Abstract: An office information system having a device which provides a user with an operational message of the system is disclosed. In an embodiment of the office information system, a path record storage device stores a plurality of path records related to components of the system, each path record indicating a locating path needed to reach a location of a specific one of the components in the system when a failure related to the specific one of the components occurs. A failure location detecting device detects a location of a component in the system when a failure related to the component occurs. A reached location determining device reads a path record from the path record storage device when the location of the failure is detected, and determines a currently reached location in the system based on the path indicated by the path record.

Abstract: An operation condition inputting system employing a tree state hierarchical menu is formed by classifying various operation conditions of an apparatus by at least one function and segmentalizing the at least one function into menu items to be optionally selected by a visually-impaired person.

Abstract: An office information system having a device which provides a user with an operational message of the system is disclosed. In an embodiment of the office information system, a path record storage device stores a plurality of path records related to components of the system, each path record indicating a locating path needed to reach a location of a specific one of the components in the system when a failure related to the specific one of the components occurs. A failure location detecting device detects a location of a component in the system when a failure related to the component occurs. A reached location determining device reads a path record from the path record storage device when the location of the failure is detected, and determines a currently reached location in the system based on the path indicated by the path record.

Abstract: An office information system having a device which provides a user with an operational message of the system is disclosed. In an embodiment of the office information system, a path record storage device stores a plurality of path records related to components of the system, each path record indicating a locating path needed to reach a location of a specific one of the components in the system when a failure related to the specific one of the components occurs. A failure location detecting device detects a location of a component in the system when a failure related to the component occurs. A reached location determining device reads a path record from the path record storage device when the location of the failure is detected, and determines a currently reached location in the system based on the path indicated by the path record.

Abstract: The user interface is provided for the visually impaired to operate a multifunction devices. The user interface is based upon a combination of tactile sensation, tactile position, and sound. The tactile sensation includes the Braille expressions as well as any marker on a template. The tactile position includes the relative position of the user hand on a touch panel. In combination with the tactile sensation or tactile position, the sound interface offers additional information to help the operation of the multifunction machine.

Abstract: The acoustic model generating method for speech recognition enables a high representation effect on the basis of the minimum possible model parameters. In an initial model having a smaller number of signal sources, the acoustic model for speech recognition is generated by selecting the splitting processing or the merging processing for the signal sources successively and repeatedly. The merging processing is executed prior to the splitting processing. In the merging processing, when the merged result is not appropriate, the splitting processing is executed for the model obtained before merging processing (without use of the merged result).