The flatbed scanner is the most accessible and common choice for consumers who need to digitize their photographs, artwork, old books, or other objects. Invented in the early 1970s, the traditional flatbed scanner varies in size and is relatively inexpensive, helping out businesses and students across the globe. However, these flatbed scanners require the object being scanned to be pushed against its sensor sometimes damaging old books or making scanning several dozen pages a tremendously tedious task. Digital Library Systems Group (DLSG), a company providing digitization workflow solutions to commercial markets since the 90s, plans to revolutionize the scanning industry by bringing its revised version of the scanner to every university in the States.

The Knowledge Imaging Center (KIC) Scanner is not only an improved scanner that does not damage books, but a hub that uses its "True 2 Touch" user interface to help users modify and output their scans in varying formats. The KIC is intended to provide faster, less damaging scans that can be exported in a variety of file formats (JPEG, PDF) to a variety of locations (USB, email, smart phones or tablets, cloud services, printing or fax). DLSG describes it as a self-serve book scanning station that is able to capture, copy, fax and collate book contents. The scanners V-bed and secondary attachments show the improvement in technology that scanners have adopted in their evolution from the traditional overhead or flatbed scanner.