Capabilities based management of virtual areas

• US 10,567,199 B2
• Filed: 11/21/2018
• Issued: 02/18/2020
• Est. Priority Date: 09/16/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Sococo, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Sococo, Inc.
• Inventors: Butler, Robert J., Leacock, Matthew, Van Wie, David, Brody, Paul J., Farmer, F. Randall
• Primary Examiner(s): Chea, Philip J
• Assistant Examiner(s): Ma, Wing
• Application Number:
  US16/198,516
• Publication Number:
  US 20190109731A1
• Time in Patent Office: 454 Days
• Field of Search: 709223
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 13/79 involving player-related data, e.g. identities, accounts, preferences or play histories
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/101 Collaborative creation, e.g. joint development of products or services
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/4641 Virtual LANs, VLANs, e.g. virtual private networks [VPN] LAN interconnection over a bridge based backbone H04L12/462; encapsulation techniques H04L12/4633; routing of packets H04L45/00; packet switches H04L49/00; virtual private networks for security H04L63/0272
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/043 using or handling presence information
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/131 Protocols for games, networked simulations or virtual reality

Abstract

Apparatus and methods of managing a virtual area based on communicant capabilities are described. The communicant capabilities are updated based on rules in response to events in the virtual area. An action by one communicant can affect the capabilities of another communicant. Communicant capabilities can be stored in respective server-side proxies and the virtual area can be managed without transmitting any of the capabilities to the communicants'"'"' client nodes. Capability-based permissions checks can be performed against communicant capabilities with wildcarded attribute fields.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method in a network communications environment comprising a server node supporting realtime communications between client nodes of co-present communicants in a virtual area comprising virtual rooms, the method comprising by the server node:

creating a capabilities engine to manage capabilities on behalf of communicants in the virtual area, and provide for each communicant a respective capability ring that stores the communicant'"'"'s persistent capabilities and transient capabilities that are granted as a result of applying capability rules to events;

monitoring states of a particular one of the virtual rooms as defined by a document object model (DOM) that represents a current state of the virtual area and comprises an occupancy attribute that provides an indication of occupancy in the particular virtual room;

dynamically updating the respective capability ring of the particular communicant based on changes in states of the communicants and the virtual rooms, wherein the dynamically updating comprises

based on a permissions check by the capabilities engine against the respective capability ring of the particular communicant, determining that the particular virtual room is in a first state as defined by a first set of one or more values of the one or more attributes in the DOM model and automatically granting a respective transient capability to enter the particular virtual room to the particular communicant, and

based on a permissions check by the capabilities engine against the respective capability ring of the particular communicant, ascertaining that the particular virtual room is in a second state as defined by a second set of one or more values of the one or more virtual room attributes in the DOM model in which the value of the occupancy attribute is different from the value of the occupancy attribute in the first state and automatically revoking the capability to enter the particular virtual room from the particular communicant; and

administering one or more of the supported realtime communications between the client nodes of respective ones of the communicants who are co-present in respective ones of the virtual rooms.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the occupancy attribute value corresponds to a count of the communicants who are present in the particular virtual room.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the first set of one or more values defining the first state of the particular virtual room comprises an occupancy value greater than zero, and the second set of one or more values defining the second state of the particular virtual room comprises an occupancy value of zero.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein the first set of one or more values comprises a particular role attribute value indicating membership in a particular group, and the respective capability to enter the particular virtual room is automatically granted to the particular communicant who is associated with the particular role attribute value.

5. The method of claim 3, wherein the first set of one or more values comprises a particular role attribute value indicating membership in a particular group, and the automatically granting comprises automatically granting the respective capability to enter the particular virtual room to the particular communicant without regard to membership in the particular group.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein the automatically revoking comprises:

responsive to a determination that occupancy in the virtual room by communicants who are not associated with the particular role attribute value is zero, automatically revoking the respective capability to enter the particular virtual room from communicants who are not associated with the particular role attribute value.

7. The method of claim 2, wherein the first set of one or more values defining the first state of the particular virtual room comprises an occupancy value of zero, and the second set of one or more values defining the second state of the particular virtual room comprises an occupancy value greater than zero.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the first set of one or more values comprises a particular value of a role attribute, and the automatically granting of the respective capability to enter the particular virtual room is based on a particular one of the one or more communicants being associated with the particular value of the role attribute.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein the automatically granting of the respective capability to enter the particular virtual room is responsive to the particular communicant occupying the particular virtual room.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein the automatically revoking of the capability to enter the particular virtual room is responsive to the particular communicant vacating the particular virtual room.

11. The method of claim 8, wherein the particular value of the role attribute is an owner of the particular virtual room.

12. The method of claim 1, wherein the first set of one or more values comprises a particular role attribute value, and the dynamically updating comprises automatically granting a respective capability to modify one or more attributes of the particular virtual room to a particular communicant who is occupying the particular virtual room and is not associated with the particular role attribute value;

and further comprising allowing the particular communicant to modify the one or more attributes of the particular virtual room conditioned on the particular communicant being present in the virtual room.

13. The method of claim 12, wherein the allowing is further conditioned on a communicant who is associated with the particular role attribute value being present in the particular virtual room during the allowing.

14. The method of claim 12, wherein the particular role attribute value indicates ownership of the particular virtual room.

15. The method of claim 12, wherein the particular role attribute value indicates membership in a group that is associated with the particular virtual room.

16. The method of claim 12, wherein the allowing comprises allowing the particular communicant to modify the state of the particular virtual room from a locked state to an unlocked state.

17. Apparatus in a network communications environment implemented by one or more server nodes and supporting realtime communications between client nodes of co-present communicants in virtual rooms that define respective communication contexts in the network communications environment, the apparatus comprising a non-transitory memory storing processor-readable instructions, and a processor coupled to the memory, operable to execute the instructions, and based at least in part on the execution of the instructions operable to perform operations comprising:

creating a capabilities engine to manage capabilities on behalf of communicants in the virtual area, and provide for each communicant a respective capability ring that stores the communicant'"'"'s persistent capabilities and transient capabilities that are granted as a result of applying capability rules to events;

monitoring states of a particular one of the virtual rooms as defined by a document object model (DOM) that represents a current state of the virtual area and comprises an occupancy attribute that provides an indication of occupancy in the particular virtual room;

dynamically updating the respective capability ring of the particular communicant based on changes in states of the communicants and the virtual rooms, wherein the dynamically updating comprises

based on a permissions check by the capabilities engine against the respective capability ring of the particular communicant, determining that the particular virtual room is in a first state as defined by a first set of one or more values of the one or more attributes in the DOM model and automatically granting a respective transient capability to enter the particular virtual room to the particular communicant, and

based on a permissions check by the capabilities engine against the respective capability ring of the particular communicant, ascertaining that the particular virtual room is in a second state as defined by a second set of one or more values of the one or more virtual room attributes in the DOM model in which the value of the occupancy attribute is different from the value of the occupancy attribute in the first state and automatically revoking the capability to enter the particular virtual room from the particular communicant; and

administering one or more of the supported realtime communications between the client nodes of respective ones of the communicants who are co-present in respective ones of the virtual rooms.

18. The apparatus of claim 17, wherein the capabilities of the particular communicant are maintained in the respective capability ring of the particular communicant and are not transmitted to the particular communicant'"'"'s client node.

19. A computer-readable data storage apparatus comprising a memory component storing executable instructions that are operable to be executed by a processor in a network communications environment comprising a network service implemented by one or more server nodes and supporting realtime communications between client nodes of co-present communicants in virtual rooms that define respective communication contexts in the network communications environment, wherein the memory component comprises:

executable instructions to create a capabilities engine to manage capabilities on behalf of communicants in the virtual area, and provide for each communicant a respective capability ring that stores the communicant'"'"'s persistent capabilities and transient capabilities that are granted as a result of applying capability rules to events;

executable instructions to monitor states of a particular one of the virtual rooms as defined by a document object model (DOM) that represents a current state of the virtual area and comprises an occupancy attribute that provides an indication of occupancy in the particular virtual room;

executable instructions to dynamically update the respective capability ring of the particular communicant based on changes in states of the communicants and the virtual rooms, wherein the dynamically updating comprises

based on a permissions check by the capabilities engine against the respective capability ring of the particular communicant, determining that the particular virtual room is in a first state as defined by a first set of one or more values of the one or more attributes in the DOM model and automatically granting a respective transient capability to enter the particular virtual room to the particular communicant, and

based on a permissions check by the capabilities engine against the respective capability ring of the particular communicant, ascertaining that the particular virtual room is in a second state as defined by a second set of one or more values of the one or more virtual room attributes in the DOM model in which the value of the occupancy attribute is different from the value of the occupancy attribute in the first state and automatically revoking the capability to enter the particular virtual room from the particular communicant; and

executable instructions to administer one or more of the supported realtime communications between the client nodes of respective ones of the communicants who are co-present in respective ones of the virtual rooms.

20. The computer-readable data storage apparatus of claim 19, wherein the capabilities of the particular communicant are maintained in the respective capability ring of the particular communicant and are not transmitted to the particular communicant'"'"'s client node.