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Visioneer launched a new document and image scanner Tuesday that is fully independent of PCs, providing the ability to scan directly to SD cards, USB drives and even a smart phone independent of a notebook or desktop.
The Visioneer Mobility is fast, sharp (300 dpi) and -- importantly -- light and compact. It is straightforward, intuitive, and can scan a full color document in three seconds flat. The device is positioned well to revolutionize mobile document imaging for several reasons, according to an evaluation by the CRN Test Center.
The device, which is list-priced at $199, weighed in on our sale at one pound, 5 ounces. Its dimensions, 2 inches by 2.75 inches by 11.5 inches, allows it to fit into even a narrow briefcase. Running on a lithium-ion battery, the Mobility works without needing to be plugged in for power.
Visioneer has built the Mobility with a USB slot as well as an SD card port, which is where images are sent after they are scanned. The device is also built to integrate with Android, BlackBerry or Windows smart phones. We tested it on two, separate Android devices and have this warning: while it works, be prepared to mess around with settings on any Android before it can sync with the Mobility. (That’s more of a statement on Android than it is on Visioneer, given that Android is customized by manufacturers device by device.)
Once an SD card, a USB drive or a smart phone is connected to the Mobility, a document inserted into the scanner automatically begins feeding through. Documents scan quickly, as noted, and by default our images were saved as jpg files into a DCIM folder on the SD drive, thumb drive or destination device.
For those who have been out in the working world for a while, the Mobility makes it easy to hearken back to those college days when trekking to the library and copying course reading material -- at 25 cents a page on clunky copiers -- was part of life. Now all you need is a Droid and an SD card.
Mobile document scanners aren’t new, and, in fact, Visioneer was one of the first companies to hit the market with them more than a decade ago. But the fact that the Mobility doesn’t need a PC to scan, collect or transmit documents -- that it is PC-independent -- should signal a significant milepost on the journey toward ultra-mobility. Use patterns are tilting toward mobile devices more each day and Visioneer has produced technology that takes full advantage of that.
