SHARED VIRTUAL AREA COMMUNICATION ENVIRONMENT BASED APPARATUS AND METHODS
First Claim
Patent Images
1. A method, comprising:
- determining interaction options from results of querying at least one database comprising interaction records describing respective interactions of a user in a virtual communication environment comprising virtual areas and supporting realtime communications between the user and other communicants, wherein each of the interaction records comprises a respective place attribute value that identifies a respective one of the virtual areas in which a respective one of the interactions occurred and one or more communicant identifier attribute values that identify respective ones of the communicants that participated in the interaction in the respective virtual area;
on a display, presenting a user interface comprising graphic representations of the interaction options in association with a respective set of one or more user-selectable controls; and
in response to the user'"'"'s selection of a respective one of the user-selectable controls, initiating an interaction of the user in the virtual communication environment.
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Accused Products
Abstract
Improved systems and methods for navigating and interacting in virtual communication environments. At least some of these systems and methods provide a framework that includes one or more virtual areas and supports realtime communications between the communicants. At least some of these systems and methods provide an interface that includes navigation controls that enable a user to navigate virtual areas and interaction controls that enable the user to interact with other communicants in the one or more virtual areas.
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Citations
211 Claims
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1. A method, comprising:
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determining interaction options from results of querying at least one database comprising interaction records describing respective interactions of a user in a virtual communication environment comprising virtual areas and supporting realtime communications between the user and other communicants, wherein each of the interaction records comprises a respective place attribute value that identifies a respective one of the virtual areas in which a respective one of the interactions occurred and one or more communicant identifier attribute values that identify respective ones of the communicants that participated in the interaction in the respective virtual area; on a display, presenting a user interface comprising graphic representations of the interaction options in association with a respective set of one or more user-selectable controls; and in response to the user'"'"'s selection of a respective one of the user-selectable controls, initiating an interaction of the user in the virtual communication environment. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33)
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34. At least one computer-readable medium having computer-readable program code embodied therein, the computer-readable program code adapted to be executed by a computer to implement a method comprising:
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determining interaction options from results of querying at least one database comprising interaction records describing respective interactions of a user in a virtual communication environment comprising virtual areas and supporting realtime communications between the user and other communicants, wherein each of the interaction records comprises a respective place attribute value that identifies a respective one of the virtual areas in which a respective one of the interactions occurred and one or more communicant identifier attribute values that identify respective ones of the communicants that participated in the interaction in the respective virtual area; on a display, presenting a user interface comprising graphic representations of the interaction options in association with a respective set of one or more user-selectable controls; and in response to the user'"'"'s selection of a respective one of the user-selectable controls, initiating an interaction of the user in the virtual communication environment.
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35. Apparatus, comprising:
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a display; a computer-readable medium storing computer-readable instructions; and a data processing unit coupled to the memory, operable to execute the instructions, and based at least in part on the execution of the instructions operable to perform operations comprising determining interaction options from results of querying at least one database comprising interaction records describing respective interactions of a user in a virtual communication environment comprising virtual areas and supporting realtime communications between the user and other communicants, wherein each of the interaction records comprises a respective place attribute value that identifies a respective one of the virtual areas in which a respective one of the interactions occurred and one or more communicant identifier attribute values that identify respective ones of the communicants that participated in the interaction in the respective virtual area; on the display, presenting a user interface comprising graphic representations of the interaction options in association with a respective set of one or more user-selectable controls; and in response to the user'"'"'s selection of a respective one of the user-selectable controls, initiating an interaction of the user in the virtual communication environment.
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36. A method, comprising:
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on a display, displaying a representation of a virtual area in a virtual communication environment supporting realtime communications between a user and other communicants; on the display, presenting user-selectable controls that enable the user to manage interactions with the virtual area and ones of the other communicants; establishing a respective presence of the user in the virtual area in response to input received from the user via the user-selectable controls; and on the display, depicting a respective graphical representation of each of the communicants who has presence in the virtual area, wherein the depicting comprises rendering each of the respective graphic representations of the communicants in a respective position in the virtual area and with a three-dimensional spherical body element supporting a directional graphic sight element that has a variable orientation indicating a direction of attentional focus of the user in the virtual area. - View Dependent Claims (37, 38, 39)
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40. A method, comprising:
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on a display, displaying a representation of a virtual area in a virtual communication environment supporting realtime communications between a user and other communicants; on the display, presenting user-selectable controls that enable the user to manage interactions with the virtual area and ones of the other communicants, wherein the presenting comprises displaying an immersion control interface enabling the user to select a level of interaction with the particular virtual area from a set of different interaction levels; establishing a respective presence of the user in the virtual area in response to input received from the user via the user-selectable controls; and on the display, depicting a respective graphical representation of each of the communicants who has presence in the virtual area. - View Dependent Claims (41, 42, 43, 44, 45)
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46. A method, comprising operating a processor to perform operations comprising:
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associating place attribute values with realtime interactions of a user and other communicants operating on respective network nodes and sharing a virtual communication environment comprising one or more virtual areas and supporting realtime communications between the user and the other communicants, wherein the associating comprises, for each interaction involving a respective one of the communicants in a respective one of the one or more virtual areas, generating a respective interaction record comprising a respective place attribute value that identifies the virtual area in which the interaction occurred and one or more communicant identifier attribute values that identify respective ones of the communicants that participated in the interaction; and interfacing the user and the other communicants to the virtual communication environment based on the associated place attribute values. - View Dependent Claims (47, 48, 49, 50, 51, 52, 53, 54, 55, 56, 57, 58, 59, 60, 61, 62, 63, 64, 65, 66, 67, 68, 69, 70, 71)
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72. A method, comprising:
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at a predetermined time, presenting on a display an invitation to join a meeting that is scheduled to occur in a virtual area of a virtual communication environment supporting realtime communications between a user and other communicants operating on respective network nodes, and a control for accepting the invitation; in response to the user'"'"'s selection of the control, establishing a respective presence of the user in the virtual area; and on the display, depicting a representation of a virtual area and a respective graphical representation of each of the communicants who has presence in the virtual area.
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73. A method, comprising:
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on a display, displaying a representation of a virtual area in a virtual communication environment supporting realtime communications between a user and other communicants operating on respective network nodes; on the display, presenting user-selectable controls that enable the user to manage interactions with the virtual area and ones of the other communicants; on the display, depicting a respective graphical representation of each of the communicants who has a presence in the virtual area, wherein the depicting comprises determining respective locations of the respective graphical representations of the communicants in the virtual area based on respective realtime differential motion streams that describe movement of the respective graphical representations of the communicants in the virtual area and are received from the network nodes, and automatically repositioning at least a particular one of the graphic representations of the communicants based on at least one of the determined position of the particular graphic representation in the virtual area and proximity of the particular graphic representation to at least one other graphic representation of the communicants in the virtual area.
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74. A method, comprising:
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on a display, displaying a representation of a virtual area in a virtual communication environment supporting realtime communications between a user and other communicants; on the display, presenting user-selectable controls that enable the user to manage interactions with the virtual area and ones of the other communicants, wherein the user-selectable controls comprise a modification control that enables the user to initiate a modification of the virtual area on-demand; establishing a respective presence of the user in the virtual area in response to input received from the user via the user-selectable controls; and on the display, depicting a respective graphical representation of each of the communicants who has presence in the virtual area. - View Dependent Claims (75, 76, 77, 78)
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79. A method, comprising operating a processor to perform operations comprising:
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associating place attribute values with data files received from communicants operating on respective network nodes and sharing a virtual communications environment comprising one or more virtual areas and supporting realtime communications between the communicants, wherein the associating comprises, for each of the data files shared by a respective one of the communicants in a respective one of the one or more virtual areas, generating a respective interaction record comprising a respective one of the place attribute values that identifies the respective virtual area in which the data file was shared and a respective data file identifier that identifies the respective data file; and managing sharing of the data files between the communicants based on the associated place attribute values. - View Dependent Claims (80, 81, 82, 83, 84, 85, 86, 87, 88, 89, 90, 91, 92, 93, 94, 95, 96, 97, 98, 99, 100, 101, 102, 103, 104, 105, 106, 107)
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108. At least one computer-readable medium having computer-readable program code embodied therein, the computer-readable program code adapted to be executed by a computer to implement a method comprising:
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associating place attribute values with data files received from communicants operating on respective network nodes and sharing a virtual communications environment comprising one or more virtual areas and supporting realtime communications between the communicants, wherein the associating comprises, for each of the data files shared by a respective one of the communicants in a respective one of the one or more virtual areas, generating a respective interaction record comprising a respective one of the place attribute values that identifies the respective virtual area in which the data file was shared and a respective data file identifier that identifies the respective data file; and managing sharing of the data files between the communicants based on the associated place attribute values.
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109. Apparatus, comprising:
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a computer-readable medium storing computer-readable instructions; and a data processing unit coupled to the memory, operable to execute the instructions, and based at least in part on the execution of the instructions operable to perform operations comprising associating place attribute values with data files received from communicants operating on respective network nodes and sharing a virtual communications environment comprising one or more virtual areas and supporting realtime communications between the communicants, wherein the associating comprises, for each of the data files shared by a respective one of the communicants in a respective one of the one or more virtual areas, generating a respective interaction record comprising a respective one of the place attribute values that identifies the respective virtual area in which the data file was shared and a respective data file identifier that identifies the respective data file; and managing sharing of the data files between the communicants based on the associated place attribute values.
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110. A method, comprising:
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on a display, displaying a graphic representation of a virtual area in a virtual communication environment supporting realtime communications between a first communicant operating on a first network node and a second communicant operating on a second network node; on the first network node; executing a first software application that establishes a first realtime data stream connection between the first and second network nodes, wherein the first realtime data stream connection is associated with a reference to the virtual area, concurrently with the execution of the first software application, executing a second software application that establishes a second realtime data stream connection between the first network node and a third network node on which a third communicant is operating, wherein the second realtime data stream connection is free of any reference to the virtual area, and producing one or more integrated realtime data streams from realtime data streams exchanged over the first and second realtime data stream connections. - View Dependent Claims (111, 112, 113, 114, 115, 116, 117)
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118. At least one computer-readable medium having computer-readable program code embodied therein, the computer-readable program code adapted to be executed by a computer to implement a method comprising:
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on a display, displaying a graphic representation of a virtual area in a virtual communication environment supporting realtime communications between a first communicant operating on a first network node and a second communicant operating on a second network node; and on the first network node, executing a first software application that establishes a first realtime data stream connection between the first and second network nodes, wherein the first realtime data stream connection is associated with a reference to the virtual area, concurrently with the execution of the first software application, executing a second software application that establishes a second realtime data stream connection between the first network node and a third network node on which a third communicant is operating, wherein the second realtime data stream connection is free of any reference to the virtual area, and producing one or more integrated realtime data streams from realtime data streams exchanged over the first and second realtime data stream connections.
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119. A local network node, comprising:
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a display; a computer-readable medium storing computer-readable instructions; and a data processing unit coupled to the memory, operable to execute the instructions, and based at least in part on the execution of the instructions operable to perform operations comprising on the display, displaying a graphic representation of a virtual area in a virtual communication environment supporting realtime communications between a first communicant operating on the local network node and a second communicant operating on a remote network node; on the local network node, executing a first software application that establishes a first realtime data stream connection between the local and remote network nodes, wherein the first realtime data stream connection is associated with a reference to the virtual area, concurrently with the execution of the first software application, executing a second software application that establishes a second realtime data stream connection between the local network node and a second remote network node on which a third communicant is operating, wherein the second realtime data stream connection is free of any reference to the virtual area, and producing one or more integrated realtime data streams from realtime data streams exchanged over the first and second realtime data stream connections.
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120. A method, comprising operating a server network node to perform operations comprising:
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executing an instance of a client software application in association with a virtual area in a virtual communication environment supporting realtime communications between communicants operating on respective client network nodes; receiving realtime input data streams from respective ones of the client network nodes associated with the communicants interacting in the virtual area; producing a composite data stream from the realtime input data streams; inputting the composite data stream to the executing instance of the client software application; generating respective instances of an output data stream from output generated by the executing instance of the client software application at least in part in response to the inputting of the composite data stream; and transmitting the instances of the output data stream to respective ones of the client network nodes associated with communicants interacting in the virtual area. - View Dependent Claims (121, 122, 123, 124, 125)
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126. At least one computer-readable medium having computer-readable program code embodied therein, the computer-readable program code adapted to be executed by a computer to implement a method comprising:
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executing an instance of a client software application in association with a virtual area in a virtual communication environment supporting realtime communications between communicants operating on respective client network nodes; receiving realtime input data streams from respective ones of the client network nodes associated with the communicants interacting in the virtual area; producing a composite data stream from the realtime input data streams; inputting the composite data stream to the executing instance of the client software application; generating respective instances of an output data stream from output generated by the executing instance of the client software application at least in part in response to the inputting of the composite data stream; and transmitting the instances of the output data stream to respective ones of the client network nodes associated with communicants interacting in the virtual area.
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127. A server network node, comprising:
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a computer-readable medium storing computer-readable instructions; and a data processing unit coupled to the memory, operable to execute the instructions, and based at least in part on the execution of the instructions operable to perform operations comprising executing an instance of a client software application in association with a virtual area in a virtual communication environment supporting realtime communications between communicants operating on respective client network nodes; receiving realtime input data streams from respective ones of the client network nodes associated with the communicants interacting in the virtual area; producing a composite data stream from the realtime input data streams; inputting the composite data stream to the executing instance of the client software application; generating respective instances of an output data stream from output generated by the executing instance of the client software application at least in part in response to the inputting of the composite data stream; and transmitting the instances of the output data stream to respective ones of the client network nodes associated with communicants interacting in the virtual area.
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128. A method, comprising
establishing a virtual area in a virtual communications environment supporting realtime communications between communicants operating on respective network nodes; -
creating a respective presence in the virtual area for each of one or more of the communicants; and transmitting information between a file store associated with the virtual area and a wiki resource in response to input received from a respective one of the network nodes associated with a respective one of the communicants who has presence in the virtual area. - View Dependent Claims (129, 130, 131, 132, 133, 134, 135, 136, 137, 138, 139, 140, 141, 142, 143, 144, 145, 146)
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147. At least one computer-readable medium having computer-readable program code embodied therein, the computer-readable program code adapted to be executed by a computer to implement a method comprising:
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establishing a virtual area in a virtual communications environment supporting realtime communications between communicants operating on respective network nodes; creating a respective presence in the virtual area for each of one or more of the communicants; and transmitting information between a file store associated with the virtual area and a wiki resource in response to input received from a respective one of the network nodes associated with a respective one of the communicants who has presence in the virtual area.
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148. Apparatus, comprising:
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a computer-readable medium storing computer-readable instructions; and a data processing unit coupled to the memory, operable to execute the instructions, and based at least in part on the execution of the instructions operable to perform operations comprising establishing a virtual area in a virtual communications environment supporting realtime communications between communicants operating on respective network nodes; creating a respective presence in the virtual area for each of one or more of the communicants; and transmitting information between a file store associated with the virtual area and a wiki resource in response to input received from a respective one of the network nodes associated with a respective one of the communicants who has presence in the virtual area.
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149. A method, comprising:
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associating place attribute values with realtime interactions of a user and other communicants operating on respective network nodes and sharing a virtual communication environment comprising at least one virtual area and supporting realtime communications between the user and the other communicants, wherein each of the user and the other communicants is associated with a respective object in the virtual area; and interfacing the user and the other communicants to the virtual communication environment based on the associated place attribute values. - View Dependent Claims (150, 151, 152, 153, 154, 155, 156, 157, 158, 159, 160, 161, 162, 163, 164, 165, 166, 167, 168, 169, 170, 171, 172, 173, 174, 175, 176, 177, 178, 179, 180, 181, 182, 183, 184, 185, 186, 187, 188, 189, 190, 191, 192, 193, 194, 195, 196, 197, 198, 199, 200, 201, 202, 203, 204, 205, 206, 207, 208, 209, 210, 211)
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Specification