topical media & game development
[] readme course(s) preface I 1 2 II 3 4 III 5 6 7 IV 8 9 10 V 11 12 afterthought(s) appendix reference(s) example(s) resource(s) _

talk show tell print

research directions -- agents everywhere

 The web is an incredibly rich resource of information. Or, as phrased in  [IR]:

information repository


The Web is becoming a universal repository of human knowledge and culture, which has allowed unprecedented sharing of ideas and information in a scale never seen before.

Now, the problem (as many of you can acknowledge) is to get the information out of it. Of course, part of the problem is that we often do not know what we are looking for. But even if we do know, it is generally not so easy to find our way. Again using the phrasing of  [IR]:

browsing & navigation


To satisfy his information need, the user might navigate the hyperspace of web links searching for information of interest. However, since the hyperspace is vast and almost unknown, such a navigation task is usually inefficient.

The solution of the problem of getting lost in hyperspace proposed in  [IR] is information retrieval, in other words query & search. However, this may not so easily be accomplished. As observed in  [IR], The main obstacle is the absence of a well-defined data model for the Web, which implies that information definition and structure is frequently of low quality. Well, that is exactly the focus of the semanics web initiative, and in particular of the Resource Description Framework discussed above.

Standardizing knowledge representation and reasoning about web resources is certainly one (important) step. Another issue, however, is how to support the user in finding the proper resources and provide the user with assistance in accomplishing his task (even if this task is merely finding suitable entertainment).

What we need, in other words, is a unifying model (encompassing both a data model and a model of computation) that allows us to deal effectively with web resources, including multimedia objects. For such a model, we may look at another area of research and development, namely intelligent agtents, which provides us not only with a model but also with a suitable metaphor and the technology, based on and extending object-oriented technology, to realize intelligent assistance, [OO].

For convenience, we make a distinction between two kinds of agents, information agents and presentation agents.

information agent


  • gather information
  • filter and select
Information agents are used to gather information. In addition, they filter the information and select those items that are relevant for the user. A key problem in developing information agents, however, is to find a proper representation of what the user considers to be relevant.

presentation agent


  • access information
  • find suitable mode of presentation
Complementary to the information agent is a presentation agent (having access to the information gathered) that displays the relevant information in a suitable way. Such a presentation agent can have many forms. To appetize your phantasy, you may look at the vision of angelic guidance presented in  [Angelic]. More concretely, my advice is to experiment with embodied agents that may present information in rich media 3D. In section 7-3, we will present a framework for doing such experiments.

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1

navigating information spaces

 Having agents everywhere might change our perspective on computing. But, it may also become quite annoying to be bothered by an agent each time that you try to interact with with your computer (you know what I mean!). However, as reported by Kristina Höök, even annoyance can be instrumental in keeping your attention to a particular task. In one of her projects, the PERSONAS project, which stands for

PERsonal and SOcial NAvigation through information spaceS

the use of agents commenting on people navigating information space(s) is explored. As a note, the plural form of spaces is mine, to do justice to the plurality of information spaces.

As explained on the PERSONAS web site, which is listed with the acronyms, the PERSONAS project aims at:

PERSONAS


investigating a new approach to navigation through information spaces, based on a personalised and social navigational paradigm.

The novel idea pursued in this project is to have agents (Agneta and Frieda) that are not helpful, but instead just give comments, sometimes with humor, but sometimes ironic or even sarcastic comments on the user's activities, in particular navigating an information space or (plain) web browsing. As can be read on the PERSONAS web site:

Agneta & Frieda


The AGNETA & FRIDA system seeks to integrate web-browsing and narrative into a joint mode. Below the browser window (on the desktop) are placed two female characters, sitting in their livingroom chairs, watching the browser during the session (more or less like watching television). Agneta and Frida (mother and daughter) physically react, comment, make ironic remarks about and develop stories around the information presented in the browser (primarily to each other), but are also sensitive to what the navigator is doing and possible malfunctions of the browser or server.

In one of her talks, Kristina Höök observed that some users get really fed up with the comments delivered by Agneta and Frieda. So, as a compromise, the level of interference can be adjusted by the user, dependent on the task at hand.

Agneta & Frieda


In this way they seek to attach emotional, comical or anecdotal connotations to the information and happenings in the browsing session. Through an activity slider, the navigator can decide on how active she wants the characters to be, depending on the purpose of the browsing session (serious information seeking, wayfinding, exploration or entertainment browsing).

As you may gather, looking at the presentations accompanying this introduction to multimedia and  [Dialogs], I found the PERSONAS approach rather intriguing. Actually, the PERSONAS approach is related to the area of affective computing, see  [Affective], which is an altogether different story.

The Agneta and Frieda software is available for download at the PERSONAS web site.

[] readme course(s) preface I 1 2 II 3 4 III 5 6 7 IV 8 9 10 V 11 12 afterthought(s) appendix reference(s) example(s) resource(s) _

(C) Æliens 04/09/2009

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