Abstract: An architecture providing a human interface includes a user input device, a studio or workplace receiving an output of the user input device, the studio being capable of storing and sharing information, and a plurality of agents or functional modules connected to supply/receive data from the studio. The agents are connected in parallel and perform processing as distributed and cooperative processing of functions by the user. The agents are independent components having independent functions performing processing on data in the studio to receive and store items of information, respectively, from and to the studio as a shared information medium, the studio being accessible to the user and to the plurality of agents. Each of the plurality of agents can be independently started depending upon a status of the studio.

Abstract: A user information management device exploits the contents of all communications as information about an individual user, to allow the system to access and update information about the user without modifying the overall system. The system includes a task execution device and a user interface device which interact to perform a task as directed by a user by message communication through a shared medium. The system includes a user information management device and a reference table which includes message patterns for accessing and updating the information about the user and for launching access and update procedures corresponding to a matched pattern.

Abstract: An information processor, which manages operational history data or status data to revert an application back to any desired point in the past or make use of the past operations, includes an interface screen having cards thereon, as objects, that are manipulated by a user so as to make use of history. Contents of the history are represented while the order of the cards, placed one upon another, is associated with the time series of the history. A card representation is provided on the screen presented by the application to the user at any point in a past or to provide a card representation defined by images which alternately display screen representations before and after a change in the application screen by the operation performed by the user at any point in the past, while the before-change and after-change representations are displayed for different periods of time.

Abstract: A handwritten letter recognition method in accordance with the present invention detects, for each subset, input strokes that coincide with the standard strokes, according to the order of the standard strokes of a standard pattern, and carries out in turn the coincidence processing of strokes by removing the coincident input strokes from the input pattern. The recognition processing for the input patterns is carried out by extracting the standard patterns possessing standard strokes that are coincident for all of the strokes of the input pattern. Therefore, it becomes possible to recognize the input letter pattern easily and efficiently without regard to the order of the strokes input, and even for an input letter pattern with large number of strokes.

Abstract: Disclosed is a relational algebra engine which has a sort engine, a merge engine, a control processor and a common bus. The sort engine has a plurality of first processing elements which are connected in series. Each first processing element includes first and second buffer memories, a first memory which has a FIFO function, and a first processor which sorts input data elements in accordance with a predetermined rule by using the first and second buffer memories and the first memory which has the FIFO function. The first and second buffer memories and the first memory which has the FIFO function are disposed in parallel. The merge engine has two second processing elements which are disposed in parallel.

Abstract: An exposure apparatus using an electron beam includes a first memory for storing pattern data representing various basic patterns, a data processor for reading from the first memory the pattern data necessary to form a pattern to be drawn, a second memory for storing data which correspond to the pattern data readout from the first memory by the data processor, and an electron beam generator for generating an electron beam according to the data stored in the second memory to achieve a raster scanning on a test piece. The first memory stores pattern parameters representing said various basic patterns. The exposure apparatus further includes a dot pattern data generator which writes into the second memory dot pattern data which correspond to the pattern parameters readout from the first memory by the data processor.

Abstract: An electron beam type exposure apparatus includes an electron generator for emitting electron beams modulated in accordance with dot data read out of a memory, a drive unit for vertically moving a table carrying a workpiece on which a pattern is to be drawn, and a scanning unit for scanning the surface of the workpiece by electron beams. The exposure apparatus further includes an image selection circuit for judging from dot pattern data read out of the memory whether a pattern to be drawn on the workpiece represents a regular or mirror image, and the dot data are read out of the memory in the order defined by the direction in which the workpiece-carrying table is moved and also by an output logic signal from the image selection circuit.