I must confess that I never knew it existed, though I had fantasized about such a technology in the past.

Recently, I was saddled with the task of scanning a huge pile of papers at my workplace, over 200 pages! Just the thought of using the traditional scanners filled me with so much apprehension.

There I was feeling sorry for myself, whining out loud to anybody that cared to listen about my predicament when someone suggested,”Hey, why don’t you use the feed scanner?”

Feed Scanner?

I have always seen the box-like object in a corner, compact looking. It looked very much like one of the surround speakers of my old Sony deck and I had wondered why anyone will leave a speaker lying around the office.

But I was very wrong.

It was actually an ADF scanner, the Fujitsu ScanSnap S1500. The device is very compact and unfolds to reveal the feed and the output trays. The way it unfolds reminds me of the Transformer movie series I watched recently with my kids.

It can take a sheaf of papers, 50 at a time, scans them – unattended – to either individual jpeg files on your PC or batches them to a single PDF file. It scans up to 20 pages per minute in color, grayscale, or black & white at 300 dpi resolution

There is now a newer model of this item, the Fujitsu ScanSnap iX500 that boasts of even better features that include; WiFi enabled, support for mobile devices and scans directly to dropbox.

This is a technology that is indeed a must have for anyone that is considering going paperless. However, expect to shell out at least N70,000 for this device if you are lucky enough to find it in Nigeria.