RealScape--Metropolitan Fixed Assets Change Judgment by Pixel-by-Pixel Stereo Processing of Aerial Photographs

Recently, Tokyo terminated its traditional visual-identification work, which had been used for 20 years, and shifted to a new automated system. This article introduces the Fixed Assets Change Judgment (FACJ) system and its core tool, RealScape. RealScape automatically detects changes in the height and color of buildings based on three-dimensional analysis of aerial photographs. It employs a unique pixelby-pixel stereo processing method and enables a foot-level precision for each building. RealScape automatically detects changes in the height and color of buildings based on three-dimensional analysis of aerial photographs. The three-dimensional analysis employs a pixel-by-pixel stereo processing method that calculates the height of each pixel in aerial photographs and thus enables precise difference detection between previous and current aerial photographs. Since then, it has been used at its tax bureau every year to calculate the municipality's fixed-asset tax. After the success in Tokyo, other major city governments, including Osaka and Sapporo, have followed suit. The Japanese fixed-property tax is imposed by municipalities on the owners of land, buildings, and depreciation assets (all hereinafter referred to as "fixed assets") on January 1 of every year by calculating the tax sum according to current asset values.