A multi-language information searching tool with agent-based Web services.

摘要

This thesis is aimed toward the development of a novel tool that is based on agent paradigms, namely Multi-Language Information Searching (MLIS). The tool attempts to break a language obstruction, increasing possibility in accessing more resources from different cultures and intellects. Moreover, it promotes a meaning-oriented search by integrating existing web services for language translation, providing search services with the quality improvement in terms of flexibility, usability, and multi-dimensional aspects of knowledge and information available throughout the Internet.; The design of MLIS system takes into account the benefits of agent technology and the existing web services: searching and translating services. It is proposed with a generic design, allowing the system to be maintainable and extensible. The MLIS implementation is based on an agent development framework, namely Jadex, which has been proposed with respect to the FIPA specifications. These specifications are used to define standard services required for an agent platform architecture, such as services for agent creation, termination, and agent communication languages.; The contributions of the proposed MLIS are included in the following: it transforms passive behavior of existing search engines into active ones; it is service-independent and can integrate web services from different service providers based on users' preferences; it simultaneously perform complicated tasks as background processes, hidden from users; it provides a friendly user interface, displaying the searched results in separated pages based on the documents' language; finally, it allows users to appreciate the valuable and potential of knowledge and information published over the Internet.