Adaptive user modelling in intelligent telephone and email assistants

With the burgeoning complexity and capabilities of modern information appliances and services, user modelling is becoming an increasingly important research area. Simple user profiles already personalise many software products and consumer goods such as digital TV recorders and mobile phones. A user model should be easy to initialise, and it must adapt in the light of interaction with the user. In many cases, a large amount of training data is needed to generate a user model, and adaptation is equivalent to retraining the system. This paper briefly outlines the user modelling problem and work done at BTexact on an intelligent personal assistant (IPA) which incorporates a user profile. We go on to describe FILUM, a more flexible method of user modelling, and show its application to the telephone assistant and email assistant components of the IPA, with tests to illustrate its usefulness.     

Internet TV中受控组播的设计与实现

在Internet TV中,为解决现有的组播协议不支持用户认证,缺乏对数据访问的控制,在流量扩散安全性,频道切换延时等方面上存在的问题,通过扩展现有的组播协议,提出了完整的网络接入认证流程,加入组播组流程,退出组播组流程,异常／强制退出组播组流程,断网流程,实现了受控组播协议,使得对数据的访问得到控制,整个服务完全受控于服务方,减少了频道切换的响应时间,并通过SR仿真试验,验证了受控组播协议在Internet TV中的可实用性。     

Defining sociability and social presence in Social TV

Social TV, a new interactive television service, has been rapidly developing. With the conceptual model of sociability, this study empirically investigates the effects of perceived sociability on the motivations and attitudes toward Social TV. A model is created to validate the relationship of perceived sociality to social presence, usability, and intention. Empirical findings show the key influence of sociability on users’ acceptance and intent to continue using Social TV. Implications of the findings are discussed in terms of building a theory of sociability and providing practical insights into developing a meaningful sociable TV interface.     

Investigating the added value of interactivity and serious gaming for educational TV

TV is a medium with high penetration rates and has been suited to deliver informal education in several aspects since years. Thus, interactive TV may play a significant role in the current Life-Long Learning challenges, provided that meaningful applications are implemented. In this research work, we have explored the added value of interactivity in digital TV, with a particular focus on Serious Games (SGs), given their growing relevance in technology-enhanced learning. We have followed an evolutionary rather than revolutionary approach, in particular given the still traditional use of TV by a large audience. The approach preserves a media-driven strategy and the role of the author/director in proposing contents (storytelling), as in the TV tradition. We argue that interactive SGs may help the viewer to better contextualize/understand the video stream and go more in depth about the touched items at the end of the stream. This also enables new iTV applications, in particular to support weaker users (i.e. users that could not view the video without a help). This paper presents the results from user tests based on an interactive enhancement of a clip from the Disney’s Snow White movie, that challenged the authors in addressing a dynamic, high-value document. Qualitative and quantitative results show the potential of the system for informal education. The tests also stress the importance of good solutions (e.g., development languages, display modalities, metaphors) for synchronizing video and overlaid interactive elements. To the best of our knowledge, this research work is the first one discussing user test results about the usefulness of a class of iTV SG applications that can be instantiated serially in several different contexts.     

Process modelling for intelligent control

This contribution considers the problem of knowledge representation in intelligent control systems: the kind of knowledge that is required and how this may be encapsulated within an application framework. It is argued that rule-base techniques need to be supplemented by other methods in order to express certain pertinent aspects of the domain. After a brief discussion of qualitative modelling techniques, attention is focused upon numerical models and a relatively new qualitative modelling approach, Qualitative Transfer Functions.

The effectiveness of the latter model forms as repositories of deep knowledge are evaluated by application to a simulated distillation plant. The results indicate that although numerical models can provide accurate input-output representations, the integrated framework offered by Qualitative Transfer Functions is capable of carrying more information relevant to decision-making systems.     

Iterative process of design and evaluation of icons for interactive TV menu

This paper shows an iterative process of design and evaluation of icons for future interactive TV services. In doing the RNRT (French National Network of Research in Telecommunications) iTV project, we tried to generate icons easy to identify, associate and memorise for 32 categories and services of our iTV system.

Through an iterative process, the Multiple Index Approach was applied until an acceptable icon set was achieved. In addition to existing evaluation criteria such as the intuitiveness, associativeness, preference and suitability with subjective certainty of users, we emphasised the importance of the learnability measured by recall tests.

As a conclusion, we propose a methodology of icon design and evaluation for information appliances that integrate unfamiliar features with common users.     

Personalization in an interactive learning environment through a virtual character

Traditional hypermedia applications present the same content and provide identical navigational support to all users. Adaptive Hypermedia Systems (AHS) make it possible to construct personalized presentations to each user, according to preferences and needs identified. We present in this paper an alternative approach to educational AHS where a virtual character personalizes the interaction with the user through the use of a particular recommender system. The character has natural language communication abilities; it can learn students’ profiles and use this knowledge to recommend appropriate contents and activities. Through its interaction with the user, the character is able to collect and organize information about students in order to identify appropriate suggestions of contents. The recommender system employs a knowledge representation scheme that is easy to understand and to modify, enabling teachers/tutors to explore the types of recommendations being made and to appreciate why they are made. An experiment with computer science students was carried out in order to validate the approach proposed. The results of the experiment showed that the presentation of personalized links through a virtual character had a positive impact in the users’ perception of the system as a learning tool. The combination of the virtual character with a recommender system proved to be a good alternative for the delivery of personalized contents without making constant changes in the main user interface. This approach provides mechanisms to guide users through paths of study followed by students with similar profiles, without violating the human–computer interaction principle of perceived stability.     

Iterative process of design and evaluation of icons for interactive TV menu

This paper shows an iterative process of design and evaluation of icons for future interactive TV services. In doing the RNRT (French National Network of Research in Telecommunications) iTV project, we tried to generate icons easy to identify, associate and memorise for 32 categories and services of our iTV system.

Through an iterative process, the Multiple Index Approach was applied until an acceptable icon set was achieved. In addition to existing evaluation criteria such as the intuitiveness, associativeness, preference and suitability with subjective certainty of users, we emphasised the importance of the learnability measured by recall tests.

As a conclusion, we propose a methodology of icon design and evaluation for information appliances that integrate unfamiliar features with common users.     

Subtyping and polymorphism in object-role modelling

Although Entity-Relationship (ER) modelling techniques are commonly used for information modelling, Object-Role Modelling (ORM) techniques are becoming increasingly popular, partly because they include detailed design procedures providing guidelines for the modeller. As with the ER approach, a number of different ORM techniques exist. In this paper, we propose an integration of two theoretically well founded ORM techniques: FORM and PSM. Our main focus is on a common terminological framework, and on the notion of subtyping. Subtyping has long been an important feature of semantic approaches to conceptual schema design. It is also the concept in which FORM and PSM differ the most in their formalization. The subtyping issue is discussed from three different viewpoints covering syntactical, identification, and population issues. Finally, a wider comparison of approaches to subtyping is made, which encompasses other ER-based and ORM-based information modelling techniques, and highlights how formal subtype definitions facilitate a comprehensive specification of subtype constraints.     

Incremental constraint modelling in a feature modelling system

The techniques of constraint propagation have recently been successfully applied to feature-based design. Because of their speed, constraint propagation methods allow incremental design and rapid local modifcations of the part. However, cyclic constraints cause serious problems to current constraint propagation algorithms. Variational geometric design systems can, in principle, manage these cases. Unfortunately, this typically requires complete re-evaluation of the underlying set of constraint equations, making the method unsuitable for interactive use. The proposed system aims to localize the problem of constraint solving and maintenance. The constraint graph of the part or assembly is divided into several independent partial graphs, subsystems. Afterwards, each subsystem is handled separately using a selected constraint solving technique for the subsystem.     

Adaptation and user expertise modelling in AthosMail

This article describes the User Model component of AthosMail, a speech-based interactive e-mail application developed in the context of the EU project DUMAS. The focus is on the system’s adaptive capabilities and user expertise modelling, exemplified through the User Model parameters dealing with initiative and explicitness of the system responses. The purpose of the conducted research was to investigate how the users could interact with a system in a more natural way, and the two aspects that mainly influence the system’s interaction capabilities, and thus the naturalness of the dialogue as a whole, are considered to be the dialogue control and the amount of information provided to the user. The User Model produces recommendations of the system’s appropriate reaction depending on the user’s observed competence level, monitored and computed on the basis of the user’s interaction with the system. The article also discusses methods for the evaluation of adaptive user models and presents results from the AthosMail evaluation.The research was done while the author was affiliated with the University of Art and Design Helsinki as the scientific coordinator of the DUMAS project.     

Neural network modelling of word production in Finnish: coding semantic and non-semantic features

The objective of our research is to computationally model word production and its disorders by means of artificial neural networks. In the current study we develop and analyze an algorithm that generates a distributed semantic coding from a given semantic tree-structure classification of words. With the algorithm it is possible to generate semantic representations that are compact and easy to modify. This renders the coding method suitable for our multilayer perceptron-based neural network model of word production. The model is shown to be able to account for a variety of performance patterns observed in four Finnish aphasia patients suffering from word-finding difficulties.     

A practical approach to data modelling in spatial applications

The storage and manipulation of spatial data requires a different style of support from that normally found in commercial database systems. This paper explores the use of the functional data model and the high level language Daplex to provide an integrated tool for the conceptual modelling of spatial data and the manipulation of data values. Importance is attached to allowing dynamic schema definition and to the provision of abstract data types to support spatial objects. The implementation comprises three separate modules and uses an underlying relational DBMS to store all metadata and data values. This modular design has enabled the user interface, Daplex language and storage aspects of the software to be developed independently, creating a system which has already proved to be easily portable. Consideration has also been given to ways of improving system performance.     

Determination of user interfaces in adaptive systems using a rough classification-based method

This paper presents a novel method for user classification in adaptive systems based on rough classification. Adaptive systems could be used in many areas, for example in a user interface construction or e-Learning environments for learning strategy selection. In this paper the adaptation of web-based system user interface is presented. The goal of rough user classification is to select the most essential attributes and their values that group together users who are very much alike concerning the system logic. In order to group users we exploit their usage data taken from the user model of the adaptive web-based system user interface. We presented three basic problems for attribute selection that generates the following partitions: that is included, that includes and that is the closest to the given partition. Ngoc Thanh Nguyen, Ph.D., D.Sc.: He currently works as an associate professor at the Faculty of Computer Science and Management, Wroclaw University of Technology in Poland. He received his diplomas of M.Sc, Ph.D. and D.Sc. in Computer Science in 1986, 1989 and 2002, respectively. Actually, he is working on intelligent technologies for conflict resolution and inconsistent knowledge processing and e-learning methods. His teaching interests consist of database systems and distributed systems. He is a co-editor of 4 special issues in international journals, author of 3 monographs, editor of one book and about 110 other publications (book chapters, journal and refereed conference papers). He is an associate editor of the following journals: “International Journal of Computer Science & Application”; “Journal of Information Knowledge System Management”; and “International Journal of Knowledge-Based & Intelligent Engineering Systems”. He is a member of societies: ACM, IFIP WG 7.2, ISAI, KES International, and WIC. Janusz Sobecki, Ph.D.: He is an Assistant Professor in Institute of Applied Informatics (IAI) at Wroclaw University of Technology (WUT). He received his M. Sc. in Computer Science from Faculty of Computer Science and Management at WUT in 1986 and Ph.D. in Computer Science from Faculty of Electronics at WUT in 1994. For 1986–1996 he was an Assistant at the Department of Information Systems (DIS) at WUT. For 1988–1996 he was also a head of the laboratory at DIS. For 1996–2004 he was an Assistant Professor in DIS and since fall of 2004 at IAI, both at WUT. His research interests include information retrieval, multimedia information systems, system usability and recommender systems. He is on the editorial board of New Generation Computing and was a co-editor of two journal special issues. He is a member of American Association of Machinery.     

Cold start modelling of spark ignition engines

The ability of mean value models to replicate the key characteristics of automotive powertrains has been well established over the past four decades. There has been considerable success in the application of these models to controller design, with improved emissions and performance of the primary benefits. However, these low order models typically must make certain assumptions about the engine—with constant temperature operation a standard approximation. As economy and emissions at every point in the drive cycle become scrutinised, the cold start operation of the engine becomes more critical and the constant temperature assumption is limiting. This paper seeks to develop a model framework for capturing the temperature transients and gaseous concentrations throughout the engine. A methodology for calibrating the model is also presented, and uses a combination of steady state and transient testing. Finally, certain states in the full model are eliminated to produce a family of reduced order models, with the intention of outlining the minimum complexity required for control and optimisation studies with differing objectives.     

A distributed platform for personalized advertising in digital interactive TV environments

Advertising plays an important role in modern free markets. Furthermore, advertising is moving towards the establishment of one-to-one marketing relationships. Thus, personalized advertisement is currently considered as a hot topic in product promotion as it can be proved beneficial for all the key players, such as the advertisers, the advertised companies, as well as the consumers. Interactive TV and WWW can provide the means for personalized advertising. But of course, special systems and platforms for personalization must be first developed. This paper proposes a prototype system which efficiently achieves the personalization of the advertisements in the environment of digital interactive TV. Thus, the environment for the exploitation of the proposed system are examined, the details in design and implementation are given, while extensive operation testing and evaluation are provided proving its high applicability in real business environments.     

Student modelling in intelligent tutoring systems

Student modelling is a special type of user modelling which is relevant to the adaptability of intelligent tutoring systems. This paper reviews the basic techniques which have been used in student modelling and discusses issues and approaches of current interest. The role of a student model in a tutoring system and methods for representing information about students are discussed. The paper concludes with an overview of some unresolved issues and problems in student modelling.Electric Brain Company