Patent Application
20090210483
The present invention relates to electronic devices and, more particularly, to electronic devices, methods and computer program products for use by real and virtual world identities.
The use of electronic devices such as computers and other processor based devices continues to expand. In addition, communication and interaction between such devices is also extensive, using both wireless and wired connections to a world wide network (internet) based on the Internet Protocol (IP).
Various vendors have sought to take advantage of the variety of services offered using this extensive network of connected devices. For example, Apple Corporation has introduced products extending across a “triangle” including portable entertainment devices (iPod/iPhone™); fixed, or at least less-portable, computing device for internet access, collaboration, and content creation (iMac™, PowerBook™); and an internet source for content (iTunes™ for music and videos).
In addition to entertainment uses, such as addressed by Apple Corporation, increasing processor capabilities and memory of server devices coupled to the internet has allowed for the introduction of a variety of “virtual” world environments. Such environments include online gaming environments and the like, where remotely located game participants may participate together in a common game, the state of which game becomes a “virtual“world in which each participant is represented by an “avatar” having a state (e.g., location, armament, health etc.). A variant on such a gaming environment are virtual worlds, such as Second Life® from Linden Labs®. In Second Life®, users may create avatars that may shop, operate businesses, listen to music and the like, while interacting with avatars of other users. It has been proposed that avatars should be provided that may exist in multiple different ones of such virtual worlds. It has further been proposed that virtual mobile terminals should be available for avatars in such virtual worlds that are able to send text messages to recipients in the real world. Thus, such virtual worlds continue to become more sophisticated.
One challenge with virtual worlds, is that users of virtual worlds (e.g. Second Life) are generally disconnected from the virtual world and their avatar when not directly connected to their PC or online with a PC. Many virtual world participants engage in virtual worlds or games where the more, or the longer, users interact with a particular virtual environment, the more experience levels, hit points, or other game-specific benefits can be accrued by that user's avatar (online personality). Further, in many cases, users of the virtual world operate commercial businesses online and would like to actively participate in these commercial interests around the clock and when they are physically offline or away from their PC and/or internet connection. Many owners of stores or commercial interests within the virtual world would like to participate or stay informed of activities and events as they occur in real-time in relation to their virtual world commercial interests while they are offline (at night) or away from their PCs (or internet connection).
In some embodiments of the present invention, methods for remotely controlling actions of a virtual world identity of a user include transmitting instructions to the virtual world identity of the user from a mobile terminal associated with a real world identity of the user. The instructions are transmitted as a voice call, a text message and/or an instant message (IM). Updated information associated with the transmitted instructions is received from the virtual world identity of the user at the mobile terminal. The updated information includes an identification of a condition triggering transmission of the updated information.
In other embodiments, the transmitted instructions include an identification of the triggering condition. The triggering condition may be one of a plurality of triggering conditions that are assigned to the virtual world identity of the user by the user. The transmitted instructions may include an identification of a plurality of triggering conditions under which updated information will be provided from the virtual world identity of the user to the mobile terminal, one of which is the condition triggering transmission of the updated information. The plurality of triggering conditions may include detection of a virtual world identity of a second user within a selected proximity of the virtual world identity of the first user. The plurality of triggering conditions may further include detection of a negotiation condition of a sales transaction with a virtual world identity of a second user not anticipated by the transmitted instructions and/or detection of a game decision point for the virtual world identity of the first user not anticipated by the transmitted instructions.
In further embodiments, the updated information includes an identification of a virtual world identity of a second user. Receiving updated information is followed by receiving at the mobile terminal a communication from a communication platform associated with the second user initiated by the virtual world identity of the first user. The communication from the communication platform associated with the second user is a voice call, a text message and/or an instant message (IM).
In other embodiments, receiving updated information is followed by transmitting supplemental instructions to the virtual world identity of the user from the mobile terminal as a voice call, a text message and/or an instant message (IM) responsive to the received updated information. The transmitted instructions and the transmitted supplemental instructions may be transmitted as a voice call and/or a Short Message Service (SMS) text message and the received updated information may be received as a voice call or a Short Message Service (SMS) text message.
In further embodiments, receiving updated information is preceded by the following carried out by the virtual world identity of the user. The transmitted instructions are received. An environment change condition associated with the virtual world identity of the user is detected. The detected environment change is determined to correspond to a triggering condition. The updated information is transmitted to the mobile terminal responsive to determining that the detected environment change corresponds to a triggering condition. Transmitting the updated information may include translating the updated information from a virtual world format to a voice signal and transmitting the updated information as a voice call or translating the updated information from the virtual world format to a Short Message Service (SMS) text message and transmitting the updated information as a Short Message Service (SMS) text message. The updated information may include an identification of a virtual world identity of a second user and determining that the detected environment change corresponds to a triggering condition may be followed by the virtual world identity of the first user establishing a communication connection between a communication platform associated with the second user and the mobile terminal of the first user, the communication connection between the communication platform associated with the second user and the mobile terminal comprising a voice call, a text message and/or an instant message (IM).
In other embodiments, receiving the updated information includes the following carried out automatically by a background application executing on the mobile terminal without input from the user. The user is registered as present to the virtual identity of the user with an IM server. An indication that an IM message for the user is pending is received from the IM server. An application on the mobile terminal that is configured to receive the pending IM message and deliver the pending IM message to the user is activated to provide the updated information to the user.
In yet further embodiments, methods for remotely controlling actions of a virtual world identity of a user include receiving instructions for the virtual world identity of the user from a mobile terminal associated with a real world identity of the user. The instructions are received as a voice call, a text message and/or an instant message (IM). An environment change condition associated with the virtual world identity of the user is detected. The detected environment change is determined to correspond to a triggering condition. Updated information associated with the received instructions is transmitted from the virtual world identity of the user to the mobile terminal responsive to determining that the detected environment change corresponds to a triggering condition. The updated information may include an identification of the condition triggering transmission of the updated information and the received instructions may include an identification of the triggering condition.
In other embodiments, transmitting the updated information is followed by receiving supplemental instructions for the virtual world identity of the user from the mobile terminal as a voice call, a text message and/or an instant message (IM). The received instructions and the received supplemental instructions may be received as a voice call and/or a Short Message Service (SMS) text message and the transmitted updated information may be transmitted as a voice call or a Short Message Service (SMS) text message.
In further embodiments, transmitting the updated information responsive to determining that the detected environment change corresponds to the triggering condition includes translating the updated information from a virtual world format to a voice signal and transmitting the updated information as a voice call or translating the updated information from the virtual world format to a Short Message Service (SMS) text message and transmitting the updated information as a Short Message Service (SMS) text message. The updated information may include an identification of a virtual world identity of a second user and determining that the detected environment change corresponds to a triggering condition may be followed by the virtual world identity of the first user establishing a communication connection between a communication platform associated with the second user and the mobile terminal of the first user. The communication connection between the communication platform associated with the second user and the mobile terminal may be a voice call, a text message and/or an instant message (IM).
In yet further embodiments, methods for remotely controlling actions of a virtual world identity of a user include transmitting instructions to the virtual world identity of the user from a mobile terminal associated with a real world identity of the user as a voice call and/or a Short Message Service (SMS) text message without using an internet connection. Transmitting instructions may be followed by receiving updated information associated with the transmitted instructions from the virtual world identity of the user. The updated information may be a status of completion of the transmitted instructions.
While primarily described above with reference to method aspects, it will be understood that embodiments of the present invention include wireless mobile terminals and computer program products, including computer program code embodied in a computer readable medium, that are configured to carry out the methods of the present invention.
The present invention now will be described more fully with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which embodiments of the invention are shown. However, this invention should not be construed as limited to the embodiments set forth herein. Rather, these embodiments are provided so that this disclosure will be thorough and complete, and will fully convey the scope of the invention to those skilled in the art. Like numbers refer to like elements throughout.
As used herein, the term “comprising” or “comprises” is open-ended, and includes one or more stated features, integers, elements, steps, components or functions but does not preclude the presence or addition of one or more other features, integers, elements, steps, components, functions or groups thereof.
As used herein, the term “and/or” includes any and all combinations of one or more of the associated listed items.
As used herein, the common abbreviation “e.g.”, which derives from the Latin phrase “exempli gratia,” may be used to introduce or specify a general example or examples of a previously mentioned item, and is not intended to be limiting of such item. If used herein, the common abbreviation “i.e.”, which derives from the Latin phrase “id est,” may be used to specify a particular item from a more general recitation.
The terminology used herein is for the purpose of describing particular embodiments only and is not intended to be limiting of the invention. As used herein, the singular forms “a”, “an” and “the” are intended to include the plural forms as well, unless the context clearly indicates otherwise.
Unless otherwise defined, all terms (including technical and scientific terms) used herein have the same meaning as commonly understood by one of ordinary skill in the art to which this invention belongs. It will be further understood that terms, such as those defined in commonly used dictionaries, should be interpreted as having a meaning that is consistent with their meaning in the context of this specification and the relevant art and will not be interpreted in an idealized or overly formal sense unless expressly so defined herein.
It will be understood that when an element is referred to as being “coupled” or “connected” to another element, it can be directly coupled or connected to the other element or intervening elements may also be present. In contrast, when an element is referred to as being “directly coupled” or “directly connected” to another element, there are no intervening elements present. Furthermore, “coupled” or “connected” as used herein may include wirelessly coupled or connected.
Well-known functions or constructions may not be described in detail for brevity and/or clarity.
The present invention may be embodied as methods, electronic devices, and/or computer program products. Accordingly, the present invention may be embodied in hardware and/or in software (including firmware, resident software, micro-code, etc.), which may be generally referred to herein as a “circuit” or “module”. Furthermore, the present invention may take the form of a computer program product on a computer-usable or computer-readable storage medium having computer-usable or computer-readable program code embodied in the medium for use by or in connection with an instruction execution system. In the context of this document, a computer-usable or computer-readable medium may be any medium that can contain, store or transport the program for use by or in connection with the instruction execution system, apparatus, or device.
Embodiments according to the present invention are described with reference to block diagrams and/or operational illustrations of methods and communication terminals. In this regard, each block may represent a module, segment, or portion of code, which comprises one or more executable instructions for implementing the specified logical function(s). It is to be understood that each block of the block diagrams and/or operational illustrations, and combinations of blocks in the block diagrams and/or operational illustrations, can be implemented by radio frequency, analog and/or digital hardware, and/or program instructions. These program instructions may be provided to a controller, which may include one or more general purpose processors, special purpose processors, ASICs, and/or other programmable data processing apparatus, such that the instructions, which execute via the controller and/or other programmable data processing apparatus, create means for implementing the functions/acts specified in the block diagrams and/or operational block or blocks. In some alternate implementations, the functions/acts noted in the blocks may occur out of the order noted in the operational illustrations. For example, two blocks shown in succession may in fact be executed substantially concurrently or the blocks may sometimes be executed in the reverse order, depending upon the functionality/acts involved.
These computer program instructions may also be stored in a computer-usable or computer-readable memory that may direct a computer or other programmable data processing apparatus to function in a particular manner, such that the instructions stored in the computer usable or computer-readable memory produce an article of manufacture including instructions that implement the function specified in the flowchart and/or block diagram block or blocks.
The computer-usable or computer-readable medium may be, for example but not limited to, an electronic, magnetic, optical, electromagnetic, infrared, or semiconductor system, apparatus, or device. More specific examples (a nonexhaustive list) of the computer-readable medium include the following: hard disks, optical storage devices, magnetic storage devices, a portable computer diskette, a random access memory (RAM), a read-only memory (ROM), an erasable programmable read-only memory (EPROM or Flash memory), and a compact disc read-only memory (CD-ROM).
As used herein, a “communication terminal” includes, but is not limited to, a terminal that is configured to receive/transmit communication signals via a wireline connection, such as via a public-switched telephone network (PSTN), digital subscriber line (DSL), digital cable, or another data connection/network, and/or via a wireless interface with, for example, a cellular network, a satellite network, a wireless local area network (WLAN), and/or another communication terminal.
When the communication terminal is configured to communicate over a wireless interface, it is referred to herein as a “wireless communication terminal” or a “wireless terminal.” Examples of wireless terminals include, but are not limited to, a cellular telephone, personal data assistant (PDA), pager, and/or a computer that is configured to communicate data over a wireless communication interface that can include a cellular telephone interface, a Bluetooth interface, a wireless local area network interface (e.g., 802.11), another RF communication interface, and/or an optical/infra-red communication interface.
As used herein, “mobile terminals” may be portable, transportable, installed in a vehicle (aeronautical, maritime, or land-based), or situated and/or configured to operate locally and/or in a distributed fashion at any other location(s) on earth and/or in space.
Some embodiments of the present invention may support a product value “triangle” of mobile terminals, gaming consoles (e.g., Sony Corporation's PS3), and virtual environments for gaming, collaboration, and interaction (e.g., Sony Corporation's Playstation Home and Playstation Network). Systems utilizing mobile terminals and gaming consoles for maintaining unified personal and/or virtual identities and information to be used for interaction in both real and virtual (on-line) environments and methods for the same are provided by some embodiments of the present invention.
Thus, in some embodiments, an individual (user) is able to maintain consistency between his or her identity in both the real and virtual worlds, and is able to communicate and collaborate in both worlds with others having this same capability. In the real world, for example, communication or collaboration may include phone calls, text messages, IM, content sharing, or other forms of communication. Likewise, collaboration in the virtual world may include interaction among avatars in a persistent virtual space (e.g., Second Life or Playstation Home) or engaging in multi-player on-line games of temporary duration, both of which may involve communication between individuals. As will be described herein, both of these may be unified in what will be called a user state file that may include, for example, information about activities, preferences, or transactions (e.g., content purchased) of the individual (“User A”) within both the real and virtual worlds. In addition, for each of a plurality of other users within the individual's sphere (“Users B-Z”), information may be provided about the state of User A's communications with the respective other users. For instance, this state may include a real-world history of calls, text messages, IM's, etc. and virtual-world status of any games being played, transactions contemplated (e.g., Second Life “real estate” purchase), appointments, and the like between User A and each of Users B-Z.
As User A participates, communicates, or collaborates in either the real or the virtual world, his or her user state file may be updated accordingly. As User A encounters new individuals with presence in both worlds, User A may create new entries in their user state file for those individuals. In some embodiments, User A may move his or her user state file among different platforms for communication and collaboration. This is illustrated by reference to the system shown in
Some embodiments of the present invention will now be futher described below with respect to
As further seen in the embodiments of
In addition to such described information, which generally corresponds to the type of information described previously with respect to the User A entries 210, 215, 220, for each of the other users within User A's sphere, a communication history 245, 270 is provided including information about the state and history of User A's communications/interactions with the respective users. For example, entries in the communication history 245, 270 may include a real world history of calls, text messages, Is and the like and/or a virtual world status of games being played, transactions contemplated, appointments and the like. The user state file 200 is configured to be accessed by User A in both the real world and the virtual world.
Also shown in the user state file 200 of the embodiments of
It will further be understood that the real world identity itself may be an alias so as to protect the privacy of the respective users. In other words, various of the associated users and/or User A may prefer to have their identity remain confidential and may create an alias for use in reference to the respective users in the real world so that the anonymity associated with the avatars in the virtual world will similarly apply to provide privacy in the real world. Conventionally known protocols and procedures restricting access to the information in the user state file 200, the right to obtain and add included information about respective ones of the users included and the like may be applied to control privacy and rights in generation of respective user state files for various users to insure improved access to communications and interactions in a manner that respects the preferences and privacy of the respective users. Details of such control need not be provided herein.
A method for providing a user state file, such as the user state file 200 of
An associated user designation is provided for another user associated with the first user (block 330). A real world identity and/or virtual world identity for the associated user is determined (block 340). In addition, a communication history between the first user and the associated user is established (block 350). The communication history established at block 350 includes communications in both the real world and the virtual world.
The user state file 200 is generated based on the information gathered at blocks 300-350 (block 360). More particularly, the user state file 200 generated at block 360 includes information related to both the virtual world and the real world and can be accessed by the first user in both the real world and the virtual world. Thus, a common information resource is provided that may include real world information, such as phone calls, text messages, IM, content sharing or the like as well as information related to collaboration and interaction among avatars in a persistent virtual world and/or interactions in a temporary duration virtual world, such as an on-line multi-player game space. As such, some embodiments of the present invention may provide a unified user state file as illustrated, for example, in
Methods for updating a user state file according to various embodiments of the present invention will now be described with reference to the flowchart illustrations of
An identification of the associated user from the received communication is mapped to an associated user designation for the associated user (block 410). The real world identity of the associated user, the virtual world of the associated user and/or a communication history between the first user and the associated user is retrieved from the user's state file based on the associated user designation for the associated user (block 420).
For some embodiments, as illustrated in
The real world identity of the associated user, the virtual world identity of the associated user and/or the communication history between the user and the associated user is displayed to the first user responsive to the received request from block 430 (block 440). In some embodiments, as also illustrated in
Referring now to the flowchart illustrations of
A real world identity and/or a virtual world identity is determined for the new associated user (block 520). In addition, a communication history between the first user and the new associated user is established (block 530). The communication history may include communications in both the real world and the virtual world between the respective users.
As also shown in the embodiments of
Methods for synchronizing user state files across platforms in accordance with various embodiments of the present invention will now be further described with reference to the flowchart illustrations of
It will be understood that the second terminal may not be a gaming console as illustrated in
Further embodiments relating to synchronizing user state files will now be described with reference to the flowchart illustration of
Methods for enabling interactions between user identities in real and virtual worlds in accordance with various embodiments of the present invention will now be described further with reference to the flowchart diagrams of
For the embodiments illustrated in
Referring now to the embodiments illustrated in
In the embodiments illustrated in
Further embodiments of the present invention will now be further described with reference to
For the illustrated embodiments of methods for remotely controlling actions of a virtual world identity of a user seen in
The transmitted instructions at Block 1000 may include an identification of the triggering condition. In some embodiments, the transmitted instructions include an identification of a plurality of triggering conditions under which updated information will be provided from the virtual world identity of the user to the mobile terminal. The plurality of triggering conditions may have been assigned to the virtual world identity of the user by the user. For example, one of the plurality of triggering conditions may be detection of a virtual world identity of a second user within a selected proximity of the virtual world identity of the first user. In some embodiments, one of the plurality of triggering conditions may be detection of a negotiation condition of a sales transaction with a virtual world identity of a second user not anticipated by the transmitted instructions. For example, the transmitted instructions may tell the virtual world identity to ask for a desired size and color before selling a t-shirt but not have anticipated a customer (second user's virtual world identity) asking for a different style. In other embodiments, the plurality of triggering conditions may include detection of a game decision point for the virtual world identity of the first user not anticipated by the transmitted instructions. For example, the transmitted instructions to a sports team in an online game may not have anticipated a penalty that is called against an opponent during the course of the online game.
Updated information associated with the transmitted instructions is received from the virtual world identity of the user at the mobile terminal, such as the mobile phone 120a (Block 1010). The updated information includes an identification of a condition triggering transmission of the updated information.
In some cases, the triggering condition may indicate that a communication between the user and a second user may be beneficial based on the environmental conditions generating the trigger. For example, a negotiation in a virtual space may benefit from communications between User A and User B, who can be reached at mobile phone 120a and 120b, respectively. As such, in some embodiments the updated information may include an identification of a virtual world identity of a second user (User B). In addition, receiving updated information at Block 1010 may be followed by receiving at the mobile terminal 120a a communication from a communication platform (e.g., mobile phone 120b) associated with the second user (User B) initiated by the virtual world identity of the first user (User A) (Block 1020). The communication from the communication platform associated with the second user may be a voice call, a text message and/or an instant message (IM).
The updated information received at Block 1010 may result in the receiving user (User A) determining additional instructions should be sent to the virtual identity. As such, in some embodiments, receiving updated information at Block 1010 is followed by transmitting supplemental instructions to the virtual world identity of the user (User A) from the mobile terminal (e.g., mobile phone 120a) as a voice call, a text message and/or an instant message (IM) responsive to the received updated information (Block 1030).
In some embodiments the transmitted instructions and the transmitted supplemental instructions are transmitted as a voice call and/or a Short Message Service (SMS) text message. Similarly, the received updated information is received as a voice call or a Short Message Service (SMS) text message. As such, the communications between the virtual world identities and the mobile terminal (e.g., mobile phone 120a) may all be provided without the user of an internet connection.
Referring now to
A method for remotely controlling actions of a virtual world identity of a user from the perspective of the virtual space according to some embodiments of the present invention will now be described with reference to the flowchart illustration of
An environment change condition associated with the virtual world identity of the user is detected (Block 1210). It is determined that the detected environment change corresponds to a triggering condition (Block 1220). The received instructions from Block 1200 may include an identification of the triggering condition identified at Block 1220.
Updated information for transmission will be provided as will be described with reference to Block 1240. In some embodiments, the updated information is first generated in a virtual world format. The updated information may be translated from the virtual world format to a voice signal for transmission at Block 1240 as a voice call (Block 1230). The updated information may be translated from the virtual world format to a Short Message Service (SMS) text message for transmission at Block 1240 as a Short Message Service (SMS) text message (Block 1230).
The updated information associated with the received instructions from the virtual world identity of the user is transmitted to the mobile terminal responsive to determining that the detected environment change corresponds to a triggering condition at Block 1220 (Block 1240). The transmitted updated information may include an identification of the condition triggering transmission of the updated information. In some embodiments, instructions received at Block 1200 may include an identification of the triggering condition.
As discussed previously with reference to Block 1020 of
In some embodiments, supplemental instructions are also received for the virtual world identity of the user from the mobile terminal (Block 1260). The supplemental instructions may be received as a voice call, a text message and/or an instant message (IM). In some embodiments, the received instructions and the received supplemental instructions are received as a voice call and/or a Short Message Service (SMS) text message and the transmitted updated information is transmitted as a voice call or a Short Message Service (SMS) text message. As such, all the communications may occur without requiring an internet connection between the mobile terminal/communication platform of the real world users and the virtual space.
Methods for remotely controlling actions of a virtual world identity of a user are also provided in which the method includes transmitting instructions to the virtual world identity of the user from a mobile terminal associated with a real world identity of the user. The instructions are transmitted as a voice call and/or a Short Message Service (SMS) text message without using an internet connection. Updated information associated with the transmitted instructions may be received from the virtual world identity of the user. The updated information may include a status of completion of the transmitted instructions.
Some embodiments of the present invention provide wireless mobile terminals configured to carry out the methods described above. In addition, computer program products for remotely controlling actions of a virtual world identity of a user are provided. The computer program products include computer program code embodied in a computer readable medium.
Some embodiments of methods of providing communications between real world and virtual world entities will now be further described with reference to
It is determined that an avatar requires interaction with the real world user (block 1310). If such interaction is required operations continue with the avatar communicating with the translation system, such as in the form of computer code output (block 1320). The translation system translates the computer code message to real world communications format (block 1330). A real world communication is initiated to the user associated with the avatar, which communication may take the form of an IM message, SMS, voice message or the like (block 1340).
In the drawings and specification, there have been disclosed exemplary embodiments of the invention. Although specific terms are employed, they are used in a generic and descriptive sense only and not for purposes of limitation, the scope of the invention being defined by the following claims.
This application is a continuation-in-part of, and claims priority to, U.S. patent application Ser. No. 12/032,288 (Attorney Docket: 9314-195), filed Feb. 15, 2008, entitled Systems Methods And User State Files For Enabling Interactions Between Virtual And Real World Identities, the contents of which are incorporated herein by reference.
| Number | Date | Country | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Parent | 12032288 | Feb 2008 | US |
| Child | 12048252 | US |
