Well we can see more of the variants in computing, with the keyboard is not having some of the few changes and miss haps in the use of features and also deviced to basically aid and also improve the usability when you are doing gaming or just work applications.
Convergence is the cornerstone of modern technology. We have monitors with integrated webcams, cellphones that function as PDAs and digital cameras, and biometric mice. Following that lead, the Canadian company KeyScan is releasing the KS810, a keyboard with an integrated scanner. Since is a sheet-feed scanner (just like a fax machine) it isn’t suited for digitalizing books or magazines; the KS810 only scans loose sheet, photos, flyers, business cards etc. If that meets the user’s necessities then the hybrid can solve problems like lacking table space for a regular scanner. Let’s examine the KS810 and its installation process and then check out its scanning capabilities.
First of all, do not connect the power adapter to the keyboard before running the install disc. The user has to connect the keyboard to the PC through the USB cable like any other regular keyboard and then run the installation application. When a green LED starts blinking near the AC power adapter entrance you should finally plug the KS810 to an outlet. Beware that the device supports only 32-bit operating systems; it didn’t run under our 64-bit Windows XP and we had to install it on a 32-bit machine. The company said that they’re working on supporting 64-bit systems and it should be released in a few months from now.
You just have to feed the slot to begin the process. If it’s something small (like a business card or photograph) it pops back out the top; if it’s a big document it will come out the bottom of the KS810. The application scans and converts the document to several different file formats, including Microsoft Word, PDF, email attachment, Photoshop, Paintbrush. The output resolution goes from 50 up to 4,800 dpi. The user can choose from basic scanning to more complex image adjustments. The Autoscan mode allows immediate scanning when you feed a document, remembering the last chosen settings. TWAIN protocol makes possible to use applications like Photoshop to interact with the scanner. One of our tests involved scanning a fast food flyer with several rich color images over a glossy paper – the resulting document was faithful to the original. Overall, scanning took us about 12 seconds per document.
Since it has a sheet-feed slot, the KS810 is limited to scanning loose sheet documents. If you have a brand new machine, the device won’t work but the company promised to extent the support to 64-bit environments. Being a hybrid, we approved it as both a nice keyboard and a fast scanner, although we hit some snags with the OCR function. The device requires a spare A/C outlet which means more cable thrown into an already convoluted workspace.
