Methods and systems for determining an effectiveness of content in an immersive virtual reality world

• US 10,088,898 B2
• Filed: 03/31/2016
• Issued: 10/02/2018
• Est. Priority Date: 03/31/2016
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Verizon Patent and Licensing Incorporated (Verizon Communications Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Verizon Patent and Licensing Incorporated (Verizon Communications Inc.)
• Inventors: Khalid, Mohammad Raheel, Jaafar, Ali
• Primary Examiner(s): Demeter, Hilina K
• Application Number:
  US15/087,926
• Publication Number:
  US 20170285738A1
• Time in Patent Office: 915 Days
• Field of Search: None
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2203/04802 3D-info-object: information is displayed on the internal or external surface of a three dimensional manipulable object, e.g. on the faces of a cube that can be rotated by the user
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/013 Eye tracking input arrangements G06F3/015 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/04815 Interaction with a metaphor-based environment or interaction object displayed as three-dimensional, e.g. changing the user viewpoint with respect to the environment or object
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/04842 Selection of displayed objects or displayed text elements G06F3/0482 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/02 Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 15/005 General purpose rendering architectures
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 15/20 Perspective computation
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 19/003 Navigation within 3D models or images
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 19/20 Editing of 3D images, e.g. changing shapes or colours, aligning objects or positioning parts
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 2219/2016 Rotation, translation, scaling

Abstract

An exemplary virtual reality media system provides a field of view of an immersive virtual reality world for display. The field of view includes content of the immersive virtual reality world and dynamically changes in response to user input provided by a user. The virtual reality media system integrates a virtual object into the immersive virtual reality world and detects that a gaze of the user is directed at the virtual object while the virtual object is within the field of view. The virtual reality media system tracks an amount of time that the gaze of the user is directed at the virtual object and, based on the tracked amount of time, generates effectiveness data for the virtual object with respect to the user. Corresponding methods and systems are also disclosed.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

providing, by a virtual reality media system for display on a display screen of a media player device being used by a user, a field of view of an immersive virtual reality world generated from and including camera-captured real-world scenery that includes real objects and that is separate from real-world scenery in an immediate vicinity of the user,

wherein the field of view of the immersive virtual reality world dynamically changes in response to user input provided by the user as the user experiences the immersive virtual reality world, and

wherein the camera-captured real-world scenery is presented within the field of view and the real-world scenery in the immediate vicinity of the user is not presented in the field of view together with the camera-captured real-world scenery;

integrating, by the virtual reality media system, a three-dimensional (“

3D”

) virtual object into the immersive virtual reality world with the real objects included in the camera-captured real-world scenery that is separate from the real-world scenery in the immediate vicinity of the user, the integrating of the 3D virtual object including assigning a plurality of display parameters to the 3D virtual object, the plurality of display parameters used to determine a location, an orientation, a size, and a time period during which the 3D virtual object is viewable, as the location, the orientation, and the size of the 3D virtual object appear to the user during the time period as the user experiences the immersive virtual reality world through the field of view;

dynamically changing, by the virtual reality media system, one or more display parameters in the plurality of display parameters to cause the 3D virtual object to appear to the user to move or change within the immersive virtual reality world as the user experiences the immersive virtual reality world through the field of view;

integrating, by the virtual reality media system, content into the immersive virtual reality world by presenting the content on the 3D virtual object while the one or more display parameters are dynamically changing to cause the 3D virtual object to appear to the user to move or change within the immersive virtual reality world;

detecting, by the virtual reality media system while the content is included within the field of view, that a gaze of the user is directed at the content;

tracking, by the virtual reality media system based on the detecting, an amount of time that the gaze of the user is directed at the content; and

generating, by the virtual reality media system, promotional effectiveness data for the content with respect to the user based on the amount of time that the gaze of the user is directed at the content.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the integrating of the content into the immersive virtual reality world by presenting the content on the 3D virtual object includes:

mapping the content onto an outer surface of the 3D virtual object such that the content is viewable as a skin of the 3D virtual object when the outer surface of the 3D virtual object is located within the field of view of the immersive virtual reality world.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein:

the plurality of display parameters includes;

a positional parameter determinative of the location of the 3D virtual object as the location appears to the user within the immersive virtual reality world,

an orientational parameter determinative of the orientation of the 3D virtual object as the orientation appears to the user within the immersive virtual reality world,

a scaling parameter determinative of the size of the 3D virtual object as the size appears to the user within the immersive virtual reality world, and

a time parameter determinative of the time period of the 3D virtual object during which the 3D virtual object is viewable to the user within the immersive virtual reality world; and

the dynamic changing of the one or more display parameters includes at least one of

changing the positional parameter to cause the 3D virtual object to appear to the user to move within the immersive virtual reality world,

changing the orientational parameter to cause the 3D virtual object to appear to the user to rotate within the immersive virtual reality world,

changing the scaling parameter to cause the size of the 3D virtual object to appear to the user to change within the immersive virtual reality world, and

changing the time parameter to cause the 3D virtual object to be viewable to the user within the immersive virtual reality world during an additional time period that is different from the time period.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the detecting that the gaze of the user is directed at the content includes:

tracking a gaze reticle persistently centered within the field of view with respect to at least one of a vertical dimension of the field of view and a horizontal dimension of the field of view; and

determining, based on the tracking of the gaze reticle, that the gaze reticle is directed at the content.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the detecting that the gaze of the user is directed at the content includes:

tracking eye movements of the user as the user experiences the immersive virtual reality world; and

determining, based on the tracking of the eye movements, that the user is looking at the content.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the generated promotional effectiveness data for the content includes data indicative of a prominence of the content within the immersive virtual reality world, the prominence including at least one of a display size of the content and a prominence zone of the immersive virtual reality world in which the content is located.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the generated promotional effectiveness data for the content further includes data indicative of a total amount of time that the gaze of the user has been directed at the content as an aggregation of one or more separate instances that the gaze of the user has been directed at the content.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the generated promotional effectiveness data for the content includes data indicative of whether a supplemental action associated with the content has been triggered based on the amount of time that the gaze of the user is directed at the content.

9. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

aggregating, by the virtual reality media system, the generated promotional effectiveness data for the content with respect to the user with generated promotional effectiveness data for the content with respect to a plurality of other users to generate aggregated promotional effectiveness data for the content with respect to a plurality of users experiencing the immersive virtual reality world that includes the user and the plurality of other users; and

incorporating, by the virtual reality media system into the aggregated promotional effectiveness data, profile data related to the plurality of users experiencing the immersive virtual reality world.

10. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving, by the virtual reality media system, data representative of the camera-captured real-world scenery, the data representative of the camera-captured real-world scenery captured by at least one video camera arranged to capture a 360-degree image of the real-world scenery around a center point corresponding to the video camera; and

generating, by the virtual reality media system based on the received data representative of the camera-captured real-world scenery, the immersive virtual reality world.

11. The method of claim 1, embodied as computer-executable instructions on at least one non-transitory computer-readable medium.

12. A method comprising:

providing, by a virtual reality media system for display on a display screen of a media player device being used by a user, a field of view of an immersive virtual reality world generated from and including camera-captured real-world scenery that includes real objects and that is separate from real-world scenery in an immediate vicinity of the user,

wherein the field of view of the immersive virtual reality world dynamically changes in response to user input provided by the user as the user experiences the immersive virtual reality world, and

wherein the camera-captured real-world scenery is presented within the field of view and the real-world scenery in the immediate vicinity of the user is not presented in the field of view together with the camera-captured real-world scenery;

integrating, by the virtual reality media system, a three-dimensional (“

3D”

) virtual object into the immersive virtual reality world with the real objects included in the camera-captured real-world scenery that is separate from the real-world scenery in the immediate vicinity of the user, the integrating of the 3D virtual object including assigning a plurality of display parameters to the 3D virtual object, the plurality of display parameters used to determine a location, an orientation, a size, and a time period during which the 3D virtual object is viewable, as the location, the orientation, and the size of the 3D virtual object appear to the user during the time period as the user experiences the immersive virtual reality world through the field of view;

dynamically changing, by the virtual reality media system, one or more display parameters in the plurality of display parameters to cause the 3D virtual object to appear to the user to move or change within the immersive virtual reality world as the user experiences the immersive virtual reality world through the field of view;

integrating, by the virtual reality media system, content into the immersive virtual reality world by presenting the content on the 3D virtual object while the one or more display parameters are dynamically changing to cause the 3D virtual object to appear to the user to move or change within the immersive virtual reality world;

tracking, by the virtual reality media system while the content is included within the field of view, a gaze reticle persistently centered within the field of view with respect to at least one of a vertical dimension of the field of view and a horizontal dimension of the field of view;

determining, by the virtual reality media system based on the tracking of the gaze reticle, that the gaze reticle is directed at the content;

tracking, by the virtual reality media system based on the determining, an amount of time that the gaze of the user is directed at the content;

generating, by the virtual reality media system, promotional effectiveness data for the content with respect to the user based on the amount of time that the gaze of the user is directed at the content;

aggregating, by the virtual reality media system, the generated promotional effectiveness data for the content with respect to the user with generated promotional effectiveness data for the content with respect to a plurality of other users to generate aggregated promotional effectiveness data for the content with respect to a plurality of users experiencing the immersive virtual reality world that includes the user and the plurality of other users;

integrating, by the virtual reality media system into the aggregated promotional effectiveness data, profile data related to the plurality of users experiencing the immersive virtual reality world; and

providing, by the virtual reality media system, the aggregated promotional effectiveness data to a billing system configured to bill a sponsor associated with the content based on the aggregated promotional effectiveness data.

13. The method of claim 12, embodied as computer-executable instructions on at least one non-transitory computer-readable medium.

14. A system comprising:

at least one physical computing device that;

provides, for display on a display screen of a media player device being used by a user, a field of view of an immersive virtual reality world generated from and including camera-captured real-world scenery that includes real objects and that is separate from real-world scenery in an immediate vicinity of the user,

wherein the field of view of the immersive virtual reality world dynamically changes in response to user input provided by the user as the user experiences the immersive virtual reality world, and

wherein the camera-captured real-world scenery is presented within the field of view and the real-world scenery in the immediate vicinity of the user is not presented in the field of view together with the camera-captured real-world scenery;

integrates a three-dimensional (“

3D”

) virtual object into the immersive virtual reality world with the real objects included in the camera-captured real-world scenery that is separate from the real-world scenery in the immediate vicinity of the user by assigning a plurality of display parameters to the 3D virtual object, the plurality of display parameters used to determine a location, an orientation, a size, and a time period during which the 3D virtual object is viewable, as the location, the orientation, and the size of the 3D virtual object appear to the user during the time period as the user experiences the immersive virtual reality world through the field of view;

dynamically changes one or more display parameters in the plurality of display parameters to cause the 3D virtual object to appear to the user to move or change within the immersive virtual reality world as the user experiences the immersive virtual reality world through the field of view;

integrates a content into the immersive virtual reality world by presenting the content on the 3D virtual object while the one or more display parameters are dynamically changing to cause the 3D virtual object to appear to the user to move or change within the immersive virtual reality world;

detects, while the content is included within the field of view, that a gaze of the user is directed at the content;

tracks, based on the detection, an amount of time that the gaze of the user is directed at the content; and

generates promotional effectiveness data for the content with respect to the user based on the amount of time that the gaze of the user is directed at the content.

15. The system of claim 14, wherein the at least one physical computing device integrates the content into the immersive virtual reality world by presenting the content on the 3D virtual object by:

mapping the content onto an outer surface of the 3D virtual object such that the content is viewable as a skin of the 3D virtual object when the outer surface of the 3D virtual object is located within the field of view of the immersive virtual reality world.

16. The system of claim 14, wherein the at least one physical computing device detects that the gaze of the user is directed at the content by:

tracking a gaze reticle persistently centered within the field of view with respect to at least one of a vertical dimension of the field of view and a horizontal dimension of the field of view; and

determining, based on the tracking of the gaze reticle, that the gaze reticle is directed at the content.

17. The system of claim 14, wherein the at least one physical computing device detects that the gaze of the user is directed at the content by:

tracking eye movements of the user as the user experiences the immersive virtual reality world; and

determining, based on the tracking of the eye movements, that the user is looking at the content.

18. The system of claim 14, wherein the generated promotional effectiveness data for the content includes at least one of:

data indicative of a prominence of the content within the immersive virtual reality world, the prominence including at least one of a display size of the content and a prominence zone of the immersive virtual reality world in which the content is located; and

data indicative of a total amount of time that the gaze of the user has been directed at the content as an aggregation of one or more separate instances that the gaze of the user has been directed at the content.

19. The system of claim 14, wherein the generated promotional effectiveness data for the content includes data indicative of whether a supplemental action associated with the content has been triggered based on the amount of time that the gaze of the user is directed at the content.

20. The system of claim 14, wherein the at least one physical computing device further:

aggregates the generated promotional effectiveness data for the content with respect to the user with generated promotional effectiveness data for the content with respect to a plurality of other users to generate aggregated promotional effectiveness data for the content with respect to a plurality of users experiencing the immersive virtual reality world that includes the user and the plurality of other users; and

incorporates into the aggregated promotional effectiveness data profile data related to the plurality of users experiencing the immersive virtual reality world.