A DAI Architecture for Coordinating Multimedia Applications

This paper describes a research efforts in exploring various ways distributed multimedia applications can have their presentations coordinated through the use of techniques from Distributed Artificial Intelligence (DAI). DAI problem solving architectures can provide methods for coordinating activities of "multimedia agents" as well as provide mechanisms for conflict resolution among these agents. Conflict occurs when multiple agents request limited hardware resources such as single audio card located in the user’s workstation. A novel method of conflict resolution known as Knowledge-Based Negotiation (KBN) is presented which addresses resource allocation problems from an issue-based reasoning approach. Through the use of a distributed problem solving architecture and the KBN negotiation paradigm, the user is assisted in navigating though a multimedia application.