12,004 research outputs found
A software toolkit for web-based virtual environments based on a shared database
We propose a software toolkit for developing complex web-based user interfaces, incorporating such things as multi-user facilities, virtual environments (VEs), and interface agents. The toolkit is based on a novel software architecture that combines ideas from multi-agent platforms and user interface (UI) architectures. It provides a distributed shared database with publish-subscribe facilities. This enables UI components to observe the state and activities of any other components in the system easily. The system runs in a web-based environment. The toolkit is comprised of several programming and other specification languages, providing a complete suite of systems design languages. We illustrate the toolkit by means of a couple of examples
Caring, sharing widgets: a toolkit of sensitive widgets
Although most of us communicate using multiple sensory modalities in our lives, and many of our computers are similarly capable of multi-modal interaction, most human-computer interaction is predominantly in the visual mode. This paper describes a toolkit of widgets that are capable of presenting themselves in multiple modalities, but further are capapble of adapting their presentation to suit the contexts and environments in which they are used. This is of increasing importance as the use of mobile devices becomes ubiquitous
OperA/ALIVE/OperettA
Comprehensive models for organizations must, on the one hand, be able to specify global goals and requirements but, on the other hand, cannot assume that particular actors will always act according to the needs and expectations of the system design. Concepts as organizational rules (Zambonelli 2002), norms and institutions (Dignum and Dignum 2001; Esteva et al. 2002), and social structures (Parunak and Odell 2002) arise from the idea that the effective engineering of organizations needs high-level, actor-independent concepts and abstractions that explicitly define the organization in which agents live (Zambonelli 2002).Peer ReviewedPostprint (author's final draft
Evoplex: A platform for agent-based modeling on networks
Agent-based modeling and network science have been used extensively to
advance our understanding of emergent collective behavior in systems that are
composed of a large number of simple interacting individuals or agents. With
the increasing availability of high computational power in affordable personal
computers, dedicated efforts to develop multi-threaded, scalable and
easy-to-use software for agent-based simulations are needed more than ever.
Evoplex meets this need by providing a fast, robust and extensible platform for
developing agent-based models and multi-agent systems on networks. Each agent
is represented as a node and interacts with its neighbors, as defined by the
network structure. Evoplex is ideal for modeling complex systems, for example
in evolutionary game theory and computational social science. In Evoplex, the
models are not coupled to the execution parameters or the visualization tools,
and there is a user-friendly graphical interface which makes it easy for all
users, ranging from newcomers to experienced, to create, analyze, replicate and
reproduce the experiments.Comment: 6 pages, 5 figures; accepted for publication in SoftwareX [software
available at https://evoplex.org
Futuros designers como agentes de mudança : exploração do ensino do design focado em inovação social e sustentabilidade
ABSTRACT : This paper, part of a Ph.D. in Design research, focused on
discussing the role of Design Education on training future designers to be
actors of change. It describes the methodology of a workshop for design
students during the Design Week of MĂ©rida, at Universidad de
Extremadura â Spain. The workshop discussed the point of view of
students in problem-solving, and what they believe to be the skills,
methods, and partnerships for design to achieve such a change in its
approach and how Design Education plays a part in preparing the future
genera_on of designers to tackle social innovation and sustainability
problems. The results showed how these particular group of future
designers see as crucial in the given context and the possibilities for
improvement on a system that struggles to be resilient and respond at a
faster pace.O presente trabalho é parte do projeto de investigação para o
programa de Doutoramento em Design e foca em discutir o papel do
Ensino do Design na educação de futuros designers como agentes de
mudança. O artigo descreve a metodologia aplicada a um workshop
facilitado para alunos de design durante a Semana de Design de MĂ©rida,
na Universidad de Extremadura, em Espanha. A atividade discutiu os
pontos de vista dos estudantes no tocante à resolução de problemas
complexos e suas crenças sobre as habilidades, métodos e parcerias
necessårias ao Design para que alcance as mudanças necessårias, para
além de discutir o papel do Ensino do Design na preparação da futura
geração de profissionais focados na resolução de problemas de
sustentabilidade e inovação social. O resultado demonstra o que este
particular grupo de futuros designers entendem como sendo crucial neste
contexto e as possibilidades para melhorias em um sistema que sofre para
se tornar resiliente e responder às questÔes sociais de maneira mais ågil.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio
TURTLE-P: a UML profile for the formal validation of critical and distributed systems
The timed UML and RT-LOTOS environment, or TURTLE for short, extends UML class and activity diagrams with composition and temporal operators. TURTLE is a real-time UML profile with a formal semantics expressed in RT-LOTOS. Further, it is supported by a formal validation toolkit. This paper introduces TURTLE-P, an extended profile no longer restricted to the abstract modeling of distributed systems. Indeed, TURTLE-P addresses the concrete descriptions of communication architectures, including quality of service parameters (delay, jitter, etc.). This new profile enables co-design of hardware and software components with extended UML component and deployment diagrams. Properties of these diagrams can be evaluated and/or validated thanks to the formal semantics given in RT-LOTOS. The application of TURTLE-P is illustrated with a telecommunication satellite system
Managing healthcare workflows in a multi-agent system environment
Whilst Multi-Agent System (MAS) architectures appear to offer a more flexible model for designers and developers of complex, collaborative information systems, implementing real-world business processes that can be delegated to autonomous agents is still a relatively difficult task. Although a range of agent tools and toolkits exist, there still
remains the need to move the creation of models nearer to code generation, in order that the development path be more rigorous and repeatable. In particular, it is essential that complex organisational
process workflows are captured and expressed in a way that MAS can successfully interpret. Using a complex social care system as an exemplar, we describe a technique whereby a business process is
captured, expressed, verified and specified in a suitable format for a healthcare MAS.</p
Simulation of complex environments:the Fuzzy Cognitive Agent
The world is becoming increasingly competitive by the action of liberalised national and global markets. In parallel these markets have become increasingly complex making it difficult for participants to optimise their trading actions. In response, many differing computer simulation techniques have been investigated to develop either a deeper understanding of these evolving markets or to create effective system support tools. In this paper we report our efforts to develop a novel simulation platform using fuzzy cognitive agents (FCA). Our approach encapsulates fuzzy cognitive maps (FCM) generated on the Matlab Simulink platform within commercially available agent software. We firstly present our implementation of Matlab Simulink FCMs and then show how such FCMs can be integrated within a conceptual FCA architecture. Finally we report on our efforts to realise an FCA by the integration of a Matlab Simulink based FCM with the Jack Intelligent Agent Toolkit
A toolkit of mechanism and context independent widgets
Most human-computer interfaces are designed to run on a static platform (e.g. a workstation with a monitor) in a static environment (e.g. an office). However, with mobile devices becoming ubiquitous and capable of running applications similar to those found on static devices, it is no longer valid to design static interfaces. This paper describes a user-interface architecture which allows interactors to be flexible about the way they are presented. This flexibility is defined by the different input and output mechanisms used. An interactor may use different mechanisms depending upon their suitability in the current context, user preference and the resources available for presentation using that mechanism
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