Old scanners were SCSI, which made me wonder if you could use them as boot devices, if you could stuff the scanner driver and OCR software into the BIOS. Might be easier now that we have uEFI.
Shame I used to have an SCSI scanner but I already disassembled it for parts.
One can write a simple bootloader, which reads bytes printed on a paper sheet to memory then boots it. Something like: black (0), white (1) or long rectangle (1), short rectangle (0). Wonder about the storage capacity of the A4 paper.
Would be sort of like paper tape.
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:HP_Educational_Basic...
scantron... a name rising from the mists of time, lol
Some cameras and printers also had SCSI interfaces: Opex MPS-40 mail sorting camera and NeXT Color Ink Jet SCSI.
And don't forget SCSI network adapters (NICs).
I'm wondering if there were a SCSI mouse and/or a SCSI to RS-232 adapter.
Fantastic IDEA seconded!