MiRA - mixed reality agents

In recent years, an increasing number of Mixed Reality (MR) applications have been developed using agent technology—both for the underlying software and as an interface metaphor. However, no unifying field or theory currently exists that can act as a common frame of reference for these varied works. As a result, much duplication of research is evidenced in the literature. This paper seeks to fill this important gap by outlining ‘‘for the first time’’ a formal field of research that has hitherto gone unacknowledged, namely the field of Mixed Reality Agents (MiRAs), which are defined as agents embodied in a Mixed Reality environment. Based on this definition, a taxonomy is offered that classifies MiRAs along three axes: agency, based on the weak and strong notions outlined by Wooldridge and Jennings (1995); corporeal presence, which describes the degree of virtual or physical representation (body) of a MiRA; and interactive capacity, which characterises its ability to sense and act on the virtual and physical environment. Furthermore, this paper offers the first comprehensive survey of the state-of-the-art of MiRA research and places each project within the proposed taxonomy. Finally, common trends and future directions for MiRA research are discussed. By defining Mixed Reality Agents as a formal field, establishing a common taxonomy, and retrospectively placing existing MiRA projects within it, future researchers can effectively position their research within this landscape, thereby avoiding duplication and fostering reuse and interoperability.Science Foundation Irelandau,ti,ke,SB-09/09/201

Virtual Personal Assistants in a Pervasive Computing World

Computing paradigms are constantly evolving -- from mainframe to desktop, and on to ubiquitous computing. With a wide variety of devices, each with varying constraints, it would be quite difficult to develop services that would operate in a uniform manner across all platforms. With this in mind we offer an agent based solution. Agent attributes of autonomy, adaptability and mobility make them highly suitable for use in pervasive computing environments. Agent Chameleons illustrates a framework for Virtual Personal Assistants (VPA) for the information age. This paper briefly outlines some of the technologies and concepts that underpin the functionality of a VPA

Agent Chameleons: Moving Minds from Robots to Digital Information Spaces

Agent Chameleons investigates the motivation, desire and possibility of agent migration and mutation between real and artificial spaces. The agent must be able to mutate and change its form and function depending upon the environment within which it is situated. The form inextricably dictates or constrains its behaviour and capabilities. This paper introduces the Agent Chameleon Architecture which supports agent migration and mutation

Agent Chameleons: Moving Minds

Embodiment as discussed in Artificial Intelligence research to date has been implicitly based on one "mind" for one body. This paper discusses work which aims to realise a system where the "mind" has the opportunity to migrate between different "bodies" and thereby achieve a new perspective on system design and artificial intelligence through the exploitation of digital and mechanistic functionality inherent to the system. The Agent Chameleon aims to go beyond more conventional approaches where natural system paradigms are primarily the reference and develop new perspectives on agent design and functionality

Agent Chameleons: Agent Minds and Bodies

Agent design has to date concerned itself with the issues pertaining to a single body embedded in a single environment, whether virtual or real. This paper discusses the notion of an agent capable of migrating between information spaces (physical worlds, virtual reality, and digital information spaces). An architecture is presented that facilitates agent migration and mutation within such environments. This will in turn support agent evolution the ultimate in agent adaptivity

MERLIN : cross-layer integration of MAC and routing for low duty-cycle sensor networks

Sensor network MAC protocols typically sacrifice packet latency to achieve energy efficiency. Such delays may well increase due to routing protocol operation. For this reason it is imperative that we attempt to quantify the end-to-end delay and energy consumption when jointly using low duty cycle MAC and routing protocols. In this paper, we present a comprehensive evaluation of MERLIN (MAC and efficient routing integrated with support for localization), a cross-layer protocol that integrates both MAC and routing features. In contrast to many sensor network protocols, it employs a multicast upstream and multicast downstream approach to relaying packets to and from the gateway. Simultaneous reception and transmission errors are notified by asynchronous burst ACK and negative burst ACK messages. A division of the network into timezones, together with an appropriate scheduling policy, enables the routing of packets to the closest gateway. An evaluation of MERLIN has been conducted through simulation, against both the SMAC and the ESR routing protocols (an improved version of the DSR algorithm). The results illustrate that the joint usage of both SMAC and ESR, in low duty cycle scenarios, causes extremely high end-to-end delays and prevents acceptable data delivery rate. MERLIN, as an integrated approach, notably reduces latency, resulting in nodes that can deliver data in a very low duty cycle, yielding a significant extension to network lifetime.Science Foundation Irelan

Identifying Sources of Faecal Contamination in a Small Urban Stream Catchment: A Multiparametric Approach

Small urban streams discharging in the proximity of bathing waters may significantly contribute to the deterioration of water quality, yet their impact may be overlooked. This study focuses on the Elm Park stream in the city of Dublin that is subject to faecal contamination by unidentified sources. The aim of the study was to identify a minimum number of “sentinel” sampling stations in an urban catchment that would provide the maximum amount of information regarding faecal pollution in the catchment. Thus, high-resolution sampling within the catchment was carried out over the course of 1 year at 11 stations. Faecal indicator bacteria were enumerated and microbial source tracking (MST) was employed to evaluate human pollution. In addition, ammonium, total oxidised nitrogen, and phosphorus levels were monitored to determine if these correlated with faecal indicator and the HF183 MST marker. In addition, the effect of severe weather events on water quality was assessed using automated sampling at one of the identified “sentinel” stations during baseflow and high flow conditions over a 24-h period. Our results show that this urban stream is at times highly contaminated by point source faecal pollution and that human faecal pollution is pervasive in the catchment. Correlations between ammonium concentrations and faecal indicator bacteria (FIB) as well as the human MST marker were observed during the study. Cluster analysis identified four “sentinel” stations that provide sufficient information on faecal pollution in the stream, thus reducing the geographical complexity of the catchment. Furthermore, ammonium levels strongly correlated with FIB and the human HF183 MST marker under high flow conditions at key “sentinel” stations. This work demonstrates the effectiveness of pairing MST, faecal indicators, and ammonium monitoring to identify “sentinel” stations that could be more rapidly assessed using real-time ammonium readouts to assess remediation efforts.</p