Intelligent graphical user interface design utilizing multiple fuzzy agents

A novel approach for improving the effectiveness and efficiency of human-computer interactions through an intelligent graphical user interface (GUI) is presented in this paper. It is demonstrated that through monitoring the user's actions, the system can determine the intents of the user, transforming the deduced intentions into system actions. Understanding of the user's implicit actions can reduce the burden on the user in terms of required explicit commands. Hence, a human friendlier computer system is built. One method to assess the effectiveness of the user interface enhancements is by reduction in the number of operations performed by the user in achieving a specific goal while using the GUI. The enhanced graphical user interface described in this paper is a conventional GUI enhanced with an intelligent control module. The intelligent component is composed of a group of software agents that cooperate and compete to control the system. A computer mouse is used as the input device, through which the user performs a number of clicks and drag-and-drop tasks, while selecting and moving objects on the computer screen. The intelligent module monitors the movements and states of the mouse and the cursor, and aids the user based on the multiple agents' determinations of the user's sub-goals. Experimental results are presented, where human subjects achieved specific goals using the GUI, with and without the intelligent control module. Initial experiments have confirmed that the novel technique is a feasible approach for designing an effective and efficient intelligent GUI, as it reduces the amount of work required from the human user who is interacting with the computer. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.