Microsoft provides examples on its website for the use of Agent.

Microsoft Agent is a technology developed by Microsoft which employs animated characters, text-to-speech engines, and speech recognition software to enhance interaction with computer users. Thus it is an example of an embodied agent. It comes preinstalled as part of Microsoft Windows 2000 and later versions. Microsoft Agent functionality is exposed as an ActiveX control that can be used by web pages.

The theory behind this software came from work on social interfaces by Clifford Nass and Byron Reeves at Stanford's Center for the Study of Language and Information ^[1]

[edit] Version History

Microsoft Agent was first introduced in Microsoft Bob, which used an early version of Agent technology internally referred to as "Microsoft Actor." Microsoft Agent became popular as the initial version of the Office Assistant in Office 97, sometimes dubbed "Clippit" or "Clippy" after the ubiquitous paperclip Agent that shipped with the software. However, Bob Actors or Office 97 assistants are incompatible with Office 2000 and later versions, and vice-versa. The current version of Microsoft Agent was quietly released on MSDN in 1998. It was embedded in Microsoft Office using Visual Basic starting with Office 2000, although this use did not include Agent's much-touted speech synthesis or recognition capabilities. Microsoft recently announced that "Microsoft has decided to discontinue development of Microsoft Agent technologies. Beginning with Windows 7, Microsoft Agent will not be included or supported in future versions of the Microsoft Windows operating system. We encourage Microsoft Agent application developers and redistributors to evaluate their activities in light of this decision." Microsoft is no longer offering licenses and no longer distributes the SDK.

[edit] Technology

Microsoft Agent characters are stored in files of the .ACS extension, and can be stored in a number of compressed .ACF files for better World Wide Web distribution. Microsoft Office 97 and Microsoft Bob Actor characters are stored in files of the .ACT extension.

The speech engine itself is driven by the Microsoft Speech API (SAPI), version 4 and above. Microsoft SAPI provides a control panel for easily installing and switching between various available Text to Speech and Speech to Text engines, as well as voice training and scoring systems to improve the quality and accuracy of both engines.

Microsoft provides four agent characters for free, which can be downloaded from the Microsoft Agent website. These are called Peedy, Merlin, Genie, and Robby. Some characters also shipped with Microsoft Office up to version 2003 as the Office Assistants and with Windows XP as search assistants. New Agent characters can also be created using Microsoft's development tools, including the Agent Character Editor. Agents can be embedded in software with Visual Basic for Applications and in web pages with VBScript, and automated tools for the purpose of simplifying this exist. However, web page agents are only compatible with Internet Explorer, since alternative browsers like Opera or Mozilla Firefox do not support ActiveX. Additionally, users of Windows Me, Windows 2000, Windows XP, and above or owners of Microsoft Office 2000 and up are the only ones who have Agent software pre-loaded on their computers; others have to download the software and install it manually.

[edit] Unsupported in newer Windows versions

In Windows Vista, Microsoft Agent uses the Speech API (SAPI) version 5.3, which is also in-built in Windows Vista, as a primary Text-To-Speech provider. Previous versions of Microsoft Agent used the Speech API (SAPI) v4 which is not supported in Windows Vista and later. Multilingual features of Microsoft Agent under a particular language version of the OS are not supported beginning with Vista, that is, Agent will function in other languages only under a localized Windows version of the same language.

The Microsoft Agent runtime is not pre-installed with Windows 7, although SAPI v5.3 compatible speech engines continue to work. Due to customer feedback, Microsoft has decided to provide an installation package of the Microsoft Agent core components for use on Windows 7. This package includes the required components to enable applications to work with MS Agent. In addition it contains the character “Merlin” which was also shipped in Windows Vista.

Microsoft has announced in April 2009 that Microsoft Agent support will be discontinued after Windows 7.^[2]

[edit] See also

• Embodied agent
• Office Assistant
• Microsoft Voice Command

[edit] References

1. ^ http://www.stanford.edu/dept/news/pr/95/950106Arc5423.html
2. ^ Microsoft discontinues Microsoft Agent support

[edit] External links

• Microsoft Agent Official Homepage at Microsoft.com
• Deven Seven virtual newscaster and website guide uses Microsoft Agent
• MS Agent Scripting Software