Sony Corporation

Yoshimi Koyama

Tsukasa Yoshimura

A number of optical fiber cordsare bundled together to constitute an image fiber. A first end of the image fiberis incorporated within and covered by a cylindrical member to constitute an imaging section, which in turn forms one of a plurality of imaging sections. The second end of the image fiber is incorporated within a fiber bundling unit so that an image pickup device simultaneously read images captured by the plurality of imaging sections and transmitted to the image pickup device via optical means. Within the fiber bundling unit a plurality of cylindrical holes are provided, in an orderly fashion and in a lattice pattern, and into at least one cylindrical hole one end of the image fiber that forms an imaging section is inserted. All of the end faces of a plurality of image fibers are aligned in the same plane to thereby form a flattened surface. A plurality of imaging sections are radially disposed in a spherical and omnidirectional imaging unit, taking into account the latitude and longitude of the imaging sections. This allows omnidirectional images with no distortions to be transmitted to an image capture unit.

Image input device

A map display includes a display screen for displaying read map image data, an input for designating an absolute position obtained by a positioning device on a map displayed by the display screen, and a controller for calculating positions on the map corresponding to the absolute positions obtained by the positioning device based on the absolute positions of at least two points on the map designated by the input and for displaying the calculated positions on the map displayed on the display screen.

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Kanagawa, Japan

Yoshimi Koyama