Supporting goal-based interaction with dynamic intelligent environments

Modern technical infrastructures and appliances provide a multitude of opportunities for simplifying and streamlining the everyday life. However, many of the systems available today - such as the typical feature-loaded audio and video components - are not always efficiently usable for the average person. But, in an environment where features abound, the easy access of these features more and more becomes the key quality criterion for the user. We present a planner-based approach to helping the user to interact with such complex infrastructures. Specifically, we concentrate on the application domain of networked infotainment systems and home control. Also, we describe the architectural concept, which makes it possible to integrate classical Artificial Intelligence technology - such as planning and scheduling - into the domain of networked consumer appliances within the scope of a multimodal assistance system: The work we present is part of the EMBASSI-project, a joint project with 19 partners from industry and academia that aims at establishing an interoperable system infrastructure for multimodal and multimedia assistance systems.