Word: scanner
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...Louisiana, to a flood of nearly 100 that turned up in Tuscaloosa, Ala. They totaled in the tens of thousands of dollars, and all were tracked down to one place: a private home in Vicksburg, Miss. There, police discovered a trove of high-tech gear that included a document scanner, a laser printer, an IBM-compatible computer and a disk filled with digitized checks, drivers' licenses and department store IDs. "The guy could copy anything he wanted," says Detective Reggie McCann of the Jackson, Miss., police. "It blew our minds...
...technique is remarkably simple. First, the forger uses an optical scanner to turn a legitimate document into a digital image stored in the computer's memory. Then, using a so-called paint program, which is an electronic version of an artist's drawing kit, he alters the image to suit his purposes -- adding zeros to the dollar amount, say, or deleting the payee's name and substituting his own. Finally, the altered document is printed out on a laser printer or, for best results, on a professional typesetting machine...
Until now. Thanks to advances in technology, Gershwin's piano rolls have been rescued from oblivion. Under the supervision of Gershwin scholar Artis Wodehouse, an optical scanner was used to convert the holes that activate the keys into computer files that can be understood by today's music synthesizers. Last week's performance on ABC's Good Morning America was played by a Yamaha Disklavier, a $20,000 grand piano that comes with a computer disk drive. A book of piano scores, transcribed by computer, is scheduled to be released later this year...
...little dog gone?" That old musical question now has a modern answer. A California-based company called Infopet is selling a - computer-age tag: a microchip that is easily implanted between a pet's shoulder blades. The semiconductor carries a ten-digit code, which can be read by a scanner. When the code is punched into Infopet's computers, an animal's finder can obtain such data as the pet's license number, medical condition and, most important, the owner's phone number...
...unusual application, Orion Re-Entry, California's largest privately owned halfway house for prisoners trying to move back into society, uses a fingerprint scanner to monitor the comings and goings of its residents. Before heading off for weekend furloughs or checking in from work, residents press their right forefingers against the machine. "It's much more expedient than the body checks we had in prison," says a resident. For the facility's manager, Bari Caine, the system is an excellent way to keep track of 84 residents and a high-turnover staff. "We can't always expect every staff member...