Context-aware office assistant

Abstract

This paper describes the design and implementation of the Office Assistant -- an agent that interacts with visitors at the office door and manages the office owner's schedule. We claim that rich context information about users is key to making a flexible and believable interaction. We also argue that natural face-to-face conversation is an appropriate metaphor for human-computer interaction. Keywords Human-computer Interaction, User Interface, Agent, Office Automation INTRODUCTION This paper describes the design and implementation of the Office Assistant -- an agent that interacts with visitors at the office door and manages the office owner's schedule. The agent is installed at the threshold of a high-traffic office in a noisy environment where the office owner prefers to have the door closed. The agent's goal is to facilitate informal, everyday office communication in an unobtrusive manner. One of the primary tasks of the office assistant agent is to interact with visitors, give...