CREATING A VIRTUAL UNIVERSE DATA FEED AND DISTRIBUTING THE DATA FEED BEYOND THE VIRTUAL UNIVERSE

• US 20090287758A1
• Filed: 05/14/2008
• Published: 11/19/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 05/14/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Hamilton, Rick A. II, O'Connell, Brian M., Kozloski, James R., Pickover, Clifford A., Walker, Keith R.
• Granted Patent: US 8,458,352 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/201
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 2300/5506 using advertisements
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 2300/575 for trading virtual items
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/10 Office automation; Time management

Abstract

Business transactions are becoming more prevalent in virtual universes. Functionality can be implemented within a VU to allow syndication of data feeds to subscribers outside the VU. Feeds collect and serve data from one or more VU objects and locations based on changes made to the VU either by the VU itself, or by avatars in the VU. A location in a virtual universe can be an area defined by at least three coordinates, as an example. Data feeds from a VU can be used to create a VU application with and/or using the data feeds, to derive data from the data feeds, to monitor use of objects or space and billing for such use based on the data feeds, etc.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

identifying one or more objects in a virtual universe as a data source for a data feed;

collecting data from the data source in the virtual universe for the data feed; and

distributing the data feed to one or more feed readers external to the virtual universe.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein at least one of the one or more objects comprise a set of one or more additional objects.

3. The method of claim 2 further comprising collecting data from the one or more additional objects into the data feed.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the data feed comprises scene data.

5. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

deriving additional data from the data collected from the data source, wherein the data feed comprises the additional data.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein the additional data comprises statistical data.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein said collecting the data from the data source in the virtual universe for the data feed comprises accumulating the data over a span of time.

8. The method of claim 7 further comprising generating a graphical representation of one or more correlations between the statistical data and avatar activity over the span of time, wherein the data feed comprises the graphical representation.

9. The method of claim 1 further comprising modifying the data collected from the data source to generate modified data, wherein the data feed comprises the modified data.

10. A method comprising:

identifying one or more objects in a virtual universe as a data source for a data feed, wherein the one or more objects collectively define a scene in the virtual universe;

collecting graphical data from the data source in the virtual universe for the data feed; and

distributing the data feed to one or more feed readers external to the virtual universe.

11. The method of claim 10 further comprising mapping the graphical data to one or more representations of the graphical data that require fewer computing resources to display than the graphical data, wherein the data feed comprises the one or more representations.

12. The method of claim 10 further comprising aggregating a second data source with the data source for the data feed.

13. One or more machine-readable media having stored therein a program product, which when executed a set of one or more processor units causes the set of one or more processor units to perform operations that comprise:

identifying one or more objects in a virtual universe as a data source for a data feed;

collecting data from the data source in the virtual universe for the data feed; and

distributing the data feed to one or more feed readers external to the virtual universe.

14. The machine-readable media of claim 13, wherein at least one of the one or more objects comprise a set of one or more additional objects.

15. The machine-readable media of claim 14, wherein the operations further comprise collecting data from the one or more additional objects into the data feed.

16. The machine-readable media of claim 13, wherein the data feed comprises scene data.

17. The machine-readable media of claim 13, wherein the operations further comprise:

deriving additional data from the data collected from the data source, wherein the data feed comprises the additional data.

18. The machine-readable media of claim 17, wherein the additional data comprises statistical data.

19. The machine-readable media of claim 18, wherein said collecting the data from the data source in the virtual universe for the data feed comprises accumulating the data over a span of time.

20. The machine-readable media of claim 19, wherein the operations further comprise generating a graphical representation of one or more correlations between the statistical data and avatar activity over the span of time, wherein the data feed comprises the graphical representation.

21. The machine-readable media of claim 13, wherein the operations further comprise modifying the data collected from the data source to generate modified data, wherein the data feed comprises the modified data.

22. An apparatus comprising:

a set of one or more processing units;

a network interface; and

one or more machine-readable media having stored therein a program product, which when executed by the set of one or more processor units causes the set of one or more processor units to perform operations that comprise,

identifying one or more objects in a virtual universe as a data source for a data feed;

collecting data from the data source in the virtual universe for the data feed; and

distributing the data feed to one or more feed readers external to the virtual universe.

23. The apparatus of claim 22 further comprising storage operable to store data about objects in a virtual universe.

24. The apparatus of claim 22 further comprising a virtual universe data feed syndication unit that comprises the one or more machine-readable media.