# I Got Yer Army of Book Scanning Robots Right Here **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [March 8, 2008, 2:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-got-yer-army-of-book-scanning-robots-right-here/440592 "2008-03-08T14:56:06Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 4\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Tuckerfan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/eada6e/32.png) [@Tuckerfan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tuckerfan)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2008, 2:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-got-yer-army-of-book-scanning-robots-right-here/440592/1 "2008-03-08T14:56:06Z")
Google has made the claim that they’ve got robots scanning 3000 books a day, as part of their Google Books project. I’ve been reading _Above the Battle_ by Vivian Drake thanks to Google Books, when lo and behold, right as Vivian begins to describe his first combat mission, I get [this.](http://tuckerfan.googlepages.com/googlebot.JPG) Does that look like a _robot’s_ hands to you? Because if _that’s_ a robot, then we might as well surrender to Google now, because obviously, they’ve managed to cook up something more sophisticated in their labs than anyone else has. Nor is there an easy way to notify the folks at Google that their shit’s fucked up. I’ve found an email address related to Google Books and fired off an email (along with a link to the pic), but they didn’t even bother with an autoresponder. It’d be _nice_ if there was a box on the page for the book where you could check to say that there was a problem with the scans, and then provide nformation as to where and what the problem was. Not only would this enable Google to fix the problem (assuming that they can be bothered to do so), but it would also allow folks who’re thinking about downloading the book to know that there was a problem, and heck, if Google wanted to be _really_ collabrative about the project, to allow someone with a copy of the book to supply corrected text. ---
**Author:** ![Boyo\_Jim](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/87869e/32.png) [@Boyo\_Jim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Boyo_Jim)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2008, 4:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-got-yer-army-of-book-scanning-robots-right-here/440592/2 "2008-03-08T16:00:54Z")
It’s very simple. By ‘robots’ they mean ‘employees’ – possibly of 3rd world origin. ---
**Author:** ![Ale](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/f19dbf/32.png) [@Ale](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ale)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2008, 4:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-got-yer-army-of-book-scanning-robots-right-here/440592/3 "2008-03-08T16:19:41Z")
[QUOTE=Boyo Jim] It’s very simple. By ‘robots’ they mean ‘employees’ – possibly of 3rd world origin. [/QUOTE] If they are on the Czech republic, they may not be so off the mark. ---
**Author:** ![kaylasdad99](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kaylasdad99/32/3398_2.png) [@kaylasdad99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kaylasdad99)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2008, 5:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-got-yer-army-of-book-scanning-robots-right-here/440592/4 "2008-03-08T17:50:24Z")
Very Mensa, **Ale**. _Brava_.