Concealed scanner

A concealed card scanner, comprising:

• a camera that surreptitiously captures an image of a card;
• a processor that processes the captured image to produce a processed image;
• an image screen that displays the processed image;
• and
• a cover configured to conceal the camera during image capture and allow selective and surreptitious access to the image screen;
• wherein the processor is configured to process the image so as to distinguish information on the card from a background surface color of the card, and to create the processed image such that the information on the card is visually enhanced;
• wherein the image screen is an Epaper display;
• and
• wherein the processor is configured to distinguish the information on the card from the background surface of the card by performing the steps of:
• determining boundaries of the card from the captured image, with each pixel of the captured image being assigned to one of n grayscale values;
• normalizing contrast of the captured image after the boundaries of the card are determined;
• determining a reduced grayscale mapping to convert the n grayscale values of the captured image to m grayscale values, where m is less than n;
• and
• scanning through the captured image pixels to re-assign the grayscale value for each pixel based on the determined reduced grayscale mapping.