System and method of enhanced computer user interaction
First Claim
1. A method of conveying information to a user of a computer, the method comprising:
- providing an agent program at said computer, said agent program operative to animate a character on a display of said computer based on a graphic file defining an appearance of said character and a behavior file specifying desired control of said character;
retrieving by said agent program said graphic file and said behavior file from a remote character server via an Internet connection between said computer and said remote character server, said remote character server providing dedicated storage for said graphic file and said behavior file;
generating by said agent program said character for display to the user based on graphic information in said graphic file and controlling said character based on instructions in said behavior file to effect said desired control of said character, thereby conveying said information to the user of said computer.
1 Assignment
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
A character agent resident on a user'"'"'s computer facilitates interaction with the computer. The character agent provides character animation, text balloons, menus, and speech input/output. The character agent may operate based on locally stored supporting files, and may significantly extend its flexibility with supporting files retrieved dynamically, such as during Internet browsing. In this latter context, the character agent greatly extends the opportunity for interaction between various Internet sites and the user. A character server, which may be the web server, downloads a Character Action Markup Language (CAML) document and supporting animation files. These files specify the animation and behavior of the character agent. A browser plug-in allows the character agent to respond to browser events according to the CAML document'"'"'s instructions. The character agent may automatically retrieve supporting files when provided with an active Internet connection, and may also be driven via a remote server using two-way scripting.
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Citations
53 Claims
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1. A method of conveying information to a user of a computer, the method comprising:
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providing an agent program at said computer, said agent program operative to animate a character on a display of said computer based on a graphic file defining an appearance of said character and a behavior file specifying desired control of said character;
retrieving by said agent program said graphic file and said behavior file from a remote character server via an Internet connection between said computer and said remote character server, said remote character server providing dedicated storage for said graphic file and said behavior file;
generating by said agent program said character for display to the user based on graphic information in said graphic file and controlling said character based on instructions in said behavior file to effect said desired control of said character, thereby conveying said information to the user of said computer. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40, 41, 42, 43, 44, 45, 46, 47, 48, 49, 50, 51, 52, 53)
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16. A method of conveying information to a user of a computer system, the method comprising:
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accessing a web page using a web browser running on the computer system, said web page containing notification that said web page is associated with a remote character server providing dedicated storage for supporting files associated with said information to be conveyed to the user;
notifying an agent program available on the computer system via a browser-associated program responsive to said notification in said web page;
retrieving by said agent program said supporting files from said character server in response to receiving said notification from said browser-associated program; and
providing a presentation under control of said agent program to the user of the computer system to convey said information based on generating a character as defined by a graphic file on a display of the computer system and controlling said character in accordance with instructions for said agent program contained in a behavior file;
said behavior file and said graphic retrieved from said remote character server by said agent program as part of said supporting files.
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34. A computer readable media comprising software for instructing a computer system to:
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determine if said computer system has an active connection with the Internet;
establish communications with a remote character server providing dedicated storage for a behavior file and a supporting graphic file;
retrieve said behavior file and said supporting graphic file from said remote character server;
display a character on a display of said computer system based on graphical information in said supporting graphic file; and
control said character to convey information to a user of said computer system based on said behavior file.
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Specification