Abstract: A method comprises identifying, by a computing device, a current context of a computer program; identifying, by the computing device, any related contexts of the computer program that are related to the current context; determining, by the computing device, association relationships between the current context and the related contexts; determining, by the computing device, a user history of menu choice selection with respect to the current context; updating, by the computing device, the user history based on a user menu choice selection and the association relationships; determining, by the computing device, weighted menu choices for a second context of the computer program based on the user history; and presenting, by the graphic user interface, the weighted menu choices for selection by the user in the second context.

Abstract: Provided are methods, computer programs and apparatus supporting cooperative updating of software, firmware and other data. A first device is able to obtain program and data updates that are required by other devices, and to do this altruistically even if the updates are not required by the first device. The updates obtained by the first device are saved in cache storage until they can be transferred to the other devices that require update support. A set of devices form a Data Sharing Group and hold information representing update requirements of the other group members. Altruistic obtaining and caching of updates can be especially beneficial for devices that have very limited network access—for example devices that have only intermittent network connectivity, or have low bandwidth or low security network connections.

Abstract: A system for group facial recognition includes a target extractor for extracting target images from a scene image; a target image classifier for comparing a target image to a database of known identities and allocating classification scores for identities; a relationship database providing relationship scores between known identities; and means for applying the relationship scores to the classification scores to improve classification of a target image. Two or more target images are extracted from a scene image and it is determined that a first target image is one of a first set of identities, each with a classification score, and that a second target image is one of a second set of identities, each with a classification score. A relationship score is determined for each of the first set of identities giving the relationship to one or more of the second set of identities. The relationship score is applied to the classification score for the first target image.

Abstract: Summarization of text in a document may be requested in dependence upon the position of the text in relation to other text within the document or the position of the document containing the text within a plurality of documents in a document structure. Summarization of text in a document may also be requested in dependence upon a user's interaction with an application in conjunction with a version of the document or with a document structure including the document. Different levels of summarization may be applied to different segments of text within a document.

Abstract: An access control method in a computer system comprising the steps of: generating an image having first and second image elements, each of the image elements having associated an element type name and an image attribute, the image attribute including an attribute name and an attribute value; generating an access control question including an identifier of the first image element and the attribute name of the image attribute associated with the first image element; receiving an access control response; in response to a determination that the access control response corresponds to the attribute value of the image attribute associated with the first image element, providing access to a resource in the computer system.

Abstract: Provided are a method, apparatus and file access manager for optimized scheduling of read/write operations and disk I/O operations for files that must be retrieved from disk storage. The file access manager schedules the operations such that a single file retrieval from disk is required for a plurality of processes to operate on the file. If any of the processes write to the file, a single disk write operation is then performed. This coordinated scheduling solution is particularly applicable to disk utilities and other programs that automate batch processing—performing operations serially for a large number of files. The coordination of read/write operations for multiple disk utilities can reduce the total number of disk I/O operations and so reduce the time for which system performance is adversely affected by batch processing programs. This is a problem which is currently exacerbated by a number of automated batch processing utilities separately and independently thrashing disk storage.

Abstract: There is disclosed a method apparatus and computer program for a master of a group of devices to determine a destination at which to store data associated with the devices in the group. Destination preference information is received from each device in the group. Such information is analysed to arrive at a preferred destination and then the device in the group are informed of this preferred destination.

Abstract: Subscribers connected to a publish/subscribe message broker receive messages on topic names to which they have subscribed. The messages are published with respective topic names within a sequence of topic names. The subscribers initially subscribe to at least one topic in the sequence, and then await receipt of a published message on the subscribed topic. On receipt of a published message, the subscriber unsubscribes from the subscribed topic and subscribes to a previously-unsubscribed next topic in the sequence.