Abstract: In the case where variations in ground objects in one and the same area are detected between a line drawing map describing profile lines of the ground objects or a reference line drawing/image obtained by picking up the ground objects from above, and a target image obtained by picking up the ground objects in the same area from above later on, a variation detecting apparatus collates the reference line drawing/image with the target image so as to obtain variation indexes indicating whether there are variations or not in the ground objects respectively, and displays ground objects which can be judged to have variations or ground objects which cannot be judged as to whether there are variations or not on the basis of the variation indexes, in a display mode in which an area of the reference line drawing/image including the ground objects and an area of the target image including the ground objects can be compared with each other.

Abstract: A method is provided for the orthocorrection of a satellite-acquired image. This method can be applied even if ground control points are not set. Without propagation of an error throughout the image and also without needing an excessively large amount of calculations, the method makes it possible to correct ground-relief-associated distortions caused by the relief of a ground surface. According to the method, a plurality of control planes of different elevations are set relative to a control plane of a zero elevation of a reference rotating ellipsoidal earth model. A corrected image is divided into blocks by lattices of equal intervals. With respect to each of these blocks, distortion model formulas in the form of bilinear functions are determined for the respective control planes.

Abstract: A method is provided for the orthocorrection of a satellite-acquired image. This method can be applied even if ground control points are not set. Without propagation of an error throughout the image and also without needing an excessively large amount of calculations, the method makes it possible to correct ground-relief-associated distortions caused by the relief of a ground surface. According to the method, a plurality of control planes of different elevations are set relative to a control plane of a zero elevation of a reference rotating ellipsoidal earth model. A corrected image is divided into blocks by lattices of equal intervals. With respect to each of these blocks, distortion model formulas in the form of bilinear functions are determined for the respective control planes.

Abstract: In the case where variations in ground objects in one and the same area are detected between a line drawing map describing profile lines of the ground objects or a reference line drawing/image obtained by picking up the ground objects from above, and a target image obtained by picking up the ground objects in the same area from above later on, a variation detecting apparatus collates the reference line drawing/image with the target image so as to obtain variation indexes indicating whether there are variations or not in the ground objects respectively, and displays ground objects which can be judged to have variations or ground objects which cannot be judged as to whether there are variations or not on the basis of the variation indexes, in a display mode in which an area of the reference line drawing/image including the ground objects and an area of the target image including the ground objects can be compared with each other.

Abstract: When an intention is decided by a computer, the conclusion part of a rule is expressed by using an intention level such as an auxiliary verb of intention and an intention is decided on the basis of the expression. A rule for a certain action is described in a format of "IF (status of A), THEN (action B on the basis of the status A)+(intention level)" beforehand. A fitness degree indicating the fitness state of the status A to the status to be processed is calculated. When the fitness degree at the strongest intention level is highest, the corresponding rule is assumed as an intention in the status to be processed. When the fitness degree at the strongest intention level is not highest, it is converted to a fitness degree equivalent to the intention level of the next strength and a rule which is an intention to an action is decided.

Abstract: A river management system for controllably operating devices of management facilities installed at pluralities of rivers and waterways to manage water volumes in a river network including the pluralities of rivers and waterways.

Abstract: An emergency information offering system collects and offers information of lifeline facilities upon emergency properly by combining information infra-structures and public infrastructures. In the system, a center monitoring apparatus detects abnormality on the basis of information of the lifeline facilities collected by distributed monitoring apparatuses and meter apparatuses. A risk management apparatus grasps abnormal states and determines countermeasures of abnormality in accordance with the detected abnormality to produce the determined information. A guidance information management apparatus automatically prepares guidance information on the basis of the information and transmits the guidance information to a customer in response to an inquiry.

Abstract: A scheduled motion plan for a vehicle which satisfies constraints and demanded specifications in consideration of the performance of the control system on condition that the control system which is conventionally used is used is made. To guide and control the motion of the vehicle on the basis of the plan, an apparatus for planning the motion of the vehicle has an onboard simulator containing a dynamic model and guidance and control model, a simulation condition setting unit for setting simulation conditions of the onboard simulator, an analyzer for evaluating a simulation result by the onboard simulator, and a scheduler for making a motion plan. The apparatus sets an ideal velocity at a position on the basis of constraints and demanded specifications, compares it with a position, a velocity, or the simulation result, judges a plan type, and sets the simulation conditions 180 for the plan type.

Abstract: A retrieving key representing position information is used to retrieve image information containing the retrieving key information at a high speed and high precision. First a retrieving key is inputted to display retrieval information. The retrieving key is used to retrieve an image having a large size relative to a geometric distortion error, and the longitude/latitude conversion coefficients of the retrieved image are corrected. By using the corrected longitude/latitude conversion coefficients, an image having a small size relative to the geometric distortion error is retrieved, and the retrieved image is subject to distortion correction and image magnification.

Abstract: In a navigation system which has sensors for detecting a running distance, an azimuth, etc. of a vehicle, and a memory for storing map data; a probability density of a position of the vehicle is calculated on the basis of the sensor outputs and the map data for each of quantization units with which a probability computation determined by detection accuracies of the sensors and quantization of the map data can be executed. In addition, a final stage calculation of DP matching between trajectory data obtained from the on-board sensor data from a start point of the vehicle until a current time and a candidate route estimated from the road map data is iteratively executed, whereby a plurality of estimative vehicular positions and uncertainties (costs) corresponding to the respective estimative positions are iteratively evaluated, and a correct vehicular position is estimated by selecting at least one estimative vehicular position of low uncertainty (cost).

Abstract: An image generated by the detected signals of a scanning electron microscope is divided, for example, into a plurality of rectangular small areas with the boundaries parallel to the y-axis. The relative height in the boundary is obtained by conducting one dimensional integration for respectively boundaries. Thereafter, the relative height difference between the boundaries is determined by conducting one dimensional integration for each area in the direction perpendicular to the boundary. Thereby, the surface three dimensional topography having less distortion can be measured, even in case errors are included in the normal distribution which indicates the surface topography of the specimen, by adjusting and determining the height in the area by the interporating operation.

Abstract: Disclosed is a method and apparatus for measurement of surface topography of a sample by using a scanning electron microscope, in which: secondary electrons released from the sample are detected by detectors which are four or an integral multiple of four in number and which are disposed above the sample to surround the sample; differential coefficients in two directions perpendicularly intersecting each other at the scanning point are obtained from the detected signals; the differential coefficients are successively summing-integrated along the two directions thereby obtaining surface topography of the sample; and at the same time the calculation expression for calculating the surface topography is corrected with the sample table inclined.

Abstract: A method of detecting a change using an image includes an image inputting section, an image registration processing section, a binarization processing section and an image display section. In this method, images taken at different times are input, and any change in corresponding pixels in the input images are detected. The change detecting method includes a step of calculating differences in vectors of a plurality of images which are based on different image characteristics, and a step of extracting values of shape features of an object, so that the direction in the change that takes place in the image characteristics of the object is calculated for each image characteristic being observed, shape feature values of the object are calculated, and the calculated direction and shape feature values are compared with corresponding training data, so as to detect the change in the object.

Abstract: An image correcting apparatus for correcting distortion appearing in an image produced by electron beam scanning in a SEM under the influence of electric, magnetic and mechanical vibrations through arithmetic operations for eliminating the distortion. Installation of electric shield, magnetic shield and vibration-damping structure is thus rendered unnecessary.

Abstract: A scanning electron microscope for scanning the surface of a specimen with an electron beam to detect secondary electrons, backscattered electrons, or X-rays emitted from the specimen, thereby forming an image of the surface of the specimen, is provided with a specimen table capable of making a horizontal movement, a vertical movement a rotating operation and a tilting operation, an arithmetic unit for converting the output of a detector for detecting the secondary electrons, backscattered electrons or X-ray into a digital signal to store the digital signal, and for calculating the amount of each of the horizontal movement, vertical movement, rotating operation and tilting operation of the specimen table, on the basis of the stored information, an indication given from the outside, and others, and a controller for controlling the specimen table on the basis of a calculated value from the arithmetic unit.

Abstract: A method of reconstructing original images from synthetic aperture radar image data, wherein in order to speed up the reconstruction of an original image from image data provided by synthetic aperture radar (SAR), the process for generating a point image pattern in correspondence to each point on the original image and the fast Fourier transformation (FFT) process for the generated point image pattern and 1-line image data are carried out once for every certain number of lines. Positional and phase displacement created on a reconstructed image are corrected by multiplying a phase rotation factor to the product of the FFT-processed point image pattern and 1-line image data.

Abstract: Several properties are assigned to the regions of an image having light and shade and obtained by photographing a surface of an object. Several properties are also assigned to the regions of the picture, which are extracted on the basis of the first proper-assigning operation, and the boundary lines therebetween. The angles of inclination of these regions and the condition of the unevenness of the regions of the surface which are on these boundary lines are estimated by utilizing the relation between the above-mentioned properties and the direction of a light source. Thus, the relative elevation of the surface of the object is determined. The above-mentioned properties are determined with respect to images of the same object from different directions, and the properties thus determined of these images are compared to determine the corresponding points, which are utilized to determine the quantitative elevation of the surface.

Abstract: Distortion models consisting of two forward and backward reciprocating planes that let a corrected image correspond to an uncorrected image for each scanning direction are constituted to let an uncorrected satellite image scanned by a reciprocating scanning sensor with scanning overlap or scanning underlap correspond to a corrected image after distortion correction, by means of a continuous mapping function on a 1:1 basis. It is determined whether each point on the corrected image is a point on an overlapping scan or on an underlapping scan or on a normal scan from the existence of a real point on the distortion models.

Abstract: By using a low-frequency component of attitude data of an uncorrected image resulting from scanning the ground by means of a sensor mounted on a satellite, low-frequency distortion correction coefficients are calculated. By using a high-frequency component of attitude data, a change rate is calculated. From said low-frequency distortion correction coefficients and said change rate, distortion correction coefficients covering a high frequency are calculated. By applying bidirectional resampling to the uncorrected image by using said distortion correction coefficients covering a high frequency, a corrected image is obtained.