...in past if wanted to endow an existing paper document with extra functionality you had to convert it into digital form scanning one page at a time with a large inconvenient scanner and then using OCR software to extract the test in a form that a computer could manipulate. OCR somewhat unreliable, required a lot of manual intervention - correction on the part of the user.
ah my Maryland archives experience could be of some small but relevant use here on a resume.
in last 10 years world has changed -- the majority of paper documents with which we now interact already exist in electronic form -- (majority ~? well...: Most documents produced in the last decade or two already exist in digital form somewhere and there are many major initiatives to increase publications available, including Amazon's search inside facility, Google Print, and the Internet Archive. it is only a matter of time before the bulk of the world's printed documents are digitized and that time may be shorter than we think. hmm ok.) this means that instead of using the scanning process to create an imperfect digital copy of a paper document we can now use it to find the perfect digital original.
usually only requires a few words to identify document unambiguously...
an important first application is what we call the life library = a record of everything you scan with timestamps, surrounding context, further information. might be presented in weblog format, and might be for your own personal use, or for more public consumption.
imagine the value of having a reocrd of everything you ever read that you thought was interesting, a record that you could revist, search. remind you of the sort of books you were reading five years ago... mmmmmm. but disappointing me...? at home 9619 was thinking of this - could I easily make a record of my letters, my notes, books already read? --- I suppose a good pen-like scanner would help but the point here is not capturing unique content is it.
imagine you have a small scanner on your key ring. our plans are for something about the size of a USB flash drive, which you hold as if it were a highlighter pen. alternatively, the functionality could be built into your phone, mp3 player, bluetooth headset or other device already carried. it can communicate in some way with your phone, your PC, your wireless network - either directly or by being plusgged in to synchronize from time to time.