Robert Trappl 
Your Virtual Butler [PDF ebook] 
The Making-of

In most scenarios of the future a personalized virtual butler appears. This butler not only performs communication and coordination tasks but also gives recommendations on how to handle everyday problems. The aim of this book is to explore the prerequisites of such a personalized virtual butler by asking: what is known about the capacities and the needs of aging people; which information and communication technologies have been used in assisting/conversing with persons, especially older ones, and what were the results; what are the advantages/disadvantages of virtual butlers as mainly software programs compared robots as butlers; and which methods, especially in artificial intelligence, have to be developed further and in which direction in order to create a virtual butler in the foreseeable future?