average user who was not skilled in scanner or imaging technology had no idea how or why to make these choices. So any scanning task took up to 14 steps and some techno-savvy. Enter Visioneer OneTouch. Visioneer created buttons on scanners that let the user scan with one touch to already configured settings for different applications: scan a photo, scan to email, scan to the printer (copying), etc. Before you knew it, everyone starting putting buttons on scanners. Why? Because ease of use was ease of use was more important than any other feature including price. The steak is more important than the sizzle.
At the other end of the user spectrum was Kofax. In the high speed production market where scanners eat paper for a living, there was trouble in scanned document image quality. Document quality differed, sometimes dramatically. There were of course clean laser quality documents, but also faded copies, unclear faxes, colored multipart forms, highlighted text, etc. And at one scanner setting, some pages scanned fine and others were illegible. At speed greater than 100 pages per minute, there was no time to go back and adjust settings for imperfect originals and then return the fixed scan to the digital stack. So Kofax developed Virtual ReScan or VRS.
Scanner Vendors Unite for BLI
By Lisa Reider, Senior Product Editor, Scanners and Environmental
In a lively meeting, representatives from leading scanning vendors—Canon, HP, Kodak, Panasonic and Visioneer—volleyed topics from market trends to improving the value of BLI scanner testing. The forum marked BLI’s first Scanner Testing Advisory Committee (TAC).
Established in 2006 for BLI’s MFP testing, TAC meetings let vendors comment on BLI’s test methods, identify the peers they compete against and talk about how different market segments use products in unique ways. TAC meetings, both here and in Europe, touch every aspect of BLI’s work, while giving vendors a chance to interact. BLI’s inaugural scanner TAC was no exception.
An Energetic Beginning
From the start, participants eagerly shared ideas on revamping BLI’s scanner coverage. While many of BLI’s current test methods remain unchanged, the majority of test talk focused on simply adding more—more productivity tests with “typical” features enabled, testing additional types of media, more real-world OCR and file size testing, and new evaluations capturing the total user experience. “Helping BLI refine evaluation procedures benefits not only HP and the rest of the industry, but more importantly, the end customer,” said Craig Korfanta, HP’s competitive intelligence and technology analyst. “The surprisingly diverse perspectives of the various manufacturers really broadened my understanding of the overall scanner market.”
“Thanks to our knowledgeable participants, we were able to come away with a whole new understanding of the scanner market and what scanner consumers look for,” said BLI Managing Editor Daria Hoffman. “And we’re confident the result of this TAC will be reports that customers and resellers can’t live without.”
Visioneer Strobe 500 Receives “Outstanding Achievement” Award from BLI
PLEASANTON, Calif. -- Visioneer®, Inc., a leader in intelligent imaging solutions, today announced that Buyers Laboratory Inc. (BLI), the world’s leading independent tester of document imaging products, awarded its prestigious Summer 2010 “Outstanding Achievement” award in the scanner category, to the Visioneer Strobe 500 for “Outstanding Control Panel Design.”
“This is a very meaningful award for us”
.Designed With the User in Mind
According to BLI, the Visioneer Strobe 500 is the first mobile scanner BLI has tested that offers users the ability to access all six frequently used scan profiles directly from the control panel, which earned it an “Outstanding Achievement” award for “Control Panel Design.” Whereas most other ADF-equipped mobile scanners require users to access the driver to begin scanning, or limit the control panel to a couple of hard keys, the Strobe 500 provides quick access to some of the most frequently used functions from its control panel.
“The Visioneer Strobe 500 has a lot of unique features that set it apart from other ADF-equipped mobile scanners, but offering the ability to access six scan profiles directly from the control panel is unprecedented,” said Lisa Reider, Senior Product Editor for scanners at BLI.
Scan, Share and Recycle With the New Visioneer® Strobe™ 400
PLEASANTON, Calif. -- Visioneer, a leader in intelligent document imaging solutions, today announced the Strobe 400, a new duplex color scanner designed for busy people who need a fast and reliable scanning solution that can be used anywhere. The Strobe 400 is slim and lightweight, measuring only 11.6” x 2.5” x 2” and weighs a mere 22 ounces and when used in duplex mode, the Strobe 400 scans both sides of the page in only 6 seconds. Priced at $299.99, the Strobe 400 is one of the most affordable “green” scanning solutions available for PC or Mac®.
“The Strobe 400 is a great, low cost solution for anyone looking to reduce the amount of paper in their life and Visioneer will plant a tree on behalf of every customer who registers a new scanner through our partnership with the Arbor Day Foundation.”
.“While we may never become truly paperless, we believe you can have a ‘less paper’ office,” said John Capurso, vice president of marketing at Visioneer. “The Strobe 400 is a great, low cost solution for anyone looking to reduce the amount of paper in their life and Visioneer will plant a tree on behalf of every customer who registers a new scanner through our partnership with the Arbor Day Foundation.”
Make a Commitment to Sustainability
Scanning is a highly effective green technology. By digitizing documents, they can be shared in electronic form rather than sharing via fax, reprinting or copying, saving the user time, money and valuable resources. Any business that handles paper can benefit from using a scanner. Whether scanning contracts, forms, receipts, photos, ID cards, handwritten notes or virtually any document of varying size or complexity, the Strobe 400 meets the changing needs of users in many paper-intensive markets.
Visioneer Announces NetScan 4000 Network Document Scanner
PLEASANTON, Calif. -- Visioneer, Inc., a leader in intelligent document imaging solutions, today announced the NetScan 4000, a new duplex color network scanner with LCD touch screen. Using either the flatbed or 50-page automatic document feeder (ADF), users can scan both sides of their document to e-mail, a network folder, fax recipient, FTP location or printer through the large 7-inch, bright color LCD touch panel that displays all operation modes clearly. Simply make a few touches on the LCD screen and the job is finished within seconds. The screen is highly responsive to touch and the soft QWERTY keyboard makes data entry easy and fast. The NetScan 4000 can easily support small to medium workgroups and offices with secure multi-user access and easy administration through an embedded form-based web page configuration and a standard Ethernet connection.
“During our evaluation of the NetScan 4000, we found the networking, scan to email and filing destinations all very easy to complete and setup was straightforward using either the web interface or the user-friendly Menu screen,” said Raymond Farias, IT Manager at the Chicago Office Technology Group. “After spending just a few minutes with the device, we realized that this is much more than just a scanner. Users can receive faxes, make copies with an attached printer and scan to a local desktop all with three simple touches on the LCD screen. Visioneer’s NetScan 4000 is a very impressive unit.”
Intelligent Scanning on Your Network
The Visioneer NetScan 4000™ scans documents at 20 ppm (pages per minute) or 14 ipm (images per minute) in duplex. It supports LDAP (lightweight directory access protocol) for direct access to Microsoft Exchange Server email directories and SMTP server support so that small businesses without elaborate Exchange servers or large IT departments can configure their scan-to-email with internet and ISP based mail services. The convenient 50-page capacity automatic document feeder can handle paper from 5.5” x 5.5” up to 8.5” x 14” documents. The built-in Ethernet connection gives the device full or limited network privileges as defined by the network administrator.
