Abstract: A human-machine interface apparatus for providing an output from a computer. The human-machine interface apparatus comprises a three-dimensional form shaped to represent a communications agent, the three-dimensional form having a display surface, an input interface for accepting image data from a computer, a display apparatus for displaying an image with which a user can engage on the display surface corresponding to the input image data, an input apparatus for receiving non-manual inputs from a user who is engaging with an image on the display apparatus, and an output interface for providing to a computer data derived from inputs received by the input apparatus.

Abstract: An information processing system (10) receives input data from a keyboard (26), a mouse (28) and spoken data input device (30) in an input data sequence. A microphone (32) converts received speech into electrical signals which are digitized by an analogue to digital converter (100). A digital signal processor (102) converts the digital signals into multi-dimensional vectors which are stored in a temporary input buffer (104). A recognition processor (106) performs a recognition program in order to match the multi-dimensional vectors to speech models. In order that the system (10) may output data in an output data sequence which corresponds to the input data sequence, each data input receives a time stamp. A timing controller (24) ensures that instructions received from either the keyboard or the mouse are output only when those instructions have a time stamp which is earlier than the time stamp of the data most recently processed by the recognition processor.