Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

COLLAGEN: A Collaboration Manager for Software Interface Agents

  • Published:
User Modeling and User-Adapted Interaction Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

We have implemented an application-independent collaboration manager, called Collagen, based on the SharedPlan theory of discourse, and used it to build a software interface agent for a simple air travel application. The software agent provides intelligent, mixed initiative assistance without requiring natural language understanding. A key benefit of the collaboration manager is the automatic construction of an interaction history which is hierarchically structured according to the user's and agent's goals and intentions.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  • Ahn, R. M. C., R. J. Beun, T. Borghuis, H. C. Bunt and C. W. A. M. van Overveld: 1995, 'The DenK-architecture: A Fundamental Approach to User-Interfaces'. Artificial Intelligence Review 8, pp. 431-445.

    Google Scholar 

  • Allen, J. F., B. Miller, E. Ringger and T. Sikorski: 1996, 'A Robust System for Natural Spoken Dialogue';. In: Proc. 34th Annual Meeting of the ACL, Santa Cruz, CA, pp. 62-70.

  • Bratman, M. E., D. J. Israel, and M. E. Pollack: 1988, 'Plans and Resource-Bounded Practical Reasoning'. Computational Intelligence 4(4), 349-355.

    Google Scholar 

  • Brodie, M., J. Mylopoulos, and J. Schmidt (eds.): 1982, On Conceptual Modelling. NewYork, NY: Springer-Verlag.

    Google Scholar 

  • Chu-Carroll, J. and M. Brown: 1998, 'An Evidential Model for Tracking Initiative in Collaborative Dialogue Interactions'. In this issue, pp. 215-253.

  • Chu-Carroll, J. and S. Carberry: 1994, 'A Plan-Based Model for Response Generation in Collaborative Task-Oriented Dialogues'. In: Proc. 12th National Conf. on Artificial Intelligence. Seattle, WA, pp. 799-805.

  • Chu-Carroll, J. and S. Carberry: 1995, 'Response Generation in Collaborative Negotiation'. In: Proc. 33rd Annual Meeting of the ACL. Cambridge, MA, pp. 136-143.

  • Clark, H. H. and E. F. Schaeffer: 1989, 'Contributing to Discourse'. Cognitive Science 13(2), 259-294.

    Google Scholar 

  • Cohen, P.: 1992, 'The Role of Natural Language in a Multimodal Interface'. In: Proc. 5th ACM Symp. on User Interface Software and Technology. Monterey, CA, pp. 143-149.

  • Cohen et al., P.: 1994, 'An Open Agent Architecture'. In: O. Etzioni (ed.): Software Agents, Papers from the 1994 Spring Symposium, SS-94-03. Menlo Park, CA: AAAI Press, pp. 1-8.

    Google Scholar 

  • Cohen et al., R.: 1998, 'What is Initiative?'. In this issue, pp. 171-214.

  • Fischer, M., E. Maier, and A. Stein: 1994, 'Generating Cooperative System Responses in Information Retrieval Dialogues'. In: Proc. 7th Int.Workshop Natural Language Generation. Kennebunkport, ME, pp. 207-216.

  • Green, N. L.: 1994, 'A Computational Model for Generating and Interpeting Indirect Answers'. Ph.D. thesis, Univ. of Delaware, Dept. of Computer and Info. Sci.

  • Grosz, B. J. and S. Kraus: 1996, 'Collaborative Plans for Complex Group Action'. Artificial Intelligence 86(2), 269-357.

    Google Scholar 

  • Grosz, B. J. and C. L. Sidner: 1986, 'Attention, Intentions, and the Structure of Discourse'. Computational Linguistics 12(3), 175-204.

    Google Scholar 

  • Grosz, B. J. and C. L. Sidner: 1990, 'Plans for Discourse'. In: P. R. Cohen, J. L. Morgan, and M. E. Pollack (eds.): Intentions and Communication. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, pp. 417-444.

    Google Scholar 

  • Grosz [Deutsch], B. J.: 1974, 'The Structure of Task-Oriented Dialogs'. In: IEEE Symp. on Speech Recognition: Contributed Papers. Pittsburgh, PA, pp. 250-253.

  • Guinn, C. I.: 1994, 'Meta-Dialogue Behaviors: Improving the Efficiency of Human-Machine Dialogue - A Computational Model of Variable Initiative and Negotiation in Collaborative Problem-Solving, Communication and Miscommunication'. Ph.D. thesis, Duke University.

  • Guinn, C. I.: 1996, 'Mechanisms for Mixed-Initiative Human-Computer Collaborative Discourse'. In: Proc. 34th Annual Meeting of the ACL, Santa Cruz, CA, pp. 278-285.

  • Guinn, C. I.: 1998, 'Principles of Mixed-Initiative Human-Computer Collaborative Discourse'. In this issue, pp. 255-314.

  • Jacob, R. J. K.: 1995, 'Natural Dialogue in Modes other than Natural Language'. In: R.-J. Beun, M. Baker, and M. Reiner (eds.): Dialogue and Instruction. Berlin: Springer-Verlag, pp. 289-301.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kautz, H.: 1990, 'A Circumscriptive Theory of Plan Recognition'. In: P. R. Cohen, J. L. Morgan, and M. E. Pollack (eds.): Intentions and Communication. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, pp. 105-133.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kowtko, J. C. and P. Price: 1989, 'Data Collection and Analysis in the Air Travel Planning Domain'. In: Proceedings of the DARPA Speech and Natural Language Workshop, Cape Cod, MA, pp. 119-125.

  • Lambert, L. and S. Carberry: 1991, 'A Tripartite Plan-Based Model of Dialogue'. In: Proc. 29th Annual Meeting of the ACL, Berkeley, CA, pp. 47-54.

  • Lemaire, B. and J. Moore: 1994, 'An Improved Interface for Tutorial Dialogues: Browsing a Visual Dialogue History'. In: Proc. ACMSIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems. Boston, MA, pp. 16-22.

  • Lochbaum, K. E.: 1994, 'Using Collaborative Plans to Model the Intentional Structure of Discourse'. Technical Report TR-25-94, Harvard Univ., Ctr. for Res. in Computing Tech. PhD thesis.

  • Lochbaum, K. E.: 1995, 'The Use of Knowledge Preconditions in Language Processing'. In: Proc. 14th Int. Joint Conf. Artificial Intelligence. Montreal, Canada, pp. 1260-1266.

  • Lochbaum, K. E.: 1998, 'A Collaborative Planning Model of Intentional Structure'. Computational Linguistics. Forthcoming.

  • Maes, P.: 1994, 'Agents that Reduce Work and Information Overload'. Comm. ACM 37(17), 30-40. Special Issue on Intelligent Agents.

    Google Scholar 

  • Meyers et al., B.: 1990, 'Garnet: Comprehensive Support for Graphical, Highly-Interactive User Interfaces'. IEEE Computer 23(11), 71-85.

    Google Scholar 

  • Mittal, V. and J. Moore: 1995, 'Dynamic Generation of Follow-up Question Menus: Facilitating Interactive Natural Language Dialogues'. In: Proc. ACMSIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems. Denver, CO, pp. 90-97.

  • Moore, J. and W. Swartout: 1990, 'Pointing: A Way Toward Explanation Dialogue'. In: Proc. 8th National Conf. on Artificial Intelligence. Menlo Park, CA, pp. 457-464.

  • Rich, C.: 1996, 'Window Sharing with Collaborative Interface Agents'. ACMSIGCHI Bulletin 28(1), pp. 70-78.

    Google Scholar 

  • Rich, C. and C. Sidner: 1996, 'Adding a Collaborative Agent to Graphical User Interfaces'. In: Proc. 9th ACM Symp. on User Interface Software and Technology. Seattle, WA, pp. 21-30.

  • Rich, C. and C. Sidner: 1997a, 'Collagen: When Agents Collaborate with People'. In: Proc. 1st Int. Conf. on Autonomous Agents. Marina del Rey, CA, pp. 284-291.

  • Rich, C. and C. Sidner: 1997b, 'Segmented Interaction History in a Collaborative Interface Agent'. In: Proc. Int. Conf. on Intelligent User Interfaces. Orlando, FL, pp. 23-30.

  • Sidner, C. L.: 1994, 'An Artificial Discourse Language for Collaborative Negotiation'. In: Proc. 12th National Conf. on Artificial Intelligence. Seattle, WA, pp. 814-819.

  • Stein, A. and E. Maier: 1995, 'Structuring Collaborative Information-Seeking Dialogues'. Knowledge-Based Systems 8(2-3), 82-93.

    Google Scholar 

  • Stein, A., J. A. Gulla and U. Thiel: 1999, 'User-Tailored Planning of Mixed Initiative Information Seeking Dialogues'. User Modeling and User-Adapted Interaction.

  • Terveen, G., D. Wroblewski, and S. Tighe: 1991, 'Intelligent Assistance through Collaborative Manipulation'. In: Proc. 12th Int. Joint Conf. Artificial Intelligence. Sydney, Australia, pp. 9-14.

  • Traum, D. R. and E. A. Hinkelman: 1992, 'Conversation Acts in Task-Oriented Spoken Dialogue'. Computational Intelligence 8(3), 575-599.

    Google Scholar 

  • Walker, M. A. and S. Whittaker: 1990, 'Mixed Initiative in Dialogue: An Investigation into Discourse Segmentation'. In: Proc. 28th Annual Meeting of the ACL, Pittsburgh, PA, pp. 70-79.

  • Yanklovich, N.: 1994, 'Talking vs. Taking: Speech Access to Remote Computers'. In: Proc. ACM SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems. Boston, MA, pp. 275-276.

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. MERL – A Mitsubishi Electric Research Laboratory, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA; e-mail: Email

    Charles Rich

  2. Lotus Development Corporation, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA; e-mail: Email

    Candace L. Sidner

Authors
  1. Charles Rich
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Candace L. Sidner
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Rich, C., Sidner, C.L. COLLAGEN: A Collaboration Manager for Software Interface Agents. User Modeling and User-Adapted Interaction 8, 315–350 (1998). https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1008204020038

Download citation

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1008204020038

Search

Navigation