You've got mail from your agent: A location and context sensitive agent system

Abstract

The best way to evaluate a new technology such as the agent-oriented programming paradigm is to test it in the real world. In this article, we illustrate how multiagent systems can be deployed to analyse, design and implement a location- and context-dependent information system in a shopping mall. Our goal in this application was to help people by making personalised information available where and when it is needed in a way that disturbs them as little as possible and protects their privacy as much as possible. By employing the VPC communication framework on the KODAMA agent platform, we were able to build a shopping-support system as a collection of interacting, autonomous, flexible agents, with support functions capable of dynamically adapting services to client location and preferences as well as environment changes. Here we will give a close view of the system, examine application scenarios and discuss the pros and cons that emerged from the results of a large-scale experiment. © Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2004.