KarDo software learns by observing administrators
 Researchers at Massachusetts Institute of Technology developed new software system, called KarDo, which can automatically perform same jobs across different computers.
Dina Katabi, an associate professor at MIT says that it can automatically configure an e-mail account, install a virus scanner, or set up access to a virtual private network. The software just needs to watch an administrator perform this task once before being able to carry out the same job on computers running different software. Learning is perform by mapping each of the actions performed in the graphical user interface, such as clicking on particular icons or buttons, starting/closing programs and opening Web page. KarDo resembles software that can be used to record a set sequence of user actions on a computer, but it attempts to learn the goal of each action by comparing actions performed during the learning phase with database of other tasks. MIT has tested system on hundreds of combinations of real tasks and found that it get tasks right 82 percent of the time. The ultimate goal for KarDo is to intervene completely automatically so it could reduce costs of performing simple and repetitive IT tasks. More about the described program can be found on TechnologyReview web site. |
