Middleware means a lot of different things; the next few slides will elaborate on what is meant here.
The OAA (Open Agent Architecture) exist NOW.
We have used it extensively in the accomplishments just described.
Systems developed include those using telephones, cell phones, PDAs, handwriting recognition, keyboard, speech recognition, speech synthesis, video, PCs, network servers, laptops...
Robustness is achieved through the multiple modalities and abstract definition of goals (if a video board blows, the "notify agent" notifies via alternatives, such as by telephone)