A Keyboard With a Built-in Scanner

The KeyScan Imaging Keyboard looks like a regular keyboard, but it is also equipped with a built-in scanner. How's that for multitasking!

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At first glance, the KeyScan Imaging Keyboard looks like a regular keyboard. But it also has a built-in scanner that fits sheets of paper as large as 8.5 inches by 30 inches. To scan a document, you feed it into the back of the keyboard and hit Scan. The paper slides out the front of the device, which comes with software that converts scanned images to text and saves them as TXT files or searchable PDFs. We had no trouble scanning business cards and receipts at a crisp resolution of 600 dots per inch. But the device, which took a leisurely 22 seconds to scan a magazine cover, cannot compete with flatbed models for handling a large number of documents or photos. Cost: $99.99

John Brandon is a contributing editor at Inc. magazine and writes the Tech Trends column in every issue. He also writes the Tech Report column for Inc.com. @jmbrandonbb