Agentive representation in mobile services

• US 20070174848A1
• Filed: 09/22/2004
• Published: 07/26/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 09/23/2003
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Brian Boswell, Chris Reed, Paul Sergeant, Richard Moynihan
• Original Assignee: Brian Boswell, Chris Reed, Paul Sergeant, Richard Moynihan
• Inventors: Reed, Chris, Sergeant, Paul, Moynihan, Richard, Boswell, Brian
• Application Number:
  US10/573,121
• Publication Number:
  US 20070174848A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/204
• CPC Class Codes: G06N 5/043 Distributed expert systems; Blackboards

Abstract

A computer having a software agent for representing a person in the virtual environment. The software agent has one or more application specific modules each of which represents application specific features of the agent. In addition, the agent has a core module which contains one or more functional groups which define common or generic features of the agent which assist in facilitating inter-agent communication, such that inter-agent communication supports communication between a combination of the one or more application specific module and the core module, to provide improved messaging between agents and between agents and users.

Claims

1. Computing means having a software agent for representing a person in the virtual environment, the software agent comprising:

one or more application specific modules each of which represents application specific features of the agent;

a core module which contains one or more functional groups which define common or generic features of the agent, said features at least in part facilitating inter-agent communication, such that inter-agent communication supports communication between a combination of the one or more application specific module and the core module.

2. Computing means as claimed in claim 1 wherein, the functionality of the functional group comprises one or more of the following, belief management, user profile management, agent-user communication, module management, basic generic reasoning tools and/or between agent module to module communication.

3. Computing means as claimed in claim 1 wherein, the core module is provided with method means which provide the one or more functional groups.

4. Computing means as claimed in claim 1 wherein, the functionality of the functional group correspond to a set of labels.

5. Computing means as claimed in claim 1 wherein, communication means are provided to facilitate communication between application specific modules in different agents.

6. Computing means as claimed in claim 1 wherein, the core module acts as an interface between external devices and at least one application specific module.

7. Computing means as claimed in claim 1 wherein a specification of message conversation protocols and a specification of primitive message semantics are implemented in separate modules.

8. Computing means as claimed in claim 7 wherein, the core module provides primitive semantics for defining communication.

9. Computing means as claimed in claim 1 wherein, the one or more application specific modules specify message conversation protocols.

10. Computing means as claimed in claim 1 wherein, the software agent is further provided with an inter-module communications means.

11. Computing means as claimed in claim 10 wherein, said inter-module communications means connects together all application specific modules and the core module in the agent.

12. Computing means as claimed in claim 10 wherein, the inter-module communication means is provided with one or more function calls.

13. Computing means as claimed in claim 10 wherein, the inter-module communication means provides for communication between functions in different modules of an agent.

14. Computing means as claimed in claim 10 wherein, the inter-module communication means provides for mapping a request from a first module to a method means in a second module.

15. Computing means as claimed in claim 14 wherein, said request from said first module comprises a label specifying a function and said method means in a second module corresponds to the specified function.

16. Computing means as claimed in claim 1 wherein, the agent further comprises an address resolving means for resolving an address in a message to one of said plurality of modules.

17. Computing means as claimed in claim 1 wherein said agent further comprises a transfer means for transferring messages from said resolved modules such that the messages are interleaved to allow an agent to be simultaneously involved in multiple conversations with other agents.

18. Computing means as claimed in claim 1 wherein, the computing means is one or more computers.

19. Computing means as claimed in claim 1 wherein, the computing means is one or more personal digital assistants.

20. Computing means as claimed in claim 1 wherein, the computing means is one or more mobile communications devices.

21. Computing means as claimed in claim 1 wherein, the computing means is distributed across a plurality of computing devices.

22. A method of performing functions in the software agent of the computing means defined in claim 1, the method comprising the steps of:

receiving a request specifying a function;

mapping said request to a module method corresponding to the specified function; and

invoking said module method.

23. The method of claim 22 wherein, said request comprises a label specifying said function.

24. The method of claim 23 wherein, the step of invoking said module comprises the steps of:

receiving a request comprising a label;

looking up the label in a table; and

calling a method corresponding to the label.

25. The method of claim 24 wherein the step of invoking said module further comprises the step of selecting a highest priority method corresponding to the label.

26. The method of claim 24 wherein, the method of invoking said module further comprises the step of returning a value to an originator of the request.

27. A method of inter-agent communication between software agents of the computing means defined in claim 1, the method comprising the steps of:

receiving a message comprising an address from a first agent;

resolving said address to one of a plurality of modules in a second, receiving agent; and

transferring the message to the resolved module.

28. The method of claim 27 wherein said address specifies the module.

29. The method of claim 27 wherein, the method further comprises the steps of communicating with an external device by:

identifying the device that a user is employing;

mapping said device to a set of media types; and

initiating the delivery of media to said device responsive to the mapped set.

30. The method of claim 29 wherein, the method further includes the step of limiting the set of media types based on user preferences.

31. A computer program comprising program instructions for causing a computer to operate a software agent as claimed in claim 1.

32. A computer program comprising program instructions for causing a computer to perform the method of claim 22.

33. A computer program comprising program instructions for causing a computer to perform the method of claim 27.