REACTIVE VIRTUAL ENVIRONMENT

• US 20090251457A1
• Filed: 04/03/2008
• Published: 10/08/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 04/03/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Cisco Technology, Inc. (Cisco Systems, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Cisco Technology, Inc. (Cisco Systems, Inc.)
• Inventors: Walker, Douglas Jay, Morrison, William Henry IV, Bobbitt, Lisa Louise
• Granted Patent: US 8,531,447 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 345/418
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 13/00 Video games, i.e. games using an electronically generated display having two or more dimensions gaming systems which provide a financial reward G07F17/32
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 13/65 automatically by game devices or servers from real world data, e.g. measurement in live racing competition
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/00 Administration; Management
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/10 Office automation; Time management
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/103 Workflow collaboration or project management
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 1/00 General purpose image data processing
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 11/001 Texturing; Colouring; Generation of texture or colour inpainting G06T5/77
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 11/60 Editing figures and text; Combining figures or text
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 17/10 Constructive solid geometry [CSG] using solid primitives, e.g. cylinders, cubes
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 2207/30196 Human being; Person

Abstract

A system (and corresponding method) is provided that enables virtual spaces to be created based upon user activity and populated with users associated with, interested in or active within the same areas as the user, thus facilitating serendipitous interactions and exchange of knowledge. The system dynamically binds user representations (e.g., avatars, links) into a virtual space that is associated with an activity or topic. Essentially, the system is capable of dynamically gathering or generating representations of users associated with a workflow or tasks within an activity, project or topic thereby enhancing collaboration between users with regard to communications as well as generation and sharing of data.

Claims

1. A system, comprising:

a resource binding component that identifies a plurality of users associated to an activity; and

a dynamic rendering component that automatically generates or updates a representation of each of the plurality of users within an activity-specific immersive collaborative display, wherein the collaborative display includes representations of a plurality of resources relevant to the activity.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the dynamic rendering component populates the immersive collaborative display with a subset of the plurality of resources based upon context of a viewer.

3. The system of claim 2, wherein each of the plurality of resources is at least one of a data file, an application, a source or a contact.

4. The system of claim 1, further comprising an aggregation component that combines the plurality of users based upon the context of the activity.

5. The system of claim 4, further comprising at least one of a contacts monitoring component that identifies a plurality of contacts relevant to the activity, a content monitoring component that identifies a topic related to the activity or a context monitoring component that establishes context of the activity, wherein the identity of the plurality of contacts, the topic or the context is employed to combine the plurality of users.

6. The system of claim 4, further comprising an authentication component that validates each of the plurality of users in view of the activity.

7. The system of claim 6, further comprising an identity generation component that establishes ‘

identity’

of each of the plurality of users, wherein each ‘

identity’

is employed to validate each of the plurality of users based upon a policy.

8. The system of claim 1, further comprising a resource configuration component that arranges the plurality of users based upon real-world interaction.

9. The system of claim 8, further comprising a representation generation component that establishes an appropriate representation of each of the plurality of users, wherein the resource configuration component dynamically orientates each of the appropriate representations based upon an individual context related to the corresponding one of the plurality of users.

10. The system of claim 8, further comprising a filter component that dynamically masks a subset of the plurality of resources based upon at least one of user state, ‘

identity,’

preference or policy.

11. The system of claim 8, further comprising a localize/normalize component that converts a subset of the plurality of resources in accordance with an environmental context of a user.

12. The system of claim 8, further comprising a view generation component that configures the immersive collaborative display in accordance with device characteristics.

13. A computer-implemented method for dynamically displaying an immersive collaborative environment, comprising:

monitoring context of a plurality of users;

binding a subset of the users to an activity; and

rendering a spatial representation that dynamically depicts a subset of the plurality of users as a function of context of the activity.

14. The computer-implemented method of claim 13, further comprising:

identifying a plurality of resources based upon the activity; and

rendering a subset of the resources within the spatial representation based upon at least one of relevance or authorization.

15. The computer-implemented method of claim 13, further comprising dynamically updating the spatial representation based upon a change in the context of the activity.

16. The computer-implemented method of claim 13, further comprising dynamically updating the spatial representation based upon context of each of plurality of users.

17. The computer-implemented method of claim 13, wherein the spatial representation is at least one of a two-, two and a half-, or three-dimensional immersive collaborative display.

18. The computer-implemented method of claim 13, further comprising authenticating each of the plurality of users, wherein the act of rendering employs the authentication to select the subset of the plurality of users.

19. A computer-executable system, comprising:

means for establishing context of a plurality of users;

means for binding a subset of the plurality of users to a virtual environment based upon participation within an activity;

means for gathering a plurality of resources based upon context of the activity; and

means for individually displaying a subset of the plurality of resources to each of the users based upon perspective of each of the users.

20. The computer-executable system of claim 19, further comprising means for generating an appropriate representation of each of the users based upon current action of each of the users.