Towards a more natural and intelligent interface with embodied conversation agent

Conversational agent also known as chatterbots are computer programs which are designed to converse like a human as much as their intelligent allows. In many ways, they are the embodiment of Turing's vision. The ability for computers to converse with human users using natural language would arguably increase their usefulness. Recent advances in Natural Language Processing (NLP) and Artificial Intelligence (AI) in general have advances this field in realizing the vision of a more humanoid interactive system. This paper presents and discusses the use of embodied conversation agent (ECA) for the imitation games. This paper also presents the technical design of our ECA and its performance. In the interactive media industry, it can also been observed that the ECA are getting popular

An embodied conversational agent for intelligent web interaction on pandemic crisis communication

In times of crisis, an effective communication mechanism is paramount in providing accurate and timely information to the community. In this paper we study the use of an intelligent embodied conversational agent (EGA) as the front end interface with the public for a Crisis Communication Network Portal (CCNet). The proposed system, CCNet, is an integration of the intelligent conversation agent, AINI, and an Automated Knowledge Extraction Agent (AKEA). AKEA retrieves first hand information from relevant sources such as government departments and news channels. In this paper, we compare the interaction of AINI against two popular search engines, two question answering systems and two conversational systems

A common variant near TGFBR3 is associated with primary open angle glaucoma

Primary open angle glaucoma (POAG), a major cause of blindness worldwide, is a complex disease with a significant genetic contribution. We performed Exome Array (Illumina) analysis on 3504 POAG cases and 9746 controls with replication of the most significant findings in 9173 POAG cases and 26 780 controls across 18 collections of Asian, African and European descent. Apart from confirming strong evidence of association at CDKN2B-AS1 (rs2157719 [G], odds ratio [OR] = 0.71, P = 2.81 × 10−33), we observed one SNP showing significant association to POAG (CDC7–TGFBR3 rs1192415, ORG-allele = 1.13, Pmeta = 1.60 × 10−8). This particular SNP has previously been shown to be strongly associated with optic disc area and vertical cup-to-disc ratio, which are regarded as glaucoma-related quantitative traits. Our study now extends this by directly implicating it in POAG disease pathogenesis

Reducing the environmental impact of surgery on a global scale: systematic review and co-prioritization with healthcare workers in 132 countries

Background Healthcare cannot achieve net-zero carbon without addressing operating theatres. The aim of this study was to prioritize feasible interventions to reduce the environmental impact of operating theatres. Methods This study adopted a four-phase Delphi consensus co-prioritization methodology. In phase 1, a systematic review of published interventions and global consultation of perioperative healthcare professionals were used to longlist interventions. In phase 2, iterative thematic analysis consolidated comparable interventions into a shortlist. In phase 3, the shortlist was co-prioritized based on patient and clinician views on acceptability, feasibility, and safety. In phase 4, ranked lists of interventions were presented by their relevance to high-income countries and low–middle-income countries. Results In phase 1, 43 interventions were identified, which had low uptake in practice according to 3042 professionals globally. In phase 2, a shortlist of 15 intervention domains was generated. In phase 3, interventions were deemed acceptable for more than 90 per cent of patients except for reducing general anaesthesia (84 per cent) and re-sterilization of ‘single-use’ consumables (86 per cent). In phase 4, the top three shortlisted interventions for high-income countries were: introducing recycling; reducing use of anaesthetic gases; and appropriate clinical waste processing. In phase 4, the top three shortlisted interventions for low–middle-income countries were: introducing reusable surgical devices; reducing use of consumables; and reducing the use of general anaesthesia. Conclusion This is a step toward environmentally sustainable operating environments with actionable interventions applicable to both high– and low–middle–income countries

Trust based knowledge acquisition for conversation agents

This paper explores the study of conversation agent knowledge bases particularly, its relationship to the related study of information trustworthiness and knowledge acquisition. Some important methods for knowledge extraction from online documents are discussed in this paper. This is done in relation to the purpose of the design and development of domain-specific information for CAs’ knowledge bases. This paper focuses on a novel approach based on the proposed Web Knowledge Trust Model (WKTM) and the Automated Knowledge Extraction Agent (AKEA). The results indicate that WKTM is useful for evaluating the trustworthiness of web sites and it is useful for the developing of key criteria for a knowledge acquisition for conversation agents

Acquiring trustworthy knowledge for conversation agents based on a Web knowledge trust model

This paper presents a proposal to facilitate the use of online documents from the World Wide Web (WWW) - to acquire knowledge for Intelligent Conservation Agents (CA). Information extracted from public web pages has — long been an issue that web pages may contain incorrect information or are outright hoaxes. Therefore, we propose a Web Knowledge Trust Model (WKTM) to find 'trustworthy' websites and to ensure the credibility and reliability of the knowledge extracted from the web-derived corpora. The results indicate that WKMT is useful for evaluating the trustworthiness of web sites and it is useful for the developing of key criteria for a conversation agent's domain knowledge base

The design of interactive conversation agents

Interactive conversation agents or CAs are computer programs or application software designed to simulate conversation with one or more human users in natural language. Providing CAs with knowledge, intelligence and humanoid interface has allowed them to be used in several practical applications. This paper presented the development and its performance of the interactive CAs called Artificial Intelligent Naturallanguage Identity or AINI

A multilevel natural language query approach conversational agent systems

The main aim of this research is to investigate a novel technique for implementing a conversational intelligent agent system on the web. The research will focus on a multilevel natural language query approach. While the present World Wide Web provides a distributed hypermedia interface to the vast amount of information on the Internet, there is a lack of appropriate metadata to that content. Instead of being a giant library as intended, increasing sections of the Web resemble a giant garbage dump. A multilevel natural language query system is described in this paper for the representation of knowledge in specific and open domains. The six-layer conversational agent system includes Spellcheck, Natural Language Understanding and Reasoning, FAQChat, Metadata Index Search, Pattern Matching and Case-Based Reasoning, and Supervised Learning. This technique is demonstrated using extracts from queries on the field of data relating to the Bird Flu H5N1 pandemic crisis

Empowering ECAs in handheld devices

The growth of mobile services on mobile phones or PDA has been significant in the recent years. This has opened up a new arena for many organizations to implement services on these mobile devices. In this paper, we propose an extension to our work in Artificial Life; of having our embodied conversational agents (ECAs) framework to be extended for mobile handheld devices. We present an overview and investigate new challenges on the implementation of the ECAs on the cross-platform architecture suitable for small end user devices. We demonstrated the proposed downsizing framework suitable for mobile devices with the application in the area of crisis communication

Object-based learning with concept mapping embodied intelligent agent

For effective learning, the teaching materials for the learning purpose should be comprehensible and appropriate for the learners. Moreover, the learners are expected to construct the concepts and relations of the learning materials so as to achieve the desired learning objectives. Concept mapping is a technique using graphs for representing knowledge in a structure according to different levels of abstraction and inclusion. The technique has been widely applied in many disciplines and various educational levels. This learning environment is intended to guide the learners toward general understandings of the topic they have to learn. In concept mapping with learning objects settings, learners are able to direct their own unique sequences of tailored instructions under their control. This paper shows how the concept mapping and learning objects can be integrated in the Constructive Learning Model Embodied Intelligent Agent. The authors propose learning objects as a form of resources, concept maps as representation of the instructional tool and intelligent agent as a means to assist learners to create a personalized learning environment