LG Scanner Mouse LSM-100

The idea of combining a scanner with a mouse had something of the 1990s about it, when handheld scanners were all the rage.

Although the LG LSM-100 scanner-mouse appears to answer a question that nobody asked, it actually worked rather well.

Scan quality was good and the supplied LG Smart Scan software was easy to use. Pressing a button on the side activates the scanner, and pressing it again stopped the scan. Lay a document or picture flat, press the button and run the mouse over it - a small scanner sensor on the mouse's underside does the scanning and the document appears on screen as you go.

Scanning documents needed a smooth sweep across the page, which took a bit of getting used to. It came with a special mouse mat with a clear plastic flap to hold documents in place, though it didn't work well - we found it better to just run the mouse over the document directly.

Scanning a whole A4 page took quite a while, but the software cleverly adjusts the scan to make up for errors or wobbly hands. In the end it worked best for scanning small snippets rather than whole pages.

The LG Smart Scan software will attempt to translate scans of text into editable text which worked very well with black text on a white background, but not so well with more complicated documents and non-standard fonts. The software includes options to paste an image of the scanned file to the Windows clipboard so it's available for other programs, or to just paste the text. There is also a sharing option that allows users to directly share files using Facebook, Twitter or email.

While the scanning aspect worked well, the LSM-100's big flaw is that it didn't do a particularly good job as a mouse. It was awkward to hold and its tall, bulky size and shape made it uncomfortable.

While a scanning-mouse is certainly a clever idea, the LG LSM-100 isn't well-enough designed to be usable as an everyday mouse, which greatly limits its usability.

The LG LSM-100 is available from Novatech