Abstract: An image capture device is described having a remote photograph mode in which images can be captured without physical contact with the device. The device activated by the user speaking a keyword. The image capturing device is arranged so that after being initialised in the remote capture mode of operation, it enters a standby state for a period of time in which it is unresponsive to utterances and, after a period of time sets itself into a listening state in which it can capture images in response to detecting spoken keywords.

Abstract: A method for compressing text, comprising the steps of splitting a main character string into component strings, and counting the frequency of occurrence of each component string in the main character string and ordering the component strings in their frequency of occurrence. The method also comprises a step of allocating to each component string a token value representative of the component string and determined by the frequency of occurrence of the component string, storing the token value so allocated as a token table in which tokens are associated with component strings, and allocating to each component string in the main character string the token value for that component string from the token table to generate a sequence of token values representing the main character string in a compressed format.

Abstract: Aligned corpora are generated or received from an external source. Each corpus comprises a set of portions aligned with corresponding portions of the other corpus, for example, so that aligned portions are nominally translations of one another in two languages. A statistical database is compiled. An evaluation module calculates correlation scores for pairs of words chosen one from each corpus. Given a pair of text portions (one in each language) the evaluation module combines word pair correlation scores to obtain an alignment score for the text portions. These alignment scores can be used to verify a translation and/or to modify the aligned corpora to remove improbable alignments.

Abstract: Apparatus for image processing which consists of a display (1) and controller (2), a CPU (3) connected to accept user instructions from a mouse (4), an image processor (5) arranged to process image data and a memory (6) for storing image (and other data). A user can specify a sequence of image processing operations on the display (1) using the mouse (4), and interactively modify the sequence depending on the displayed image. The apparatus operates three independent routines ("virtual machines"); a user interface routine accepting instructions and updating the screen display; a sequence evaluation routine constructing a table (20) representing the sequence graph, and evaluating the table (20) to generate corresponding image processing instructions for the image processor (5); and the image processing routine executing specified image processing operations and storing the result in the memory (6) to be accessed for display. Evaluation only occurs after an output is required.

Abstract: A speaker unit includes a speaker housing having a lower portion and an upper portion. A drive unit is housed in the upper portion for producing and outputting sound, with the drive unit having a central axis, and a sound mirror is housed in the lower portion for reflecting the sound output by the drive unit. The mirror has a generally conical surface facing the drive unit for redirecting sound therefrom into a generally horizontal direction and a cone shape, with an apex of the cone being closest to the drive unit. A supporter supports the drive unit in a cantilever type manner above the sound mirror, and the center axis of the drive unit is offset from the apex of the sound mirror, with the drive unit supporter positioned at substantially the opposite side of the apex than the center of the drive unit.