The FLUIDS Approach Towards Intelligent Interfaces for Decision Support

Two main aspects constitute the distinguishing features of the new generation of user interfaces envisaged here: (1) sophisticated decision support offering access to explicit knowledge sources and flexible reasoning capabilities, and (2) more suitable human-machine interaction employing advanced multimedia techniques to provide the necessary effectiveness and adaptability for presenting information to the user. The FLUIDS conception rests upon the utilization of appropriate artificial intelligence techniques to achieve these ambitious goals. The knowledge-based approach followed in FLUIDS is meant to provide:

• a knowledge engineering methodology specifically suited to build up the knowledge structures as they are required for decision support;
• the ability to mirror the contents of conventional modules with a knowledge-based architecture in order to set an intelligent interface on top of an existing control system;
• a generic framework for the design of intelligent multimedia interaction in the context of decision support applications;
• a software environment characterized by an open architecture and reusable building blocks to facilitate the rapid and succesful development of intelligent interfaces.

The following sections introduce the central elements of the FLUIDS framework.