The Value of Information in Multi-Objective Missions

In many multi-objective missions there are situations when actions based on maximum information gain may not be the `best' given the overall mission objectives. In addition to properties such as entropy, information also has value, which is situationally dependent. This thesis examines the concept of information value in a multi-objective mission from an information theory perspective. A derivation of information value is presented that considers both the context of information, via a fused world belief state, and a system mission. The derived information value is used as part of the objective function for control of autonomous platforms within a framework developed for human robot cooperative control. A simulated security operation in a structured environment is implemented to test both the framework, and information value based control. The simulation involves a system of heterogeneous, sensor equipped Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs), tasked with gathering information regarding ground vehicles. The UAVs support an e ort to protect a number of important buildings in the area of operation. Thus, the purpose of the information is to aid the security operation by ensuring that security forces can deploy e ciently to counter any threat. A number of di erent local controllers using information based control are implemented and compared to a task based control scheme. The relative performance of each is examined with respect to a number of performance metrics with conclusions drawn regarding the performance and exibility of information value based control

Pricing Price Information In E-Commerce

Shopbots and Internet sites that help users locate the best price for a product are changing the way people shop by providing valuable information on goods and services. This paper presents a first attempt to measure the value of one piece of information: the price charged for goods and services. We first establish a theoretical limit to the value of price information for the first seller in a market that decides to sell price information through a shopbot and quantify the revenues that the seller can expect to receive. We also discuss seller competition in selling price information and analyze the equilibria that our model predicts. We then demonstrate how our analysis can be used to argue about the information value and pricing of other product attributes, such as quality. Finally, we drop our model's assumptions to discuss whether and how much of the theoretical value can actually be realized in equilibrium settings, and the practical problems and implications of our ideas. Our results give counterintuitive predictions about the future forms of some electronic markets, including the possible collapse of the free shopbot model

Extended abstract: Pricing price information in e-commerce

Shopbots and Internet sites that help users locate the best price for a product are changing the way people shop by providing valuable information on goods and services. This paper presents a first attempt to measure the value of one piece of information: the price charged for goods and services. We first establish a theoretical limit to the value of price information for the first seller in a market that decides to sell price information to a shopbot and quantify the revenues that the seller can expect to receive. We then proceed to discuss whether and how much of this theoretical value can actually be realized in equilibrium settings