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Scan Plus

Scan Plus is the mobile app's high-quality document camera. It's used to photograph paper logbook pages, oil analysis reports, work orders, and any other paper that needs to land in AZSuite as a searchable, OCR-able image.

The pipeline:

  1. Mobile captures a photo with a 16:9 (landscape) or 9:16 (portrait) frame
  2. The photo lands in a per-aircraft queue on the AZSuite server
  3. Web (scan_define.php) imports the queued photo into a scan session, defines crop regions, runs OCR, and posts results into the right destination (logbook entry, oil sample, etc.)

Capture flow

  1. Open the Scan Plus tile
  2. Pick the aircraft + logbook + page number
  3. Tap Open Camera
  4. Frame the page within the visible 16:9 / 9:16 rectangle
  5. Tap the shutter
  6. Review on the preview screen
  7. Tap Upload to Server (or Retake if it's blurry)

The framing rectangle

The camera screen has a rectangle overlay showing the actual capture area. Everything outside the rectangle is greyed out — that area won't be saved in the photo.

This matches what scan_define expects for OCR — straight-on shots with the page filling the frame produce dramatically better OCR than free-aim shots.

Portrait vs Landscape toggle

The camera defaults to Landscape (16:9) which suits letter-sized pages held wide. For tall documents (like a logbook page held vertically), tap the 🖼️ Landscape / 📱 Portrait toggle at the top of the camera view.

The frame rotates and the saved photo's aspect ratio matches.

Other controls

  • Cancel — exit the camera without saving
  • Shutter (large round button at bottom-center) — capture
  • Flip — switch front / back camera (rare; back is always best for documents)

After capture: the preview screen

The preview screen shows:

  • The captured photo, full-screen
  • Resolution (e.g., 4032 × 3024 px)
  • File size (e.g., 2.1 MB)
  • Aspect ratio (16:9 / 9:16)

Below it:

  • Upload to Server — sends to the per-aircraft queue
  • Retake — discard and recapture

Upload destination

The photo lands at:

/var/www/html/LL/Scratch/ImageQue/{N_NUMBER}/page_NNN_YYYYMMDD_HHMMSS.jpg

Where {N_NUMBER} is the selected aircraft's tail number, and page_NNN encodes the page number you picked at upload time.

Importing on the web side

Once uploaded, the photo waits in the queue until someone imports it via scan_define.php. Steps:

  1. Open the AZSuite web at scan_define.php
  2. Pick the aircraft (or stay in an existing session)
  3. Click 📱 Import from Mobile Queue (warning-yellow button on the "Raw Uploaded Images" strip)
  4. The modal lists all pending photos for this N-number
  5. Optionally rotate left/right to fix orientation
  6. Click Import All (as Raw) to bring them into the session, OR Import Scan Plus (as Pages) if they're sequential logbook pages
  7. Web takes over from here — define crop regions, run OCR, save

Auto-increment page number

After a successful upload, the page-number field auto-increments. So if you captured page 1 of a logbook, the field reads "2" for your next capture. This makes capturing 30 pages of a logbook in sequence painless — open camera, capture, upload, capture, upload.

Things to know

  • Upload requires network — the photo is sent over your AZSuite API connection, not stored locally for later. If you're at the airport on spotty Wi-Fi, capture multiple photos and upload when you have a better connection.
  • Photos are JPG — the camera produces high-quality JPG, ~2–4 MB each. Large enough for OCR, small enough for cellular upload.
  • Permissions required — Camera permission is asked the first time; Photos permission isn't (we don't save to your camera roll).

Troubleshooting

Symptom Likely cause Fix
"Not seeing my upload in scan_define" Path mismatch (fixed in v0.2.5+) Update the app and the server
Image rotated 90° in preview Phone capture orientation differs from frame Use the rotation tools in the web import modal
Text in OCR is garbage Lighting / angle / focus Recapture with better lighting and the page parallel to the camera
Upload spinner hangs Slow / dropped Wi-Fi Wait or retry; uploaded photos are not lost