Communication Bases between Multiple Observation Stations

In order for multiple observation stations to communicate, they have to share some common information structures:

Space

: Since each observation station represents the geometric information in its own local subjective coordinate system, the calibration between such local coordinate systems should be done to exchange the geometric information. This geometric calibration differs from the ordinary stereo camera calibration in the size of disparity; since observation stations are distributed over a wide spread area, very large degrees of disparity are incurred into observed images. We are developing a new image based calibration method for such widely distributed observation stations.

Time

: An observation station is a real time system dynamically interacting with the real world, where time dependent processing is very crucial. Hence a CDV system should support sophisticated time management mechanisms to realize the coordination between time critical processing elements.

Language

: In addition to describing the space and time related information, a language for communication should support the description of internal states of observation stations: belief, intention, expectation, and so on. We believe that exchanging the spatial and temporal information alone is not enough and such abstract information should be communicated to realize flexible cooperation between observation stations.

Knowledge

: An observation station describes the abstract information in terms of its own ontology and conducts reasoning based on its own knowledge structure. To what extent multiple observation stations should share the ontology and knowledge structure for their cooperation is an interesting research topic.