Methods and Systems to Search in Virtual Reality for Real Time Communications

• US 20080262911A1
• Filed: 04/20/2007
• Published: 10/23/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 04/20/2007
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: YellowPages.com LLC (Mudrick Capital Management LP)
• Original Assignee: UTBK, Inc.
• Inventors: Van Der Linden, Sean, Altberg, Ebbe, Faber, Scott, Hirson, Ron, Manca, Paul G., Lyon, Ben Harris, Yang, Virginia Hong-Jia
• Application Number:
  US11/738,170
• Publication Number:
  US 20080262911A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 705/14
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/02 Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0277 Online advertisement

Abstract

Methods and systems to obtain information in a virtual reality environment for real time communication connections. One embodiment includes: a virtual reality server to host a virtual reality world and an avatar representing a participant of the virtual reality world, the virtual reality world including a virtual object to receive a message from an avatar; a controller to determine a context of the message and select an advertisement based on the context for presentation via the virtual object, the presented advertisement including an embedded reference to be used to request for a connection for real time communications; a session border controller to interface with a packet switched network; and one or more telecommunication servers coupled to the session border controller to connect the avatar to an advertiser of the advertisement for real time communications in response to a user of the avatar selecting the reference.

Claims

1. A method, comprising:

providing a virtual object in a virtual reality world, the virtual object to receive a message from an avatar representing a resident of the virtual reality world;

determining a context of the message;

selecting an advertisement based on the context; and

presenting the advertisement via the virtual object, the presented advertisement including an embedded reference to be used to request for a connection for real time communications.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the virtual reality world comprises a three dimensional model of a plurality of virtual objects;

and the advertisement is presented in the virtual reality world based on a view point of the avatar in the virtual reality world.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the reference comprises a telephone number of a connection provider without an extension, a telephone number with an extension of a connection provider, a session initiation protocol (SIP) uniform resource identifier (URI), or a voice over Internet protocol (VoIP) user identifier.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

computing a distance between the virtual object and the avatar at a time the message is provided by the avatar; and

transmitting the message to the virtual object if the distance is shorter than a threshold.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein the message is to be transmitted to listeners within the threshold from the avatar.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the message is in voice from a user of the avatar.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the message is publicly displayed in the vicinity of the avatar;

and the virtual object is configured to view a surrounding of the virtual object in the virtual world to obtain the message.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the determining of the context of the message comprises extracting one or more keywords from the message.

9. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

obtaining from the avatar a data packet configured to be carried by the avatar to indicate characteristics or preferences of the resident;

wherein the selecting of the advertisement includes selecting according to the data packet.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein the message is received via an instant messaging facility integrated with the virtual reality world.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein the message comprises a question asked by the avatar or a keyword search request submitted by the avatar.

12. The method of claim 1, wherein the advertisement further includes a second reference which when selected causes the avatar to be teleported to a location that is determined after the second reference is selected.

13. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

in response to a selection of the reference embedded in the advertisement, providing a connection between the avatar and an advertiser of the advertisement for real time communications.

14. The method of claim 13, wherein the providing of the connection comprises:

a connection provider establishing a first Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) connection to reach the avatar;

the connection provider placing a second Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) call to a telecommunication carrier which bridges the second VoIP call to a public switched telephone network (PSTN) to the advertiser; and

connecting the first VoIP connection with the second VoIP call.

15. The method of claim 14, wherein the connecting of the first VoIP connection with the second VoIP call comprises establishing a media connection to connect the advertiser and the avatar;

and wherein the media connection does not go through the connection provider.

16. The method of claim 13, wherein the providing of the connection comprises:

a connection provider establishing a first connection with the avatar and a second connection with the advertiser;

the connection provider bridging the first connection and the second connection.

17. The method of claim 16, wherein the connection provider bridging the first connection and the second connection comprises translating a message from a first language to a second language for transferring the message from the first connection to the second connection.

18. The method of claim 16, wherein the connection provider bridging the first connection and the second connection comprises converting a message between text and voice to bridge the first connection and the second connection.

19. A machine readable media embodying instructions, the instructions causing a machine to perform a method, the method comprising:

providing a virtual object in a virtual reality world, the virtual object to receive a message from an avatar representing a resident of the virtual reality world;

determining a context of the message;

selecting an advertisement based on the context; and

presenting the advertisement via the virtual object, the presented advertisement including an embedded reference to be used to request for a connection for real time communications.

20. A system, comprising:

a virtual reality server to host a virtual reality world and an avatar representing a participant of the virtual reality world, the virtual reality world including a virtual object to receive a message from an avatar;

a controller to determine a context of the message and select an advertisement based on the context for presentation via the virtual object, the presented advertisement including an embedded reference to be used to request for a connection for real time communications;

a session border controller to interface with a packet switched network; and

one or more telecommunication servers coupled to the session border controller to connect the avatar to an advertiser of the advertisement for real time communications in response to a user of the avatar selecting the reference.