CREATING DOCUMENTS FROM GRAPHICAL OBJECTS IN A VIRTUAL UNIVERSE

• US 20090083623A1
• Filed: 09/25/2007
• Published: 03/26/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 09/25/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Kyndryl Incorporated (Kyndryl Holdings, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Hamilton, Rick A. II, O'Connell, Brian M., Pickover, Clifford A., Seaman, James W., Walker, Keith R.
• Granted Patent: US 9,245,237 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 715/273
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/444 Spatial browsing, e.g. 2D maps, 3D or virtual spaces
• 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: G06Q 10/00 Administration; Management
• CPC Class Codes: G16Z 99/00 Subject matter not provided for in other main groups of this subclass

Abstract

Described herein are processes and devices that create and manage documents in a virtual universe. One of the devices described is a virtual document converter. The virtual document converter analyzes a set of one or more graphical objects of a virtual document in a virtual universe. The virtual document presents document content. The virtual document converter determines format information for generating a document file. The virtual document converter parses the document content of the virtual document. The virtual document converter generates the document file with the parsed document content and the determined format information.

Claims

1. A method, comprising:

determining document content and format information from one or more graphical objects of a virtual document in a virtual universe;

parsing the document content of the one or more graphical objects, wherein said parsing creates parsed document content; and

generating a document file utilizing the parsed document content and the format information.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the one or more graphical objects comprise a graphical representation of text, and wherein parsing the document content comprises

converting the graphical representation to text, and

encoding the text into a plurality of document pages.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein converting the graphical representation comprises applying one or more of an optical character recognition technique, a digital character recognition technique, a mechanical character replacement technique, and an electronic pattern recognition technique.

4. The method of claim 2, wherein generating the document file comprises binding the plurality of document pages into the document file.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

analyzing the format information from the one or more graphical objects of the virtual document to determine a parsing technique.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

processing the document file as a single, multi-page document in the virtual universe.

7. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

processing the document file in the virtual universe by performing one or more of printing the document file, saving the document file, transferring the document file within the virtual universe, separating a page from the document file to be transferred within the virtual universe, creating a shortcut to the document file, attaching the document file to an email, lending the document file, locking the document file, and retrieving the document file from a borrower.

8. A system comprising:

a machine configured to connect to a communication network, the machine configured to process data in a virtual universe;

a virtual document converter configured to connect to any one of the machine and the communication network, wherein the virtual document converter comprises

a virtual document processor configured to determine format information and document content from one or more graphical objects of a virtual document in a virtual universe,

a parser module configured to parse the document content of the virtual document and create parsed document content, and

a document generation module configured to generate the document file with the parsed document content and the determined format information.

9. The system of claim 8, further comprising:

a graphics to text converter to convert document content in graphical format to text.

10. The system of claim 9, wherein the parser module is configured to generate a plurality of document pages, wherein the virtual document processor encodes the text into a plurality of document pages, and wherein the document generation module is configured to bind the plurality of document pages into the document file.

11. The system of claim 8, further comprising:

a virtual universe document handler to control movement of the document file inside the virtual universe; and

a unit processing module to process the document file in the virtual universe.

12. The system of claim 8, wherein the virtual document converter is configured to convert the document file into a single, multi-page virtual document.

13. One or more machine-readable media having instructions stored thereon, which when executed by a set of one or more processors causes the set of one or more processors to perform operations that comprise:

determining format information and document content from one or more graphical objects of a virtual document in a virtual universe;

parsing the document content of the virtual document, wherein said parsing creates parsed document content; and

generating the document file with the parsed document content and the determined format information.

14. The machine-readable media of claim 13, wherein the one or more graphical objects comprise a graphical representation of text, and wherein parsing the document content comprises

converting the graphical representation to text, and

encoding the text into a plurality of document pages.

15. The machine-readable media of claim 14, wherein converting the graphical representation comprises applying one or more of optical character recognition, digital character recognition, mechanical character replacement, and electronic pattern recognition.

16. The machine-readable media of claim 14, wherein generating the document file comprises binding the plurality of document pages into the document file.

17. The machine-readable media of claim 13, further comprising:

processing the document file as a single, multi-page document in the virtual universe.

18. A method, comprising:

determining document content and formatting of a document file;

parsing the document content and formatting of the document file creating parsed document content that has a format that is displayable in a virtual universe; and

generating a multi-page virtual document with the parsed document content.

19. The method of claim 18, wherein parsing comprises

creating a plurality of virtual document pages having the formatted document content, and

binding the plurality of virtual document pages into the multi-page virtual document.

20. The method of claim 18, further comprising:

creating a document graphic object; and

associating the multi-page virtual document with the document graphic object.