TV-like presentation for agent system

Television is an important source of information besides the Internet, and is an excellent agent for viewers because it provides necessary information concisely and well presented in a familiar manner. Although broadcasting stations are not private agents, if we had a new television system for specific individuals, it could be a breakthrough in information services. We have therefore been studying a personalized television called "TV4U", which has the following features: 1) it shows information to the user in a tailor-made television program made by computer graphics (CG), and 2) it allows the user to take part in the program and talk with the CG broadcaster. In this paper, we explain the TV4U system as a kind of agent system with TV-like presentation style. We also introduce the TV program making language (TVML) and automatic program production scheme (APE) technologies which underpin TV4U.