DIY: iPhone Business Card Scanner

jan van iperen • 11th Sep 2009 • flow • business cards, dyi, evernote, iphone, scan, tweak

Requirements: iPhone | iPhone box (empty) | Evernote

I do not know about you, but over the years I have gathered a nice collection of business cards. Usually the idea is to get the printed details into my digital address book as soon as possible, yet this is more often prayer than practice.

I started make a division in business cards: Actual contacts vs. Informational data.

As the former will end up in my address book anyhow, the latter is usually what becomes a pile of cluttered and unordered information… This is where EVERNOTE comes in. My second and digital memory has the ability to actually “read” this information and makes searching for specific details a breeze. One problem: you need to get the business cards into Evernote. Making a picture of the business card from the iPhone app is one way to do so.

Speeding things up

In order to get a proper image of the business card and specifically in order to get proper images of multiple business cards, I needed a steady position for my iPhone and the possibility to easily swap business cards to quickly make pictures of them.

Not having any kind of tripod-like device for the iPhone, I found a very simple way to make use of the empty iPhone box. As the process of adjusting the box is rather simple, I will let the pictures explain:

: Rough markings for cutting line

: First cuts

: Result after cutting out

: Setup in use

The skin that I use for my iPhone makes that the phone is solid in place within the available space. I noticed that without the skin, you will need to add some padding to keep the phone in the right position.

The workflow

Set the amended iPhone Box on its side
Get your iPhone and start up the camera (landscape mode)
Place iPhone in box
Place business card under iPhone
Tap screen for focus (3Gs)
Tap shutter release button to take picture
Repeat till done
Import pictures (I use a dedicated folder in iPhoto)
Start up Evernote
Drag pictures in Evernote notebook (again, special notebook called “business cards”)
Let Evernote sync to Evernote server
Done!

From now, all the business cards you “scanned” are digitally search-optimized. I am still amazed how well Evernote performs its tasks and even hand-written texts are easily found. (the latter comes in handy when adding notes on the business card when just having met a new contact).

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