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Book scanner wins one of three EU innovation prizes

An automatic scanner that digitizes books in minutes was among three winners of valuable European Union innovation prizes Friday at the Cebit computing expo in Hanover, Germany.

Members of Treventus Mechatronics with ICT Award.

Members of Treventus Mechatronics with ICT Award.

The robot scanner is designed to help projects such as Google Print, which aims to digitize the hoard of books and periodicals in the world's libraries so that every word can be searched via the internet.

The efforts are hampered by the effort of opening books flat and turning them page by page during scanning.

Treventus Mechatronics <link http: www.treventus.com _blank link_extern>

www.treventus.com, opens an external URL in a new window

, a spin-off of the Vienna University of Technology in Austria <link http: www.tuwien.ac.at tu_vienna _blank link_extern>

www.tuwien.ac.at/tu_vienna/, opens an external URL in a new window

, designed the system to lower costs, speed up digital library creation and create distortion-free images.

It was one of three firms to each receive 200,000 euros (260,000 dollars) along with the European Information and Communication Technology (ICT) Award handed out annually by the Commission.