Automated selection of avatar characteristics for groups
First Claim
1. A method, comprising:
- hosting a multi-participant application in which participants are represented as avatars;
providing a set of available avatar characteristics from which participants can select to create their respective user-specific avatars;
recognizing a plurality of the participants as affiliated with a group;
receiving an instruction from at least one participant affiliated with the group that associates a first subset of the available avatar characteristics with the group; and
after receiving the instruction, providing only the first subset of available avatar characteristics to the participants affiliated with the group.
2 Assignments
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
Systems, apparatuses, and methods for automating avatar selection for groups are disclosed. A representative method includes providing a software application accessible to multiple users, and a database of available avatar characteristics that are selectively combinable to create user-specific avatars with which the users can represent themselves to each other in the application. User(s) associated with a group provide an instruction that associates a first set of the available avatar characteristics with the group. For users associated with the group, access is then restricted to the first set of avatar characteristics, and for users not associated with the group, access is restricted to a different second set of available avatar characteristics. Avatar characteristics in the first set may be selected by an automated procedure that analyzes user-specific avatars of some users, and selects which of the available avatar characteristics to include in the first set based on the analysis.
-
Citations
24 Claims
-
1. A method, comprising:
-
hosting a multi-participant application in which participants are represented as avatars; providing a set of available avatar characteristics from which participants can select to create their respective user-specific avatars; recognizing a plurality of the participants as affiliated with a group; receiving an instruction from at least one participant affiliated with the group that associates a first subset of the available avatar characteristics with the group; and after receiving the instruction, providing only the first subset of available avatar characteristics to the participants affiliated with the group. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9)
-
-
10. An apparatus, comprising:
-
storage configured to store a multi-participant application in which participants are represented as avatars, and for storing a set of available avatar characteristics from which the participants can select to create their respective avatars; and a processor configured to recognize a plurality of the participants as affiliated with a group, to identify from the set of available avatar characteristics a first subset of avatar characteristics associated with the group, and to limit at least some of the avatar characteristics available to the participants affiliated with the group to the first subset of avatar characteristics. - View Dependent Claims (11, 12, 13, 14, 15)
-
-
16. An apparatus, comprising:
-
a receiver configured to receive application information for a multi-user application in which users are represented as avatars, the application information including at least avatar characteristics; a user output configured to present a set of avatar characteristics from which a user can select to create a respective avatar; a user input configured to facilitate user designation of a group of users in which to be affiliated; and wherein the user output is further configured to present a subset of the set of avatar characteristics that are available for selection by the user in response to becoming affiliated with the group. - View Dependent Claims (17, 18, 19)
-
-
20. A computer-readable storage medium having instructions stored thereon capable of causing a processor to:
-
execute an application accessible to a plurality of users, the application being capable of representing the users to each other via user-specific avatars, the application also being capable of associating some of the plurality of users with a group and not associating others of the plurality of users with the group; provide a database of available avatar characteristics that are combinable to create the user-specific avatars; receive an avatar instruction from at least one user associated with the group that associates a first set of the available avatar characteristics with the group; restrict access for users associated with the group to a first set of the available avatar characteristics; and restrict access for users not associated with the group to a second set of the available avatar characteristics, the second set differing from the first set. - View Dependent Claims (21, 22, 23)
-
-
24. An apparatus comprising:
-
means for hosting a multi-participant application in which participants are represented as avatars; means for providing a set of available avatar characteristics from which participants can select to create their respective user-specific avatars; means for recognizing a plurality of the participants as affiliated with a group; means for receiving an instruction from at least one participant affiliated with the group that associates a first subset of the available avatar characteristics with the group; and means for providing only the first subset of available avatar characteristics to the participants affiliated with the group in response to receiving the instruction.
-
Specification