Home Page       Tue Aug 19 18:00:36 JST 1997

Images and processors data- base

This section describes the overview of the images and processors database under construction.

In order to make it possible for everyone to check whether his or her own images have a new object easily, I will construct a database of enormous images. I will also complete and distribute an image processing software to detect stars from images and compare with star catalogs or images in the database. Finally I will construct a practical system that users can use it via WWW for access to the database and check whether new objects are in their images or not.

The system's architecture is shown as Figure 1. The user at first put their image to the system. Then it detects stars from the image, compares to catalogs and checks all known objects. The user can also search and browse other users' images, sometimes they contain the same area in the past, from the database.

  
Figure 1: System's architecture

This database is implemented in Java language to construct on WWW environment.

The base of the system consists of some servers. Each server manages local images database at its own site. When a user's command requires to make access to other databases, the server communicates with the other server. But the whole system looks one as users.

The user utilizes this system with a client software. The client is to be an applet and used in a WWW browser. Now that many people regard the Internet as WWW, an applet has a big merit that everyone can use it. However, to be disappointed, an applet cannot make access to local resources in a user's HDD, which means the use can only see the images in the database. In the near future, an applet will support Drag & Drop. Then the applet lets users to pass their images to the system, check them and register them in the database.

Anyway, users cannot check their images with an applet now. So non-applet client software is also required to make a full use of the system. In that case users have to install the software by themselves, but they become able to check and register their images.

Finally, this database is not only of images but also of image processors. That is, when users complain of the existing processors in the database, such as stars detection from an image or various image processing softwares, they can make their own processors or improve the existing ones and register them to the system. Those users' processors are opened to the public and can be utilized by all users.