Introduction to Microsoft Agent

Microsoft® Agent is a set of programmable software services 
that supports the presentation of interactive animated 
characters within the Microsoft Windows® interface. 
Developers can use characters as interactive assistants to 
introduce, guide, entertain, or otherwise enhance their Web 
pages or applications in addition to the conventional use 
of windows, menus, and controls.
Microsoft Agent enables software developers and Web authors 
to incorporate a new form of user interaction, known as 
conversational interfaces, that leverages natural aspects 
of human social communication. In addition to mouse and 
keyboard input, Microsoft Agent includes optional support 
for speech recognition so applications can respond to voice 
commands. Characters can respond using synthesized speech, 
recorded audio, or text in a cartoon word balloon.
The conversational interface approach facilitated by the 
Microsoft Agent services does not replace conventional 
graphical user interface (GUI) design. Instead, character 
interaction can be easily blended with the conventional 
interface components such as windows, menus, and controls 
to extend and enhance your application's interface. 
Microsoft Agent's programming interfaces make it easy to 
animate a character to respond to user input. Animated 
characters appear in their own window, providing maximum 
flexibility for where they can be displayed on the screen. 
Microsoft Agent includes an ActiveX® control that makes its 
services accessible to any programming languages that 
support ActiveX, including Web scripting languages such as 
Visual Basic® Scripting Edition (VBScript). This means 
that character interaction can be programmed even from HTML 
pages using the <OBJECT> tag.