Interface Agent Research Articles

AGENT-BASED SYSTEM ARCHITECTURE FOR DYNAMIC AND OPEN ENVIRONMENTS

The rapid growth of the network-centered (Internet and Intranet) computing environments requires new architectures for information gathering systems. Typically, in these environments, the information resources are dynamic, heterogeneous and distributed. In addition, these computing environments are open, where information resources may be connected or disconnected at any time. This paper presents an architecture for a multi-agent information gathering system. The architecture includes three types of agents: interface, broker and resource agents. The interface agents interact with the users to fulfill their interests and preferences. The resource agents access and capture the content of the information resources. The broker agents facilitate cooperation among the information and the resource agents to achieve their desired goals. This paper provides the agents' architecture, design and implementations that enable them to cooperate, coordinate and communicate with each other to gather information in an open and dynamic environment.

Dynamic Mechanical Properties of Precipitated Silica Filled Rubber: Influence of Morphology and Coupling Agent

Abstract Composites that incorporate precipitated silica into a vulcanized rubber were investigated for dynamic mechanical properties. Comparing different types of filler, it was found that the mean distance between particles did not alter Payne effect. On the contrary, the amount and morphology of the fillers played a major role on the macroscopic properties. The nature and amount of coupling or covering agents was also found to be an important parameter. A direct relationship between length and efficiency of interface agents was evidenced: longer silanes were more effective than shorter once independently from a covalent bounding to rubber. The set of studied parameters affecting Payne effect can be reduced to only two independents variables: the total amount of silica-rubber interface (a function of the amount of filler and its BET surface) and the quantity and nature of interface agent. From these data an attempt to relate the rubber to filler cohesion to Payne effect is proposed as well as a molecular mechanism derived from Maier and Göritz model. A mathematical treatment of the proposed mechanisms is currently being investigated that might help giving further insights on novel ways to further reduce Payne effect.

교통편 예약 에이전트 시스템 설계 및 구현

인터넷 예약 서비스는 가장 많이 이용되는 인터넷 서비스 중의 하나이며, 특히 에이전트를 이용하면 효과적으로 인터넷 예약 서비스를 이용 할 수 있다. 에이전트는 반복적인 예약 과정을 대신하며 가장 적합한 서비스정보를 선별하여 제공한다. 본 연구에서 인터넷을 통해 대중적으로 이용되는 교통편의 예약을 할 수 있도록 하는 사용자 적응능력을 가지는 에이전트를 설계하고 구현하였다. 본 시스템은 인터페이스 에이전트와 태스크 에이전트 그리고 필터링 에이전트의 멀티 에이전트로 구성되었다. 인터페이스 에이전트는 사용자의 요구를 분석하고 에이전트들의 결과를 통합하는 시스템의 중재자 역할을 담당하고 사례를 기반으로 정보를 추론하여 사용자에 적응할 수 있는 능력을 가진다. 본 시스템에는 세 개의 태스크 에이전트가 존재하며 이들은 각각 정보를 수집하고 정보의 변화를 감시하고, 필터링 에이전트는 수집된 정보로부터 예약상황에 관련된 정보만을 추출한다. 결론적으로, 본 시스템은 기차와 항공기의 예약상황정보를 통합적으로 제공하며, 예약을 위한 단순하고 반복적인 작업 을 에이전트가 사용자를 대신하여 수행한다. The Internet reservation service is one of the most utilized internet services, specifically the agent efficiently supports this reservation services. The Agent will replace the repetitious reservation process and selectively offering the most proper service information. In this study, the user assisting agent system that can enable people to make reservation of public transportations through the internet is designed and implemented. This system consists of multiple agents that are Interface agent, 4ask agents and filtering agent. The interface agent is an arbitrator of this system that analyzes user's demand and integrate agent's result. And it has user-adaptive capability using case-based reasoning. There are three task agents if this system, it executes information gathering and information-change monitoring of each. Filtering agent extracts information only about reservation status in gathered information. Finally, this system is to offer integrated information of the reservation status about train and airplane and execute the simple-repetitious works for the reservation instead of user by agents.

Techniques of interface agents in CSCW systems

In this paper, a method for designing a CSCD/CSCW system is proposed in the form of an MAS-based model. This method can be used to develop interface agents in this model. The paper shows the importance of constructing agents that are both interactive interface agents and autonomous interface agents. We illustrate the structure of agents of the MAS-based model, especially autonomous interface agents, and discuss some design principles for such agents.

MEDIA TECHNOLOGY FOR KNOWLEDGE CIRCULATION

Interface Agent is a user interface, which integrates spoken language and character animation in a synchronized way. Thanks to its embodied representation, this interface has potential for communicating with human users effectively. This paper focuses on interface agent as a media technology that supports knowledge circulation process in information society, and discusses its functions and applicability to risk communication. As implemented examples, we describe S-POC system, which is a risk communication supporting system, and CAST-RISA system, which is an interface agent system working in S-POC. Language: ja

A Multi Agent Framework for Pervasive Computing: Mobeet Framework

Pervasive computing is becoming a more important issue for open distributed systems. It is, however, hard to design such distributed systems when the user uses many kinds of terminals and migrates with these. This paper has proposed a new framework for pervasive computing. The framework includes three kinds of agents: User Interface Agents, Programmable Agents and Service Mediation Agents. We can easily design a flexible distributed system by collaborating these agents. We also evaluate the framework from flexibility point of view.

Combine concept of agent and service to build distributed object-oriented system

This paper presents a Java-based agent-oriented and service-oriented environment, which combines the concept of services and agents to build distributed object-oriented system. Mobile agents are often subject to strong security restrictions, they should find services that help complete their tasks. Services are wrapped by service interface agents. This paper mainly describes how mobile agents locate specific service interface agent by submitting requests to the service server with descriptions of required services in the network, and how service interface agents dynamically register their services in service server. Finally, some conclusions are given.

Web information seeking and retrieval in digital library contexts: towards an intelligent agent solution

This paper discusses the role of intelligent agents in facilitating the seeking and retrieval of information in Web‐based library environments. An overview is presented on agents and their current application in library domains to produce a generic agent‐based model for libraries to follow. The model suggests that Web‐based information seeking and retrieval in library contexts could be enhanced through a collaborating network of interface and information agents. Recent research results offer insights on the design of interface agents to support Web‐based browsing and searching. These are applied to the model in terms of the functionality required to facilitate information seeking and retrieval behaviour across library collections. Implications on library policy and digital collections surrounding the use of agents are also discussed.

Succinyl fluorescein grafted atactic polypropylene as an interface modifier in polypropylene/talc composites: a thermal study under dynamic conditions

The subject of this work is the thermal behaviour of polypropylene/talc composites whose interface has been modified by atactic polypropylenes containing different numbers of succinyl fluorescein grafted groups. The interface modifiers used here were previously obtained in our laboratories by a two-step chemical modification of the melt of a by-product (atactic polypropylene) of industrial polymerisation reactors. The variations in interface activity caused by replacing a small amount of the polypropylene matrix in the composite by succinyl fluorescein grafted atactic polypropylene were clearly detected by differential scanning calorimetry as thermal responses. These studies show that interface agents are preferably located in the amorphous phase of the system. A correlation between the crystalline content of the polymer component and the degree of grafting of the interface agent is also established. Further, a relationship between the thermal behaviour and the mechanical properties of the system seems to emerge.

Ore-age: a hybrid system for assisting and teaching mining method selection

Abstract Mining method selection is among the most critical and problematic points in mining engineering profession. Choosing a suitable method for a given ore-body is very important for the economics, safety and the productivity of the mining work. In the past studies there are attempts to build up a systematic approach to help the engineers to make this selection. But, these approaches work based on static databases and fail in inserting the intuitive feelings and engineering judgments of experienced engineers to the selection process. In this study, a system based on 13 different expert systems and one interface agent is developed, to make mining method selection for the given ore-bodies. The agent Ore-Age, to follow his goal of supplying the maximum assistance to engineers in selecting the most suitable method for a specific ore-body, tries to learn the experiences of the experts he has faced. After this learning process the knowledge base is evolved to include these experiences, making the system more efficient and intuitive in mining method selection work. To realize the above goal, the system's tutoring procedure is executed by the agent, in case an inexperienced user enters the system, to complete his/her missing knowledge about mining method selection.

Agent-based modeling and mapping of a manufacturing system

Considering the agent-based modeling and mapping of a manufacturing system, some system models are described in this paper, which include: domain-based hierarchical structure (DBHS), cascading agent structure (CAS), proximity relation structure (PRS), and bus-based network structure (BNS). In DBHS, one sort of agents, called static agents, individually acts as domain agents, resources agents, user interface agents and gateway agents. And the others, named mobile agents, are the brokers of task and process flow. Static agents representing a sub-system may itself be an agent-based network and should learn, as the mobile agents, to deal with new situations. Mobile agents move around the network domains taking advantage of the resources to fulfill their goals. In CAS, the authors used unified modeling language (UML) to build up an agent-based manufacturing system. It is said that the enterprise agent (the main agent) has factory agents together with some directly jurisdictional workshop agents, cell agents, and individual resource agents. Likewise, the factory agent has workshop agents together with some directly jurisdictional cell agents and individual resource agents, and so on. In PRS, the resources agents are located together by function and abilities. There is only one agent that behaves as the task-announcer. The communication just occurs among the proximity relational agents. BNS is very similar with human society, being connected with a network, some agents, such as “cost calculating”, being to just cope with matter-of-fact jobs. Some agents run as individual resources that can negotiate with each other and advertise a necessary message within the whole domain or a given group of agents. The administration just relies on the individual address of agents and the group ID code of agents.

A User-centric Office Framework for Knowledge Workers

This article describes a successful experience on a software project of Technology Development Program (TDP) of Ministry Of Economic Affairs (MOEA) in Taiwan. It describes the design and implementation of a smart office task framework to automate system integration and to enable user-centric application. To achieve the goal of implicit knowledge accumulation and inheritance, we developed a service framework at the backend for integrating diverse systems seamlessly and an interface agent at the front for hiding complex efforts on manually binding different systems. Based on years of experience in components-based system development with multilayered flow architecture, the ACT (Advanced e-Commerce Technology) laboratory adapted Web Services to wrap various existing systems into a general RPC/RMI format, used ontology to define and integrate new functionalities semantically, and took advantage of agents to enable a user-centric office environment. The design rationale, application scenario, architecture, and future plan are presented.

Evaluating the persona effect of an interface agent in a tutoring system

Abstract This paper describes the evaluation of the persona effect of a speech‐driven anthropomorphic agent that has been embodied in the interface of an intelligent tutoring system (ITS). This agent is responsible for guiding the student in the environment and communicating the system's feedback messages. The agent was evaluated in terms of the effect that it could have on students' learning, behaviour and experience. The participants in the experiment were divided into two groups: half of them worked with a version of the ITS which embodied the agent and the rest worked with an agent‐less version. The results from this study confirm the hypothesis that a pedagogical agent incorporated in an ITS can enhance students' learning experience. On the other hand, the hypothesis that the presence of the agent improves short‐term learning effects was rejected.

ChemInform Abstract: Bilayer Vesicles and Liposomes as Interface Agents

AbstractChemInform is a weekly Abstracting Service, delivering concise information at a glance that was extracted from about 100 leading journals. To access a ChemInform Abstract of an article which was published elsewhere, please select a “Full Text” option. The original article is trackable via the “References” option.

TEST AGENT SYSTEM

In this paper, we propose a Test Agent System (TAS) that employs intelligent agent characteristics of autonomy, social ability, and intelligence to provide active assistance to the tester. It consists of the 'User Interface Agent', the 'Test Case Selection & Testing Agent', and the 'Regression Test Agent'. These agents carry out the tests autonomously by employing their intelligent rules in the object-oriented test processes. This system has 2 advantages. Firstly, since the tests are carried out autonomously, it minimizes tester interference and secondly, since redundant-free and consistent effective test cases are intellectually selected, the testing time is reduced while the fault detection effectiveness improves. In this paper, we show the cut-down rate on the testing time and improvement in the fault detection effectiveness through experiments.

Thermal studies on polypropylene/polyamide‐6 blends modified by succinic anhydride and succinyl fluorescein grafted polypropylenes

AbstractThis study investigates the role played by two different interface agents on the basis of atactic polypropylene in the continuous/disperse phase polypropylene/polyamide‐6 (PP/PA6) system. The two agents used were obtained at the authors' laboratories from an atactic polypropylene byproduct derived from industrial polymerization reactors and consist of two grafted polymers containing either succinic anhydride (a‐PP‐SA) or both succinyl‐fluorescein and succinic anhydride grafted groups (a‐PP‐SF/SA). The role of these grafted polymers as compatibilizers in PP/PA6 polymer blends has been confirmed in previous investigations on the basis of their macroscopic behavior. This work investigates the thermal study of these blends where polypropylene acts as the polymer matrix and polyamide as the dispersed phase. Under isothermal conditions, thermal analysis agrees with the changes in the overall system behavior caused by the presence of the interface agents. These aspects were confirmed by polarized light microscopy that showed the morphology of the blends before and after modification with a‐PP‐SA or a‐PP‐SF/SA. © 2002 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Polym Sci Part B: Polym Phys 40: 1307–1315, 2002

Exploring agent support at the user interface in e-commerce applications

In this paper, we present some of the results from our ongoing research work in the area of ‘agent support’ for electronic commerce, particularly at the user interface level. Our goal is to provide intelligent agents to assist both the consumers and the vendors in an electronic shopping environment. Users with a wide variety of different needs are expected to use the electronic shopping application and their expectations about the interface could vary a lot. Traditional studies of user interface technology have shown the existence of a ‘gap’ between what the user interface actually lets the users do and the users’ expectations. Agent technology, in the form of personalized user interface agents, can help to narrow this gap. Such agents can be used to give a personalized service to the user by knowing the user’s preferences. By doing so, they can assist in the various stages of the users’ shopping process, provide tailored product recommendations by filtering information on behalf of their users and reduce the information overload. From a vendor’s perspective, a software sales agent could be used for price negotiation with the consumer. Such agents would give the flexibility offered by negotiation without the burden of having to provide human presence to an online store to handle such negotiations.

정보추출을 이용한 학습기반의 웹 인터페이스 에이전트

사용자는 원하는 자료를 검색하기 위해서 각 위치에 대한 정보를 저장하고 있는 검색엔진을 이용하는 경우가 대부분이다. 하지만 자료의 양이 방대해짐에 따라 사용자에게 실제로 필요한 정보가 아닐 경우가 많이 발생한다. 본 논문에서는 이러한 문제를 해결할 수 있는 개인형 웹 인터페이스 에이전트 시스템인 웹 가이드를 제안하였다. 웹 가이드는 사용자의 행동과 에이전트의 방문을 키워드를 중심으로 각각의 사례로 저장하는 사례기반 학습 방법을 이용, 특정 개인 사용자가 웹 상에서 검색하고자 하는 자료를 입력받은 후부터 사용자의 방문 행동을 학습하여 보다 빠른 시간 내에 원하고자 하는 자료를 검색할 수 있도록 도와주는 에이전트 시스템이다.

An agent-oriented and service-oriented environment for deploying dynamic distributed systems

This paper presents JASE, a Java-based Agent-oriented and Service-oriented Environment for deploying dynamic distributed systems. JASE utilizes two important concepts in the field of distributed computing: the concept of services and remote programming with mobile agents. In JASE, mobile agents are used to support applications, and service interface agents are used to wrap services. Service interface agents can dynamically register their services in Service Server. Mobile agent locates a specific service interface agent by submitting requests to the Service Server with descriptions of required services. JASE uses XML to describe both service descriptions and the mobile agent's queries. JASE supports two kinds of communication facility: tuple space and asynchronous messages. In this paper, the design and implementation of JASE are described. An application shows the suitability and the effectiveness of the JASE and performance evaluation is also made. Finally, related work and some conclusions are given.

Mediating the Internet

In this paper we propose Software Agents as a mediation support between the Internet and its users. The paper classifies mediation agents in three categories (Interface Agents, Coordination Agents, and Middle Agents) and provides examples of their usage in three application domains: Public Administration, Electronic Commerce, and Factory Automation. We then describe an agent-oriented mediation framework built on the Object Oriented Technology and we exemplify its usage with a case study in the domain of product negotiation on the Internet.