NEW SCANNER REPAIRS PHOTOS

Flatbed scanners continue to be one of the more versatile peripherals you can add to your computer but a new model coming from Microtek is about to add a new wrinkle or to be more accurate, remove one. Microtek will be introducing their ScanMaker 6800 ICE flatbed scanner with a unique built-in ability to repair damaged photos as it scans them.

Basically, scanners let you transfer text and images on a printed page into your computer. Once scanned you can perform a myriad of applications given the proper software and hardware. You can for example make copies, fax the image, attach it to an email for sending, or incorporate any or all of the image into other applications such as a word processor or page layout program.

Today's entry-level scanners with their 40+ bit color, transparency adapters, faster speeds along with USB and now even Firewire connections have abilities greater than the over $1000 models of just a few short years ago. Their affordable prices have moved scanners into the mainstream and scanning photographs has become one of the more common scanner uses. After all, who doesn't have a book or two of old photographs that they'd like to preserve before it all just fades away? And sadly too often those old photographs are already damaged in some way. Granted there are many photo processing applications that let you remove red eye and other types of imperfections. But repairing creases, cracks, wrinkles and other kinds of blemishes that have marred your precious images over the years can be time consuming and usually requires some degree of expertise.

With all that in mind, Microtek has created the ScanMaker 6800 with photographic restoration technology built into the hardware itself. According to Microtek's product marketing manager Mauricio Osorio, the 6800 was recently put to the test by asking a PhotoShop expert to restore a fairly damaged photograph. It took the expert about an hour to fix and gave an estimate of around $100 for the service. The same photograph was then placed in the 6800 and scanned using its built-in repair functions. A repaired image was produced in around 10 minutes and according to Osorio, you couldn't tell the difference between the professionally repaired photo and the one from 6800.

Osorio cautions that the 6800 won't perform miracles and not to expect the missing head of an old relative to reappear if it was completely torn away. Then again, you could expect the same limitations with PhotoShop as well. The idea behind the 6800 is to try and automate the removal and repair process to many of the more commonly found imperfections so that anyone can do it in a few minutes. But you should not throw away your photo-processing applications. In fact, Microtek bundles several such applications with the 6800 including two fully functional trial plug-in modules that work with anything that accepts Adobe plug-ins. These modules provide color restoration to faded color photographs and automatically reveal details in dark image areas.

The ScanMaker 6800 is a true 48 bit scanner with 4800 by 2400 optical resolution, built-in transparency adapter, is USB 2.0 and Firewire ready and will work with both Windows and Macintosh systems. Expected price is to be around $399.

A mouse pad on your knee

You won't have to go to Alabama for a mouse pad on your knee. That's thanks to the folks in Castle Rock, Colorado who have come up with the MouseBoard. This clever little mouse pad surface is mounted to a thick rigid, soft foam block with a circular cutout that fits snugly to your upper thigh when in a sitting position. I admit I was skeptical at first but I found the MouseBoard to put the mouse in a surprisingly comfortable position when sitting at my desktop computer. I did have to give up my chair with its armrests as they got in the way but switching to one without them solved that problem. Granted it does take a little getting used to but if you find yourself reaching too far for that mouse, you may want to give the MouseBoard a try and see if it works for you. And if not, there's always that banjo.

Comes in a variety of colors. $14.95