Eager

Eager was one of the first intelligent agents. It assists users in performing repetitive tasks. It constantly watches your actions on the computer, and when it detects a repetitive activity, it writes a program that performs that activity for you.

• Eager continually monitors your actions on the computer, and when it detects a repetitive activity, the Eager character pops up on the screen.
• Eager then anticipates what you are going to do: it uses green highlighting to mark what you are about to do. For instance, Eager will turn a button green if it expects you to click on the button. So, as you perform your task, you can see whether Eager knows how to perform the task for you.
• Once you are confident that Eager knows what to do, you click on it, and it writes a program that completes the task automatically.

Eager is a programming by demonstration system. It is able to detect patterns in a user's actions, and to write a computer program that automates those actions. It can be thought of as a smart macro recorder. It is "smart" because it does not have to be turned on -- it detects repetitive patterns by itself -- and because it is able to make generalizations. For instance, if the user types 1, 2, 3, Eager is able to continue typing 4, 5, and so on.

Eager Demo Movie

Eager Movie (mp4)

Eager Movie (QuickTime)

Publications about Eager

[CHI'91 Video]