magazine
42
Scanners
A lot has happened in the three and a
bit years since Fujitsu introduced its
last ultraportable scanner, the S1100,
not least the inexorable rise of the
smartphone and its impact on the
enterprise through BYOD and mobile
working practices.
Fujitsu’s new scanner, the iX100,
reflects these changes by making it
easier than ever for mobile workers to
scan to a smartphone/tablet and to do
so without compromising productivity or
scan quality.
A built-in PCB and processor – a
miniaturised version of the one used in
Fujitsu’s iX500 wireless desktop scanner
– brings two major enhancements:
1
Wireless scanning out of the box
The iX100 has both USB andWiFi
connectivity as standard and can switch
between the two on an ad hoc basis.
If no USB connection with a
notebook is detected, the scanner will
automatically look for pre-registered
wireless network connections, such as
the user’s officeWiFi network or home
router. If none is available, it will switch
to ad hoc mode and establish a direct
connection with a smartphone/tablet.
Thanks to wireless direct mode,
smartphone users can use the scanner
straight out of the box and don’t have
to trouble themselves with network
connections when away from the office,
for example when on clients’ premises.
Once the scanner light turns green
indicating that a connection has been
made, all the user has to do is open
the ScanSnap smartphone app and
start scanning. Scans are automatically
transferred to the app, which acts as a
container for scanned documents. These
can then be fed into any application that
supports PDF or JPEG formats.
2
Consistent performance
across all devices
The other big advance on Fujitsu’s
previous ultraportable scanner is
no compromise functionality and
performance when using a smartphone
or tablet. Because the iX100 has a built-
in processor for image enhancement,
users don’t have to rely on the
processing power of their mobile device,
but instead can look forward to almost
equal image quality and transfer speeds
whether scanning wirelessly to a
smartphone or to a notebook via a wired
USB connection.
Dual Scan
In addition to simpler mobile operation,
the iX100 boasts a number of useful new
features, including a Dual Scan capability
first seen on Fujitsu’s Scan Snap SV600
overhead scanner, and carrier-less A3
scanning.
Particularly useful for speeding up the
scanning of multiple business cards and
receipts, Dual Scan lets users feed in two
or more items at the same time. As long
as there is a 1cm gap between each one,
the scanner will automatically create
separate images.
Another enhancement is A3 stitching.
Almost all A4 scanners are able to scan
A3 documents that have been folded in
half and use software to stitch both sides
of the document together. Traditionally
documents have had to be placed in a
special carrier sheet to do this.With the
iX100 this is no longer necessary.
Klaus Schulz, manager of product
marketing EMEA at PFU Imaging
Solutions Europe Ltd, believes that the
greater ease of use and functionality of
the iX100 will expand the market for
Thanks to
wireless
direct mode,
smartphone
users can use
the scanner
straight out of
the box
Fujitsu’s new ultraportable
wireless scanner simplifies
scanning to a smartphone or
tablet
ultraportable scanners.
“Anyone who deals with information
and is involved in handing out or
receiving paper-based information is a
potential user,” he said.
“This is a document scanner and we
are addressing a business-to-business
environment with a total market size
of 500,000 units in EMEA.We assume
that 50-80% of the total market is
made up of ‘transportable’ devices: it’s
not all about truly mobile devices – a
lot of knowledge workers walk around
with desktop devices because they
have a continually changing working
environment. The growth in the desktop
space is 20%, but we believe the
ultraportable space will grow even more.”
Schulz says that for business users
the iX500 has big advantages over
using a smartphone camera, as there
is no variation in the light source. This
guarantees consistent high quality image
capture whenever and wherever the
iX100 is used. He adds that it is also
more convenient than an MFP, which
makes it attractive to home users.
“What we believe is likely to happen
is that people will move from the fixed
office to home to mobile.We believe
family members will notice that it is very
easy to scan with this device compared
to a normal MFP that requires a PC to
scan to a mobile.What is stressful for
the individual and for the bandwidth
that’s available in your home is that
MFPs don’t optimise a document for
presentation. They optimise it for a like-
for-like copy, so they capture too much
detail. Typically, a scan size is 350-380 KB
on ScanSnap and 1.5-2.5 MB on an MFP.
This poses a problem on mobile devices
that have less space and processing
power,” he said.
The iX100 costs £183.
Making
connections
