An Object-Oriented Architecture for Intelligent Virtual Receptionists

Hsiangchu Lai
International Journal of Electronic Commerce,
Volume 4, Number 3, Spring 2000, pp. 69.


Abstract: Because of the rapid proliferation of Web sites, the question of how a Web site can attract repeat visits has become an important problem. One approach is to treat each visitor to the site as a unique individual, much as a human receptionist would treat each client-customer. This paper proposes an object-oriented architecture for developing virtual receptionists for this purpose. All necessary object classes, their interactions, and the database schema are defined, and an example is provided. This object-oriented design provides a foundation that allows the virtual agent to be easily modified.

Key Words and Phrases: Customized marketing, intelligent agents, object-oriented approach, user profile, virtual receptionist.