Stock market players caught short of Internet access will soon be notified of news specific to their portfolio by an artificially intelligent application being built at the University of New South Wales.
Following a AU$22 million federal government funding injection, which boosts total funding to AU$100 million, the project will combine research in artificial intelligence and network engineering to create personalised Internet applications.
Investors caught in traffic jams, meetings or long business lunches will be notified about news specific to their share portfolio by a smart Internet application being devised at UNSW's Cooperative Research Centre (CRC).
"The main area of research will be in the area of smart applications for the Internet," Professor Arun Sharma from the UNSW School of Computer Science and Engineering, told ZDNet.
"There are certain kinds of transactions where applications can anticipate the needs of the user and hence make the Internet more usable."
There are already share portfolio personal assistants on the market which anticipate specific news that interests an individual and alerts them of it, but the CRC says it is trying to do something "more ubiquitous and user friendly".
"The device would be aware of what kind of information I need and aware of my location and use a suitable mechanism to interact with me," Sharma said.
For example, someone who is driving to work would be sent a message via voice synthesis, whereas someone attending a meeting and who can't be disturbed, would be more likely to have a text message sent to them.
It is the combination of anticipating the appropriate information and sending it via the appropriate mechanism that singles out the CRC application from competition, according to Professor Sharma.
UNSW's School of Computer Science and Engineering and the Australian Graduate School of Management are the major participants in the CRC for Smart Internet Technologies. International partners include Motorola, Nortel and Hewlett-Packard.
Local companies, such as Telstra, Adacel and the Australian Stock Exchange are also involved in the project.
"From a research perspective, this will mean the work at UNSW in artificial intelligence, network technology and software engineering will contribute to the development of commercially applied intelligent applications for the Internet," Sharma said
