Re: Quickie Color Scanner

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Supertimer writes:
>ladyphoenixxii@my-deja.com wrote:
>
>>I just discovered that one of the Quickie scanners I have is for
>>color.  It came with a scanner bed made of two sheets of glass which
>>were broken beyond using.  The instructions say that the item to be
>>scanned is supposed to be under both sheets of glass and not between.
>>
>>Does anyone know if this glass has special optical qualities and if so
>>where can I buy replacement glass.
>
>I think it is just color glass.  From the Vitesse advertisements,
>it seemed you were supposed to scan the same picture through
>the different color sheets of glass and the color software would
>then build a 3200 color graphic from it.

The glass was just clear on mine. The filters were colored red
green and blue. The filters were colored plastic strips that fit
under the scan bar, between the scan head and the glass.

You had to modify your Quickie scanner by taking it apart
and attaching a cut (or was it stamped) metal plate that had
holes that would attach to pegs on the top of the scan bar then
reassemble the scan head. The scan bar had a flourescent
light underneath that would illuminate the object you were
scanning because the Quickie's led's in the scan head
would not generate enough light to get through the filters.

The presence of the light under the scan bar lifted the
scan head off of the object you would scan so the glass
is just there to give the Quickie's rollers something to
roll on. It is glass because it needs to be transparent. The
second sheet of glass presses down on the object you
are scanning to keep it from moving. Again, it is glass
because it needs to be transparent. There is no optical
qualities about it, per se.

The process was a bit involved. First you would
calibrate the software/scan head combo using
gray-scale with the green filter only. Once you got
a good gray scale with the green you'd scan in
color mode, first with red, then with green, then with
blue (I think that was the color sequence). Each scan
had to be EXACTLY like the first one. I had to scratch
start and stop marks on mine so that I knew exactly
where to start and stop scanning.

The three images (each a gray scale scan through
a colored filter) would be combined by the software
and calculations of what the colors should be were
done. Also, because the frame lifted the scan
head off the object the image would be skewed so
the software would calculate and compensate for
the skewiness.

I must have played with that thing for about 500 hours
and could never get it to produce any color other than
red. Steve McQueen and I could never get it to produce
anything but red from my Quickie scan head. My
conclusion was that the Quickie-C hardware was ready
but the software was released prematurely. Because
of the flack he was taking from FAXination at the time
he stopped responding to emails and phone calls
and I never did get mine to work.  I donated it to
an Apple II hardware collector as an oddity when
he bought the rest of my GS gear.  It was a very
good idea that really was too premature, I don't
know how many they sold but I'd guess it is pretty
rare.

That's how I remember it, anyway.
--
Eric <chippys@earthSPAMlink.net>