The document discusses future applications of agent technology to support European police cooperation. It describes how individual police officers could have personal agents to assist with communication, information sharing, and decision making. The agents would allow officers in the field to quickly access databases and communicate with other officers and agencies. While the technology exists, challenges include differences between countries, legal issues, cost, and gaining acceptance from police leaders and officers. Overall, the talk aimed to inform police about emerging technologies that could transform their work in the coming years.

1. Future Perspective in Information Technology: Possibilities to support European Police Co-operation Prof. Dr. H.J. van den Herik Dr. L.A. Plugge Universiteit Maastricht MATRIKS - Computer Science The Netherlands Conference: Across Schengen Borders Genval, November 6, 1998 Château du Lac, 11:45-12:10 hours

7. Technology and Future Technology Mechanization 1950 Computerization 1970 Information handling 2000 Intelligent E-commerce E-commerce 2005 Agent Technology 2015 Ant Technology 1990 Intelligent programs Communication among computers (ICT)

8. The Development of Communication A single computer 1950 1962 Communication between two computers (MIT) ARPA-NET: 12 computers 1969 1980 ARPA-NET: 60 computers In Europe: EARN 1985 1989 INTERNET starts: 100,000 computers Continued...

9. The Development of Communication INTERNET starts: 100,000 computers 1989 1991 500,000 1.3 million 1993 1996 29.7 million ~ 100 million ( =10 8 ) 1998 2005 Around a billion (Am.) ( =10 9 ) Expectation

10. How do we Communicate? Single processor Two Four (an example) Eight 16 (4-cube)

11. 256 Node Binary Hypercube

15. EMMI is only a start Progress in research is as follows Graphical interfaces Visualization Sonification Olfactorization Flavorization Sensibilization

32. The Power of a Representation Consider the following problem Begin End What is the shortest path to change the black and white Knights?

33. Solution Step 1: Number the Squares 10 8 5 2 1 9 6 3 7 4

34. Step 2: Determine the Nearest Neighbour Diagram for the Knight Move (which squares are neighbours as seen by a Knight) From We arrive at 10 8 5 2 1 9 6 3 7 4 10 8 5 2 1 9 6 3 7 4

35. Step 3: Determine the Starting Position and the End Position Step 4: Recognize that this is a Shunting Problem (with square 3 as a side track) W Z W Z Z W Z W

36. Step 5: The solution is now easy Shortest Path: 40 moves W Z W Z Z W W Z Z W Z W Z W Z W Z W W Z

38. Your “last” question: Okay, if we accept the shift of mind, are all technological problems solved by now? The answer is: NO.