Recommend to a Friend
Mini5 hovercam, swiss army knife of doc cameras
5.0
Scanners don't typically rank high atop most people's list of cool tech toys. But the new HoverCam Mini 5 that I've been reviewing is cool, at least for people whose offices tend to move with them.
Right from the get-go, it's apparent that the $249 Mini is different. It doesn't resemble your typical scanner, portable or otherwise. Mini 5 comes from a San Diego company called Pathway Innovations & Technologies, which refers to it as the Swiss army knife of document cameras. It's an apt description.
Unlike your average scanner, the Mini is small enough, and at about a third of a pound, light enough to fit into your pocket. (Yes, I know there are apps that can turn your smartphone into a scanner.)
Nor does your ordinary scanner fold down into a .75-inch-by-1.25-inch-by-7-inch candy bar-shaped contraption like this one does — bringing to mind some sturdy tool you might come across in the aisles of Home Depot.
The Mini is versatile, too. It doubles as a webcam. Connected to a computer equipped with a projector, it can help teachers and businesspeople give presentations. In many instances, the Mini is a refreshing alternative for a slow and anything-but-portable flatbed type scanner, while hogging considerably less desk space. Unlike the flatbed, there's no methodical beam that sweeps across a document as it scans. The Mini captures a snapshot in an instant.
As with a Swiss army knife, you begin to get a handle on what this thing is capable of when you start to unfold it into various contortions.
The design is clever. There's an easy-to-grip stationary post with a fold-out kickstand at bottom. Attached to the post is a pivoting telescopic arm that you can raise or lower at multiple angles. At the end of this arm is an LED light that you can turn on or off, and an autofocus 5-megapixel camera, which swivels all the way around, letting you position it properly when you want to capture a picture of a document or object. There's an autofocus lock, and when fully extended, the Mini stands at 11-inches.
On the bottom of the post on the opposite side of the kickstand is a USB 2.0 connector that's kept out of the way until you rotate it up or down to fit most laptops. You must connect the HoverCam to a computer since that's how it draws power.
Pathway has given some thought to those situations where plugging in the USB connector directly from the scanner to a computer is clumsy, if not impossible — think desktop PC or a machine that's stuck under your desk. The Mini's carrying case, supplied free, serves as an optional base under those circumstances. You run a 4-foot cable from the computer to one of two USB ports on the outside of the case, connecting the scanner to the other USB port.
Pathway also supplies a green rubber mat and portable bumper to help you position whatever it is you want to scan or photograph. You're guided by markings on the mat.
You can also view a live preview of the scanned object or page inside the HoverCam software, which you install the first time you connect the Mini to your computer via USB.
From the software, you can shoot videos or capture images up to a scanning resolution of 2592 by 1944. You also choose other parameters: an appropriate image file format (JPEG, TIFF, etc.), effects (black and white, emboss) how the file is compressed, and so on. You can apply optical character recognition (OCR) to convert scanned images into text.
Inside the software, you can also zoom (using a 16X digital zoom or 10X mechanical zoom) or straighten the document. At the click of a button, you can turn on a secondary camera, typically, the webcam that's on your computer, to exploit a picture-in-picture feature that's potentially useful when you're on a video call. You can use the Mini with Skype, GoToMeeting or other Web-conferencing software. You can annotate live video with text and drawing tools that show up at the click of a button, or capture your own digital signature, too.
Scanned documents are archived in the software from where you can send them off to Evernote, Dropbox, Facebook, Picasa or YouTube; you can also drag the file outside HoverCam's software to use in any program on your computer.
Not everything went smoothly in my tests. I had to summon tech support when I was unable to properly control video I was trying to record from within the HoverCam software. The remedy was to replace the software with another (oddly, earlier) version.
As it is, the HoverCam software works in tandem with the other programs on your computer — Windows Media player on a Windows machine, QuickTime on a Mac.
I couldn't test every feature either, including an experimental "Connect" feature that would let you, say, share blueprints or other annotated documents during a one-on-one video conference with another HoverCam owner.
Pathway is also preparing business card and receipt software that's still several weeks away from availability.
In the meantime, the company says that the Mini 5 itself is on back order. It seems a scanner can be cool, after all.
Edward B. on
Jul 23, 2013
I found this helpful
(4)
All product Reviews