MULTIMODAL USER INTERFACES IN THE OPEN AGENT ARCHITECTURE

The design and development of the Open Agent Architecture (OAA)(3) sys tem has focused on providing access to agent-based applications throug h an intelligent, cooperative, distributed, and multimodal agent-based user interface. Only the primary user interface agents need run on th e local computer, thereby simplifying the task of using a range of app lications from a variety of platforms, especially low-powered computer s. An important consideration in the design of the OAA was to facilita te the reuse of agents in new and unanticipated applications, and to s upport rapid prototyping. The utility of the agents and tools develope d has been demonstrated by their use as infrastructure in unrelated pr ojects. (C) 1998 Published by Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserve d.