A multi-agent system for personalized and private service in PDR

The overabundance of DTV (digital television) programs precipitates a need for new tools to help people find programs and personalize TV viewing experience. In this paper, we present a multi-agent system that provides personalized and private service in PDR (personal digital recorders). This paper details the architecture and components of the system. The multi-agent system observes the users´ viewing behaviors in the background, updates the users´ profiles continuously, and provides different programs for different users according to their respective profile information. It can protect the users´ privacy by means of utilizing XML encryption of the reported information and verifying the user´s name and password before reporting his/her profile to service provider. This paper also describes the communication mechanism in the multi-agent system.