Tag: ‘Imaging’

JAXA exhibits 3D satellite images of Mt. Fuji

16 Feb 2006

Mt. Fuji from space

On February 15, the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) exhibited the first photographic images captured by the Daichi advanced land observing satellite launched in January. Daichi is equipped with the three types of sensors, including the world?s first Panchromatic Remote-sensing Instrument of Stereo Mapping (PRISM), which simultaneously captures images from three directions to create 3D images of the Earth's surface.

The PRISM images, taken on the morning of the February 14, show the area around Mt. Fuji and Shimizu Port in Shizuoka Prefecture. Objects as small as 2.5 meters (8.2 feet) across are visible.

Daichi?s 3D images of the area around Mt. Fuji show Kofu City?s urban sprawl, the Fuji Five Lakes (Fujigoko), and the detailed terrain of the snow-capped peak of Mt. Fuji. Small buildings and roads are visible in the images, which were taken from an altitude of 700 kilometers (435 miles).

Daichi uses PRISM to create maps on the scale of 1:25,000. The satellite is expected to play a key role in disaster relief by quickly gathering image data of areas hit by large-scale disasters.

[Source: Mainichi Shimbun via Yahoo! News Japan]

UPDATE: Check out the 3D video compiled from the images (MPEG: 3.6M)

Toshiba develops cellphone barcode reader software for online search of product reviews

08 Jan 2006

Toshiba has developed software that allows users to easily check online reviews of a product by reading its barcode with a camera-equipped cellphone. The software will be put to trial use in February at locations such as electronics stores and bookstores, and will become commercially available sometime in 2006.

The software is designed for products that purchasers tend to read reviews for, such as electronic goods, food, books, CDs, DVDs, makeup, etc. Users will be able to access information for approximately 400,000 products.

When a barcode is read using a cellphone camera, the data is automatically sent to a dedicated server, where data from blogs that refer to that product is searched. After about 10 seconds, the number of "positive" and "negative" blog hits is displayed on the cellphone screen. In addition, blog text related to the product is displayed, as well as information about related products.

Toshiba developed an original database that arranges approximately 500,000 Japanese keywords into categories such as "travel" or "culture," and groups them according to the review ratings. The company claims this technique enables quick analysis of blog content.

[Source: Asahi Shimbun]