AUTONOMOUS AGENTS IN USER INTERFACES
Paolo Petta Mario Veitl · Cybernetics & Systems · 1999
In this paper we present novel concepts for user interfaces based on agents actively exploring their environment, including the user's behavior. These autonomous agents are active entities in a hypermedia artwork on the development and artistic challenge of three-dimensional sculpturing on video screens and with laser installations. Such an approach challenges current paradigms of user interfaces in a fundamental way. Each individual, users and agents alike, is forced to construct their own concepts and strategies to operate successfully, based on their experiences. The strategies of the agent cannot be conveyed explicitly. Instead, they emerge from concepts of the domain, concepts of the users, the agent's own drives, and the interactions between users and the agent; all together they form the main source for the generation of new concepts and strategies. The history of behavior-based robotics provides us with similar evidence that active exploration in particular as opposed to mere deliberation constitutes a necessary step in improving a system's performance. While this approach paves the path for novel ways of interacting with computers, currently there is still a lack of theories and methodologies to help in the development of such interfaces. The constructivistic point-of-view Papert, 1993; Kafai & Resnick, 1996 can contribute some theoretical background, while paying attention to the novel abilities of computer-based multimedia systems. We regard concepts from second-order cybernetics and new system science metaphors to be a valuable and successful methodology for this work.