seems like overkill considering a cheap scanner with a sheet feeder would have done the same job, or doing it the old way with photo sensors... but whatever floats your boat
Seems more like *under*kill: imagine feeding even a modest-sized deck of a few hundred cards through that fiddly, hand-operated mehanism. Much less a really large chunk of "your old code" you want to "resurrect".
This reminds me of those PBS shows where some group makes a replica of an ancient Egyptian boat or statue using authentic tools: it may demonstrate great, or even extreme, cleverness, but it has all the practicality of commuting to your job in downtown L.A. in a resored buckboard.