Interdisciplinary Advances in Adaptive and Intelligent Assistant Systems : Concepts, Techniques, Applications, and Use

Information is becoming the raw material of modern society; it is the driving force of modern service industries. Our information spaces have been pervaded by technology and are characterized by their increasing size and complexity. Furthermore, access to information spaces and the ability to use them effectively and efficiently have become key economic success factors. Interdisciplinary Advances in Adaptive and Intelligent Assistant Systems: Concepts, Techniques, Applications, and Use encourages knowledge on effective and efficient approaches to accessing information spaces. It fosters an emerging key competence: accessing and processing large, highly complex corpora of information by applying collaborative, intelligent technical systems. It is the mission of this book to trigger interdisciplinary research and cooperation at the intersection between information sciences, information technologies and communication sciences. This publication also raises awareness of the field’s importance in business and management communities, thus contributing to the dissemination of scientific ideas and insights.

Gunther Kreuzberger works at the Ilmenau Technical University. Having received a masters degree in computer science in 1996 for the implementation of a neuro-fuzzy system, his research then focussed on multi-agent systems for therapy planning. In 1998 he joined the Institute of Media and Communication Science and became a senior lecturer and executive assistant to the collegiate administrative committee. As a lecturer he is nowadays in charge of lectures and seminars in the fields of digital communication, electronic documents and interactive media such as digital games or iTV. His research interests cover higher education courses on interactive media/ digital games, collaborative IT-enhanced life-long learning, and media applications for children as well as elderly people.

Aran Lunzer is a British researcher in Human-Computer Interaction, currently employed at Hokkaido University as an Associate Professor with special responsibilities for overseas research liaison. After undergraduate studies in Engineering at Cambridge University, he worked from 1986 to 1991 on software technology for IBM UK Laboratories, then returned to full-time study to obtain his PhD in Computing Science from the University of Glasgow. From 2002 to 2004, between spells in Japan, he was an Assistant Research Professor at the University of Copenhagen.Aran's research is focused on what he calls "subjunctive interfaces", which are interfaces that support users in examining and comparing alternative results during trial-and-error use of software applications. He believes this is a necessary but generally lacking form of support in domains such as simulation, design, and data retrieval. In 2008/9 he has been building and refining a subjunctive interface for a cancer treatment simulator, as part of a large EU Integrated Project.

Roland Kaschek studied mathematics at the university of Oldenburg (Germany). He received a joint Soviet-German PhD grant for study in Novosibirsk and Moscow in 1986-1987, and obtained his PhD in mathematics from the University of Oldenburg in 1990. After that he was an Assistant Professor at the University of Klagenfurt (Austria); at that time he worked on various aspects of information systems design, database design and business process design. From 1999 to 2002 he was an informatics consultant with UBS AG in Zurich (Switzerland), working on software architecture, software quality and data warehousing. Then until 2008 he was Associate Professor with Massey University in Palmerston North (New Zealand), where he continued to deal with information systems design issues and in particular became involved in Web information systems design and eLearning. He was then appointed Full Professor with the KIMEP in Almaty (Kazakhstan) until 2009, and was additionally a guest lecturer or professor with universities in Austria, Brazil, Germany, Thailand, and the Ukraine. Currently he is a mathematics and informatics teacher at Gymnasium Gerresheim in Düsseldorf (Germany).