Editor: Having worked on real-time expert systems for several years, I read with interest the survey article "Real-Time Knowledge-Based Systems" by Thomas Laffey, et al. in the recent edition of AI Magazine. Indeed, the work of myself and my colleagues was mentioned, but the description of YES/L1 in the article was incorrect in several ways. Laffey and his coauthors incorrectly describe YES/L1 as being "implemented in OPS5 and MacLisp " They seem to be confusing YES/Ll, the shell, with YES/MVS was written in OPS5. YES/L1 is a compiled, data-driven language and an environment for developing interactive and real-time expert systems. The YES/L1 language is an integration of procedural and rule-based techniques.

Real-time domains present a new and challenging environment for the application of knowledge-based problem-solving techniques. However, a substantial amount of research is still needed to solve many difficult problems before realtime expert systems can enhance current monitoring and control systems. In this article, we examine how the real-time problem domain is significantly different from those domains which have traditionally been solved by expert systems. We conduct a survey on the current state of the art in applying knowledge-based systems to real-time problems and describe the key issues that are pertinent in a real-time domain. The survey is divided into three areas: applications, tools, and theoretic issues.

Eastman Kodak (Rochester, N.Y.), a manufacturer of imaging-related products, has developed an online neural network-based machine vision system for surface mount solder paste inspection. Caere (Los Gatos, Calif.), a provider of neural network-based optical character recognition (OCR) technology, has signed an agreement to supply IBM Ireland with OCR Readers for AN POST, Ireland's national postal service. Using a handheld wand, postal employees will be able to scan text and read bar codes from anywhere on a document. BrainTech (Scottsdale, Ariz.), a developer of neural network and fuzzy logic-based pattern recognition technologies, has signed a development agreement with Raven (Alexandria, Va.), a developer of acoustic systems for the U.S. Navy. BrainTech will integrate its pattern-matching recognition engine into Raven's new medical diagnostic systems.

Workshops The Workshop on Advances in Real-Time Expert System Technologies was held on 3 August 1992 in conjunction with the Tenth European Conference on AI. Participation was limited to invited researchers only. The workshop focused on practical problems occurring during the implementation of real-time expert systems. In this respect, different industrial applications were discussed. The debate covered a wide range of applications, such as qualitative simulation and anytime algorithms for real-time process control.

Advances in Real-Time Expert System Technologies

Is it because they have been "mastered," or have become "trivial?" Indeed, many new problems for these applications add to the complexity of the solutions rater than trivialize them. Indeed, the work of myself and course, is no longer mathematics. The YES/L1 language is an integration of artificial intelligence is at a of procedural and rule-based techniques. Condition-action rules in plateau from which it can rise or fall YES/L1 are driven by a RETElike algorithm.