User Interface Softbots

用户界面软机器人

• 批准号: 0083281
• 负责人: Robert St. Amant
• 金额: $ 49.76万
• 依托单位: North Carolina State University
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Continuing Grant
• 财政年份: 2000
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2000-09-15 至 2004-08-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=0083281&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: User; Interface; Softbots

This project focuses on ibots, interface agents that interact with software applications through the graphical user interface, through the same medium as human users. The project will have two main thrusts. First, the PI will define a taxonomy of tool use in the user interface, based on descriptions of user behavior in a variety of common applications, and he will build a computational model of agent tool use that integrates work on visual routines and cost-based user modeling. An environment for agent exploration and evaluation will then be developed, to include sets of tools in three distinct task areas: support for the construction of domain descriptions and the incremental build/test cycle for agent development; support for the exploration of different control strategies in carrying out these tasks; and support for the evaluation of interface agent performance. As this environment is completed, the PI will evaluate it along two parallel tracks, as a mechanism allowing cognitive models to interact with off-the-shelf software, focusing on models in the ACT-R, Soar, and LICAI frameworks, and as a testbed for developing new problem domains for planning algorithms. This work will have an impact in several areas. It will allow cognitive modeling researchers to evaluate their models in actual (not simulated) environments, a long-standing goal for researchers in this area. It will provide a comparable benefit to planning researchers, who also need domains that are both real and tractable for their planning algorithms. It will produce novel interface agents and domain descriptions, with opportunities to test the adequacy of existing agent designs against real-world problems at a relatively low development cost; the project also has the potential to increase the visibility of interface agents research, by allowing agents to work in previously inaccessible areas. Finally, it will result in a model and implementation of agents specialized for tool use, an area of ecological research that remains unexamined to date, and which should contribute significantly to our understanding of complex software environments.

这个项目的重点是iBot，即通过图形用户界面与软件应用程序交互的界面代理，通过与人类用户相同的媒介。该项目将有两个主要推动力。首先，PI将基于对各种常见应用程序中的用户行为的描述，定义用户界面中工具使用的分类，并将构建一个代理工具使用的计算模型，该模型集成了可视化例程和基于成本的用户建模。然后将开发一个代理探索和评价环境，包括三个不同任务领域的工具集：支持构建领域描述和代理开发的增量构建/测试周期；支持在执行这些任务时探索不同的控制战略；支持评价界面代理的性能。随着这个环境的完成，PI将沿着两个平行的轨道对其进行评估，作为一种允许认知模型与现成软件交互的机制，专注于ACT-R、SOAR和LICAI框架中的模型，以及作为为规划算法开发新问题域的试验台。这项工作将在几个领域产生影响。它将允许认知建模研究人员在实际(非模拟)环境中评估他们的模型，这是该领域研究人员的长期目标。它将为规划研究人员提供类似的好处，他们还需要既真实又易于处理的域来实现他们的规划算法。它将产生新的界面代理和领域描述，有机会以相对较低的开发成本测试现有代理设计针对现实世界问题的充分性；该项目还有可能通过允许代理在以前无法进入的领域工作来提高界面代理研究的可见度。最后，它将导致一个专门用于工具使用的代理的模型和实现，这是一个迄今仍未审查的生态学研究领域，应该对我们对复杂软件环境的理解有很大贡献。