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- This topic has 15 replies, 1 voice, and was last updated 1 year, 3 months ago by Kevin Neal.
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- Kevin Neal
Hi Gerrot,
A “sidecar” consists of a few components to make a USB scanner into a TWAIN Direct compatible scanner. The components are (1) a MiniPC such as Raspberry Pi or other extremely low-cost computer device, (2) the standard TWAIN Classic software driver provided by the scanner manufacturer and then (3) TWAIN Direct Bridge software. As you mentioned, this would likely be Windows because there is many more supported scanner models for Windows, but there are TWAIN Linux drivers available also.
The magic is the TWAIN Direct Bridge software that translates the TWAIN Classic commands into TWAIN Direct API. So, theoretically, any existing USB TWAIN compliant scanner can use a sidecar and become TWAIN Direct compatible. The TWAIN Working Group does recommend that the TWAIN Classic driver adheres to version 2.4 or, preferably 2.5, of the TWAIN specification (https://twain.org/specification/).
Yes, you are correct that if the scanner hardware is advertised with capability of TWAIN Direct and has a network interface (such as the Xerox D70n or N60w) then the whole intent is for software applications to connect “DIRECTLY” via TWAIN Direct Local or Cloud REST-API provided by TWAIN Working Group.
• TWAIN Direct Local RESTful API (https://twaindirect.org/pdf/twain-local-restful-api/)
• TWAIN Direct Cloud RESTful API (https://twaindirect.org/pdf/twain-cloud-restful-api/)If the scanner hardware is advertised with capability of TWAIN DIRECT without a network interface (such as USB only) then you would have to use the scanner vendors component/ “bridge”-type software to make the scanner into a TWAIN Direct compatible device. As an example, Visioneer offers their VAST-NSS (Visioneer Network Scan Service – https://www.visioneer.com/VAST-NSS) which does exactly this. Or for software developers, the TWAIN Working Group provides a utility called TWAIN Direct Bridge source code which translates TWAIN Classic commands into TWAIN Direct API. The scanner then could be advertised on the LAN or even WAN via TWAIN Direct Cloud.
Thanks,
Kevin - AuthorPosts