Abstract: An interaction support system in which a figure processing program is run so that each of the constituent elements of a displayed figure is expressed in the form of coordinate points of a circumscribed polygon thereof and actions are sequentially defined with respect to the elements respectively. After actions have been defined with respect to the respective overlapped constituent elements, the defined actions are sequentially carried out in the run stage. An action for one figure element may be defined during defining operation of another figure element.

Abstract: An information processing system includes a desk with a planar display unit which also accommodates physical objects to be manipulated by the operator. The physical objects are representative of physical objects normally used in office environments when handling paper files. A camera is provided which continuously monitors the desk display surface and is coupled to an electronic computer which can be controlled by the operator by moving the physical objects and the operator hands to simulate paper processing tasks, such as mailing, faxing, filing, opening files, editing and the like. An operator driven menu is provided on the desk display surface for facilitating operator classification and storage of physical object shapes of those physical objects which are to be used.

Abstract: An information processing system which comprises an integral input and display unit comprising a display which enables an object to be selectively displayed at one of a plurality of positions in a display area and a tablet having an input face overlaid on a display face of the display, the input and display face being disposed substantially horizontally, and a display whose display face is disposed substantially uprightly, wherein when an object is presented to a user in the display area of the display, a display position of the object is determined in response to at least one of a state of the user, a state of the input and display face, and a display state of the display, thereby enabling the object to be displayed at an easy-to-use position relative to the user's position.

Abstract: A user interface system receives data from input devices and, on input of data, that data is associated with one of a plurality of names, which names are stored in a reference memory. The resulting data signal is processed by suitable a processing device, which determines the operation to be carried out on the data on the basis of selection of one of a plurality of operations stored in a rule base memory, which selection is determined by the name that has been associated with the data. A control output to e.g. a display is then generated by the processing device. One of the operations stored in the rule base memory is that which determines the association of names and data. By configuring the user interface in this way, a more flexible arrangement can be achieved.