Explanation and Interaction

Explanation and Interaction describes the problems and issues involved in generating interactive user-sensitive explanations. It presents a particular computational system that generates tutorial, interactive explanations of how simple electronic circuits work. Moreover, the approaches and ideas in the book can be applied to a wide range of computer applications in which complex explanations are provided, such as documentation, advisory, and expert systems. The approach presented is based on an analysis of human explanatory discourse; simple techniques for text planning, dialogue management, and user modeling are developed and used in the system. Cawsey describes in detail the issues involved in text planning, dialogue management, and user modeling, and presents a particular approach in enough detail that practical systems may be developed based on the ideas. Because the book addresses a wide range of issues in a single system, it is appropriate as a general introduction to discourse processing and user-adapted interaction. Alison Cawsey is Lecturer in Artificial Intelligence in the Department of Computing Science at the University of Glasgow.