Software agent foundation for dynamic interactive electronic catalogs

This article presents our approach toward the realization of dynamics product catalogs on the World Wide Web. The key innovation is the use of software agents that assist users in various ways during their interaction with such catalogs. The article first explains the two basic concepts underlying our approach, namely, agents and locations. It then elaborates on the system architecture that realizes the multimedia agent-based interactive catalogs. An example scenario, drawn from the domain of fashion, is used to illustrate these concepts and techniques. From the experience in developing this and other demonstrators, some of which are in practical use, we identified the major benefits of our approach and the opportunities entailed in the agent-based approach.