1. Jane Hsu yjhsu@csie.ntu.edu.tw 『資訊檢索技術的新驅勢』研討會 智慧型代理人 Intelligent Agents 許永真 臺灣大學資訊工程研究所 October 22, 1998

2. Jane Hsu yjhsu@csie.ntu.edu.tw Outline  Agents: An Introduction  Agent-Oriented Software Design  Prototype Agents  Email Agent  Personal Information Search Agent  AutoPrint Agents  Bibliography Agent  Concluding Remarks

3. Jane Hsu yjhsu@csie.ntu.edu.tw The Problem If agents are the solution..........What is the problem? People are constantly suffering from  Too much work  Too much information  Too little time  Almost everything you need is there, but you simply can’t get it (done)!

4. Jane Hsu yjhsu@csie.ntu.edu.tw Using Computers Today  Sample task: Print out the paper attached in a mail received today.  Metaphor: computers as tools  Direct manipulation  Passive  Bloatware: big, fat software  Graphical, but non-intelligent interface  Lack of inter-application communications

5. Jane Hsu yjhsu@csie.ntu.edu.tw An Alternative View “The situation that a computer user faces today is completely different. Suddenly the computer is a window into a world of information, people, and software… And this world is vast, unstructured, and completely dynamic. It’s no longer the case that a person can be in control of this world and master it….”P. Maes (1997)

6. Jane Hsu yjhsu@csie.ntu.edu.tw Software Agents  Software that is  proactive  personalized, and  adapted  Software that can actually  act on behalf of people  take initiative, and  make suggestions  Metaphor: personal assistant  delegation  indirect management

7. Jane Hsu yjhsu@csie.ntu.edu.tw Essential Features of Agents  Autonomous  Personalized (user-centered)  Task/goal-oriented  Communicative  Collaborative  Reactive to environmental changes  Evolutionary/adaptive

8. Jane Hsu yjhsu@csie.ntu.edu.tw Software Design as Problem Solving Domain Problem End User Software Designer

9. Jane Hsu yjhsu@csie.ntu.edu.tw Software Design Models  Ad hoc software development  Waterfall approach  Structured programming  Object-oriented programming  Distributed/networked programming  Agent-oriented programming

10. Jane Hsu yjhsu@csie.ntu.edu.tw The Soloist Model programmer Computer

11. latex uncompress lpr dvips Host D Host B Host C Host A paper.tar.gz pdf2ps gunzip uncompress gunzip pdf2ps

12. Jane Hsu yjhsu@csie.ntu.edu.tw The Conductor Model Computer programmer

13. Jane Hsu yjhsu@csie.ntu.edu.tw The Manager Model Agent Interface Agent End User

14. Jane Hsu yjhsu@csie.ntu.edu.tw Agent-Oriented Design  Design a collection of agents  Interface agents  Task agents  Service agents  An agent communication mechanism  Communication language  Communication protocol  Multi-agent framework  Plug-and-play architecture

15. Jane Hsu yjhsu@csie.ntu.edu.tw Multi-Agent Architecture Client Server Interface Agent Task Agent Task Agent Task Agent Task Agent Service Agent Service Agent Service Agent

16. Jane Hsu yjhsu@csie.ntu.edu.tw Client-Agent-Server Model  Clients request for  Information  Goal achievements  Servers provide  Data  Services/Resources  Agents  Data --> Information --> Knowledge  Services --> Sequence of actions, i.e. Plans

17. Jane Hsu yjhsu@csie.ntu.edu.tw Agent-based Service Framework  Share resources across the network  Avoid unnecessary duplications  Automate task execution  Avoid tedious/erroneous manual process  Personalize services  Personal/group profile management

18. Jane Hsu yjhsu@csie.ntu.edu.tw Email Agent Key functionality:  Classification  Prioritization  Require minimal user feedback  Update user preferences

19. Jane Hsu yjhsu@csie.ntu.edu.tw Personal Information Search Agent Functionality:  Personalized query refinement  Online feedback Architecture:  Meta search  Proxy-based  Authentication

20. Jane Hsu yjhsu@csie.ntu.edu.tw The Myth about Keywords  Relevant information can be found using keyword-based methods. e.g.  Search for relevant documents  Filter undesirable information  Extract useful information  Are keywords sufficient to satisfy most of our informational needs?

21. Jane Hsu yjhsu@csie.ntu.edu.tw The Information Food Chain [Etzioni,1997]  Agent-based intelligent services  Softbots: personal assistants for  email  white page  shopping  entertainment recommendation etc.  Search Engines, Indices & Directories  Spiders & Software Robots  World Wide Web

22. Jane Hsu yjhsu@csie.ntu.edu.tw Router R120R217 hp5sparc agent:SunOs 4 super:SunOs 5 ntucsn:SunOS 4 ntucsv:SunOs 5 PrintAgent uncompress UcpopPlanner print2hp5 dvi2ps gunzip pdf2ps print2hp5 uncompress dvi2ps uncompress gunzip AutoPrint Agents Functionality:  script generation  service allocation  resource sharing Features:  Autonomous  Fault tolerant  Flexible

23. Jane Hsu yjhsu@csie.ntu.edu.tw Web User Interface Agent Agent Request Broker InfraStructure Bibliography Agents BibTeX Agent Libraries Library Agent Yahoo Alta Vista Lycos Search Agent DBLP Agent BibDB URL Agent

24. Jane Hsu yjhsu@csie.ntu.edu.tw Concluding Remarks  Agents will change the way we  Design and use software  Utilize shared computational resources  Essential features of software agents  Autonomous  User/task-oriented  Distributed/collaborative  IR techniques help build better agents  Agent technology can support intelligent & personalized information retrieval