Humanizing conversational agents: Indisys practical case study in eHealth

Abstract

This chapter describes an eHealth human-like conversational agent called Maria embedded in the Web page of the Health Department of the Junta de Andalucía in Spain. Although this implementation is based on a strong theoretical background, a more practical approach has been preferred for the real-world case hereby described. Maria has been designed to perform several major tasks: she can arrange a doctor's appointment, reply to queries pertaining to many varied subdomains, and navigate through the Web page. One of Maria's most remarkable features is the successful application of advanced design and humanizing techniques which endow her with unusual skills and an enticing personality. Maria has been developed by Intelligent Dialogue Systems (Indisys) within a larger scale Web development project conducted by Sadiel SA. © 2011, IGI Global.