Abstract: The invention relates to an electronic news system of stand-alone type or network type for managing electronic messages and replies to the messages such as an electronic bulletin board system in which data for reply selected by the user from among indicated data for fixed form replies is transmitted as a reply, so that the input operation of the reply is easy and many replies can be obtained from the readers of the message, and also by totaling the number of the respective selections out of data of plural replies, the opinions on the messages can be processed in the form of being easily referred to for example in a bar graph style.

Abstract: The system enables a user to dispose information such as an icon to identify the article that the user posts from the client computer, on the display screen thereof, for example, at the position closer to an icon of an article that another user posted if the former user intends to express the opinion positively to the latter user's posted article. The server computer where many client computers can post articles and read the articles posted from other client computers, manages the coordinate data of the icons respectively disposed at the client computers according to the respective intentions of the articles and reproduces the icons on the display screen of a client computer, at the respective disposed positions so that a user at the client computer can instantly understand the intentions of the posted articles without reading the contents thereof.

Abstract: An article retrieval support apparatus which is capable of limiting the number of identification data of articles among which retrieval is to be executed through displaying images of the identification data of the articles at varied transparency rates or miniaturizing rates corresponding to the novelty of the article or attribute data of the article such as repute of the article.

Abstract: A communication apparatus which enables a user to have a more concrete image of a communication partner and to experience the fun of communication through a personal computer, wherein upon receipt of an article, a material representing a person who sent the article or a sending place is reproduced by means of a still picture, animation or sound corresponding to the person who sent the article, to the sending place or to the geographical relationship between the sending place and receiving place.

Abstract: A data processing apparatus having breath detecting function and an image display control method using breath detection in such a data processing apparatus where in a breathing sound inputted by input means such as a microphone is detected, a feature quantity such as a voice power is transformed into another physical amount such as a temperature and a moving speed, and a display state of an image on a display screen or a driving state of a movable object such as a robot is controlled, whereby a user can feel that the user's breath directly operates the image and robot so that a feeling of physical disorder is eliminated, and thus a difference between the user and a virtual world on the display screen or robot is eliminated.

Abstract: An electronic communication which gives a user a sense of affinity to the system and occasions the user's interest and participation will in the communication, by preparing a sentence filled with the user's attribute information such as a name, hobby, and scheduled events of the belonging group, and information which changes with time such as weather, then outputting the sentence as characters, or by offering news selected by the user from among automatically displaying miniature images, for example, as identification information of the news which is presumed to highly interest the user based on the information such as a hobby included in the user's attribute information.

Abstract: An apparatus for controlling article distribution end which provides vague communication manners to casually distribute an article to unspecified readers with no designation of distribution and addresses from a user, even if there is no designation of distribution end address by the user, and also provides flexible communication manners to induce a formation of communication between users in such a way as to surprise a reader to whom an article is distributed that the article is distributed accidentally as well as to allow the reader to reply casually and almost anonymously because the users do not known each other, and further provides the flexible communication manners to give a joy to a distributor that he has received a reply to the article distributed to an unspecified distribution end even if the reply is a casual one such as impression or the like, by automatically obtaining a random distribution end address to which the user is irrelevant in selection, from data base of distribution end addresses.

Abstract: A combinatorial optimization system to reduce the number of neighborhoods generated by modifying a part of the present solution so that one improvement can be performed in a short time, and to efficiently obtain an optimum solution without resulting in a local optimum solution.