sane-bh  - SANE backend for Bell+Howell Copiscan II series
       document scanners


DESCRIPTION

       The sane-bh library implements a SANE (Scanner Access  Now
       Easy) backend that provides access to Bell+Howell Copiscan
       II series document scanners.  The  Copiscan  II  6338  has
       been the primary scanner model used during development and
       testing, but  since  the  programming  interface  for  the
       entire  series  is  consistent the backend should work for
       the following scanner models.

              COPISCAN II 6338 Duplex Scanner with ACE
              COPISCAN II 2135 Simplex Scanner
              COPISCAN II 2137(A) Simplex Scanner (with ACE)
              COPISCAN II 2138A Simplex Scanner with ACE
              COPISCAN II 3238 Simplex Scanner
              COPISCAN II 3338(A) Simplex Scanner (with ACE)

       If you have a Bell+Howell scanner and are able to test  it
       with  this  backend, please contact sane-devel@mostang.com
       with the model number and testing results.   Additionally,
       the  author  is curious as to the likelihood of using this
       backend with the newer 4000 and 8000 series scanners.   If
       you have such a beast, please let me know.

       The  Bell+Howell  Copiscan II series document scanners are
       high volume, high throughput scanners designed  for  docu­
       ment  scanning  applications.   As  such,  they  are  lin­
       eart/grayscale  scanners  supporting  a  fixed  number  of
       fairly  low  resolutions  (e.g. 200/240/300dpi).  However,
       they do have a number of interesting and  useful  features
       suited  to  needs  of document imaging applications.  This
       backend attempts to support as many of these  features  as
       possible.

       The  main technical reference used in writing this backend
       is the Bell and Howell Copiscan II Remote SCSI  Controller
       (RSC)  OEM  Technical  Manual Version 1.5.  The Linux SCSI
       programming HOWTO, the SANE API  documentation,  and  SANE
       source code were also extremely valuable resources.

       The  latest  backend  release,  additional information and
       helpful hints are available from the backend homepage:
              http://www.martoneconsulting.com/sane-bh.html


DEVICE NAMES

       This backend expects device names of the form:

              special

       Where special is the path-name for the special device that

       cial device name must be a generic SCSI device or  a  sym­
       link  to  such  a device.  Under Linux, such a device name
       takes a format such as /dev/sga or /dev/sg0, for  example.
       See sane-scsi(5) for details.


CONFIGURATION

       The contents of the bh.conf file is a list of device names
       that correspond to Bell+Howell scanners.  See sane-scsi(5)
       on details of what constitutes a valid device name.  Addi­
       tionally, options can be specified; these lines begin with
       the  word  "option".   Each  option is described in detail
       below.  Empty lines and lines starting with  a  hash  mark
       (#) are ignored.


OPTIONS

       The  following  options  can  be  specified in the bh.conf
       file.

       disable-optional-frames
              This option prevents the backend from  sending  any
              optional  frames.   This  option may be useful when
              dealing with frontends which do not  support  these
              optional  frames.   When  this option is in effect,
              the data is sent in a SANE_FRAME_GRAY  frame.   The
              optional   frames   sent   by   this  backend  are:
              SANE_FRAME_G31D,  SANE_FRAME_G32D,  SANE_FRAME_G42D
              and  SANE_FRAME_TEXT.   These  frames are generated
              based  on  the  compression  and  barcode  options.
              These frames are never sent in preview mode.

       fake-inquiry
              This  option is used for debugging purposes and its
              use is not encouraged.  Essentially, it allows  the
              backend  to initialize in the absence of a scanner.
              This is useful for development and not  much  else.
              This  option  must be specified earlier in the con­
              figuration file than the devices which  are  to  be
              "faked".


FILES

       /etc/sane.d/bh.conf
              The  backend  configuration file (see also descrip­
              tion of SANE_CONFIG_DIR below).

       /usr/lib/sane/libsane-bh.a
              The static library implementing this backend.

       /usr/lib/sane/libsane-bh.so
              The shared library implementing this backend  (pre­
              sent on systems that support dynamic loading).

       SANE_CONFIG_DIR
              This  environment  variable  specifies  the list of
              directories  that  may  contain  the  configuration
              file.  Under UNIX, the directories are separated by
              a colon (`:'), under OS/2, they are separated by  a
              semi-colon (`;').  If this variable is not set, the
              configuration  file  is  searched  in  two  default
              directories:  first,  the current working directory
              (".") and then in /etc/sane.d.  If the value of the
              environment  variable ends with the directory sepa­
              rator character, then the default  directories  are
              searched  after  the  explicitly specified directo­
              ries.   For  example,  setting  SANE_CONFIG_DIR  to
              "/tmp/config:"    would   result   in   directories
              "tmp/config", ".", and "/etc/sane.d" being searched
              (in this order).

       SANE_DEBUG_BH
              If  the  library  was  compiled  with debug support
              enabled, this  environment  variable  controls  the
              debug level for this backend.  E.g., a value of 255
              requests all debug output to be  printed.   Smaller
              levels reduce verbosity.


SUPPORTED FEATURES

       ADF support
              With  document  scanners, automatic document feeder
              (ADF) support is a key feature.  The  backend  sup­
              ports  the  ADF  by  default  and returns SANE_STA­
              TUS_NO_DOCS  when  the  out-of-paper  condition  is
              detected.   The  SANE frontend scanadf is a command
              line frontend that supports multi-page  scans.   It
              has  been used successfully with this backend.  The
              SANE frontend xsane is an improved GUI frontend  by
              Oliver  Rauch.   Support  for  multi-page  scans is
              included in xsane version 0.35 and above.

       Duplex scanning
              Some models, such as the COPISCAN II 6338,  support
              duplex  scanning.  That is, they scan both sides of
              the document during a single pass through the scan­
              ner  (the  scanner  has two cameras).  This backend
              supports  duplex  scanning   (with   the   --duplex
              option).  The front and back page images are deliv­
              ered  consecutively  as  if  they  were  separately
              scanned pages.

       Hardware compression
              The scanner is capable of compressing the data into
              several industry standard formats (CCITT G3,  CCITT

              formance as less data is passed from the scanner to
              the  host  over the SCSI bus.  The backend supports
              these compression formats via the  --g31d,  --g32d,
              --g42d  options, respectively.  Many SANE frontends
              are not equipped to deal with these  formats,  how­
              ever.   The  SANE  frontend  scanadf supports these
              optional frame formats.  The compressed image  data
              is  written directly to a file and can then be pro­
              cessed by a  scan-script  using  the  --scan-script
              option.   Examples of this are given on the scanadf
              homepage.

       Automatic Border Detection
              The scanner can automatically detect the paper size
              and  adjust  the scanning window geometry appropri­
              ately.  The backend supports  this  useful  feature
              with  the  --autoborder  option.   It is enabled by
              default.

       Batch Mode Scanning
              The batch scan mode allows for maximum  throughput.
              The Set Window parameters must remain constant dur­
              ing the entire batch.

       Icon Generation
              The Icon function generates a thumbnail of the full
              page image, that can be transferred as if it were a
              separate page.  This allows  the  host  to  quickly
              display a thumbnail representation during the scan­
              ning operation.  Perhaps this would be a great  way
              of  implementing a preview scan, but since a normal
              scan is so quick, it might not be worth  the  trou­
              ble.

       Multiple Sections
              Multiple  sections  (scanning  sub-windows)  can be
              defined for the front and back pages.  Each section
              can  have different characteristics (e.g. geometry,
              compression).  The sections are returned as if they
              were  separately scanned images.  Additionally sec­
              tions can be used to greatly enhance  the  accuracy
              and  efficiency  of  the barcode/patchcode decoding
              process by limiting the search area to a small sub­
              set  of the page.  Most Copiscan II series scanners
              support up to 8 user-defined sections.

       Support Barcode/Patchcode Decoding
              The RSC unit can recognize Bar and Patch  Codes  of

              codes are decoded and the data is returned  to  the
              frontend  as  a text frame.  The text is encoded in
              xml and contains a great deal of information  about
              the  decoded data such as the location where it was
              found, its orientation, and the  time  it  took  to
              find.   Further  information on the content of this
              text frame as well as some barcode  decoding  exam­
              ples can be found on the backend homepage.


LIMITATIONS

       Decoding a single barcode type per scan
              The  RSC  unit  can  search for up to six different
              barcode types at a time.  While the code  generally
              supports  this  as  well,  the --barcode-search-bar
              option only allows the user  to  specify  a  single
              barcode  type.  Perhaps another option which allows
              a comma separated list of barcode type codes  could
              be added to address this.

       Scanning a fixed number of pages in batch mode
              The  separation of front and back end functionality
              in SANE presents a problem in supporting the  'can­
              cel  batch' functionality in the scanner.  In batch
              mode, the scanner is always a  page  ahead  of  the
              host.   The  host, knowing ahead of time which page
              will be the last, can cancel batch  mode  prior  to
              initiating the last scan command.  Currently, there
              is no mechanism available for the frontend to  pass
              this  knowledge  to  the backend.  If batch mode is
              enabled and the --end-count  terminates  a  scanadf
              session,  an  extra page will be pulled through the
              scanner, but is niether read nor delivered  to  the
              frontend.   The  issue can be avoided by specifying
              --batch=no when scanning a fixed number of pages.

       Revision 1.2 Patch detector
              There is an enhanced patchcode detection  algorithm
              available  in  the  RSC with revision 1.2 or higher
              that is faster and more reliable than the  standard
              Bar/Patch code decoder.  This is not currently sup­
              ported.


OPTIONS

       Scan Mode Options:

       --preview[=(yes|no)] [no]
              Request a preview-quality scan.   When  preview  is
              set  to  yes  image compression is disabled and the
              image is delivered in a SANE_FRAME_GRAY frame.

              Selects the scan mode (e.g., lineart,monochrome, or
              color).

       --resolution 200|240|300dpi [200]
              Sets  the  resolution  of  the scanned image.  Each
              scanner model supports a list of  standard  resolu­
              tions; only these resolutions can be used.

       --compression none|g31d|g32d|g42d [none]
              Sets  the  compression mode of the scanner.  Deter­
              mines the type of data returned from  the  scanner.
              Values are:
              none   -   uncompressed   data  -  delivered  in  a
              SANE_FRAME_GRAY frame
              g31d - CCITT G3 1 dimension (MH) - delivered  in  a
              SANE_FRAME_G31D frame
              g32d  - CCITT G3 2 dimensions (MR, K=4) - delivered
              in a SANE_FRAME_G32D frame
              g42d  -  CCITT  G4   (MMR)   -   delivered   in   a
              SANE_FRAME_G42D frame
              NOTE:  The  use of g31d, g32d, and g42d compression
              values causes  the  backend  to  generate  optional
              frame  formats  which  may  not be supported by all
              SANE frontends.

       Geometry Options:

       --autoborder[=(yes|no)] [yes]
              Enable/Disable automatic  image  border  detection.
              When  enabled,  the  RSC unit automatically detects
              the image area and  sets  the  window  geometry  to
              match.

       --paper-size Custom|Letter|Legal|A3|A4|A5|A6|B4|B5 [Cus­
              tom]
              Specify the scan window geometry by specifying  the
              paper size of the documents to be scanned.

       --tl-x 0..297.18mm [0]
              Top-left x position of scan area.

       --tl-y 0..431.8mm [0]
              Top-left y position of scan area.

       --br-x 0..297.18mm [297.18]
              Bottom-right x position of scan area.

       --br-y 0..431.8mm [431.8]
              Bottom-right y position of scan area.

       Feeder Options:

              [Automatic Document Feeder]
              Selects   the  scan  source  (such  as  a  document
              feeder).  This option is provided to allow multiple
              image scans with xsane; it has no other purpose.

       --batch[=(yes|no)] [no]
              Enable/disable  batch  mode  scanning.   Batch mode
              allows scanning at maximum throughput by  buffering
              within  the  RSC  unit.  This option is recommended
              when performing  multiple  pages  scans  until  the
              feeder is emptied.

       --duplex[=(yes|no)] [no]
              Enable  duplex  (dual-sided) scanning.  The scanner
              takes an image of each side of the document  during
              a  single pass through the scanner.  The front page
              is delivered  followed  by  the  back  page.   Most
              options, such as compression, affect both the front
              and back pages.

       --timeout-adf 0..255 [0]
              Sets the timeout in seconds for the automatic docu­
              ment feeder (ADF).  The value 0 specifies the hard­
              ware default value which varies based on the  scan­
              ner model.

       --timeout-manual 0..255 [0]
              Sets  the  timeout  in  seconds  for semi-automatic
              feeder.  The value 0 specifies the hardware default
              value which varies based on the scanner model.

       --check-adf[=(yes|no)] [no]
              Check  ADF  Status prior to starting scan using the
              OBJECT POSITION command.  Note  that  this  feature
              requires  RSC  firmware level 1.5 or higher and dip
              switch 4 must be in the on  position.   NOTE:  This
              option has not been tested extensively and may pro­
              duce undesireable results.

       Enhancement:

       --control-panel[=(yes|no)] [yes]
              Enables the scanner's control panel  for  selecting
              image  enhancement  parameters.  When the option is
              set to no the following options are used to control
              image  enhancement.   See  the  Bell+Howell scanner
              users' guide for complete information on ACE  func­
              tionality.

       --ace-function -4..4 [3]
              Specify  the  Automatic  Contrast Enhancement (ACE)
              Function.

              Specify the Automatic  Contrast  Enhancement  (ACE)
              Sensitivity.

       --brightness 0..255 [0]
              Controls  the  brightness  of  the  acquired image.
              Ignored for ACE capable scanners.

       --threshold 0..255 [0]
              Select minimum-brightness to  get  a  white  point.
              Ignored for ACE capable scanners.

       --contrast 0..255 [inactive]
              Controls  the contrast of the acquired image.  This
              option is not currently used by  the  scanner  (and
              perhaps never will be).

       --negative[=(yes|no)] [no]
              Swap  black  and  white,  yielding  a reverse-video
              image.

       Icon:

       --icon-width 0..3600pel (in steps of 8) [0]
              Width of icon (thumbnail) image in pixels.

       --icon-length 0..3600pel (in steps of 8) [0]
              Length of icon (thumbnail) image in pixels.

       Barcode Options:

       --barcode-search-bar <see list> [none]
              Specifies the barcode type to search for.  If  this
              option  is not specified, or specified with a value
              of none, then the barcode decoding feature is  com­
              pletely disabled.  The valid barcode type are:
              none
              ean-8
              ean-13
              reserved-ean-add
              code39
              code2-5-interleaved
              code2-5-3lines-matrix
              code2-5-3lines-datalogic
              code2-5-5lines-industrial
              patchcode
              codabar
              codabar-with-start-stop
              code39ascii
              code128
              code2-5-5lines-iata

       --barcode-search-count 1..7 [3]
              Number  of times that the RSC performs the decoding

              increase  performance.   If  you are having trouble
              recognizing barcodes,  it  is  suggested  that  you
              increase this option to its maximum value (7).

       --barcode-search-mode <see list> [horiz-vert]
              Chooses the orientation of barcodes to be searched.
              The valid orientations are:
              horiz-vert
              horizontal
              vertical
              vert-horiz

       --barcode-hmin 0..1660mm [5]
              Sets the  barcode  minimum  height  in  millimeters
              (larger  values  increase  recognition  speed).  Of
              course the actual barcodes in the document must  be
              of sufficient size.

       --barcode-search-timeout 20..65535us [10000]
              Sets the timeout for barcode searching in millisec­
              onds.  When the timeout expires, the  decoder  will
              stop trying to decode barcodes.

       --section <string> []
              Specifies  a  series  of image sections.  A section
              can be used to gather a subset image or to  provide
              a small area for barcode decoding.  Each section is
              specified in the following  format  (units  are  in
              millimeters):

       <width>x<height>+<top-left-x>+<top-left-y>[:function­
       code...]

       Multiple sections can be specified by separating them with
       commas.

       For example 76.2x25.4+50.8+0:frontbar identifies an area 3
       inches wide and 1 inch high with a top left corner at  the
       top  of the page two inches from the left hand edge of the
       page.  This section will be used for barcode  decoding  on
       the front page only.

       For  example  50.8x25.4+25.4+0:frontbar:front:g42d identi­
       fies an area 2 inches wide and 1 inch high with a top left
       corner  at the top of the page one inch from the left hand
       edge of the page.  This section will be used  for  barcode
       decoding  on the front page as well as generating an image
       compressed in g42d format.

       Ordinarily barcodes are  searched  in  the  entire  image.
       However,  when  you specify sections all barcode searching
       is done within the specific sections identified.  This can
       significantly speed up the decoding process.

              front  -  generate an image for the front page sec­
              tion
              back - generate an image for the back page section
              frontbar - perform barcode  search  in  front  page
              section
              backbar  - perform barcode search in back page sec­
              tion
              frontpatch - perform patchcode search in front page
              section
              backpatch  -  perform patchcode search in back page
              section
              none - use no image compression
              g31d - use Group 3 1 dimension image compression
              g32d - use Group 3 2 dimensions image compression
              g42d - use Group 4 2 dimensions image compression

       If you omit a compression functioncode, the full page com­
       pression  setting  is  used.  If you specify multiple com­
       pression functioncodes, only the last one is used.

       --barcode-relmax 0..255 [0]
              Specifies the maximum relation from the  widest  to
              the smallest bar.

       --barcode-barmin 0..255 [0]
              Specifies  the  minimum number of bars in Bar/Patch
              code.

       --barcode-barmax 0..255 [0]
              Specifies the maximum number of bars in a Bar/Patch
              code.

       --barcode-contrast 0..6 [3]
              Specifies the image contrast used in decoding.  Use
              higher values when there are more white  pixels  in
              the code.

       --barcode-patchmode 0..1 [0]
              Controls Patch Code detection.


BUGS

       This is a new backend; detailed bug reports are welcome --
       and expected ;)

       If you have found something  that  you  think  is  a  bug,
       please attempt to recreate it with the SANE_DEBUG_BH envi­
       ronment variable set to 255, and send a  report  detailing
       the      conditions     surrounding     the     bug     to
       sane-devel@mostang.com.

       sane(7), sane-scsi(5), scanimage(1), scanadf(1)


AUTHOR

       The sane-bh backend was written by Tom Martone,  based  on
       the sane-ricoh backend by Feico W. Dillema and the bnhscan
       program by Sean Reifschneider of tummy.com ltd.  Some 8000
       enhancements added by Mark Temple.


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