Applying A Matrix-Based Inference Algorithm to Electronic Commerce

We present a matrix-based inference algorithm suitable for electronic commerce applications. For this purpose, an Extended AND-OR Graph (EAOG) was developed with the intention that fast inference process is enabled within the electronic commerce situations. The proposed EAOG inference mechanism has the following three characteristics. 1. Real-time inference: The EAOG inference mechanism is suitable for the real-time inference because its computational mechanism is based on matrix computation. 2. Matrix operation: All the subjective knowledge is delineated in a matrix form. so that inference process can proceed based on the matrix operation which is computationally efficient. 3. Bi-directional inference: Traditional inference method of expert systems is based on either forward chaining or backward chaining which is mutually exclusive in terms of logical process and computational efficiency. However, the proposed EAOG inference mechanism is generically bi-directional without loss of both speed and efficiency. We have proved the validity of our approach with several propositions and an illustrative EC example.