scans

Google Now's interface sensibilities are spilling over into other Google services.

The latest recipient of a healthy dose of the Now virtual assistant is Google Drive, which updated its Android app on Wednesday with several new features.

A new Scan feature lets you back up and track important receipts, business cards, and documents by using existing optical character recognition (OCR) tech already in Drive. Choose Scan from the "Add New" menu, take a photo of the document, and Drive will automatically turn it into a searchable PDF.

The new interface leverages the Cards look from Google+ and … Read more

Thanks to the magic of dissection, we have a pretty good idea of the changes that occur when a caterpillar spins its chrysalis and enters its metamorphosis -- the developmental stage that sees it move from the juvenile larval stage to the gorgeous adult life of a butterfly.

However, as you might have already guessed, dissection destroys the specimen, meaning that researchers are unable to follow the full development of a creature. We do know that the caterpillar will use enzymes to break down some of its proteins to reform; Scientific American called this a cocoon full of "caterpillar soup." However, scientists have performed research revealing that while some breakdown occurs, the idea of caterpillar soup is mostly wrong (but still gross).

Using micro-computed tomography, or micro-CT scanning, which uses X-ray imaging to re-create 3D cross-sections of the scanned object, Tristan Rowe and Russell Garwood from the U.K's University of Manchester and Thomas Simonsen from London's Natural History Museum have discovered exactly what happens to a painted lady butterfly inside the chrysalis. … Read more

For those who want a scanning program that adds features over those of native Mac applications, VueScan for Mac does just that--and it performed well in our tests.

VueScan for Mac comes with a free trial version that limits the scanners available for use. The full version costs $39.95 to unlock. The download completed as quickly as expected via a high-speed connection. A user guide was available as a link to the developer's Web site, which was a helpful feature. Support for updates also appeared to be available. The main menu had a dated design, but was functional. … Read more

However digital our world becomes, documents are still a very real necessity. So tools like My Scans are welcome to digitize, share and easily carry documents with you, no matter where you are. Designed for both iPhone and iPad, My Scans is an intuitive, easy-to-use scanning tool that makes full use of the iOS camera to scan, store, and edit documents on the go.

My Scans is designed to be easy to use. You know this because the moment you open the app, you are presented with a straightforward tutorial that shows you everything you'll need to use it … Read more

If you're looking to attract attention, setting a Guinness World Record is probably a good way to start.

That was the goal -- attracting attention, that is -- for a group of IBM Research scientists who recently set out to make what turned out be the Guinness World Record-certified smallest stop-motion film ever.

Called "A Boy and His Atom," the animated film features a small boy having a good old time as he bounces around, playing catch, and dancing. The twist? The film was shot at the atomic level and features 130 atoms that were painstakingly placed, atom by atom, as the researchers shot 250 individual frames. The images were created at a temperature of negative 268 degrees Celsius and were magnified 100 million times. … Read more

Low Latency is a weekly comic on CNET's Crave blog written by CNET editor and podcast host Jeff Bakalar and illustrated by Blake Stevenson. Be sure to check Crave every Friday at 8 a.m. PT for new panels! Want more? Here's every Low Latency comic so far.… Read more

No matter what technology we develop, business cards are still a standard in networking circles. They are the first thing you see when you meet someone. But increasingly our lives are managed by the electronic devices we carry, and business cards get lost so easily. So an app like ScanBizCards Lite is perfect to quickly take a photo, scan the contents of the business card and store it for later on your iPad or iPhone.

To start, the app asks if you'd like to register to share your scans with a universal account between devices and your desktop. This … Read more

Walmart is expanding its "Scan & Go" feature -- which lets users scan items with their iPhones while shopping -- to more than 200 stores across the U.S., according to Reuters.

Currently the feature is available in around 70 stores, mostly near Bentonville, Ark. and Atlanta, Ga. Now it's coming to 12 new markets, including Denver, Phoenix, Omaha, Neb., Dallas and Austin, Tex., Oklahoma City and Tulsa, Okla., Wyoming, Bozeman, Mont., Seattle, San Jose, Calif., and Portland, Ore.

The mega-retailer started testing the "Scan & Go" feature with employees last September and has since … Read more

While plenty of things are common in the business world, two things stand out: 1) cell phones, and 2) PDFs. What do they have to do with each other? Just this: Images taken with cell phone cams, digital cameras, and even scanners are now commonplace in business, legal, and personal documents, most of which are saved as PDFs. But the process of transferring images from one of these devices might be daunting enough as it is (even if you had time to read the manuals) let alone opening, resizing, and converting them all to PDFs before you can even begin … Read more