# Shelfies and ebooks of your dead tree format



## Ray McCarthy (Dec 19, 2014)

See 
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.bitlit.android

anyone tried it?


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## Lenny (Dec 19, 2014)

I've scanned four of my shelves, with a decent mix - about half fantasy (newish), a third sci-fi (old and new), and other things (including some Dickens and Conan Doyle). I'll report back in fifteen, twenty minutes, on how well it recognised the titles, and if any are up for grabs.


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## Ray McCarthy (Dec 19, 2014)

I have perhaps about 100+ shelves. some x2 wider. Many older books out of print.
But really every physical book, DVD, CD, BD ought to come with a free file version download link somehow. This is an interesting idea.
It's not a big bother to make a portable version of a CD though.

I do prefer physical books, but delighted with my Kindle DXG (I did have a Paperwhite, which the Wife is VERY happy with). If I travelled a lot any more I'd get the new gen 7 Kindle Touch, I got one for someone and very impressed. I preloaded it with loads of Gutenberg and my own writings.

I have a broken Android Tablet with external USB mouse & keyboard instead of touch panel so may try the App on it. I never install anything on phone, except Jotter, once.


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## Lenny (Dec 19, 2014)

Results: 62 books on those four shelves, 55 of which were recognised. On three of the shelves, the first and last books have been missed, with the second to last book also missed on the second shelf, and on the fourth shelf a book in the middle has been missed. However, as everything else has been recognised correctly, even if the photo was rubbish, I'm leaning more towards me not taking the photo properly (which makes sense for the first and last books being cut out).

Having recognised 55, it tells me I can claim five, one of which is a repeat. Claiming them, however, is proving difficult, as the app is either not recognising the cover, or is recognising it as a different book...

The app also insists on keeping your flash on when taking a photo, and when it's trying to recognise a cover for a claim, which can take up to five minutes. Not good for the battery life.

---

But yeah, it's a nice idea. And I agree that digital copies should be freely available if you have a physical copy.


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## Ray McCarthy (Dec 20, 2014)

That's quite a good success on recognition. Barcodes are easier. I did a document management system once and the user had to create document templates for the scanner to indicate were & type of each barcode and which database field to link to it. Still, then it could save a full hopper of documents as fast as the high speed scanner with ADF could scan. 11 years later I still have the original scanner and ADF I used during development.


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## Vertigo (Dec 21, 2014)

Very interesting I might have to have a go at that!!!! [with my shiny new Galaxy - yes Vertigo has finally joined the 21st century and got a smart phone!]


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## Lenny (May 4, 2015)

Tor have partnered with BitLit to offer cheap eBook downloads of your shelves: http://www.tor.com/blogs/2015/05/announcing-tor-books-bitlit-app-partnership



> Starting now, you will be able to download any Tor/Forge bundled ebooks for $2.99. As always, bundled ebooks from Tor/Forge are DRM-Free.


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