Abstract: A document filing system is provided for storing a large amount of information in proper arrangement for facilitating utilization thereof by a user, while allowing semantical retrieval to be realized even from vague fragmental information. Further, a method is provided for expressing the facts consitituting information in terms of "concepts" representing things and "relations" defined between the concepts internally of computer, and a method of inputting user's information to a computer through dialogical procedure and retrieving desired information. Information stored of the computer architects internally a concept network which is displayed in various forms such as hierarchical form based on subsumption relations between the concepts, hierarchical representation based on part-whole relation between the concept, a frame display of a single concepts, and tabular representation of a set of concepts belonging to a given class.

Abstract: An image display apparatus that can ease the man-machine interaction when a user searches for a document in an electronic filing system, for example, through the image display apparatus. In a conventional electronic document filing system, it has been difficult to search for a document by inspecting or looking at the original document images shown on an image display screen. The difficulty comes from the lack in a capability of controlling the instantaneous display speed, an appropriate feedback to the user to synchronize the image paging, and a capability of showing the direction of paging. The image display apparatus disclosed here has a tactile feedback mechanism that tells the user the time a new image page is shown and that also tells him/her other status of the apparatus, like how busy it is, in terms of a tactile signal to the user's fingers. The mechanism is installed in a mouse-like pointing device that tells the apparatus the speed of paging.

Abstract: Pattern segmentation and recognition in which hand-written characters are transformed electrically into 2-dimensional image patterns, wherein if ambiguity exists in segmenting a unit pattern including a character from the image patterns, character recognition is not made compulsively, but a plurality of possible unit patterns are first established. Then, the various unit patterns are segmented, and each unit pattern is identified to be a partial pattern, linked patterns, etc., so that each character is recognized on a basis of total judgement, whereby ambiguity of segmentation is resolved.

Abstract: A digitized multilevel signal is encoded on the basis of unit combinations each including a run-length bit field indicative of run-length at each of the signal levels and a single continuation bit indicative of transition of the signal levels. The encoding is so modified that a virtual run of zero length is inserted when the transition of the signal levels at adjacent sampling points departs from a predetermined order. Polarity of the continuation bit is inverted upon every transition of the signal level.

Abstract: In a pattern recognition device for recognizing an unknown pattern in accordance with the magnitude of the similarities between the unknown pattern and a plurality of standard patterns, the similarity between the unknown pattern and one of the standard patterns is detected as follows.Similarities are detected at first in respective shifting conditions where the unknown and standard patterns are relatively shifted from each other over the first limited extent, including the condition without the shift. The maximum value of these similarities is then detected. The similarities are further detected in respective shifting conditions where the unknown and standard patterns are relatively shifted from each other over the second extend larger than the first limited extent, when the shifting condition which gave the maximum value is that without relative shift.