USB scanner + embedded Linux box = network scanner?

[Ben Scott]

Hi folks,

  You can get a decent USB-attached scanner for small money these
days.  But they all require cumbersome, buggy MS Windows software that
tends to suck (even by the standard of MS Windows software).  To get a
network-attached scanner that doesn't suck, you need to spend big
bucks (often kilobucks).

  But SANE supports a lot of USB scanners.  And you can get a
itty-bitty Linux box, like a Soekris or a Koolu (or maybe even a
hacked LinkSys router) for small money.

  It seems to me that it should be possible to plug an inexpensive USB
scanner into such a box, running Linux and SANE, and have it supervise
the scan and deliver the image to some network location somewhere (via
FTP, SMB, HTTP, SMTP, whatever).  Ta-da, instant network scanner, for
cheap.  It should just be a Small Matter of Programming(TM).

  Does anyone know of a project that has done this already?

-- Ben