Crowd and cloud enabled virtual reality distributed location network

• US 10,356,215 B1
• Filed: 08/14/2014
• Issued: 07/16/2019
• Est. Priority Date: 03/15/2013
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Sony Interactive Entertainment LLC (Sony Group Corp.)
• Original Assignee: Sony Interactive Entertainment America LLC (Sony Group Corp.)
• Inventors: Cronin, John
• Primary Examiner(s): Strange, Aaron N
• Application Number:
  US14/460,275
• Time in Patent Office: 1,797 Days
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/444 Spatial browsing, e.g. 2D maps, 3D or virtual spaces
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/954 Navigation, e.g. using categorised browsing
• 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: H04L 67/01 Protocols
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/131 Protocols for games, networked simulations or virtual reality
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/535 Tracking the activity of the user network monitoring arrangements H04L43/00; recording of computer activity G06F11/34

Abstract

A virtual reality network provides access to a number of virtual reality representations, each virtual reality representation representing a location in a virtual universe and defined by VR data stored on the network. The VR data can be in a simplified data format. A database stores the network address and the location in the universe of each virtual reality representation. A database server provides access to the database. The database server generates a list of locations in response to a location query from a visitor, and provides the network address of the virtual reality representation of a selected location. A visitor connects to the database server with a client host to visit the locations in the virtual universe.

Claims

1. A system for accessing virtual reality (VR) representations in a virtual universe via a computer network, the system comprising:

memory that stores a plurality of VR data sets, each VR data set defining a VR representation of a respective different location within a virtual universe and comprising multiple images taken at the respective location and at a plurality of different times, wherein each image is stored in a time continuum in relation to each other image within the VR data set, and wherein each image is assigned a privacy level indicating a public mode or a private mode;

one or more VR data servers that accesses and transmits the VR data sets, each VR data server associated with one of the VR data sets;

a domain server that provides domain data regarding a selected location within the virtual universe, the domain data including a network address of the VR data server identified as storing the VR representation of the selected location; and

a client host that;

receives a selected privacy level corresponding to images associated with the VR representation of the selected location,

generates a map specific to a specified time period and the received privacy level, wherein the map indicates a set of locations within the virtual universe, and each of the locations in the set is represented by images taken during the specified time period and assigned the received privacy level,

receives a selection from the set of locations indicated by the generated map specific to the specified time period,

receives the domain data from the domain server, the domain data including the network address of the identified VR data server that stores the VR representation of the selected location,

accesses the VR data set defining the VR representation of the selected location at the specified time period via the identified VR data server at the network address without leaving the virtual universe, wherein the VR representation of the selected location at the specified time period includes a time marker that illustrates a range of other selectable times for the selected location, wherein the time marker further allows selection of a different time for the selected location so that a corresponding image of the selected location at the different time is displayed from the VR data set without leaving the virtual universe, and

displays the VR representation on a display of the client device, wherein the display of the VR representation includes an icon selectable to switch between a plurality of privacy modes that include the public mode, the private mode, and a mode in which both public and private images are displayed.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein each of the one or more VR data servers stores a database of multiple data sets of images at the same location at various times.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein at least one of the VR data sets comprise first data representing a plurality of photographs taken from a geographical location and comprise multiple data sets of images at the same location at various times, each photograph taken in a respective viewing direction, and second data representing the viewing direction of each photograph.

4. The system of claim 1, wherein the client host generates a virtual reality presentation utilizing the accessed VR data set and comprises a specific time or a range of times.

5. The system of claim 1, wherein the domain data in the domain server is automatically updated in the cloud with the data server and the location in the virtual reality universe associated with the VR data set stored by time.

6. The system of claim 1, wherein at least one of the VR data sets comprise data representing a photograph taken from a geographical location at a specific time.

7. The system of claim 1, wherein a crowd member can automatically create and store a VR data set by geo location and by time.

8. The system of claim 1, wherein the client host further displays a map of locations within the virtual universe, the displayed map including a time-travel icon indicating at least one location associated with images taken at the plurality of different times.

9. The system of claim 1, wherein each of the images are also associated with geolocation information that includes a time, longitude, latitude, and height describing where and when the image was captured.

10. A method for accessing virtual reality (VR) representations across different times in a virtual universe via a computer network, the method comprising:

storing a plurality of VR data sets in memory, each VR data set defining a VR representation of a respective different location within a virtual universe and comprising multiple images taken at the respective location and at a plurality of different times, wherein each image is stored in a time continuum relation to each other image within the VR data set, wherein each image is assigned a privacy level indicating a public mode or a private mode, and wherein each VR data set is associated with one of a plurality of VR data servers;

transmitting domain data from a domain server to a client device, the domain data including a selected location within the virtual universe and a network address of an identified one of the VR data servers that stores the VR representation of the selected location;

receiving a selected privacy level corresponding to images associated with the VR representation of the selected location;

generating a map specific to a specified time period and the received privacy level, wherein the map indicates a set of locations within the virtual universe, and each of the locations in the set is represented by images taken during the specified time period and assigned the received privacy level;

receiving a selection from the set of locations indicated by the generated map specific to the specified time period;

transmitting the domain data from the domain server to a client device, the domain data including the network address of the identified VR data server that stores the VR representation of the selected location;

providing the client device with access to the VR representation of the selected location at the specified time period via the identified VR data server at the network address without leaving the virtual universe, wherein the VR representation of the selected location at the specified time period includes a time marker that illustrates a range of other selectable times for the selected location, wherein the time marker further allows selection of a different time for the selected location so that a corresponding image of the selected location at the different time is displayed from the VR data set without leaving the virtual universe, and

displaying the VR representation on a display of the client device, wherein the display of the VR representation includes an icon selectable to switch between a plurality of privacy modes that include the public mode, the private mode, and a mode in which both public and private images are displayed.

11. A virtual reality viewing system for viewing virtual locations in a virtual universe accessed through a computer network, the viewing system comprising:

memory that stores;

a plurality of VR data sets, each VR data set defining a VR representation of a respective different location within the virtual universe and comprising multiple images taken at the respective location and at a plurality of different times, wherein each image is stored in a time continuum in relation to each other image within the VR data set, and wherein each image is assigned a privacy level indicating a public mode or a private mode; and

data representing a map of the locations in the virtual universe represented by the plurality of VR data sets;

a display that displays an image of a map from the map data;

a communication interface that communicates over a communication network, wherein the communication interface;

receives a selected privacy level corresponding to images associated with the VR representation of the selected location,

generates a map specific to a specified time period and the received privacy level, wherein the map indicates a set of locations within the virtual universe, and each of the locations in the set is represented by images taken during the specified time period and assigned the received privacy level,

receives a selection from a client device from the set of locations indicated by the generated map specific to the specified time period,

transmits domain data to the client device, the domain data including the network address of a network data server associated with the selected location,

provides the VR data set defining the VR representation of the selected location at the specified time period to the client device via the network data server at the network address without requiring the client device to leave the virtual universe, wherein the VR representation of the selected location at the specified time period includes a time marker that illustrates a range of other selectable times for the selected location, wherein the time marker further allows selection of a different time for the selected location so that a corresponding image of the selected location at the different time is displayed from the VR data set without leaving the virtual universe, and

displays the VR representation on a display of the client device, wherein the display of the VR representation includes an icon selectable to switch between a plurality of privacy modes that include the public mode, the private mode, and a mode in which both public and private images are displayed.

12. The viewing system of claim 11, wherein the display further displays the map at a specific time.

13. The viewing system of claim 11, wherein the display further display the map at various times in a time traveler mode.

14. A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium having embodied thereon a program executable by a processor to perform a method for accessing virtual reality (VR) representations across different times in a virtual universe via a computer network, the method comprising:

storing a plurality of VR data sets, each VR data set defining a VR representation of a respective different location within a virtual universe and comprising multiple images taken at the respective location and at a plurality of different times, wherein each image is taken at the respective location and at a plurality of different times, wherein each image is stored in a time continuum in relation to each other image within the VR data set, and wherein each image is assigned a privacy level indicating a public mode or a private mode;

transmitting domain data from a domain server to a client device, the domain data including a selected location within the virtual universe and a network address of an identified VR data server that stores the VR representation of the selected location;

receiving a selected privacy level corresponding to images associated with the VR representation of the selected location;

generating a map specific to a specified time period and the received privacy level, wherein the map indicates a set of locations within the virtual universe, and each of the locations in the set is represented by images taken during the specified time period and assigned the received privacy level;

receives a selection from the set of locations indicated by the generated map specific to the specified time period;

transmitting the domain data from the domain server to a client device, the domain data including the network address of the VR data server associated with the selected location;

providing the client device with access to the VR representation of the selected location at the specified time period via the identified VR data server at the network address without leaving the virtual universe, wherein the VR representation of the selected location at the specified time period includes a time marker that illustrates a range of other selectable times for the selected location, wherein the time marker further allows selection of a different time for the selected location so that a corresponding image of the selected location at the different time is displayed from the VR data set without leaving the virtual universe; and

displaying the VR representation on a display of the client device, wherein the display of the VR representation includes an icon selectable to switch between a plurality of privacy modes that include the public mode, the private mode, and a mode in which both public and private images are displayed.