An image pickup device that acquires images is controlled by an image
pickup device controller that accepts image acquisition requests from
multiple application programs, and an application scheduler selects
application programs to be executed. Information indicative of the image
data volumes and image data acquisition rates required for each of the
multiple application programs is stored and used to select multiple
concurrently executable application programs on the basis of the image
data volumes and image data acquisition rates. An image acquisition
scheduler determines the timing and intervals at which the multiple
executable application programs repeat receiving image data from the
image pickup device, without overlapping in terms of time. In addition,
an operations section, which explicitly presents concurrently executable
application programs to a user and commands the startup of these
programs, is displayed on a navigation screen menu.