PUB - Publikationen an der Universität Bielefeld

This paper describes an application of a multiagent system for interaction with a virtual environment carried out in the VIENA project. The VIENA project has the following goals: enable an intelligent communication with a virtual environment, develop a multiagent system as a mediator in humancomputer interaction, and explore its usefulness for interactive design and exploration. Instead of using the mouse and menus to manipulate scene details in a virtual environment we communicate with the system by way of natural language. Our aim is to keep the user (designer) free from technical considerations such as planning of geometric details, etc. Taking special responsibilities in mediating verbal instructions, the VIENA agents cooperate with each other and with the user to offer a goal scene meeting the user's wants. We explain the VIENA multiagent system, give an example application in virtual design, and discuss the specific advantages we found in using agent techniques for building an intelligent interface.