39 replies to this topic

[Jasonfran]

Now that printers have been released in 1.4.2 I think there should be a scanner which can scan the text on a inserted piece of paper and save it as a string.

This would be useful as a ticketing system and would also encourage people to create advanced ticketing systems that cannot be forged using other people's printers. I think that would be a fun thing to do and could also act as money on a multiplayer server.


Functions there should be:

scanner.getText() - returns a string

scanner.eject() - ejects paper

scanner.isScanning() - returns true if there is paper already inside the machine, else false

scanner.lines() - returns the amount of lines on the piece of paper

Let me know what you think />

[Jan]

Oh no... this topic will be similair to that large discussion 'turtles should read signs'. But this time with paper...

[sjele]

Anyways since this dosent involve turtles it could work. Scanners are not blind like turtles />

[OmegaVest]

I doubt this will become a discussion on that scale. But, yeah, I can see this being useful, as I myself thought this would be good to have while playing around with printers. Mostly after I found out you can print programs. I thought it would be interesting to have a program printed out, then sent (like with forestry mail), then scanned in. You can, of course, do this with disks much easier, but for what I was building at the time, a scanner would have been preferable.

Furthermore, I like the idea of, say, putting a row of characters that act as a pass code. Easy to hack, of course. But then, disks are not much better, and these could be disposable. Like an automated ticket booth.

[Cranium]

Also, tickets make more sense of being paper than a floppy disk...

[GopherAtl]

To me, scanners made a lot more sense for the pixel printers in CCPrinters, since they could scan maps. Only being able to scan in text that was printed in the first place seems of very limited value by comparison...

[Cranium]

But you could make barcodes like this:

| || |||  | || |  || |
| || |||  | || |  || |

And have it be read by the scanner.

[OmegaVest]

Actually, that's not a bad usage, Cranium. I can kinda see how that would go.

scanner = peripheral.wrap("right")
tPage = scanner.getText()
sCode = tPage[4]
iCode
for i = #sCode, 1, -1 do
   bintar = #sCode - i +1
   if string.sub(sCode, i, i) ~= " " then
      iCode = iCode + 2^bintar
   end
end

Then, do whatever. And with this, it can literally be any character that you want, not just a barcode, but a keycard, analog mock magstrip, QR code, etc.

[Cranium]

O.O
QR codes, you say?
hmm.......

[BigSHinyToys]

computer + rednet + printer + scanner = FAX machine

I like this idea +1

[Cranium]

/> /> /> /> /> /> /> /> /> />
I had not thought about that til just now!
We gotta convice dan200 and Cloudy to add this! It fits so well into ComputerCraft!

[Orwell]

Jasonfran, on 22 September 2012 - 07:09 PM, said:

Now that printers have been released in 1.4.2 I think there should be a scanner which can scan the text on a inserted piece of paper and save it as a string.

This would be useful as a ticketing system and would also encourage people to create advanced ticketing systems that cannot be forged using other people's printers. I think that would be a fun thing to do and could also act as money on a multiplayer server.


Functions there should be:

scanner.getText() - returns a string

scanner.eject() - ejects paper

scanner.isScanning() - returns true if there is paper already inside the machine, else false

scanner.lines() - returns the amount of lines on the piece of paper

Let me know what you think />

And what about the color of each character?

[Cranium]

We might have to have two scanners then, or something like we already have with turtle upgrades with a color peripheral? But I think that the scanners should be just black and white, rather than colored. It would make things so much easier to code for.

[BigSHinyToys]

something like this could work for color and char data

scan.loadpage()
local max_row_number,max_column_number = scan.getPageSize()
local page = {}
for row = 1,max_row_number do
page[row] = {}
for column = 1,max_column_number do
  page[row][column] = {}
  scan.selectPos(row,collom)
  page[row][column].char = scan.char()
  page[row][column].color = scan.color()
end
end

[JJRcop]

Yes, this is absolutely necessary, a must have!

[BrolofTheViking]

This... is interesting. Very interesting... I like this idea.

[wilcomega]

i argree, we gotta bug dan and cloudy about this />

[Aquilamo]

If there was a scanner, I might actually be able to build a massive database using paper. Saving data has always been an issue for me in computercraft...
Along with a camera turtle (like from CameraCraft mod) I could record anything, muahahahahahah!

[JJRcop]

I imagine database backups with paper and scanners.

[CastleMan2000]

I like this idea. /> I think it could be VERY useful, like if you had an email system between, say, two cities. There would be local mail servers in both cities, and anything addressed to the other city would be printed out, sent over storage carts delivered daily, and scanned into the server at the other end.