Half a croissant, on a plate, with a sign in front of it saying '50c'
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Shredder Scanner

Get a digital copy of whatever it was
  (+8, -1)
(+8, -1)
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Scanner is placed a couple centimeters above the shredding device. As the paper is fed in, the scanner sees it first, scans both sides and shreds in one smooth action.

Sometimes you just want the information and the paper is just a waste. Perhaps you want the peace of mind that after all is done not all is lost in case you made some gross error of judgement.

sartep, Jul 07 2004

US20090257101 http://www.google.c...tents/US20090257101
Mentioned in my anno. Shredder that scans after shredding [notexactly, Mar 30 2017]

[link]






       awesome idea but would require a change in the law such that electronic data is acceptable.
engineer1, Jul 07 2004
  

       At the very least it allows you to keep figures, dates and receipt info.
sartep, Jul 07 2004
  

       i just hope OCR is good enough that you don't end up with a shredded receipt and confusion as to what that weird character was.
engineer1, Jul 07 2004
  

       shred it first, then scan it before it drops into the bin for a slight encrypted look.
po, Jul 07 2004
  

       ideal for spies. like me.
neilp, Jul 07 2004
  

       oh..damn.
neilp, Jul 07 2004
  

       "it's p, neilp"
po, Jul 07 2004
  

       //Someone invented software to piece paper strips back together so shredder makers responded by inventing the cross-cut type that cut it into confetti.//   

       Actually, clear adhestive tape works just fine for strip-cut shredders. Cross-cut shredders probably require software to decipher, though.
supercat, Jul 07 2004
  

       of course if you are Iranian and have the time and an empty US embassy then shredded data is recoverable and sell able.   

       I picture this as idea being useful for things like credit card bills that you may want to have a record of but not want to store the bills themselves.
engineer1, Jul 08 2004
  

       There are many businesses which scan documents and shred the originals (and--before the age of scanners--whould photograph them and then shred them). Some financial institutions have been doing this with checks for years, for example. On the other hand, putting the shredder with the scanner could cause the document to be lost altogether if something went wrong in scanning it.
supercat, Jul 08 2004
  

       Scanned (electronicly duplicated) documents are legal in court and for the IRS. Many companys scan and shred all documents as supercat has stated. OCR would not be needed since documents would be scanned as an image and indexed by shred time and date in a database. Items could lated be re-indexed with more information to be easly found at a later date. OCR could be combined with imaging to automaticly index, but this would have it's problems since the ocr program would have to be "smart" enough to know which kind of document you were scanning and which part of it to use for indexing. I am for indexing by shred date/time and manualy entering the rest later. I would use a four part process. 1. print referance points on the outer edges of the document. 2. scan document 3. verrify that printed referance points are in the correct location's on scanned document 4. shred the document   

       Steps 1 and 3 are added to automate a way of making sure that you got a good scan before shredding.
dlapham, Jul 08 2004
  

       //Scanning it before defeats the fundamental purpose of shredding//
Which is why I'm voting for this.
ldischler, Jul 08 2004
  

       Scan error - UNDO!
yabba do yabba dabba, Jul 08 2004
  

       Scann error -- Put in rejection bin instead of shredding.
dlapham, Jul 08 2004
  

       Now you're talkin'. No wait--now I'm talkin'.
yabba do yabba dabba, Jul 08 2004
  

       this is a great idea, even if I was just about to post it myself.
theircompetitor, Apr 05 2005
  

       Does anybody have any links as to where one actually exists? I guess the fundamental problem is simply verifying the document has been properly scanned before shredding, but I'm sure that's easily remedied with today's technology.
gb2000, May 27 2006
  

       Gets my vote !   

       Your attached PC (or inbuilt screen) should show the doc before you click "shred", just to make sure you don't shred it in the case of a bad scan.
monojohnny, May 27 2006
  

       Inbuilt screen--yes. A Touch screen to quickly index the file into folders, such as "School" "Action Item" or "Junkstuffs." Anything you don't feel like indexing can be stored for later review/dump.   

       A good accessory would be a wireless flatscreen to be mounted on a wall. Acting as an electronic pegboard, it can cycle through your action items (like event flyers, movie rental return dates, "Call Jeannie for tax evasion strategies.") at variable speed. There could be a simple click button on the frame's face to pause. I'm sure this digital memo display has already been invented, but if it's integrated with the scan/shred system, you have eliminated push pins, scraps of paper, and dry erase markers in return for the family-size PDA.   

       Another thing: the scanner/shredder should easily communicate with wireless printers as well as having the aforementioned USB port.   

       How does everyone feel about flatbed scanner vs document auto-feed style?
egencilia, Jan 06 2007
  

       I was just thinking of such a device, scanner/shedder combo, and I searched and found your suggestion. I'd like to add couple comments: the scanner could have a built-in encryption program that would be decoded by an online app. There could also be built-in flash storage, or a USB slot for storage onto a flash key. I don't think that the device needs to have OCR ability, just TIF storage. The decoding, sorting, filing could be done from the images on the computer. A lazy person like myself might not ever bother with filing all the images, but I would still have the ability to find certain documents by searching through the icon folder of the flash drive.
mobiledan, Mar 06 2011
  

       This could be a nondescript, discrete add-on for spies to place under the shredder.
Voice, Mar 06 2011
  

       // shred it first, then scan it before it drops into the bin for a slight encrypted look. // - [po], 2004   

       See [link]—that's now patented! (It's patented for the purpose of verifying successful shredding, though, so I think it's a sufficiently original idea to patent.)
notexactly, Mar 30 2017
  

       [-] sorry no. Death is needed, even a mistaken death. To have a reality without, is not long term.   

       This shredder is going to deprive people of that earthly right to feel the OMG emotion of realizing a terrible mistake. A sad loss to humanity.
wjt, Mar 30 2017
  
      
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