Abstract: A vehicle charging control apparatus includes: a unit which presents unit prices of charging power; a unit which issues an instruction for preferentially charging a vehicle for which allowable time is short in proportion to request amount; and a unit which determines whether there is another allowable time which is associated with the request amount and meets a condition that the other allowable time is longer than the allowable time and the unit price associated with the other allowable time is lower than the unit price associated with the request amount and the allowable time. The unit prices are set lower when associated with a longer allowable time and also set lower when associated with a smaller request amount. When the other allowable time meets the condition, the other allowable time and the unit price associated with the other allowable time are presented.

Abstract: A vehicle charging control apparatus includes: a unit which presents unit prices of charging power; a unit which issues an instruction for preferentially charging a vehicle for which allowable time is short in proportion to request amount; and a unit which determines whether there is another allowable time which is associated with the request amount and meets a condition that the other allowable time is longer than the allowable time and the unit price associated with the other allowable time is lower than the unit price associated with the request amount and the allowable time. The unit prices are set lower when associated with a longer allowable time and also set lower when associated with a smaller request amount. When the other allowable time meets the condition, the other allowable time and the unit price associated with the other allowable time are presented.

Abstract: In a document retrieving apparatus, an audio input section converts a sound into a character pattern. A language model storing section stores likelihood information. A word choosing section obtains a word selection result based on the likelihood information. A retrieval condition producing section produces retrieval conditions based on the word selection result. A document storing section stores document to be retrieved. And, a document retrieving section retrieves the documents based on the retrieval conditions. An effective document search can be performed regardless of the sentence recognition accuracy without requiring higher cost in collecting the required language data.

Abstract: The present invention provides an encryption system, by which it is possible to safely distribute a common crypt key for decrypting data on an encrypted DVD-ROM by simple devices and procedure. A terminal equipment 1 comprises a DVD-ROM drive, means for sending a key data request to a center device via communication line, and means for decrypting the encrypted common crypt key using a combination of a part of BCA data and a membership number. A center device 2 comprises means for authenticate a user by searching a user data base 23 in response to the key data request, means for obtaining BCA data of the user by searching a BCA data base 21, means for obtaining a common crypt key by searching a key data base 22, and means for encrypting and transmitting the common crypt key using a combination of a part of BCA data and a membership number.

Abstract: A system for permitting only an authentic user to play a desired application contained in a distributed application package in one of predetermined operation, e.g., free play mode, charged mode, limit-attached play mode, etc. The system comprises a client for playing an application under the control of a server connected with the client through a communication network. The application package (the volume) includes a distribution descriptor which contains mode codes assigned to the volume and the applications of the volume. The data of distribution descriptor is decided and stored in the descriptor at the time of distribution of the volume. This feature makes the system flexible. There is also disclosed a system operatable without communicating with a server.

Abstract: A multimedia editing apparatus including a template manager, a material information manager, a template operator, a logic structure synthesizer, a layout structure synthesizer, and a physical operation determiner. The template manager manages a template describing therein a logic structure, a layout structure, and a physical operation common to a diversity of multimedia content. The material information manager manages material information such as text, photo, and video. The template operator combines material information extracted from the material manager with a template extracted from the template manager. The logic structure synthesizer synthesizes a logic structure in a template with material information. The layout structure synthesizer synthesizes a layout structure in a template with material information. The physical operation determiner determines physical operations of material based on the synthesized logic structure which material information a physical operation in a template should use.

Abstract: An image editing apparatus includes a variable-sized image memory memorizing variable-sized image plane data, a variable-sized image plane administrator administering the size of the image plane data, and a variable-sized image editor editing the variable-sized image plane data.

Abstract: In a syntactic analysis apparatus, when a syntax analyzing section fails in a syntactic analysis of an input sentence due to a syntactic error included in the input sentence and thus is unable to generate a syntactic tree of the input sentence, an error analyzing section receives syntactic subtrees of the input sentence obtained by the syntax analyzing section up to such failure and applies a given error analyzing rule to the received syntactic subtrees so as to identify the included syntactic error. The input sentence is corrected based on the identification of the syntactic error so as to be sent to the syntax analyzing section. The syntax analyzing section performs the syntactic analysis of the corrected input sentence and generates a syntactic tree of the corrected input sentence.