Ontology Based Application Server to Execute Semantic Rich Requests

Since computing earlier days, people have wanted computers that could interface and be programmed using easy to use tools like speech or gesture. However, until now, such a computer system remains in the realm of scientific fiction. Now, with recent advances in human computer interfaces (such as speech understanding, ubiquitous computing, tablet computers), and in the processing of semantic information by computers (through initiatives such as the Semantic Web), new technologies and tools (such as Protégé and Jena) are maturing to a level where such a system becomes a possibility. Our work is about the application of semantic information to make computer systems smarter (using ontologies to add knowledge about application domains and common sense) and, with the help of new kinds of human-computer interfaces, to produce systems that a computer layperson can understand and program in useful ways. In particular, this work concentrates on the processing of semantic rich requests through the activation of software components stored in an application server. Semantic information from each request is combined with semantic information from ontologies, describing the application domain and the available components, to generate arguments and activate the most appropriate component (or components) to attend the request. Ontology Based Application Servers (OBAS, section 2) can be used to improve component activation. We are testing this idea with the development of a prototype of an OBAS to execute imperative natural language requests expressed in several natural languages (NL-OBAS). In section 3 we focus on NL-OBAS ontologies.