IDENTIFYING MUTUAL FRIENDS IN ONLINE ENVIRONMENTS

• US 20090271714A1
• Filed: 04/29/2008
• Published: 10/29/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 04/29/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Rakuten Group, Inc.
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Lu, Fang, Janakiraman, Janani, Cox, Susan M., Salem, Loulwa
• Granted Patent: US 8,495,506 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 715/753
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 13/12 involving interaction between a plurality of game devices, e.g. transmisison or distribution systems protocols for networked virtual reality, networked games H04L29/06034
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 13/30 Interconnection arrangements between game servers and game devices; Interconnection arrangements between game devices; Interconnection arrangements between game servers
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 13/795 for finding other players; for building a team; for providing a buddy list
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 2300/556 Player lists, e.g. online players, buddy list, black list

Abstract

The invention described herein detects an external user entering into a virtual world that includes a virtual area. In turn, the invention described herein identifies a plurality of joined users that joined each virtual area and computes a joined user weighting for each of the plurality of joined users. The joined user weightings include friend of a friend level weightings and commonality weightings. Next, the invention described herein computes a virtual area friendliness level for each of the virtual areas by aggregating each of the joined user weightings for each of the virtual areas, and provides the virtual area friendliness levels to the external user in order for the external user to select the appropriate virtual area.

Claims

1. A machine-implemented method comprising:

detecting entrance from an external user into a virtual world that includes a virtual area;

identifying a plurality of joined users that joined the virtual area;

computing a joined user weighting for each of the plurality of joined users;

computing a virtual area friendliness level for the virtual area by aggregating each of the joined user weightings; and

providing the virtual area friendliness level to the external user.

2. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

retrieving an external user profile corresponding to the external user;

comparing the external user profile to one or more joined user profiles in order to determine whether one of the plurality of joined users is a friend of a friend;

in response to determining that one of the plurality of joined users is a friend of a friend, including a friend of a friend level weighting in one of the joined user weightings;

comparing the external user profile to one or more of the joined user profiles in order to determine whether one of the plurality of joined users has a commonality with the external user; and

in response to determining that one of the plurality of joined users has a commonality with the external user, including a commonality weighting in one of the joined user weightings.

3. The method of claim 2 wherein one of the plurality of joined user weightings includes both the friend of a friend level weighting and the commonality weighting.

4. The method of claim 2 further comprising:

wherein the friend of a friend level weighting indicates a degree of friendship separation from one of the joined users and the external user; and

wherein the commonality weighting indicates an interest intersection between the external user and one of the joined users.

5. The method of claim 1 wherein the virtual world includes a plurality of virtual areas, the method further comprising:

computing a virtual area friendliness level for each of the plurality of virtual areas, resulting in a plurality of virtual area friendliness levels; and

simultaneously providing the plurality of virtual area friendliness levels to the external user.

6. The method of claim 5 further comprising:

receiving a virtual area selection from the external user;

displaying one of the plurality virtual areas that correspond to the selection, the displaying further comprising;

displaying a joined avatar for each of the plurality of joined users, resulting in a plurality of joined avatars;

displaying the joined user weightings for each of the joined users in proximity to their corresponding joined avatars, resulting in displaying the plurality of joined user weightings; and

displaying an external avatar, which represents the external user.

7. The method of claim 6 wherein the displayed joined avatars represent the joined users that joined the virtual area.

8. A peripheral device comprising:

one or more processors;

a memory accessible by at least one of the processors;

a nonvolatile storage area accessible by at least one of the processors;

a set of instructions stored in the memory and executed by at least one of the processors in order to perform actions of;

detecting entrance from an external user into a virtual world that includes a virtual area;

identifying a plurality of joined users that joined the virtual area;

computing a joined user weighting for each of the plurality of joined users;

computing a virtual area friendliness level for the virtual area by aggregating each of the joined user weightings; and

providing the virtual area friendliness level to the external user.

9. The peripheral device of claim 8 wherein the set of instructions performs actions of:

retrieving an external user profile corresponding to the external user;

comparing the external user profile to one or more joined user profiles in order to determine whether one of the plurality of joined users is a friend of a friend;

in response to determining that one of the plurality of joined users is a friend of a friend, including a friend of a friend level weighting in one of the joined user weightings;

comparing the external user profile to one or more of the joined user profiles in order to determine whether one of the plurality of joined users has a commonality with the external user; and

in response to determining that one of the plurality of joined users has a commonality with the external user, including a commonality weighting in one of the joined user weightings.

10. The peripheral device of claim 9 wherein one of the plurality of joined user weightings includes both the friend of a friend level weighting and the commonality weighting.

11. The peripheral device of claim 9 wherein the friend of a friend level weighting indicates a degree of friendship separation from one of the joined users and the external user;

and

wherein the commonality weighting indicates an interest intersection between the external user and one of the joined users.

12. The peripheral device of claim 8 wherein the virtual world includes a plurality of virtual areas, the set of instructions further performing actions of:

computing a virtual area friendliness level for each of the plurality of virtual areas, resulting in a plurality of virtual area friendliness levels; and

simultaneously providing the plurality of virtual area friendliness levels to the external user.

13. The peripheral device of claim 12 wherein the set of instructions performs actions of:

receiving a virtual area selection from the external user;

displaying one of the plurality virtual areas that correspond to the selection, the displaying further comprising;

displaying a joined avatar for each of the plurality of joined users, resulting in a plurality of joined avatars;

displaying the joined user weightings for each of the joined users in proximity to their corresponding joined avatars, resulting in displaying the plurality of joined user weightings; and

displaying an external avatar, which represents the external user.

14. The peripheral device of claim 13 wherein the displayed joined avatars represent the joined users that joined the virtual area.

15. A computer program product stored in a computer readable medium, comprising functional descriptive material that, when executed by an information handling system, causes the information handling system to perform actions that include:

detecting entrance from an external user into a virtual world that includes a virtual area;

identifying a plurality of joined users that joined the virtual area;

computing a joined user weighting for each of the plurality of joined users;

computing a virtual area friendliness level for the virtual area by aggregating each of the joined user weightings; and

providing the virtual area friendliness level to the external user.

16. The computer program product of claim 15 wherein the information handling system further performs actions that include:

retrieving an external user profile corresponding to the external user;

comparing the external user profile to one or more joined user profiles in order to determine whether one of the plurality of joined users is a friend of a friend;

in response to determining that one of the plurality of joined users is a friend of a friend, including a friend of a friend level weighting in one of the joined user weightings;

comparing the external user profile to one or more of the joined user profiles in order to determine whether one of the plurality of joined users has a commonality with the external user; and

in response to determining that one of the plurality of joined users has a commonality with the external user, including a commonality weighting in one of the joined user weightings.

17. The computer program product of claim 16 wherein one of the plurality of joined user weightings includes both the friend of a friend level weighting and the commonality weighting.

18. The computer program product of claim 16 wherein the friend of a friend level weighting indicates a degree of friendship separation from one of the joined users and the external user;

and

wherein the commonality weighting indicates an interest intersection between the external user and one of the joined users.

19. The computer program product of claim 15 wherein the virtual world includes a plurality of virtual areas, the information handling system further performing actions that include:

computing a virtual area friendliness level for each of the plurality of virtual areas, resulting in a plurality of virtual area friendliness levels; and

simultaneously providing the plurality of virtual area friendliness levels to the external user.

20. The computer program product of claim 19 wherein the information handling system further performs actions that include:

receiving a virtual area selection from the external user;

displaying one of the plurality virtual areas that correspond to the selection, the displaying further comprising;

displaying a joined avatar for each of the plurality of joined users, resulting in a plurality of joined avatars;

displaying the joined user weightings for each of the joined users in proximity to their corresponding joined avatars, resulting in displaying the plurality of joined user weightings; and

displaying an external avatar, which represents the external user.