APPARATUS AND METHOD OF IDENTITY AND VIRTUAL OBJECT MANAGEMENT AND SHARING AMONG VIRTUAL WORLDS

• US 20110126272A1
• Filed: 11/25/2009
• Published: 05/26/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 11/25/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Wang, Gang, Katz, Neil A., Ye, Meng, Zhu, Zi Yu, Betzler, Boas
• Granted Patent: US 8,424,065 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 726/6
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/41 where a single sign-on provides access to a plurality of computers
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/0815 providing single-sign-on or federations

Abstract

A system for centrally managing credential information of a user and a virtual object of a user across a plurality of virtual world (or corresponding virtual world servers) is disclosed. The system includes an identity service module for managing an authentication request (e.g., verifying credential information of a user) from a user and an inventory service module for managing virtual properties of a user. Furthermore, a method for logging in a virtual world by using the system is disclosed. A method for teleporting a virtual property from a virtual world to another virtual world by using the system is disclosed. A method for logging out from a virtual world by using the system is also disclosed.

Claims

1. A system for centrally managing credential information of users and virtual properties of the users across a plurality of virtual worlds, comprising:

an identity service module for receiving authentication requests and the credential information of the users from the users, and generating a result of each authentication request, the result indicating whether the users are valid users of the plurality of virtual worlds;

an inventory service module for receiving the result of the authentication request from the identity service module and transmitting the virtual properties to at least one virtual world server associated with the plurality of virtual worlds if the results of the authentication request is successful; and

a central storage device for communicating with the inventory service module and storing the virtual properties provided from the inventory service module and the credential information provided from the identity service module.

2. The system according to claim 1, wherein the identity service module performs one or more of:

an identity creation, an identity enumeration, an identity query, an identity deletion, an identity modification and an identity authentication.

3. The system according to claim 1, further comprising:

an identity management interface for centrally managing, editing, creating and deleting the credential information of the users; and

a content management interface for centrally managing, editing, creating and deleting the virtual properties of the users.

4. The system according to claim 1, wherein the credential information of the users comprises one or more of:

a username, password, fingerprint, iris scan, voice and facial scan.

5. The system according to claim 1, wherein the identity service module comprises:

at least one identity storage device for storing the credential information of the users;

an aggregation module for aggregating the at least one identity storage device;

a name mapping module for mapping the credential information to an ID (identity) used in the at least one identity storage device;

an identity status management module for tracking status of the users; and

a registry service module for registering a new user.

6. The system according to claim 5, wherein the aggregation module performs one or more of:

a data source level aggregation and a service level aggregation.

7. The system according to claim 5, wherein the name mapping module comprises a name mapping table including one or more of a universal user name shared across the at least one virtual world server, an address of the at least one identity storage device, a user ID (identity) used in the at least one identity storage device and an aggregation attribute indicating constraints of the at least one identity storage device.

8. The system according to claim 1, wherein the inventory service module comprises:

at least one virtual property storage device for storing the virtual properties of the users;

an aggregation module for aggregating the at least one virtual property storages;

a format translation module for translating formats of the virtual properties to other formats;

a content synchronization module for managing protocols to transmit data from the at least one virtual world server to a virtual world client device or from the virtual world client device to the at least one virtual world server; and

a content management module for editing, creating and deleting the virtual properties.

9. The system according to claim 1, further comprising:

at least one virtual world client device for receiving inputs from the users, communicating with the at least one virtual world server, processing responses of the virtual world servers and providing the responses to the users.

10. The system according to claim 9, wherein the at least one virtual world client device comprises:

a rendering engine for processing a 2D (two dimensional) or 3D (three dimensional) web pages including the virtual properties;

a single-sign-on (SSO) module for tracking an already authenticated user as not to require the already authenticated user to authenticate again for an access to the at least one virtual world server;

a content uploading/downloading module for exchanging data between the at least one virtual world client device, the at least one virtual world server, the identity service module and the inventory service module;

an authentication module for performing an authentication related function of the users;

11. The system according to claim 10, wherein the authentication related function comprises one or more of:

obtaining credential information from the users and checking validity of the credential information from the users, obtaining fingerprints of the users and checking validity of the fingerprints, obtaining iris scans of the users and checking validity of the iris scans, obtaining facial scans of the users and checking validity of the facial scans, obtaining voices of the users and checking validity of the voices.

12. The system according to claim 1, wherein the at least one virtual world server communicates with the identity service and the inventory service to authorize logins of the users and to teleport the virtual properties between the plurality of virtual worlds;

and

13. The system according to claim 1, wherein the at least one virtual world server comprises:

a content management module for managing the virtual properties of the users;

a content transmission module for managing transmission of the virtual properties to at least one virtual world client device, the identity service module and the inventory service module.

14. The system according to claim 1, wherein the central storage device aggregates the virtual properties and the credential information.

15. A method for accessing a virtual world server via a virtual world client device, the method comprising:

receiving from the virtual world client device a request to log in to the virtual world server;

establishing a communication link between the virtual world server and an identity service module that authenticate whether the request is valid or not and then to establish another communication link between the virtual world client device and the identity service module for the authentication;

receiving, at the identity service module, credential information from the virtual world client device and mapping the credential information to an ID (identity) in the identity service module to authenticate the credential information with the identity service module;

generating, at the identity service module, a result of authenticating the credential information;

receiving, at the virtual world server, the generated result of authenticating the credential information;

providing the generated result from the virtual world server to the virtual world client device;

determining whether the generated result indicates log in success or failure;

displaying an error message on the virtual world client device, if the generated result indicates a login failure;

providing a token from the virtual world server to the virtual world client device, if the generated result indicates a login success;

requesting, at the virtual world server, data transmission from the inventory service module to the virtual world server;

verifying, at the inventory service module, whether the generated result was the login success;

transmitting virtual object data from the inventory service module to the virtual world server upon verifying that the generated result was the login success; and

providing the transmitted data from the virtual world server to the virtual world client device for presentation and display thereof.

17. A method of deploying a computer program product including programs of instructions in a computer readable medium for logging in to a virtual world server by using an identity service module and an inventory service module, wherein, when the programs of instructions are executed by at least one processor, the computer program product performs the steps of claim 15.

18. A computer readable medium embodying computer program instructions being executed by a processor for causing a computer to perform method steps for logging in to a virtual world server by using an identity service module and an inventory service module, said method steps comprising the steps of claim 15.

16. A method for teleporting a virtual property of a user from a first virtual world to a second virtual world by using an identity service module, the first virtual world being associated with a first virtual world server, the second virtual world being associated with a second virtual world server, the method comprising:

accessing the first virtual world via a virtual world client device;

requesting a teleportation of the virtual property from the first virtual world server to the second virtual world server;

upon receiving the teleportation request at the second virtual world server, propagating the teleportation request from the second virtual world server to the identity service module;

establishing a link between the virtual world client device and the identity service module for an authentication of the virtual world client device;

evaluating whether the virtual world client device has a valid token by communicating between the virtual world client device and the identity service module via the link;

if the virtual world client device does not have the valid token, sending an error message from the identity service module to the second virtual world server;

upon receiving the error message at the second virtual world server, rejecting the teleportation request at the second virtual world server;

if the virtual world client device has the valid token, transmitting the virtual property from the first virtual world server to the second virtual world server;

transferring the transmitted virtual property from the second virtual world to the virtual world client device;

exiting the first virtual world server via the virtual world client device;

updating the identity service module to reflect the transmitting, the transferring and the signing out; and

displaying the transmitted virtual property in the second virtual world via the virtual world client device.

19. A computer readable medium embodying computer program instructions being executed by a processor for causing a computer to perform method steps for teleporting a virtual property from a first virtual world to a second virtual world by using an identity service module, the first virtual world server being associated with the first virtual world server, the second virtual world being associated with the second virtual world server, said method steps comprising the steps of claim 16.

20. A method of deploying a computer program product including programs of instructions in a computer readable medium for teleporting a virtual property from a first virtual world to a second virtual world by using an identity service module, the first virtual world server being associated with the first virtual world server, the second virtual world being associated with the second virtual world server, wherein, when the programs of instructions are executed by at least one processor, the computer program product performs the steps of claim 16.