Abstract: Systems, methods, and programs store feature information relating to features existing on a road and on the periphery of the road, each piece of feature information being associated with a unique identification symbol, each piece of feature information including disposition information expressing a spatial disposition of each feature independently of the road network, form information expressing a form of each feature, accuracy information expressing an accuracy of the information, and acquisition timing information expressing an acquisition timing of the information. The systems, methods, and programs (1) output the feature information stored in the feature database and input map information constituting the map database, the map information being generated based on the output feature information, or (2) generate map information constituting the map database on the basis of the feature information stored in the feature database.

Abstract: Systems, methods, and programs store feature information relating to features existing on a road and on the periphery of the road, each piece of feature information being associated with a unique identification symbol, each piece of feature information including disposition information expressing a spatial disposition of each feature independently of the road network, form information expressing a form of each feature, accuracy information expressing an accuracy of the information, and acquisition timing information expressing an acquisition timing of the information. The systems, methods, and programs (1) output the feature information stored in the feature database and input map information constituting the map database, the map information being generated based on the output feature information, or (2) generate map information constituting the map database on the basis of the feature information stored in the feature database.

Abstract: A magneto-optical recording medium includes a transparent substrate, a magnetic reproducing layer laminated on the transparent substrate and having an easy direction of magnetization perpendicular to a film surface, a nonmagnetic intermediate layer laminated on the magnetic reproducing layer, and a magnetic recording layer laminated on the nonmagnetic intermediate layer and having an easy direction of magnetization perpendicular to a film surface. When a reproducing laser beam is directed onto the recording medium, a temperature distribution is formed in a beam spot. The temperature distribution consists of a low-temperature region satisfying Hc>Hs and Hc>Hr, an intermediate-temperature region satisfying Hs>Hc and Hs+Hc>Hr, and a high-temperature region satisfying Hr>Hs+Hc, where Hc represents a coercive force of the reproducing layer, Hs represents a magnetostatic bonding force between the reproducing layer and the recording layer, and Hr represents a reproducing magnetic field.