possible seminar topic

Christopher G. Atkeson (cga@cc.gatech.edu)
Wed, 6 Nov 1996 14:14:20 -0500 (EST)

There have been several attempts to provide "specifications" for the kind
of services we have been discussing. One is described in
http://www.cselt.stet.it/fipa/tokyo/cfp1.htm
A possible seminar topic is to discuss this, and some alternatives if
we can track them down, and see what we think:
0) What are the goals of providing such a specification?
- it seems to me the hard problem is how to allow many designers/programmers
to provide components of a smart home, that have some chance of working
together.
1) Are such specifications useful, or will other forces drive what happens?
2) What level should the specification be?
- communication/network protocol (such as X10, CEBUS, LONWORKS)
- object library (OO paradigm)
- applet library (Java paradigm)
- some standard set of behavioral models of appliances.
- agent component technology (FIPA CFP)
- I would like to fit MUDs in here but I am not sure how.
3) What elements of each specification or type of specification are desirable?
Chris