Developing web fully-integrated conversational assistant agents

In this paper we describe a framework, called Divalite dedicated to the development of Web-based Embodied Conversational Agents (ECAs) for research purposes. This context prompts two specific requirements, entailing original features: (i) Divalite agents are implemented as Document Object Model (DOM) elements so they can interact dynamically and at a fine-grained level with the Web page content; (ii) Divalite agents are implemented in full client mode making it quick and easy to develop and deploy experimental studies. We present the architecture and the DOM-integration of the virtual characters. The resulting capacities are compared with those of similar tools and gains in terms of developing costs are measured.