Proceedings of MoMM2006
FINANCIAL MOBILE SYSTEM BASED ON INTELLIGENT AGENTS Fernando Zacarías 1 ), Antonio Sánchez 2 ), Dionicio Zacarías 3 ), Alejandro Méndez 4 ), Rosalba Cuapa 5 ) Abstract People The globalisation of the economy and the acceleration of technological change have made knowledge-based activities and the use of new technologies a priority issue for the growth of a country. Consequently, the new mobile technologies play a vital role in the correct acting of our activities. New information technology can help us achieve our perspectives of growth. So, we have development a financial mobile system based on intelligent agents. This system provides to the user services and applications for personal administration. Also, the system has an intelligent autonomous agent that carries out the search and purchase of those demanded products for its user in an autonomous way. Furthermore, we incorporate to our agent, supervision capacities in the control of the daily expense, these capacities allow the agent to learn of their user.
1. Introduction People Business users of today demand-and home users of tomorrow will demand-that they can continue their usual way of using computing and communication services wherever and whenever in an easy way. Mobile phone manufactures produced cellular phones with PCMCIA cards so that laptops and palmtops can exploit connectivity provided by mobile phones [2]. Latin America has come to realize that above and beyond differences in physical infrastructure endowments, financial resources and development capacity we have to invest in research. Our future growth prospects depend on the openness of firms to seizing new markets, developing products and applying creatively new technologies. So, the universities should be that motor that provides this perspectives being based on the artificial intelligent research [1]. The information and communication technologies enter more facets of our lives. Society and the economy are adapting to the wave of innovation which is associated with this change resulting in new activities and new ways of doing things. In today's increasingly “knowledge-based” society the new raw material for economic activity and social interaction is information. The efficient use of information and communications technologies can provide a competitive edge to economic activity and have the potential to fundamentally transform society. The Information Society affects particular individuals, communities, sectors of economic activity, regions and even countries in
1
Department of Information Systems, Universidad Autónoma de Puebla,
[email protected] Department of Information Systems, Universidad de Puebla,
[email protected] 3 Department of Mathematics, Universidad Autónoma de Puebla,
[email protected] 4 Department of Information Systems, Universidad Autónoma de Puebla,
[email protected] 5 Department of Applied Computation - TCU, Universidad Autónoma de Puebla,
[email protected] 2
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different ways. In this context, an innovative action is designed to investigate how to maximize the benefits which the Information Society can provide. Therefore, in this paper we describe a novel intelligent agent that allows to the user of mobile telephony to have a control in the personal expenses. This agent is a tool based on mobile technology in their users' benefit. Also, we have incorporate another intelligent agent whose capacity is to be able to carry out the purchases of those products that the user needs and that they are considered inside their budget, for that which makes use of a connection with “amazon.com” through internet. Additionally, we have incorporated our agent the capacity to learn of its user through a daily supervision. To Currently, there are several developments that examines feasibility and exploit ability of agents in various areas of telecommunications and particularly in mobile telephony. So, agent technology has gained attention both among software houses and among research groups. Several agent platforms enabling use of agent technology are now available. In this implementation we have used Java. This is due to that this language has the necessary tools to carry out our system. Java is a very complete programming language that adapts to the new technologies with easiness. in the development of our system we use the new standard Java called “Java2”'. Java2 developed three different development environments and execution of applications, to know: J2Se, J2EE and J2ME [4], [5]. 1.1. J2ME J2ME is based on two concepts very important in new technologies: configuration and profile. A configuration describes characteristic minimum in relation to the hardware and software configuration. Configuration used by J2ME is ``connected limited device configuration'' (CLDC). It is defined as: x x x x
Which are the characteristics of the language Java included? What functionality will be included in the virtual machine of Java? The necessary Apis for the development of applications in mobile device The hardware requirement
Due to the hardware limitations some characteristics of Java have been eliminated. J2ME is formed by the configuration CLDC and for the profile MID. CLDC is a general specification for a wide range of devices, like PDAs, mobile telephones, etc. A profile defines device characteristics in a form more specifies. MIDP (Mobile Information Device Profile) define APIs, hardware characteristics and necessary software for the concrete case of mobile telephones. In our application we use a MIDlet [4]. It is a program able to be executed in a mobile device. The name keeps certain similarity with the programs able to be executed in a navigator (applets). The remainder of the paper is structured as follows: In section 2 we present our financial mobile system based. In section 3, we present our supervisor agent with the main objective of to attend its user in management of his daily expenses. Next, we present how our agent carry out purchase of the product required by their user through “amazon.com”. The communication between telephone application and based-web application server is carried out is deployed in section [5]. Finally, we give our conclusions and future work.
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2. Financial Mobile System Nowadays, the technological development grows to enlarged steps and the mobile technology is not the exception. Business users of today demand and home users of tomorrow will demand that they can continue their usual way of using computing and communication services wherever and whenever in an easy way. One of the technologies that have grown vertiginously in the last years are the cellular telephones. Moreover, cards PCMCIA has been developed for cellular phones so that laptops and palmtops can exploit connectivity provided by mobile phones. This type of developments faces us to the development of technologies of mobile software based on agents. In the same time agent technology has gained attention both among software houses and among research groups. However, agent technology is not yet mature enough for worldwide exploitation in telecommunication applications. There are still problems in designing software systems that integrate the concepts and functionality of personal mobility, and agent technology. So, the intelligent telephones have arrived at the market and they are here to remain for a lot of time. Moreover, if we consider that the own necessities of the mobile life and the digital world in which we live demand devices that are versatile, i.e., that in oneself tool multiple services can be had and therefore bigger benefits. So, we present an application for cellular telephone based on intelligent agents that it incorporates a series of characteristic worthy of being presented. x x x x
A supervision mechanism for expenditures control through an agent Intelligent search through amazon.com and free-market.com Buys intelligent based on the offers of “amazon.com” and free-market Wireless communication with database
As we can see, the system integrates three specialized intelligent agents that carry out the following tasks: the first of these, supervises the expenditures that the user goes registering in the system; Second, there is another agent that carries out the search of product required by the user; finally, an agent that makes electronic commerce with the places amazon.com and free-market for this it uses the search agent's results. Finally, last characteristic is realized by a simple communication between cellular phone and application server (tasks carried out by agents in a next version). Next, we present a general example that shows the main task of our application. Example 2.1 Let us suppose that the quantity assigned for expenses of this month corresponds at $5,000. Then, this it is the first datum that we have to enter in our system (see figure 1). Next, starting from this quantity we should program the distribution of our expenses. For this, we should define the items in that he/she will spend this quantity during the current month.
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Fig. 1. Financial Mobile System on mobile telephone
Thus, we have that split the $5000 in the following quantities: Items: $1,500 for food $400 for transport $500 for entertainment $150 for telephone $1,000 for lease $1,450 for car Once these data have been registered, our system is ready so that we can register each one of our expenses daily (as it is shown in the figure 2). For the daily expenses we should indicate the quantity and in that you expense, for instance, food of today $50. Then, we have to choose the item corresponding to food and you have to register $50. Just as the previous example it was shown, this it is the way to register the daily expenses until arriving finally of month. The first day of the following month the system reports the monthly balance. Supervisor agent will notify those items where the foreseen expenses went smaller or similar to those registered to the beginning of the month. On the other hand, the agent will also report those anomalies detected in the registered expenses. 2.1. Personal Requirements The good news that correspond are those in that the user maintained their expenses inside budgotten, i.e., if the user presupposed $1500 for food and he did not exceed this quantity, then it is a good new. The idea of reporting good news and anomalies in the administration and control of the monthly budget of a person is with the following purpose:
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That a person can be administered correctly in her/him daily expenses. To foment a saving culture through a correct personal administration (mainly in Latin America). That the users of mobile telephones can have access to benefits like those offered for: capitalizes & inversion solutions (http://www.capitaliza.com.mx/). To foment the purchase through internet. These are only some of the benefits that our system offers to the users of mobile telephones. 2.2. Anomalies The agent implemented for the supervision of the correct administration of monthly expenses also has as objective to report the anomalies found in the expenses. Some of the detected anomalies are: Items in those that the budgotten expense was exceeded. The agent warn in repetitive excessive expense Warning when the monthly expense has been surpassed Report of budgotten items that did not report expenses If the saving item does not exist the agent suggest to make an effort to carry out it
3. Supervisor Agent The supervisor agent is really an intelligent information agent, what means that their main objective is to attend its user in management of his daily expenses. Also, this type of agents should attend user in his interaction with one or more applications. They are assisting personal that reduce work for the overload of information, for example, to analyze the information that registers. The agent observes and watches over the actions that the user takes in the interfaz. On the other hand, our agent has as main objective, to learn of their user's behaviour, with the purpose of advising him with more certainty. Indeed, the agent will suggest better forms of spending the personal budget. The general idea is that our agent can adapt to his users' preferences and habits. Soon after, in figure 2 we present the environment of intelligent agent into to mobile telephone. In this main menu we should enter initial data as user's name and the one mounts monthly to spend. Next, we have to define categories in that the budget will be exercised. Once entered these data the agent begins its supervision process. Process in that the agent supervise, learn and advise to its user.
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Fig. 2. Financial mobile system on mobile telephone
The agent learns in that its user spends and how it spends it. The agent supervises that the expenses are those foreseen The agent advises in the measure that detects expenses that exceed that foreseen
4. e-Commerce through agents e-Commerce has been broadly approached in the last years. This obeys mainly to that mobile and wireless computation plays an outstanding role in the internet industry. New and interesting services offer us the new technology based mainly on mobile telephones. Day-to-daily, these new services enter in our lives offering a wide variety of benefits. This activity has been crystallized in the development of a variety of mobile systems based on agents and works of normalization which will allow the development of commercial systems. Nevertheless, in this aspect the expected deployment of such systems has still not been achieved totally. However, agents on mobile systems are described as a promising technology to carry out transactions and to obtain information. These types of agents are considered very appropriate for a unified electronic market and scalable. All this has propitiated that the electronic commerce proliferates and that today many researchers are developing intelligent agents for this market. Business users of today demand-and home users of tomorrow will demand-that they can continue their usual way of using computing and communication services wherever and whenever in an easy way. We have developed in this first stage the search of the product only required by their user [3], [6]. The agent presents the obtained results (see figure 3) of the made search using “amazon api” [7]. In a second stage, the agent bought in an autonomous way the product selected by the user. This process type will be made only using the electronic trade through “amazon.com”.
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Fig. 3. Financial mobile system: e-Commerce through Amazon.com
Is very important to point out that, this transaction will be made from a similar way to any transaction with credit card, i.e., our agent only requires of its user necessary data of credit card, such as: holder of the card, card number, card type, CVC code, etc.
5. Wireless communication with database The wireless communication implemented in our application is shown in figure 4 and is implemented as follows: Our system makes a weekly backup of the registered expenses each week beginning. This backup follows the following process: Our system sends a message to another cellular telephone (Telephone B) located to a side of the applications server. Immediately, telephone B forwards the message to server through a port Bluetooth. Once the application located in the server receives the message, it updates the database with new information. Also, our system should carry out the purchase of the product indicated by the final user. For this, the agent will look for the best option found in the last days. With respect to the security of the purchase, our agent it uses a code algorithm based on a key it publishes.
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Fig.4. General outline of communication between the mobile telephone and the application server
6. Conclusions and future work In We have presented an application for mobile cellular telephone. This application is called “financial mobile system” and is based on intelligent agents. This it is a first step in the development of real and useful applications for the users of mobile telephone. Furthermore, this application incorporates agents specialized in: e-commerce, learning about its user and control in the daily expenses. There is a lot of work to develop in this application, this is owed mainly to the limitations that a cellular telephone has still. However, the basic operation this fact and in a second version we will incorporate more services offered through of communication with a applications server. Moreover, in a future our application we will incorporate new services for today's user. Even, we want to incorporate access to web-based applications from a mobile telephone.
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7. Acknowledgments Thank you very much to the Universidad Autónoma de Puebla (UAP) and the Universidad de Puebla (UNIPUE) for their financial support. This work was supported by Universidad Autónoma de Puebla under project VIEP 28/ING/06-G.
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Amitava Dutta-Roy. Bringing home the Internet. IEEE Spectrum, 36(3):32-38, March 1999.
[2]
Stefano Campadello and Kimmo Raatikainen, Agents in Personal Mobility, 1999
[3]
Google Web APIs: http://www.google.com/apis/, 2006.
[4]
Java 2 Micro edition (J2ME), Manual de Usuario y Tutorial (C) Agustin Froufe Quintas y Patricia Jorge Cardenas, 2002.
[5]
M Kontio, Professional Mobile Java, IT Press 2002.
[6]
Saulo Barajas, Uso de Google Web API, SOAP y WSDL, Universidad Carlos III de Madrid, 2004.
[7]
http://www.amazon.com/ 2006.
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