BIOS: Technology Means Business

I.R.I.S.'s Business Card Reader II promises to help you keep your contact database up-to-date by relieving you of the tedious task of having to type business card information into your computer. Unfortunately, the compact colour solution failed in almost all of our tests to accurately recognise and correctly place business card data in the appropriate database fields. It even completely failed to scan black business cards with white text, making it an impractical solution for busy business users. You'd be better off spending the same amount of money on a decent desktop scanner and OCR software.

Pros: Compact design; bundled OCR software; exportable database
Cons: Poor results; clunky software; no carrying case supplied

Most of us tend to accumulate business cards at an alarming rate. The sad thing is that most of us don't bother to input these details into a database or personal information manager (PIM) application, mainly due to the laboriousness of having to manually input a diverse range of contact details.

I.R.I.S.'s Business Card Reader II is a compact 600dpi colour scanner that promises to make light work of inputting and automatically encoding business cards into a contact manager. It's also powered by the USB port so you don't have to lug around an AC adapter - the only issue is whether its price can be justified considering you can buy a more versatile colour flatbed scanner (which may even come with business card scanning software) for the same price or less.

The attraction of the Business Card Reader II is huge. After all, who doesn't want a fast and accurate product that eliminates the need to retype a business card again? The device is a snap to use, too: just select the country of your business card, drop the card into the scanner, and then sit back for a few seconds while it is automatically scanned, recognised and encoded. Of course, you could also use the product to scan small photographs and other documents up to 108x300mm, which may be ideal for clubs or other organisations that require visual confirmation of members for ID cards and the like.

The Business Card Reader II is small and light enough to nestle unobtrusively among other items on your desk, or to take with you on the road (I.R.I.S. even offers an optional carrying case). It scans in colour or black and white and connects to your Windows- or Mac OS-based computer via a single USB port. The first time you run the Business Card Reader II you have to calibrate the scanner. This is a relatively quick process, requiring you to insert and scan the supplied white calibration sheet. The only downside here is that you will be prompted to re-calibrate every few weeks, so don't lose the card.

You can manually start a scan process from the software, or have the device recognise when a card has been inserted. Each card takes about 18 seconds to pass through the scanner, and the software then takes another few seconds (depending on the speed of your computer) to perform character recognition. After it is scanned, a picture of the card is displayed and the software takes its best guess as to what text from the card should go into what field. Scanned images can be saved in JPEG, PNG, TIFF, and Windows Bitmap formats.

The supplied software, Cardiris 3.5 (£32.97 ex. VAT, if bought separately), is a rather clunky and dated-looking contact organiser that recognises cards in up to 53 different languages, but most will prefer to stick to their favourite customer database, such as Outlook or ACT! Cardiris 3.5 comes with its own basic database, allowing you to archive, search, select, export and synchronise your contacts. There are outstanding sort, search and selection tools, and you can make a full text search by typing anything you can remember to find your contact. Alternatively, you can search by specific database fields. Then, you can sort the results by field or by alphabetical order.

The software also allows you to define the fields you want and print your contacts as a list or as labels, synchronise your contacts with the most popular contact databases (Pocket PCs, Outlook, Outlook Express, ACT!, Palm OS, Lotus Notes and GoldMine), or export and import your contacts as vCard, HTML or comma-delimited text. When used with a flatbed scanner the software lets you scan several cards at the same time, also known as batch scanning.

In our tests the Business Card Reader II failed to recognise every single field of a BIOS business card, due to an 'untraditional' layout and typography. It also failed to interpret black business cards with white text, even thought the software boasts omnifont technology optimised for tiny characters and supports font sizes from 6 to 72 points.

While there is a way to edit data fields manually, this really does defeat the object. Scanned colours were quite reasonably, although you can get much better performance from a dedicated flatbed scanner - or even a cheap all-in-one printer. Overall, we were really disappointed with the Business Card Reader II.