Scanbox turns your smartphone into a portable scanner

Another day, another successful Kickstarter project. It simply cannot be overstated how great that site can be for helping innovative and possibly disruptive ideas become reality. One of the latest Kickstarter darlings has already been 630 percent funded with thirty-three days left to go.

Scanbox, created by Australians Phil Bosua, Ben Hillier and Luke Allen, is a portable device that turns your smartphone (or any smartphone with a back camera) into a convenient scanner that can scan photos, as a copier, or to digitize receipts.

The designers came up with Scanbox as a solution to the problems that most of us have with scanners these days-- we own them but we rarely use them, they take up space and collect dust. Mainly, their size and price make them more of a hassle than they are worth. Scanbox was designed to be unpacked and packed up again (and is small enough to fit easily into a briefcase or laptop bag) in just a few seconds.

The Scanbox unfolds from a flatpack, snapping together with high-strength magnets to make a scanner platform, and was designed to optimize almost all lighting conditions to make the final product come out clean. Even so, the designers have made a "Plus" model that is equipped with thin LED lights to counteract shadows.

Scanbox can also scan 3D objects for that Ebay product shot and can be used as a live projector for presentations. It's even optimized for facial recognition for scanned photos. And, it comes in six bright colors for personalization, which is an important part of today's gadget marketplace.

Here's how it works:

It's pretty obvious, having raised almost $80,000 of their $12,500 goal that there is a great desire for this product.

[Design.org]
Images: Scanbox

This post was originally published on Smartplanet.com