SAGE and its application to electronic commerce? SAGE:Francis: A system based on ?virtual catalog?
Tamami Sugasaka, Ryusuke Masuoka, Akira Sato, Hironobu Kitajima, Fumihiro Maruyama · Systems and Computers in Japan · 1999
Under the framework of the Smart AGent Environment (SAGE) project, we are investigating the seamless integration of information distributed over networks. In SAGE, conversational agents communicate in Agent Communication Language (ACL) and cooperate in solving a problem. To put SAGE into practical use, we are presently trying to employ this system in electronic commerce (EC). We have constructed a first prototype called SAGE:Francis. The prototype has a search function that is based on compound terms. We had already collected results from an experiment with two legacy database applications, Oracle and Access, that used differing names and category structures. SAGE:Francis successfully integrated information on commodities that was stored in these databases, and we achieved an average response time of 5 s. In this paper, we propose a new model of SAGE:Francis that provides this function, and discuss the ontology it establishes for EC. © 1999 Scripta Technica, Syst Comp Jpn, 30(6): 36–46, 1999