PERSONAL SERVICE ASSISTANCE IN A VIRTUAL UNIVERSE

• US 20090319286A1
• Filed: 06/24/2008
• Published: 12/24/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 06/24/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Kyndryl Incorporated
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Finn, Peter G., Hamilton, Rick A. II, Katz, Neil A., Seaman, James W.
• Granted Patent: US 8,655,674 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 705/1.100
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/02 Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0617 Representative agent

Abstract

A method of providing personal service assistance in a virtual universe is disclosed. The method provides a customer avatar (CA) access to a personal assistance avatar or personal customer service representative (PCSR) avatar, hereinafter PCSR avatar. Through the PCSR avatar, the CA communicates a need or requests for personal service assistance from a business or organization. The communication of the received request is processed to identify an appropriate business, organization or vendor that meets the need or request. The identified business, organization or vendor is contacted for a representative from the business to accede to the request from the CA. The representative from the business is allowed to assume control of the PCSR avatar to conduct the session necessary for rendering the assistance or transaction. Upon completion of the session, control of the PCSR avatar is reverted to that prior to the session.

Claims

1. A method for rendering personal service assistance in a virtual universe, comprising:

providing access to a personal customer service representative (PCSR) avatar, wherein the PCSR avatar interacts with a customer avatar (CA);

defining a request for customer service from the CA via the PCSR avatar;

determining a business based upon the request for customer service from the CA;

connecting the PCSR avatar to the business; and

facilitating an interaction between a representative of the business and the CA via the PCSR avatar.

2. The method according to claim 1, wherein the defining includes establishing a simplified determinative logic for interpreting input in communication from the CA with PCSR avatar.

3. The method according to claim 2, wherein the determining includes extracting relevant information from a database based on input received from the CA.

4. The method according to claim 3, wherein the database comprises one selected from a group consisting of:

a relational database, a registry database, a keyword database and a combination thereof, wherein each of the relational database, registry database and the keyword database holds a collection of relevant information on a plurality of businesses.

5. The method according to claim 4, wherein the relevant information in the registry database includes one selected from a group consisting of:

contact, relationships and mechanism of each business.

6. The method according to claim 5, wherein the determining extracts relevant information from the keyword database in the case where no relevant information is extracted from the registry database.

7. The method according to claim 1, wherein the facilitating includes having the representative of the business take temporary control of the PCSR avatar and allowing an underlying agent controlling the PCSR avatar become a pass-through agent.

8. The method according to claim 7, wherein the facilitating further includes temporarily presenting a current CA screen altered to show a template of associated businesses.

9. The method according to claim 7, wherein the facilitating further includes teleporting the CA to a virtual location of the representative of the business.

10. The method according to claim 1, wherein the access is a non-locale specific function selected from a group consisting of:

a radial button on a screen, a mouse click and a pendent in an inventory of the CA.

11. A system for rendering personal service assistance in a virtual universe, comprising:

a personal customer service component stored in a memory and executable by a processing unit, the personal customer service component comprising;

an access component configured to enable a customer avatar (CA) to access and interact with a personal customer service representative (PCSR) avatar;

a definition component configured to receive a request for personal service assistance from the CA through the PCSR avatar;

a determination component configured to determine a business based upon the request for personal service from the CA; and

a facilitator component configured to facilitate an interaction between a representative of the business and the CA by assuming control over the PCSR avatar.

12. The system according to claim 11, wherein the definition component establishes a simplified determinative logic based on standard keywords and phrases to facilitate one of a group consisting of:

parsing, comparison and matching with data from a database.

13. The system according to claim 12, wherein the request includes data converted into text.

14. The system according to claim 11, wherein the determination component determines a contact of the business based on input text data received from the CA by extracting relevant information from a relational database.

15. The system according to claim 14, wherein the determining component provides a plurality of possible businesses that meet the request for personal service assistance in the case where no contact is determined.

16. The system according to claim 11, wherein the facilitator component facilitates transfer of control of the PCSR avatar from an underlying control agent temporarily to the representative of the business within the virtual universe.

17. The system according to claim 16, wherein the facilitator component includes temporarily presenting a current CA screen altered to show a template of associated businesses.

18. The system according to claim 15, wherein the facilitator component further includes teleporting the CA to a virtual location of the representative of the business.

19. A computer program product stored on a computer-readable medium, the computer program product including computer instructions, which when executed, enables a computer system to render personal service assistance in a virtual universe, the computer instructions comprising:

providing access to a personal customer service representative (PCSR) avatar, wherein the PCSR avatar interacts with a customer avatar (CA);

defining a request for customer service from the CA via the PCSR avatar;

determining a business based upon the request for customer service from the CA;

connecting the PCSR avatar to the business; and

facilitating an interaction between a representative of the business and the CA via the PCSR avatar.

20. The computer program product according to claim 19, wherein the defining comprises parsing any input from the CA to establish a simplified determinative logic with standard keywords and phrases.

21. The computer program product according to claim 20, wherein the input from the CA is converted to text to facilitate parsing thereof.

22. The computer program product according to claim 19, wherein the determining comprises extracting relevant information from a database based on input from the CA.

23. The computer program product according to claim 22, wherein the database is one selected from a group consisting of:

a relational database, a registry database, a keyword database and a combination thereof.

24. The computer program product according to claim 23, wherein the database holds one selected from a group consisting of:

a collection of current contacts, relations and mechanism for a plurality of businesses, a collection of businesses associated with various services and a combination thereof.

25. A method for deploying an application in a computer system that renders personal service assistance in a virtual universe, comprising:

providing a computer infrastructure operable to;

provide access to a personal customer service representative (PCSR) avatar, wherein the PCSR avatar interacts with a customer avatar (CA);

define a request for customer service from the CA via the PCSR avatar;

determine a business based upon the request for customer service from the CA;

connect the PCSR avatar to the business; and

facilitate an interaction between a representative of the business and the CA via the PCSR avatar.