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.     

Evaluating the transfer of technology between application domains: a critical evaluation of the human component in the system

Technology can take many forms from the development of sophisticated electronics to the application of basic procedural principles. Technology transfer can also take several forms, however, in this case, it is the transfer of technological principles between application domains that is of primary interest. This paper presents a framework (the Five ‘M’s framework) that can be used to consider the likely success of technology transfer. The framework is based upon a sociotechnical system approach. The framework is illustrated with an evaluation of the introduction of intelligent cruise control into motor vehicles. It is argued that this is a technological concept first developed as an aerospace application in the form of the autopilot. In this case, it is argued that the transfer of this technology in its current form may potentially compromise safety.     

跟踪系统中跟踪器延迟的自适应预测补偿方法

跟踪系统中跟踪器的延迟会对系统的稳定性和跟踪精度产生不利影响。为此以典型Ⅱ型系统为例，理论上定理地分析了跟踪器延迟对跟踪系统的影响，并提出了将采用LMS算法和横向滤波器结构的自适应滤波器用于延迟预测补偿的方法。仿真结果验证了方法的有效性。     

Passive least-squares-type estimation algorithm for direct adaptive control

The standard least squares (LS) estimation algorithm is modified in such a way that it becomes passive. Therefore the scope of application of the LS algorithm is extended to those adaptive schemes whose convergence proof is based on passivity. The passive version of LS is presented in both continuous and discrete time.     

Adaptive solutions to the mutual exclusion problem

Summary Algorithms for mutual exclusion that adapt to the current degree of contention are developed. Afilter and a leader election algorithm form the basic building blocks. The algorithms achieve system response times that are independent of the total number of processes and governed instead by the current degree of contention. The final algorithm achieves a constant amortized system response time. Manhoi Choy was born in 1967 in Hong Kong. He received his B.Sc. in Electrical and Electronic Engineerings from the University of Hong Kong in 1989, and his M.Sc. in Computer Science from the University of California at Santa Barbara in 1991. Currently, he is working on his Ph.D. in Computer Science at the University of California at Santa Barbara. His research interests are in the areas of parallel and distributed systems, and distributed algorithms. Ambuj K. Singh is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Computer Science at the University of California, Santa Barbara. He received a Ph.D. in Computer Science from the University of Texas at Austin in 1989, an M.S. in Computer Science from Iowa State University in 1984, and a B.Tech. from the Indian Institute of Technology at Kharagpur in 1982. His research interests are in the areas of adaptive resource allocation, concurrent program development, and distributed shared memory.A preliminary version of the paper appeared in the 12th Annual ACM Symposium on Principles of Distributed ComputingWork supported in part by NSF grants CCR-9008628 and CCR-9223094     

Automatic playlist generation based on tracking user’s listening habits

Algorithms for automatic playlist generation solve the problem of tedious and time consuming manual selection of musical playlists. These algorithms generate playlists according to the user’s music preferences of the moment. The user describes his preferences either by manually inputting a couple of example songs, or by defining constraints for the choice of music. The approaches to automatic playlist generation up to now were based on examining the metadata attached to the music pieces. Some of them took also the listening history into account. But anyway, a heavy accent has been put on the metadata, while the listening history, if it was used at all, had a minor role. Missings and errors in metadata frequently appear, especially when the music is acquired from the Internet. When the metadata is missing or wrong, the approaches proposed so far cannot work. Besides, entering constraints for the playlist generation can be a difficult activity. In our approach we ignored the metadata and focused on examining the listening habits. We developed two simple algorithms that track the listening habits and form a listener model—a profile of listening habits. The listener model is then used for automatic playlist generation. We developed a simple media player which tracks the listening habits and generates playlists according to the listener model. We tried the solution with a group of users. The experiment was not a successful one, but it threw some new light on the relationship between the listening habits and playlist generation.     

基于非锐化掩模的实时自适应图像增强算法

针对传统的非锐化掩模算法的局限性,依据图像中各像素点及以其为中心的若干相邻像素点的均方差值,提出了自适应图像增强算法的原理,并分析其硬件实现方法,然后给出了该算法与其它算法应用于图像增强的对比结果,最后在FPGA（field programmable gate array）实验板上进行验证.实验结果表明,此算法有效的增强图像的细节区域,防止图像边缘区域出现过冲现象,抑制图像平坦区域的噪声放大.因此,该算法取得了良好的视觉效果,硬件实现简单,适合于实时条件下图像的增强.     

支持下一代无线宽带应用自适应QoS模型的研究

作为真正完整的下一代网络 ( NGN,Next Generation Network)解决方案 ,NGN需要在固定通信领域和移动通信领域都能够支持综合多媒体特性。NGN中的新一代移动通信网承载在开放式、层次化结构的分组交换网络之上 ,能够为用户提供端到端的 Qo S解决方案。本文分析了下一代移动通信系统中多媒体宽带应用的 Qo S问题 ,从无线通信系统的多层次结构出发 ,建立了业务流的 Qo S指标评判体系 ,为下一代网络中的无线宽带应用提供了一种自适应Qo S控制模型     

Robustness of VS-MRAC with respect to unmodelled dynamics and external disturbances

A variable structure model reference adaptive controller (VS-MRAC) using only input and output measurements was recently proposed and shown to be globally asymptotically stable with superior transient behaviour and disturbance rejection properties. In this paper a singular perturbation approach is used in order to establish the robustness of the controller in the presence of unmodelled dynamics (parasitics) and disturbances. We develop a new Lyapunov-based technique to analyse the overall system and show that for sufficiently small parasitics the system remains stable and the output error is small in some sense.     

Neural Network Feedback Control: Work at UTA’s Automation and Robotics Research Institute

This is an outline of research in neural networks for feedback control done since the mid 1990s at the Automation and Robotics Research Institute (ARRI) of The University of Texas at Arlington (UTA). It shows how the developments of Intelligent Control Systems based on neural networks have followed three main generations. This statement provides a short, broad-brush perspective on the development of intelligent neural feedback controllers.