Benefits of explicit profiling in the IMAGEN project

The goal of the Imagen Project (Intelligent Multimedia Application Generator) is to develop an innovative publishing system to produce and deliver personalized multimedia products on demand. Imagen fully automates the complex and time consuming tasks of content selection (Content Manager), layout design (Layout Manager) and rights management (Transaction Manager). In this project STAR Lab has investigated how user profiles, built by means of users’ own feedback, are being applied in collaborative filtering mechanisms. We believe that search engines based upon collaborative filtering techniques will improve the precision of the retrieved information.