312 Copyright © 2011, IGI Global. Copying or distributing in print or electronic forms without written permission of IGI Global is prohibited. Chapter 14 1 INTRODUCTION Conversational Agents (CAs) can be defined as “communication technologies that integrate computational linguistics techniques with the communication channel of the Web to interpret and respond to statements made by users in or- dinary natural language” (Lester et al., 2004). Embodied Conversational Agents (ECAs) are empowered with a human representation that shows some degree of empathy with the user as the dialogue goes on. J. Gabriel Amores Intelligent Dialogue Systems (Indisys), Spain Pilar Manchón Intelligent Dialogue Systems (Indisys), Spain Guillermo Pérez Intelligent Dialogue Systems (Indisys), Spain 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. DOI: 10.4018/978-1-60960-617-6.ch014