USING SMART OBJECTS IN A VIRTUAL UNIVERSE TO CONSERVE COMPUTING RESOURCES

• US 20090113421A1
• Filed: 10/31/2007
• Published: 04/30/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 10/31/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Hamilton, Rick A. II, O'Connell, Brian M., Pickover, Clifford A., Seaman, James W., Moskowitz, Paul A.
• Granted Patent: US 8,127,297 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 718/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/10 Office automation; Time management

Abstract

Described herein are processes and devices that use smart objects in a virtual universe to conserve computing resources. One of the devices described is a virtual resource conserver. The virtual resource conserver reads data that indicates that a resource conservation setting is to be selected for a virtual object in a virtual universe. The virtual resource conserver selects the resource conservation setting for the displayed virtual object. The resource conservation setting comprises data that describes a displayable characteristic about the virtual object, which can be reduced in display quality. The virtual resource conserver reduces the display quality of the virtual object in accordance with the selected resource conservation setting, thus conserving computing resources.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

reading data that indicates that a resource conservation setting is to be selected for a virtual object in a virtual universe to reduce usage of a computing resource;

selecting the resource conservation setting for the displayed virtual object, wherein said resource conservation setting comprises data that describes a displayable characteristic about the virtual object that can be reduced in display quality; and

reducing the display quality of the virtual object in accordance with the selected resource conservation setting.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

determining the computing resource is used to display the virtual object; and

reducing usage of the computing resource to display the virtual object.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein reducing usage of the computing resource comprises any one or more of turning off the computing resource, reducing a rate of computer processor cycles, reducing a rate of data transfer, and reducing a rate of memory access.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the display quality comprises any one or more of a number of triangles devoted to render the object, movements of the object, physical characteristics of the object, scripts that process the object, a sparkle effect, an amount of luminosity, and the objects location.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the data that indicates that a resource conservation setting is to be selected for the object indicates any one or more of an over usage of the computing resource, a busy period occurrence in the virtual universe, a performance degradation in an area of the virtual universe, an error occurrence in the virtual universe, a hardware component failure, memory over usage, clock cycle maximization, bandwidth diminishment in the virtual universe, a designated time period begins for reducing computing resources, the computing resource is being used inefficiently, and a virtual universe user account has enabled a conservation setting to conserve computing resources.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

providing a reward to any one or more of a virtual universe user account and an avatar that uses the virtual object.

7. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

gradually reducing the display quality of the virtual object.

8. A system, comprising:

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

a virtual resource conserver device configured to connect to any one of the machine and the communication network, wherein the virtual resource conserver device comprises

an indicator detection unit configured to read data that indicates that a resource conservation setting is to be selected for a virtual object in a virtual universe to reduce usage of a computing resource,

a conservation settings controller to select the resource conservation setting for the displayed virtual object, wherein said resource conservation setting comprises data that describes a displayable characteristic about the virtual object that can be reduced in display quality, and

a virtual resource conservation controller configured to reduce the display quality of the virtual object in accordance with the selected resource conservation setting.

9. The system of claim 8, wherein the virtual resource conservation, controller is configured to determine the computing resource is used to display the virtual object, and to reduce usage of the computing resource to display the virtual object.

10. The system of claim 8, wherein the conservation settings controller is configured to prepare the virtual object with the resource conservation setting.

11. The system of claim 8, further comprising:

a compensator unit configured to provide a reward to any one or more of a virtual universe user account and an avatar that uses the virtual object.

12. The system of claim 8, wherein the virtual resource conservation controller is configured to gradually reduce the display quality of the virtual object in accordance with the selected resource conservation setting.

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:

reading data that indicates that a resource conservation setting is to be selected for a virtual object in a virtual universe to reduce usage of a computing resource;

selecting the resource conservation setting for the displayed virtual object, wherein said resource conservation setting comprises data that describes a displayable characteristic about the virtual object that can be reduced in display quality; and

reducing the display quality of the virtual object in accordance with the selected resource conservation setting.

14. The machine-readable media of claim 13, wherein the operations further comprise;

determining the computing resource is used to display the virtual object; and

reducing usage of the computing resource to display the virtual object.

15. The machine-readable media of claim 13, wherein the operations further comprise preparing die virtual object with the resource conservation setting.

16. The machine-readable media of claim 13, wherein the selecting operation comprises querying a database to locate one or more records related to the virtual object.

17. The machine-readable media of claim 13, wherein the reducing operation comprises gradually reducing the display quality of the virtual object.

18. A method comprising:

determining a resource conservation setting for a virtual object that, when enabled, responds to an indicator in a virtual universe that an object is to reduce or augment in display quality; and

associating information with the resource conservation setting so that when the resource conservation setting responds to the indicator the information causes a reduction or augmentation in a display quality of a displayable characteristic of the virtual object.

19. The method of claim 18, wherein the conservation setting comprises conservation levels that indicate degrees of increasing reduction of display quality to reduce usage of one or more computing resources.

20. The method of claim 18, wherein the information comprises any one or more of an instruction and a value used to reduce or augment display quality.