TE 2006 (TE)
FLUIDS Bulletin - 24th Issue
FLUIDS Project Partners:
MIZAR Automazione S.p.A. (Co-ordinator)
Universidad Politécnica de Madrid
DFKI German Research Center for Artificial Intelligence GmbH
Consorzio 5T
Anthropomorphic interface agents add expressive power to the
communicative capabilities of an interactive software system.
Consequently, the use of lifelike characters as animated interface
agents has developed into one of the salient topics within the field
of intelligent user interfaces.
The article Elliott and Brzezinski [1998] provides a recent review of the
state-of-the-art in this area.
The authors present various approaches towards autonomous agent
systems that embody their intelligence at least partially through the
projection of a believable, engaging, synthetic persona.
The topics covered in particular include aspects like
synthetic personality and representations of emotion, character
societies, intelligent automated tutors, as well as projecting users
into virtual worlds using avatars.
VRML
,
the Virtual Reality Modeling Language, is facing strong competition
through alternative technologies in support of 3D multimedia and
shared virtual worlds over the World-Wide Web.
Chromeffects
and
MetaStream 3D
are two novel technologies which aim to simplify the creation of
3D content and improve its performance over the Internet.
Microsoft Corp.
has announced
Chromeffects
as an add-on media enhancement to the Microsoft Windows operating
system.
This new technology is designed to optimize the performance of
multimedia content on the Web by using
XML
tagging to access Windows' multimedia capabilities.
Employing
XML
,
developers will be able to easily describe and deliver multimedia
content and dynamically manipulate this content using simple scripting
techniques. Developers can also publish the same
Chromeffects
multimedia content on DVD, CD-ROM, and the Web, which enables
them to leverage the development process without writing
medium-specific content.
A specific advantage of
Chromeffects
is its ability to integrate 3D content with HTML and dynamic HTML.
The full
Chromeffects
feature set is scheduled for release in early 1999.
MetaStream 3D
is a new 3D file format announced jointly by
MetaCreations Corp.
and
Intel Corp.
.
It provides a scalable 3D presentation format that can be played over a
hard drive, a CD-ROM, or the Internet.
MetaStream 3D
permits the streaming of 3D objects across all platforms without a
special server and also adjusts to available bandwidth and CPU power.
Microsoft Corp.
has licensed
MetaStream 3D
for possible use in future operating systems.
An interesting trend regarding knowledge-based graphics generation
research in Europe is a specific focus on the field of simulation and
visualization, as the graphical representation of modeled or real systems.
In simulation and visualization novel multimedia and virtual reality
techniques are becoming more and more applied for the presentation of
models, simulation results and the monitoring of real systems.
Taking advantage of artificial intelligence approaches new application
concepts, tools and uses of simulation and visualization techniques
are being investigated.
One specific example of a topic receiving particular attention is the
problem of graphical abstraction in the representation of processes
and results.
The Computing Research
Association
(CRA) is an association of more than
180 North American academic departments of computer science and
computer engineering, industrial and government laboratories engaging
in basic computing research, and affiliated professional societies.
Recently, a booklet CRA [1998] has been compiled by the
CRA
to illustrate the impact of
fundamental research in information technology and to highlight
important areas for future research. The case studies presented in
this document describe the history, impact, and promise of information
technology research in five major areas.
Artificial Intelligence
is one of those research areas which are of particular importance from
the point of view of the CRA
information technology experts.
In this area, advanced user interfaces are regarded as one of the most
fruitful subfields for further research and potential commercial
exploitation.
-
Multimedia'98:
-
Sixth ACM International Multimedia
Conference and Exhibition
,
Bristol, UK, September 12-16, 1998.
The conference is concerned with all aspects of multimedia technology
and systems.
-
EHCI'98:
-
7th IFIP Working Conference on Engineering for
Human-Computer Interaction
,
Heraklion, Crete, Greece, September 14-18, 1998.
The topics to be addressed include in particular many aspects of
intelligent user interface technology.
-
KI'98:
-
22nd German Annual Conference on Artificial
Intelligence
,
Bremen, Germany, September 15-17, 1998.
Conference languages are German and English.
-
IFAC-MMS'98:
-
7th IFAC/IFIP/IFORS/IEA Symposium on
Analysis, Design and Evaluation of
Man-Machine Systems
,
Kyoto, Japan, September 16-18, 1998.
The conference will also address aspects related to the specific field
of intelligent user interfaces.
-
AIMTRW'98:
-
Artificial Intelligence Meets the Real
World '98: Lessons Learned
,
Stamford, CT, September 17-18, 1998.
The conference includes a special panel on ``Fielding
Intelligent Agents in the Real World'' which will also be concerned
with intelligent interface agents.
-
AIMSA'98:
-
8th International Conference on
Artificial Intelligence:
Methodology, Systems, Applications
,
Sozopol, Bulgaria, September 21-23, 1998.
The AIMSA conference series provides a biennial forum for the
presentation of Artificial Intelligence research and development
covering the full range of topics in AI.
-
MIS'98:
-
Fourth International Workshop on Multimedia
Information Systems
,
Istanbul, Turkey, September 24-26, 1998.
The annual workshop series intends to cover all aspects of multimedia
information systems, including techniques from the field of Artificial
Intelligence.
ELSNET
, the
European Network in Language and Speech, is an EU-funded network of
excellence which aims at building multilingual speech and natural
language systems with unrestricted coverage of both spoken and written
language.
Detailed information concerning this activity can be found at:
ESCA
,
the European Speech Communication Association, maintains a WWW site
for information dissemination which may be accessed at the following
address:
- CRA.
- Computing Research: A National Investment for Leadership in the 21st Century
. Tech. rep., Computing Research Association, 1998.
- C. Elliott, J. Brzezinski.
- Autonomous Agents as Synthetic Characters. AI Magazine, 19(2), 13-30, 1998.
Gerd Herzog
Last update: Mon Aug 31 17:14:47 MET DST 1998
Send comments to herzog@acm.org© DFKI GmbH, 1996-1998
Reproduction is authorized, except for commercial purposes, provided the source is acknowledged.
