Abstract: Light sources are disposed at a plurality of different positions for an object body to be photographed, and a plurality of images corresponding to respective light source positions are photographed, and from the change in the direction or the color on the surface of the object body to be photographed, the parameters to be the coefficient for introducing the direction or the color on the surface of the object body observed from the light source position are measured, and an image can be synthesized for any light source position using the above-mentioned data. Thereby, it is made possible to synthesize an image for any light source position with the data which can be easily available as the images of an object body photographed with a camera and so on, without needing many hands or special tools.

Abstract: An information service system includes a terminal for generating a terminal inquiry to receive a remote response. The system further comprises host unit including a host database for storing information of a first plurality of items, for returning a host response, having information regarding at least one item corresponding to the terminal inquiry from among the information of the first plurality of items, in response to the terminal inquiry. The host database also selecting items having high occurrence frequencies of inquiries from among the first plurality of items. Furthermore, a remote unit is connected to the terminal and the host unit and includes a remote database for storing information, as information of a second plurality of items, information of the items selected by the host unit in the remote database. The remote database information is used for determining whether or not a response to the terminal inquiry is present within the information of the second plurality of items.

Abstract: The status or state of a computer system is displayed with respect to at least one subspace having two or more coordinates of display corresponding respectively to different selected status variables of the computer system, which might be utilization factors of respective programs operating in a network. Critical states are defined by critical state formulas, at least one of which involving a plurality of the status variables. The critical state formulas are used to define and display a critical region on the display apparatus with respect to the coordinate system. Values of the status variables, loci of the status variables, indications of change of the status variables, distances of points defined by the status variables from the critical region and the like information are displayed in a subspace with respect to the coordinates to give a visual indication of their relationship to the critical region.