NEC and the Nara Institute of Science and Technology have cooperated to develop technology which allows for phones with cameras - even low resolution cameras - to act as scanners, by having users move their camera over the surface of the page.

NEC and the Nara Institute of Science and Technology have devloped technology which uses movie recordings to produce high quality images, o­n par with those of a scanner. This technology will be aimed at cellular phones and video cameras.

The technique involves recording a part of the subject to a movie, while moving the camera; the "Mosaicing Technology" analyzes the moving image and estimates the three-dimensional position of the subject, and under the supervision of the "Ultra Resolution Technology," the joining points of the image are deleted, thereby optimizing it so that even low resolution cameras can produce scanner like output. In other words, even cellular phones and video cameras can produce high quality images.

Up until now, there were certain cameras that contained equipment to turn low quality images into high quality o­nes, but this technology marks the first time that this sort of technique can be accomplished with existing equipment. For example, a high quality image can be produced of an A4 size sheet of paper from video cameras currently o­n the market.

Inspired by:
http://k-tai.impress.co.jp/cda/article/news_toppage/17729.html

News Release:
http://www.nec.co.jp/press/ja/0402/2303.html