Book Scanner

Book Scanner

The book scanner uses your phone's camera and AI to extract book information automatically.

Requirements

• Google Gemini API Key (free) — set GEMINI_API_KEY in .env
• Get your key at https://aistudio.google.com/apikey (no credit card needed)
• Without the key, falls back to Tesseract OCR (lower accuracy for Arabic)

How to Scan

Scanning the Front Cover

1. Go to 📚 Books → 📷 Scan Book
2. Select Front Cover mode
3. Tap 📷 Take Photo — your phone camera opens
4. Photograph the book's front cover (hold steady, good lighting)
5. Tap 🔍 Analyze
6. The AI extracts: Title and Author

Scanning the Back Page

1. Select Back Page mode
2. Photograph the back cover or last page (where ISBN usually is)
3. Tap 🔍 Analyze
4. The AI extracts: ISBN, Publisher, Publication Year

After Scanning

The results appear in editable fields:

1. Review the extracted text — correct if needed
2. Tap 🔍 Search in Library to check if you already own it
3. If found → tap to view the book
4. If not found → tap ➕ Add this Book (pre-fills the form)

Tips for Better Results

Tip	Why
Use good lighting	Shadows confuse text recognition
Hold the phone parallel to the book	Avoid perspective distortion
Capture the full cover	Don't crop out author/title
Avoid glare	Glossy covers reflect light
Clean background	Place book on a solid surface

Supported Languages

The AI scanner reads:

• 🇸🇦 Arabic (including calligraphic/decorative fonts)
• 🇬🇧 English
• 🇫🇷 French

Rate Limits (Free Tier)

Google Gemini free tier allows:

• 15 requests per minute
• 1,500 requests per day
• Images are compressed to 800px before sending (saves quota)

If you hit the limit, wait 1 minute and try again.

Fallback: Tesseract OCR

If no GEMINI_API_KEY is configured, the app uses Tesseract OCR (installed in the container). OCR quality is lower, especially for:

• Decorative/calligraphic Arabic fonts
• Book covers with ornamental backgrounds
• Low contrast text

The editable fields still let you correct OCR errors before searching.

Access Requirements

The scanner is available to Admin and User roles only (not Viewer).

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