Now, computer software that helps tourists customize visits as per preferences

Washington, June 22 : Computer engineers at the University of Granada say that they have developed software that can enable tourists to customize their visits according to their preferences.

Luis Castillo Vidal, one of the computer engineers behind the SAMAP project, has revealed that they have incorporated Artificial Intelligence techniques in the software to design the customized visit plans.

The researcher says that Artificial Intelligence, a science that provides computers with abilities to solve problems that can only be solved by humans, is open and interoperable.

According to Vidal, this technology is very appropriate to be integrated in existing systems, such as Web sites.

Having a computer, mobile phone or a PDA with an internet connection is all that is required to be able to access a web where users can define their preferences and needs - such as their artistic, cultural and gastronomic preferences, their lifestyle and favourite hours, whether they are disabled or not, and their spending capacity.

The software compares a user's personal requirements with the information available on a tourist database, and accordingly offers the client a visit plan that does not include details he is not interested in.

The system is available in the so-called Service Oriented Architecture (SOA), software design that allows interoperability between different platforms in an efficient way and with flexibility before changes.

Castillo has revealed that the technology developed to carry out the prototype has started to be transferred to a spin-off of the University of Granada called IActive Intelligent Solutions for its possible commercialisation.

The new adaptive user-focused system to plan tourist visits, as their authors describe it, means step forward in the current trend of tourist activities automation, such as the online payment of transport tickets and accommodation, or the use of audio-guides in the monuments tours.

Castillo believes that Artificial Intelligence can play an important role in future, as it combines computer's capacities of memory and fast execution with faculties as human as common sense, intuition and imagination.

ANI