The computers at cyber centres are vulnerable. They can be used for various illegal activities. Only the system-level security solutions are not sufficient to prevent these activities completely. There is a need for an intelligent scheme which identifies culprits based on behaviours and actions. This paper proposes an intelligent and environment based proactive security system for cyber centres, using cognitive agents. The agents are used for belief generation, belief analysis and to execute suitable security actions and pro-actions. This method of controlling the cyber crime at usage level, will be the requisite step towards preventing Internet abuse.

The authors are of the opinion that building a good application calls, first and foremost, a profound understating of the application domain with all of its (sometimes highly complex) subtleties in order that a comprehensive knowledgebase can be embedded in the tool because that is what will provide a good answer and not the refinements of the underlying mathematical system.

Summary form only given. The occasion of this presentation provides an opportunity to re visit the first application of fuzzy control to a model steam engine carried out back in 1972 - 30 years ago. That work was focused on a problem that was looking for a solution which ultimately resulted in the use of fuzzy rules. The presentation will describe how the rules can be seen as an embodiment of the ownership of the problem. The solution (FLC) came to be a technique in its own right that has been applied to a vast number of other problems. FLC as with many other novel applications has had its share of serendipity. Beyond the reminiscences, the presentation will try and look for some lessons that can be learnt. The theoretically inclined (who provide the solution designers with the mathematical help needed) and the problem owners, even while dealing with the same technique, have different aims and expectations and indeed inhabit different worlds. Yet they can come together to face the challenges of new problems and provide solutions which benefit us all.

Embodied agents present ongoing challenging agenda for research in multi-modal user interfaces and human-computer-interaction. Such agent metaphors will only be widely applicable to online applications when there is a standardised way to map underlying engines with the visual presentation of the agents. This paper delineates the functions and specifications of a mark-up language for scripting the animation of virtual characters. The language is called: Character Mark-up Language (CML) and is an XML-based character attribute definition and animation scripting language designed to aid in the rapid incorporation of lifelike characters/agents into online applications or virtual reality worlds. This multi-modal scripting language is designed to be easily understandable by human animators and easily generated by a software process such as software agents. CML is constructed based jointly on motion and multi-modal capabilities of virtual life-like figures. The paper further illustrates the constructs of the language and describes a real-time execution architecture that demonstrates the use of such a language as a 4G language to easily utilise and integrate MPEG-4 media objects in online interfaces and virtual environments

Embodied agents present ongoing challenging agenda for research in multi-modal user interfaces and human-computer-interaction. Such agent metaphors will only be widely applicable to online applications when there is a standardised way to map underlying engines with the visual presentation of the agents. This paper delineates the functions and specifications of a mark-up language for scripting the animation of virtual characters. The language is called: Character Mark-up Language (CML) and is an XML-based character attribute definition and animation scripting language designed to aid in the rapid incorporation of lifelike characters/agents into online applications or virtual reality worlds. This multi-modal scripting language is designed to be easily understandable by human animators and easily generated by a software process such as software agents. CML is constructed based jointly on motion and multi-modal capabilities of virtual life-like figures. The paper further illustrates the constructs of the language and describes a real-time execution architecture that demonstrates the use of such a language as a 4G language to easily utilise and integrate MPEG-4 media objects in online interfaces and virtual environments.

Over the last years there has been a growing consensus that new generation interfaces turn their focus on the human element by enriching an Affective dimension. Affective generation of autonomous agent behaviour aspires to give computer interfaces emotional states that relate and take into account user as well as system environment considerations. Internally, through computational models of artificial hearts (emotion and personality), and externally through believable multi-modal expression augmented with quasi-human characteristics. Computational models of affect are addressing problems of how agents arrive at a given affective state. Much of this work is targeting the entertainment environment and generally does not address the requirements of multi-agent systems, where behaviour is dynamically changing based on agent goals as well as the shared data and knowledge. This paper discusses one of the requirements for real-time realisation of Personal Service Assistant interface characters.

The research presented explores a new paradigm for e-commerce human-computer-interaction, presentation and personalisation. It describes face-to-face conversational interaction with intelligent, visual, lifelike electronic sales assistant agents. This paradigm joins two research areas: that of visual and conversational interface agents which provide an intuitive metaphor for human-computer interaction based on face-to-face conversation; and that of knowledge-based, market-aware, user-aware personal agents that can adapt to individual consumer preferences and requirements in a service-based electronic market. By combining these two areas we yield a conversational form of human-machine interaction that has potential for shaping tomorrow's interface to the world of e-commerce.

This paper describes an application of fuzzy logic in designing controllers for industrial plants. A fuzzy logic is used to synthesize linguistic control protocol of a skilled operator. The method has been applied to pilot scale plants as well as in practical situations. The merits of this method and its usefulness to control engineering are discussed. An avenue for further work in this area is described where the need is to go beyond a purely descriptive approach, and means for implementing a prescriptive or a self-organizing system are explored.

Work done on the implementation of a fuzzy logic controller in a single intersection of two one-way streets is presented. The model of the intersection is described and validated, and the use of the theory of fuzzy sets in constructing a controller based on linguistic control instructions is introduced. The results obtained from the implementation of the fuzzy logic controller are tabulated against those corresponding to a conventional effective vehicle-actuated controller. With the performance criterion being the average delay of vehicles, it is shown that the use of a fuzzy logic controller results in a better performance.