CS440 AI Project
PROJECT

 The environment for this project is a room. The 'Room Environment Modulator'
is an agent,that illustrates human-computer interaction. One of REM's objectives
is to comprehend and interpret activities. It is an intelligent system that
orchestrates the interaction between the room and the people that occupy it. The
occupants may talk, gesture to or perform some kind of activity, which REM would
percieve and it may respond to appropriately. 
REM's hardware would consist of cameras, microphones, temperature and humidity
recorders, light intensity sensors, and whole array of computer vision, speech,
gesture recognition, object trakcing systems, cooling/heating system, lights, and
an automated music system with a large database of music. All this hardware serves
as an I/O for the agent is is collectively called the spy.
It records the occupant's behavior and actions, and computes an appropriate response, so that the environment in the room is optimal and best suited for the occupant's requirements. REM modifies the environment features like temperature, light and
music. The objects for this domain would be the information regarding this
individual, such as the individual’s actions, behavior,  temperament, and attire.
Also, the various features i.e. temperature, background music and volume, and light intensity.
 

Illustration

The primary goal for this agent is to understand an occupant's behavior and actions,
compute his needs and accordingly modify the environment. 

The Spy is core to this project, as it behaves as a sensor. All the information is recorded, and accordingly one or more affectors are altered.

For instance, if a person walks into the room wearing shorts and a t-shirt. REM has knowledge of the outside temperature and humidity level. The Spy provides it with the information about the person's attire. Using its kowledge base and the information recieved from the spy, REM will modify the room's temperature, maybe make it cooler
and reduce the humidity level, so that the occupant is more comfortable. REM directly controls the effectors, in this case the air system.
The spy continually observes the occupant, and provides this information back to REM. REM makes sure that the environment is optimal. If the spy passes on information that the person is whistling and perky, REM might play some lively music to keep with this person's mood. If the person nods in disagreement or voices an opinion, the sensors note that and REM would either change the music selection, reduce the volume or switch off the music.
The spy sees the person sit down to read a book, REM will play some light instrumental music at a low volume, which would not be very distracting. REM would also gain information from the light sensors, and make sure that the light intensity is optimal for the person to read the book. If the spy notices that while reading the book, the person doses off to sleep, REM will dim the lighting, and switch off the music.
In effect the spy continually passes on information about the occupant, and REM  computes the information and makes sure that the person in the room is comfortable, and that the environment is most suitable to meet these requirements.
 
 

Methods
 

A key concept that REM uses is situation calculus. A state-action oriented representation for planning and reasoning about change in which the states and actions are reified as terms in the language. REM has some base knowledge about the current environment. It gains more information regarding the persons actions and any changes in the environment from the sensors, and it accordingly reacts to that. 
REM has to get information from it's sensors, the spy, so it can arbitrate what the situation is and accordingly come up with a solution. It uses situation calculus in almost every step of computation. Recieving information from the prompt, analysing the situation and then performing an action if required.
 

Conclusions

 Although this is a very basic implementation of an intelligent room idea, it has a lot of potential. There is obviously no hardware to support the agent. The spy itself doesn't exist for this project. It is only provided information through the command prompt. Also, there are a number of situations that REM is not programmed to respond to. It handles only the basic room environment such as temperature, light and music. It cannot comprehend complex actions and has a very limited knowledge base and interaction capability. However, building on this model is limitless. There can be numerous additions and modifications made to make REM more interactive. On a large scale it can be a real 'intelligent' or 'smart' room. In its true sense it can make life so much easier for humans. It automates a number of everyday manual activites that humans perform. This agent can be used as an application in a hospital, an emergency room, a waiting room at an airport or train station. The possibilities are endless.