Patent Application
20140085316
Methods and systems for providing dynamic visual notification of shared and personal communications and information in a virtual environment are described.
Meetings can be a very important part of doing business. With good planning, participation, and follow-up, meetings can help move a project or decision forward or bring people to consensus. One of the benefits to having people in one place is the ability to read body language. Various types of media attempt to address this when face to face meetings aren't possible. For example, enterprises can use videoconferencing to simulate face to face communications, without losing all of the possible non-verbal clues. Virtual reality environments are evolving to be able to mimic natural movement and non-verbal physical clues and sentiment. In today's multi-modal enterprise, a variety of meeting types are used for effective communication. In each type of meeting, the most successful participation will come from people who are actively engaged in the meeting.
Most virtual reality environment meetings do not incorporate most or all of the access a person might have in a real meeting. The better engaged that the conference participants are, the better the chance for success of the meeting. Some tools have been created to make the virtual reality environment meeting rooms useful. For example, white boards or screens can play videos, display documents, and provide other types of visual output. However, the virtual reality environment meetings have not made available access to a person's communications or applications privately within the virtual reality environment. Accordingly, having to toggle between a virtual reality environment meeting and desktop applications does not keep a meeting participant actively engaged throughout the meeting, especially if he or she is expecting something important to come in, like an email from a boss.
Methods and systems for providing dynamic visual notifications or presentations of shared and personal communications and information in a virtual environment are provided. More particularly, a virtual reality environment (VRE) that presents shared information to all participants or users in the VRE, as well as information that is personal to individual users, is provided. The information that is personal to a user is displayed as a private wall to only the user to whom the information pertains. The private wall displays content dynamically from several sources, without the user having to refresh the private wall. As a result, individual meeting participants can then react to any real-time issues presented by their personal information, while participating in the meeting comprising the shared information. Moreover, by presenting the personal information within the VRE from a variety of sources, a participant can monitor all of his or her personal communications or other private information, while participating in the meeting hosted in the VRE, and without requiring that the user leave the VRE in order to access such personal information. If the participant moves through the VRE from room to room, the participant's personal information travels with him or her, making participation in meetings hosted in the VRE easy and efficient.
In accordance with at least some embodiments of the present disclosure, a system that provides a virtual reality environment for meetings between multiple users is provided. The system includes a virtual reality server that executes a virtual reality (VR) module or application. The VRE can present shared information that is made available to all participants in the meeting through communication devices that are interconnected to the virtual reality server, either directly or through one or more networks. In addition, embodiments of the present disclosure can present information to an individual user that is personal to that user within the VRE. Accordingly, users can monitor personal information, such as email, voice mail, text messages, calendar information, personal data, or the like, from within the VRE, while participating in a meeting or other shared event also presented within the VRE.
Methods in accordance with embodiments of the present disclosure include providing a virtual reality module through a central service, such as through a server accessible via a network. Users register with the virtual reality module in order to participate in the VRE. The VRE can present shared information to the participants of a meeting or other participatory event. For example, the VRE can present the participants of a meeting as avatars that interact with one another and/or other objects within the VRE. The VRE can additionally support the communication of audible information, such as the speech of individual participants, text, shared documents or presentations, or the like. Embodiments of the present disclosure present information that is personal to individual participants to those participants, within the VRE. For example, information that is part of the meeting generally can be presented within a shared information area of a communication device display, while information that is personal to the user of a communication device can be presented within a personal information area of the communication device display.
Additional features and advantages of embodiments of the present invention will become more readily apparent from the following description, particularly when taken together with the accompanying drawings.
Each communication device 104 generally supports communications with one or more other communication devices 104, either directly or in connection with a virtual reality environment. As described herein, the virtual reality environment can include shared information provided as part of a shared environment. In addition, embodiments of the present disclosure provide a virtual reality environment that can present information specific to one or more communication devices 104 and/or associated users 116. In an exemplary embodiment, a communication endpoint 104 is capable of providing visual information depicting a virtual reality environment to a user 116. Accordingly, examples of communication devices 104 include desktop computers, laptop computers, tablet computers, thin client devices, smart phones, and the like.
The communication network 108 may be any type of network that supports communications using any of a variety of protocols. For example, but without limitation, a network 108 may be a local area network (LAN), such as an Ethernet network, a wide area network (WAN), a virtual network such as but not limited to a virtual private network (VPN), the Internet, an intranet, an extranet, a public switched telephone network (PSTN), a wireless network such as but not limited to a cellular telephony network or a network operating under any one of the IEEE 602.11 suite of protocols, the Bluetooth protocol or any wireless protocol. Moreover, the network 108 can include a number of networks of different types and/or utilizing different protocols. Accordingly, the network 108 can be any network or system operable to allow communications or exchanges of data between communication devices 104 directly, via the virtual reality server 112, and/or a communication or other server or network node.
The virtual reality server 112 generally operates to provide a virtual reality environment to communication devices 104, such that users 116 of the communication devices 104 can interact through the virtual reality environment. Moreover, the virtual reality server 112 disclosed herein can operate to support communications or the delivery of other information that is specific or personal to individual communication devices 104 and/or users 116 through the presented virtual reality environment. Accordingly, the virtual reality server 112 can comprise or be provided as part of a communication server. In connection with providing a virtual reality environment, the virtual reality server 112 can implement or provide a virtual reality environment module (also referred to herein as virtual reality module or simply as VR module) 120. In general, the virtual reality module 120 operates to present the virtual reality environment to users 116 through communication devices 104 participating in a virtual reality environment. Moreover, the virtual reality environment is controlled by the virtual reality module 120 with respect to each communication device 104 participating in a virtual reality session. Through a connection between the VR module 120 on the VR server 112 and the communication device 104, shared virtual reality information is presented to all users 116 participating in the virtual reality session. In addition, the VR module 120 presents individual users 116 with information that is personal to such individuals. Accordingly, the virtual reality module 120 can provide both general and user specific information to users 116 of selected communication devices 104.
In addition, the system 100 can include various information sources or message endpoints 124. The information sources 124 may comprise endpoints that engage in communications with a communication device 104 participating in a virtual reality meeting or other event hosted by the virtual reality server 112. Moreover, an information source 124 may be associated with an endpoint comprising a communication device 104 participating in a VRE hosted by the virtual reality server 112. Examples of information sources 124 include short message service (SMS) 128, multimedia messaging service (MMS) 132, voice telephony 136, email 140, and social media 144 endpoints or sources. Other examples include calendar information 148 and tasks or other reminders 152. In general, the information sources 124 can further be associated with services. The system 100 may expose standard application programming interfaces (APIs) that can be used by information sources interacting with the VRE. Moreover, messages or other information provided by an information source 124 directed to a communication device 104 associated with a user 116 participating in a VRE hosted by the virtual reality module 120 is routed through the virtual reality module 120, for display as part of information that is personal to a user 116, via the network 108, as described in greater detail elsewhere herein.
The virtual reality server 112 and the communication device 104 additionally include memory 208. The memory 208 can be used in connection with the execution of programming by the processor 204, and for the temporary or long term storage of data and/or program instructions. For example, the virtual reality server 112 memory 208 can include an application implementing the virtual reality environment module 120, stored user data 212, and a web services module 216 that can operate in connection with the VR module 120 to present shared and personal information to communication devices 104 participating in a VRE. The memory 208 of a communication device 104 can include a browser application 232 a VRE client application 236, and various communication applications 240. The memory of a server 112 or device 104 can include solid state memory that is resident, removable and/or remote in nature, such as DRAM and SDRAM. Moreover, the memory 208 can include a plurality of discrete components of different types and/or a plurality of logical partitions. In accordance with still other embodiments, the memory 208 comprises a non-transitory computer readable storage medium. Such a medium may take many forms, including but not limited to, non-volatile media, volatile media, and transmission media. Non-volatile media includes, for example, NVRAM, or magnetic or optical disks. Volatile media includes dynamic memory, such as main memory. Common forms of computer-readable media include, for example, a floppy disk, a flexible disk, hard disk, magnetic tape, or any other magnetic medium, magneto-optical medium, a CD-ROM, any other optical medium, punch cards, paper tape, any other physical medium with patterns of holes, a RAM, a PROM, and EPROM, a FLASH-EPROM, a solid state medium like a memory card, any other memory chip or cartridge, or any other medium from which a computer can read.
The VR server 112 and a communication device 104 can also include or be associated with user input devices 220 and user output devices 224. Such devices 220 and 224 can be used in connection with the provisioning and operation of a VRE, and/or to allow users to control operations of the VRE and the display of and interaction with shared and personal information. Examples of user input devices 220 include a keyboard, a numeric keypad, a touch screen, a microphone, scanner, and pointing device combined with a screen or other position encoder. Examples of user output devices 224 include a display, a touch screen display, a speaker, and a printer. The VR server 112 and a communication device 104 also generally include a communication interface 228 to interconnect the associated server 112 or device 104 to a network 108.
More particularly, the view of the user interface 304 in
In accordance with embodiments of the present disclosure, a user interface 304 can also present information that is personal to one or more users 116 to those users 116. Examples of user interfaces 304 generated by the VR module 120 that present both shared information 308 and information that is personal to a user 320 are depicted in
With reference now to
In accordance with embodiments of the present disclosure, the user interface 304 therefore allows participants in a VR meeting or other event hosted within a VRE by a VR module 120 to access personal communications and information within the VRE, independent of his or her location in the VRE. Accordingly, a user 116 can monitor shared 308 and personal 320 information through a common user interface 304.
With reference now to
At step 412, a determination can be made as to whether a meeting within the VRE provided through the VR module 120 has been initiated. Initiation of a meeting can include at least a first user 116 operating a communication device 104 to interconnect to the VR server 116 and to provide information requesting the creation of a VRE. The request can be for a meeting that will be initiated at the time the request for creation of the VRE is made, or for a meeting that will be held some time in the future. Initiation of a meeting can also include providing the VR module 120 with a list of invitees. The VR module 120 can provide functions that include conventional conference call functions, such as initiating calls or other contacts to invitees, and/or receiving calls or contacts and authentication information from meeting participants, and joining participants to the VRE.
Once a meeting is initiated, users 116 who have registered with the VR system and who have initiated or joined a meeting are presented with the VRE generated for that meeting by the VR module 120 (step 416). More particularly, a user interface 304 presenting the VRE can be provided by a display associated with or included as part of the participating user's communication device 104. The meeting is generally depicted within the shared information area 308 as a shared space that is attended by avatars 312 representing the users 116 who are currently participating in the meeting. In addition, any shared information or other VRE objects 316 can be depicted in the shared information area 308. The shared information area 308 can be updated as users 116 join or leave the meeting, and/or as VRE objects 316 are added, changed, or removed.
At step 420, a determination can be made as to whether information that is personal to a user 116 participating in the VRE environment presented for the meeting is available. For example, through a registration process, the VR module 120 may be provided with alerts whenever information, such as an incoming email, text message, or other communication is available for a user 116. As another example, calendar information, reminders, or other personal information can be presented by the VR module 120 as part of the VRE. If such information is available for a user 116, it is presented through the user interface 304 of the communication device 104 for the user within the area for information that is personal to a user 320 (step 424). In accordance with at least some embodiments of the present disclosure, the personal information area 320 for the user can be updated as new or updated information is received. In addition, a user 116 can respond to communications or otherwise interact with the personal information 320 through the user interface 304 presented by the VR module 120.
A determination can be made as to whether the presentation of the VRE is to continue (step 428). If operation is to continue, the process can return to step 412. Alternatively, the process can end. In accordance with at least some embodiments, a VRE can be maintained indefinitely. Accordingly, a VRE can serve as a “commons” in which registered users 116 can interact with other registered users 116 to exchange information. Whether provided as part of a particular meeting for a limited period of time, or as a commons, embodiments of the present disclosure allow a user 116 to maintain an awareness of personal communications, calendars, reminders or other information, through the VRE. Accordingly, a user can better focus on shared information 308, even while monitoring personal communication channels.
As can be appreciated by one of skill in the art after consideration of the present disclosure, the provision of a user interface 304 that presents both shared information 308 and personal information 320 to a participating user can assist the user 116 in engaging with a VRE meeting, by removing the need or temptation for the user 116 to leave the VRE in order to check personal information or engage in private communications. Therefore, by providing support for accessing personal information and engaging in personal communications, a VRE provided by a VR module as disclosed herein can lead to more productive VRE meetings, and/or to more satisfied users 116.
A VR module 120 that simultaneously provides shared 308 and personal 320 information to a user through a user interface 304 is possible. For example, a VRE environment can be provided as a hosted service on behalf of an ad hoc collection of users 116. As another example, a VRE can implement a private meeting room on behalf of a selected set of users 116. Moreover, a VRE provided by a VR module 120 as disclosed herein can be provided as an on demand service, or as an enterprise facility that is made available to employees and/or customers of the enterprise.
The foregoing discussion of the invention has been presented for purposes of illustration and description. Further, the description is not intended to limit the invention to the form disclosed herein. Consequently, variations and modifications commensurate with the above teachings, within the skill or knowledge of the relevant art, are within the scope of the present invention. The embodiments described hereinabove are further intended to explain the best mode presently known of practicing the invention and to enable others skilled in the art to utilize the invention in such or in other embodiments and with various modifications required by the particular application or use of the invention. It is intended that the appended claims be construed to include alternative embodiments to the extent permitted by the prior art.
