When I sent a book I showed you the back side of "BOOKSCAN" which will scan it and make it an electronic book

If you send the book as it is, it will be scanned and converted into PDF data etc. after being cut apart by the cutting machine, even though the electronic book era has begun, the existing publisher is scoring the gap that says it is nothing Services that appeared at such timing, that is "BOOKSCAN"is. I actually went through the interview with the behind the scenes.

From the conclusion, about seven months have passed since the establishment in April 2010, during which time new entrants appeared, but "BOOKSCAN" has succeeded in further differentiation by further dramatic evolution , Reaching the level which can not be thought from the beginning. To be honest, in the sense that it can be done in just seven months, I feel like a speed start like an overseas startup company and a solid technical ability to shape ideas.

The awesome behind-the-scenes content to shudder is from the following.BOOKSCAN (Book Scan) Low Price · Book Scanning Service - Yamato Printing
http://www.bookscan.co.jp/

◆ What is BOOKSCAN?
Here is the flow of service of BOOKSCAN. Looking from the user's point of view alone,"Member registration → application → sending book → payment of fee → download from dedicated site"Very easy system.


The service which makes the book data as data was before BOOKSCAN, but BOOKSCANOne book 100 yen. A brief service that only applies by sending it by courier with an application by internet is attracting attention, and when applying for scanning by a general member, it is in a state of waiting three months after ordering to PDF completion.

◆ Price
· 1 book 350 pages or less: 100 yen / 1 book
· Wait about 3 months for delivery
· File name change: 50 yen / 1 book
· OCR (transparent text): 100 yen / 1 book
· DVD-R delivery: 3000 yen / 1 time
· Tuning lab (Optimize data for each leader)
· If you make a reservation ten days in advance of the work start date, you can bring it in cardboard box unit

◆ Limited Premium Membership
¥ 9980 per month
· Delivery date within 1 week
· Direct sending from Amazon etc. to BOOKSCAN
· File name change and OCR are free
· Tuning lab priority work
· Scanning up to 50 volumes free every month
· Free shipping cardboard box provided
· Unlimited storage of PDF files
· No need to print out management number
· Bookcase mode is available

Especially the decisive difference with other companies is "Tuning laboratoryPresence of. It is optimized for easy viewing for iPad, iPhone, iPod touch, Kindle 3, Android, SONY Reader, nook, eliminates unnecessary margins so that characters are easy to read even on small screens, optimizes image quality, etc. It also makes the capacity the proper size. It is also possible to convert PDF files to JPEG and ZIP compression, and it is no exaggeration to say that it offers innovative services.

So, get off the Sangenjaya station on the Tokyu Denencho Line and walk straight on National Highway No. 246 towards Setagaya, I found an office in BOOKSCAN on the other side.


It is in front of the bus stop called "Nakazato".


When entering "BOOKSCAN" logo was shining.


The entrance is calm wood grain and there is one sofa.


Plant and fashionable lighting. It seems to be an office of a foreign-affiliated company.


◆ Status at the time of service start

GIGAZINE (hereinafter abbreviated as G):
Although it was quite a hot topic since the start of service in April, how was the situation so far since the start of service?

Book scan (hereinafter abbreviated as BS):
First at homeScanSnapI tried to start with, I made a system and a site,"From Monday it will start like this"I heard that I tweeted it. Then spread and spread. I did not issue a press release at all, but at that pointMr. HorieAndSmall petI was also touched and the space was really trying to do at 5 tatami mats or 6 tatami mats of my home, but this is a bit masui, so I went looking for properties from the next day. This is how it looks.

BS:
It is the property under selection. About 10 tatami mats in one room of apartment.


BS:
I rushed desks and PC etc in a hurry. I have assembled the purchased LCD monitor. From this day, reception has already been started on my page.


BS:
This is a PC for scanning.


BS:
Wiring etc. are completed.


BS:
I was on Twitter while delivering my work in Ustream.


BS:
At first, there were eight ScanSnap and two cutting machine.


BS:
Since the place was filled with corrugated cardboard and there was no place, I reply to the mail in a very small space.


◆ 20 days from the start of service: Expansion to apartment 2 room

BS:
It is a standard set one month after service start. From the left PC and ScanSnap, a shelf to organize books waiting to be scanned, and a cutting machine.


BS:
Since the image of Ustream is too stupid, I bought Styrofoam and thought of cutting the logotype with a heating wire cutter and pasting it on the wall.


BS:
In this way, let the logo appear on the background of Ustream.


BS:
Every day, I did not have a break since I started, and stayed overnight every day.


BS:
On the 20th day of service start, one room in the first apartment was flattened with corrugated cardboard, so we rented the next room to two rooms.


BS:
Although it is now abolished, until the second month of service we managed what books arrived with the barcode.


BS:
Because we were using a condominium room, only limited electric power can be used, power consumption is a problem. It is replaced with a CPU with low power consumption and excellent cost performance, and memory is also added at the same time.


◆ Office relocation

BS:
Within a month from service start, due to the quantity problem of cardboard physically 2 rooms will not enter. The office building in the neighborhood was vacant so I decided to relocate.


BS:
If it got dispersed to multiple points, there was a possibility that the cost of the network might be increased when trying to maintain the speed of the network between the bases, so we decided to integrate it from the previous two rooms to one floor. Since the floor of this building was empty, it was a cheap property of security deposit so we decided promptly. It is 1F along national highway No. 246, bus stop in front of me, the size is about 47 tsubo.


BS:
State of moving. It is moving from 2 rooms in the apartment. It was around the second month of service start.


BS:
I made my own work as much as I needed.


BS:
Because it is filled with luggage, I always worked with the blinds closed. It seems that it was thought that it was quite a suspicious company because the blinds closed all the time during the day, so Twitter was tweeting about "What are you doing?"


◆ 3rd month: recruitment of staff - replacement of machines

BS:
Recruitment of recruitment began in the third month. There were 550 entries, 120 interviews later, at this point we adopted 20 people.


BS:
Because there were many women in the workers, we attached the arm to the cutting machine so that even a light force could be cut. At first I was wearing rack feet with gum tape, so it broke down soon. Later, I asked the mold shop to make a special arm, but when using this it was found that pressure was applied from one side and the cutting machine was broken in one month.


BS:
At this point there was one cutting machine and eight scanners for two people.


BS:
1F was also filled with corrugated cardboard and there was no space for sitting, so it increased. It was around 50 tsubo.


BS:
This is like OCRing the scanned one later. Even on the day of increased flooring, the delivery date is approaching so I was carrying out OCR while moving. Cables are also scattered on the floor.


BS:
As there were already around 50 machines, the power consumption was quite a problem, and we tested the performance of the CPU. I bought CPUs with various core numbers and measured power consumption and time.


◆ 5th month: Total machine replacement

BS:
As we were not satisfied with the quality of the black color system caused by paper dust, in September we switched the total scanner and machine which had more than 50 machines. In order to adjust the image quality and gamma adjustment, the machine is also made to 4 core CPU in all machines, HDD is also replaced with SSD.


BS:
As of September, the situation near the server is like this.


◆ Month 7: Construction of the entrance - to the present

BS:
Until now I closed the blinds so that they could not be seen from the outside, but since I decided to do the entrance work I opened the blinds.


BS:
Construction of the entrance.


BS:
I also designed the book shelves decorating the entrance.


BS:
I just lighted up.


BS:
Viewed from the outside.


BS:
I bring my personal books from my house and arrange them.


BS:
The logo glows with LEDs at night.


BS:
This will lead to the current situation.


◆ Behind the system


G:
It is amazing to see the changes so far in just seven months. What is the system that manages the large volume of book scans sent?

BS:
First, in BOOKSCAN, one iPad is dealt to one person. When a customer applies for scanning from my page, it is displayed as to what needs to be done to the iPad of the schedule forming person. The list comes up that you have to do today.

Since there is a management screen on the web base and the phase is displayed, I will go searching for the cardboard with the displayed management number. You cut the contents of the cardboard you got, and when all the checks are done you can press the button. When the scan is over, we will change the file name and check all the pages on the confirmation team.

If 50 scans are scanned and the dirt on the scanner on one of them is a line or the data is bent, a failure report will rise to the system. Then I would like to rescan hope to iPad and start over from the first process. Various information such as "There was no cover" was added, rescanning was done, and if you clear all, the approval phase will be entered.

G:
It looks like a distribution center system.

BS:
After approval, we will move from the working server to the production public server. After the file has been uploaded, make sure that it is approved again, whether the number of files matches properly, whether it matches the capacity of the working server, etc. or not. After checking whether it is not damaged, there are two more levels of approval, and it is delivered to the customer after a total of three stages of approval. Since it is unknown where a system error is occurring in auto, we will monitor history here to see if a failure has occurred by measuring the transfer rate of the file, taking a history.

Even though it manages in this manner, it will inevitably happen that the delivery date will be extended within the multiple rework if there are bent paper or paper that does not go out any number of times.

We also collect scan errors before delivery. For example, an error report has been raised, for example, that the file name is set in reverse from the reverse setting when scanning, and so on. Everyone can scan themselves, but there are more people to check than people who scan them. That is a bottleneck.

If we can make image processing software by themselves and automatic detection becomes possible, this process load will be reduced considerably, so we will do it in the future.

After this we will approve and deliver to customers. Those delivered can be seen from the book list.

Premium members can also use bookshelf mode. This is by looking at the file name, cover data is acquired from the database. Although the cover can not be scanned, it is not cut and pasted, but I would like to take a different approach a bit more. The file name of the scanned data contains all ISBN codes. If you trace this, you can manage many things later because you can get more data.

Bookcase mode screen


G:
How much capacity will be at the time of delivery?

BS:
PDF after delivery is an average of 100 MB to 200 MB. Since this is slow, you can tune in the tuning lab. Since iPhone has small characters, it skips the margin for each page. Also, if there are characters in the margin, we make software to judge whether this is an important character and automate it.

Kindle also skips margins as well. In Kindle, if the pixels do not match, the automatic reduction function installed in Kindle itself will work. Doing so will result in a jaggered image that looks like anti-aliasing is not applied. In order to avoid this, we put a light gray of 1 pixel around, while keeping the same number of pixels. Then the reduction function will be canceled, so we will tune in this way.

Each e-book reader. Tunable corresponding to all of these


G:
You can also get it in ZIP format.

BS:
Since we are applying ZIP compression during this tuning process, we can make ZIP format data just by cutting off the process. It is like a bonus. Since other companies are already introducing ScanSnap and entering it, we are deploying these services.

G:
So let's differentiate it beyond what you can do with ScanSnap.

◆ About services


G:
It is currently inundated with orders and it takes 3 months to prepare the data when ordering from now, but it seems that if you are a premium member, you can download the data at the latest at the latest within a week at the latest. Is there a large number of premium members?

BS:
There is not much. It is not even 10%. Heavy user has premium registration.

G:
The premium member is to deliver the data within 7 days from that day, but do you scan the premium members' books on a separate line?

BS:
The line is the same, but the priority is higher. In the case of premium, it is the stage where it is adjusted so that it will be the same as the delivery date.

G:
I sent a service from Amazon directly to BOOKSCAN and made it a PDF conversion service, how about this number?

BS:
There are not too many comings from Amazon. Periodic things such as magazines are pretty, but still feel like it sometimes.

G:
The service that can be sent directly from Amazon is convenient. If you find a book you want to read on Amazon, you can send it to BOOKSCAN, you can send it as PDF without permission, and you can read it with iPhone.

BS:
Tuning for the iPhone is exactly the service I made for that style.

G:
How are you recruiting part-time jobs?

BS:
Everyone is from from A. We adopt handsome dexterity in recruitment test. Approximately 570 entries came and I recruited around 20 people, so I think that pretty skilled people are gathering.

G:
Is there a pretty much any dexterity in hand?

BS:
There is tremendous. Since I am working in parallel, it is not good to concentrate on this and stop there, so there will be big differences in the processing of the neighborhood.

G:
The number of books sent at one time, how much was the most?

BS:
3500 volumes were the most frequent so far. Also, there are people who sent 1300 volumes every month. There seems to be over 10,000 books, so I do not know what kind of profession.

G:
It seems that a terminal questionnaire is being done, but how is the trend so far?

BS:
The terminal is iPad is Dantotsu, the company employee and the doctor are many iPads.

Terminal questionnaire


G:
Does that mean that the tuning is also iPad?

BS:
After all there are many iPads. It's been about a week since I started.

G:
I am surprised if a publisher who is wondering whether to do e-books detailed data of this questionnaire. How about inquiring about the result of terminal questionnaire?

BS:
There was. I am at a loss whether to just release it. It is quite useful information.

G:
I thought that the older people are doing their age, but it is surprisingly young, is not it?

BS:
I will fall down at a stroke in my 50s.

G:
By the way, are there any services we are making right now?

BS:
What I am making now is an application for iPhone. You will be able to see it from outside without going into my page. It might make it possible to tune on the iPhone.

G:
I think that the scale has increased considerably from the time of service start, but will it continue to increase in the future?

BS:
It might be a bit better if you partner from here somewhere, but I think that it will be here so far in us.

G:
What are the signs of coming up with same industry?

BS:
It is likely to come from a completely different direction with us. ScanSnap 's really good guy comes out.

G:
It is attractive that more and more functions are added. Looking at this, I would like to tell the person who says "Japan's net service is ... ..." "No, no need to watch this." Is there demand from overseas?

BS:
Foreign books come well. There are also requests from Japanese living overseas.

◆ Inside of BOOKSCAN: 4F waiting for disposal Books / storage / server / rest space

From here, I had you see the inside of the current BOOKSCAN.

When entering the backside of a beautiful office, there are mountains, mountains and mountains of corrugated cardboard. Here is a book that has already scanned and awaits disposal. After storing 14 days after uploading PDF, it is said to be discarded. Actually, I'd like to store it for about 30 days, but it is 14 days due to area reasons. The reason why it is not discarded immediately after scanning is that there is a possibility that you have to scan again and scan again.


Another row in the back. It seems that this amount will be enough even for 14 days.


A lot of storage and operation servers were settled in the back of cardboard.


There are lockers and resting spaces for employees and bite on 4th floor.


◆ Inside of BOOKSCAN: 1F Scanned Books / Cutting Machine / Scanner / Support Center

1F entrance behind the bookshelf. The books sent are kept here.


The books waiting to be scanned are full. One third of 1F is filled with such rows of racks.


When I passed through the row of racks, a cutting machine was waiting. At this time, 2 lines out of 3 lines are in operation.


She said that she is choosing a cutting machine that can cut with light force.


If such a thick book is also involved in this cutting machine ......


Surely.


Paper that got disjointed ......


I will send it to the next process. People working here are part time jobs, but we will cut books more and more with familiar handling.


Next to that, the process of scanning finally.


I move three scanners by myself.


Here too process control was done on the iPad.


Scanners sorted out for selection, and it was said that the one with satisfactory image quality and speed was chosen.


The cutting machine and the operator positioned in the center of the scanner will sequentially schedule the schedule.


This is a support center. It is surprising that there is such a solid support center within our company.


In the office, "basic set" which BOOKSCAN was using for the first time is decorated.


Initial cutting machine. It seems that considerable power was needed to cut the hard cover.


Initial sorting rack. He said that he was managing books waiting to be scanned in the left column, books that were scanned on the right shelf, and so on.


ScanSnap S1500. Now I am sorry for your inconvenience but BOOKSCAN may not have existed without this scanner.


A row of retired ScanSnap.


At first BOOKSCAN started service in one room of an apartment, but now everything was systematized and reborn as a powerful company. It is an event of only seven months, but it is the transformation of angry waves like what happened for many years. Many book electronic digitization services are currently entering following BOOKSCAN, but it seems that it is quite difficult to catch up with BOOKSCAN as it is developing such detailed services on this scale I will.