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A model of the user is needed to support this kind of run-time determination of form and content. We describe our approach to the acquisition, representation and exploitation of user models: the most plausible user model is the result of an abductive recognition process and incorporates assumptions about the user which are used to constrain the design by abduction of the best presentation. Probabilistic and cost-based Horn-abduction reasoning techniques are combined with an interaction paradigm we call scrutability, that permits users to critique the user model in pursuit of better presentations.
Both recognition and design processes are performed at run-time, but are logically separated; this separation results in desireable knowledge representation properties for knowledge engineers.
We describe a prototypical implementation designed to demonstrate these ideas in the domain of video authoring. Although our approach to authoring is intended to apply across multiple media, we have begun to demonstrate these ideas with video because authoring in the video medium with traditional approaches inherits and exacerbates the problems from traditional media, and because the popularity of video as a recording medium continues to grow.
Keywords: abduction, authoring, artificial intelligence, design, multimedia, recognition, video, user modelling