The capabilities of modern flatbed scanners have the potential to revolutionize field work in anthropology, botany, zoology, and geology.
Scanners have far more capabilities than is traditionally recognized.
This web site is one of the first to reveal a practical use of scanners to cure the everyday workload of all archaeology projects. It comes as a surprise to many people that you can record 3-dimensional objects on a flatbed scanner. Yes, there are specialized scanners for 3D objects, but those cost a fortune, outside the reach of any archaeology research project. But a good quality flatbed scanner can do the job just fine. Now the Power Look 3 is out, and that can record sherds even more precisely.