Agent mediated trading in a 3D e-tourism environment
Markus Gärtner, Ingo Seidel, Helmut Berger · 2008
3D Electronic Institutions integrate a multi-agent system methodology for arbitrary e-Commerce applications with immersive collaborative 3D environments. This approach facilitates the development of the social and immersive 3D e-Tourism Environment itchy feet with the principal goal of developing an instrument to support the complex interaction patterns of providers and consumers in an e-Tourism setting. In particular, these providers and consumers, either humans or software agents, are members of a heterogeneous society cohabiting in a multi-agent based 3D virtual world. Conceptually speaking, itchy feet comprises three layers, i) the multi-agent system layer, ii) the middle-ware layer and iii) the visualization layer. In this paper we focus on the multi-agent system layer and concentrate on considerations for designing and implementing the auctioning and trading components of itchy feet.