Microsoft Agent

Microsoft Agent is a technology developed by Microsoft to make using a computer easier and more natural for users. Microsoft Agent employs animated characters, text-to-speech engines, and speech recognition software and microphones to further this goal.

History in Microsoft Office

The concept of Microsoft Agent first appeared in Microsoft Bob, which used an early version of Agent technology internally referred to as "Microsoft Actor." This technology achieved its greatest fame 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 are incompatible with Office after version 97, and vice-versa.

The current version of Microsoft Agent was quietly released on Microsoft's "developer network" web site in 1998. However, Agent's fame began when it was embedded in Microsoft Office using Visual Basic starting with the 2000 edition of the software, although this use did not include Agent's much-touted speech synthesis or recognition capabilities.

Microsoft's animated Agent characters were the presenters of various search functions based on a sophisticated Bayesian probability program. Microsoft Research had spent years perfecting the search functions and the presentation characters under the "Lumiere project". The project was named thus because many Microsoft software developers and executives were impressed by a helpful talking chandelier called "Lumiere" in the 1991 Disney feature film cartoon Beauty and the Beast. The faithful Lumiere (actually a butler turned into a candelabra by a magic spell) had helped his grumpy master win over the heart of Belle by giving discreet hints all the time. The Microsoft developers and executives thought this was good and sought to replicate it on the desktop, albeit with the goal of writing standard letters, making spreadsheets, and easing into using a computer, instead of gaining the love of another person.

The main problem was that right from the start the creators of the Lumiere project ignored basic human psychological and physiological reactions to peripheral movement and to the presence of faces or caricatures of faces. Humans are immediately distracted by any movement in the periphery of their vision. Their concentration is also much affected by the presence of faces or caricatures of faces. Since the computer system (unlike Lumiere in the movie) had no way of telling when a user was concentrating (and should not be interrupted at any cost) and when it was the right time for a helpful hint, the interventions often came at the wrong time in a chronically annoying way.

Any user could easily replace Clippit with other animated cartoon characters, all bearing a caricature of a human face to some extent. Users could easily add characters to the ones that Microsoft shipped with software by putting additional Agent files in the proper directory, but they could not modify the existing ones in shape or in behavior. With the proper development tools, they could design a character which would have had a different, less obtrusive presentation routine or draw a character which would have been less animated or less human-looking and thus less distracting. However, Microsoft did not bring this fact to the attention of users, and at any rate it was beyond the expertise of Microsoft's target user base consisting largely of inexperienced users.

Microsoft still has groups working on Bayesian algorithms and software agents, and they seem to be paying more attention to the annoying interruption issues, if their reported research can be used as an indicator. Microsoft also has people who are very much aware of the issues behind peripheral movement and have developed information awareness software which bypasses the problem completely, such as Sidebar in the Aero user interface or User Experience for Windows Vista.

While there are a number of website developers that have published code fragments and "demonstration" pages, very few have taken full advantage of the Microsoft Agent technology. Advantages of having such a character on a website is that it has a more familiar effect on viewers. Also, since the Microsoft Agent is typically coupled with audio output and voice commands, visually-impaired or illiterate persons can benefit from this method of information delivery.

Bruce has developed a highly customized web application that makes use of the Microsoft Agent core technologies as a virtual newscaster and website guide. While "Ananova" is often credited to be the first virtual newscaster on the Internet, ours was also first published in the year 2000. Unlike "Ananova" which went off-line in 2004, the Microsoft Agent based virtual newscaster developed by Bruce has remained online for more than 12 years and (as of early 2007) is the only known published web based newscaster. Additionally, our virtual newscaster was definately the first to include voice commands and voice navigation capabilities, act as a full-featured website guide and give users the ability to use characters from a variety of sources. Unlike the video based "Ananova" character which required users to go to one central website, our virtual newscaster can be freely deployed on any non-commercial website or permanently installed on your desktop. See our "Download" page for details.

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.

Note: If you receive the prompt "An application is attempting to load a Microsoft Agent character from an untrusted Web site" it means that you have not previously installed the character and it is being loaded temporarily from the microsoft.com website which is not included in your personal list of trusted websites. To avoid this prompt, simply download and permanently install the character(s) of your choice through the provided links on our Download page.

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 makes four example Agents available for download at its developer web site, and ships a number of them with Microsoft Office as the Office Assisants. However, new Agent characters can 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.

Microsoft provides four agent characters for free, which can be downloaded from the Microsoft Agent website. These are called Peedy, Merlin, Genie, and Robby.

Microsoft Agent Merlin	Microsoft Agent Genie
Microsoft Agent Robby	Microsoft Agent Peedy

Several companies have created third party AI programs within the Microsoft Agent framework. One of the most notable examples is the Planetvixens.com bot known as Cynthia 3.0. This bot provides the same features other Microsoft Agents possess but with more realistic human animation, additional AI, and the ability to customize the character. Another example of MSAgent use is from Guile 3D Studio. This company developed a female interface called Vanessa and anounced a new release called Nicole.

Even when a Microsoft Agent character is developed for and coupled with a stand alone AI programs, the character itself can be used within other software programs. There are dozens of Microsoft Agent characters, in additon to Vanessa and Cynthia, developed by third parties which can be used in the web application developed by Bruce.

Go to our character gallery to detect which characters are pre-installed on your computer or to download additional characters.

Note: Bruce's focus is in development of the program application and currently has no plans to develop his own animated characters. Instead, he has provided a method in the web interface to allow any character from any source to be used.

Although pre-installed characters from sources other than Microsoft can be used on the website of Bruce Pippin & Vira Solovyova, you may not receive the expected results if the character is not fully developed to include all animations used within this website. Choose one of the four agent characters created by Microsoft for the best results. If you have no preference, we suggest choosing the character "Merlin" since it, along with the remaining Microsoft Agent Core Components, is pre-installed on Windows Vista, Windows XP, Windows 2000, and Windows Me.

Microsoft has decided to include a slightly updated version of Microsoft Agent Technology in Windows Vista. In this version, Microsoft Agent uses the Speech API (SAPI) v5.3, 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). Until now Microsoft has not included Microsoft Agent powered Office Assistant in their office automation software Office 2007.

Bruce is continuing to enhance and refine his web application for use on this and other websites. As noted above, there are presently two versions of his VBScript (Visual Basic^® Scripting Edition). One version is unique to this website (because it includes voice navigation and text-to-speech functionality on each page) and the other is a generic virtual newscaster version which can easily be integrated into any website. See our "Download" page for details.

Updated 1 April 2009: 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.

Updated 1 May 2009: 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. Please read the EULA with the package for more details for downloading, installing, and servicing for end users. Microsoft Agent is still being deprecated and will not be included in future versions of the operating system. This package is intended for use only on Windows 7 and is not supported on any previous or future operating systems. No new features have been added to this release, but the product has been localized for languages supported on the Windows Vista operating system.

Updated 1 November 2010: Cinnamon Software has released Double Agent which is an Open Source alternative to Microsoft Agent that allows Agent applications to work on Windows 7 and beyond. Refer to our Software download page for further information.

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Sunday, February 05, 2012 08:42 UTC

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