Asher Moses has a piece in the Sydney Morning Herald, Book scans reveal Google’s handiwork, which introduces us to a new, undiscovered component of the digitization process; the hand scan.
“Digital bookworms reading titles like the 1855 issue of The Gentleman’s Magazine and Plato’s The Trial and Death of Socrates have been surprised to find large chunks of some pages blocked by manicured paws clad in pink finger condoms.”
Rob Shilkin, Google’s Australia spokesman, tells us that “in the time since we initially began our scanning, we’ve vastly improved our scanning technology so that a random finger is automatically brought to our attention long before we return the book back to the shelf.”
Scanning 1.0 includes fingers and hands
Scanning 2.0 uses “improved scanning technology to ensure wayward fingers no longer get in the way.”
Scanning 3.0 …
The TechCrunch take
Link to the Gentleman’s Magazine with finger intrusion.
Don’t you think it’s a little weird that the scan for The Gentleman’s Magazine begins with a woman’s fingers covered in pink finger condoms?