System and method for enabling multiple-state avatars

• US 10,424,101 B2
• Filed: 04/25/2016
• Issued: 09/24/2019
• Est. Priority Date: 07/17/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Castelli, Vittorio, Hamilton, II, Rick A., Pickover, Clifford A., Ritsko, John J.
• Primary Examiner(s): Hajnik, Daniel F
• Application Number:
  US15/138,045
• Publication Number:
  US 20160239993A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,247 Days
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 13/40 of characters, e.g. humans, animals or virtual beings

Abstract

A method for rendering a virtual world avatar of a computerized system is disclosed. The method comprises defining a plurality of receptor points located on the virtual world avatar, wherein the plurality of receptor points is associated with at least one object that moves between the plurality of receptor points based upon at least one predetermined trigger, changing a state of at least one of the plurality of receptor points from a first state to a second state based upon a measurable quantity and a predetermined threshold to update the associated at least one object, and in response to the measurable quantity no longer satisfying the predetermined threshold, reverting the state of the at least one of the plurality of receptor points from the second state back to the first state.

Claims

1. A method for rendering a virtual world avatar of a computerized system, comprising:

defining a plurality of receptor points located on the virtual world avatar;

determining that the virtual world avatar has a hybrid state in which a first receptor point of the plurality of receptor points is associated with a first object and a second receptor point of the plurality of receptor points is associated with a second object;

moving the first object from the first receptor point of the plurality of receptor points to a third receptor point of the plurality of receptor points;

changing a state of the virtual world avatar from the hybrid state to a non-hybrid state based upon one or more measurable quantities satisfying one or more thresholds, wherein the non-hybrid state indicates that no object is associated with the second receptor point of the plurality of receptor points and the third receptor point of the plurality of receptor points; and

in response to the one or more measurable quantities no longer satisfying the one or more thresholds, reverting the state of the virtual world avatar from the non-hybrid state back to the hybrid state.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein video for another object associated with another receptor point of the plurality of receptor points comprises a pre-recorded video.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the first object moves from the first receptor point to a vicinity near the virtual world avatar.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the changing of the state is limited to a subset of permitted states in accordance with a controller preference.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein a measurable quantity of the one or more measurable quantities comprises any of physical movements of a controller of the virtual world avatar and parameters associated with other virtual world avatars.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein the physical movements comprise a quantity representative of a movement of any of a facial feature and a hand.

7. The method of claim 5, further comprising:

distributing avatar information to the controller by way of a peer-to-peer system.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein a measurable quantity of the one or more measurable quantities comprises a quantity representative of an audio signal.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein a measurable quantity of the one or more measurable quantities comprises a quantity representative of a computer system capability.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein a measurable quantity of the one or more measurable quantities comprises a quantity representative of an actuation of a monitored device.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein the monitored device comprises any of a keyboard, a joy stick, and an audio detector.

12. The method of claim 1, wherein a measurable quantity of the one or more measurable quantities comprises a quantity representative of a communication network performance.

13. The method of claim 1, wherein a measurable quantity of the one or more measurable quantities comprises a quantity representative of a controller computer processing capability.

14. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

limiting the changing of the state to a subset of a plurality of states.

15. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

maintaining the non-hybrid state for a portion of a system session.

16. The method of claim 15, further comprising:

maintaining the hybrid state for a portion of the system session.

17. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

changing a resolution of the virtual world avatar, wherein the changing of the resolution is limited to a subset of permitted states.

18. The method of claim 1, wherein the hybrid state comprises any of a static image hybrid state and a video hybrid state, and wherein the video hybrid state comprises any of a live video hybrid state and a pre-recorded video hybrid state.