Cyberspace system for accessing virtual reality objects

• US 5,826,266 A
• Filed: 11/02/1995
• Issued: 10/20/1998
• Est. Priority Date: 11/08/1994
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Sony Corporation (Sony Group Corp.)
• Original Assignee: Sony Corporation (Sony Group Corp.)
• Inventors: Honda, Yasuaki
• Primary Examiner(s): Lintz, Paul R.
• Application Number:
  US08/552,065
• Time in Patent Office: 1,083 Days
• Field of Search: 395/609, 395/186, 395/187.01, 395/491, 707/9
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/011 Arrangements for interaction with the human body, e.g. for user immersion in virtual reality blind teaching G09B21/00
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99939 Privileged access

Abstract

According to the cyberspace system of the present invention, a virtual reality space to be supplied to a user'"'"'s terminals is constructed by information objects for supplying information and user objects for accessing the information objects to receive the information, and each of the information object allows an access of each of the user objects when F(Si, Su) is true: Si represents a status of the information object, Su represents a status of the user object and F represents a function for determining allowance or disallowance of the access to the information object.

Claims

1. A cyberspace system server for supplying a virtual reality space from said server to users'"'"' terminals, characterized in that the virtual reality space is constructed by information objects which supply information and user objects which access the information objects to receive the information, and each of said information objects allows or disallows an access of each of said user objects when F(Si, Su) is true, where Si represents a status of said information object, Su represents a status of said user object and F represents a function for determining allowance or disallowance of the access to said information object.

2. The cyberspace system server as claimed in claim 1, wherein the status Su of said user object is at least one of an access history to said information object by said user object, the type of the corresponding user'"'"'s personal data, a usage term of a cyberspace, or presence or absence of desired information.

3. The cyberspace system server as claimed in claim 2, wherein the type of the corresponding user'"'"'s personal data is at least one of the terminal, the age, sex, occupation, address or the grade of an owned credit card of said user object.

4. The cyberspace system server as claimed in claim 1, wherein the status Si of said information object is at least one of the type or term of validity of information to be supplied from said information object.

5. A cyberspace information network including one or more servers coupled to one or more clients, the server operable to store and control access to information by the clients, the information network comprising:

one or more information objects which represent information in a virtual reality space and include associated information and one or more status attributes; and

one or more user objects which represent users in the virtual reality space and include one or more status attributes and which are operable to access the information objects to receive the associated information,

wherein each of the information objects allows an access of the associated information by each of the user objects within the virtual reality space when F(Si, Su) is true, and

wherein Si represents the status attributes of the information object, Su represents the status attributes of the user object, and F represents a function for determining whether a particular user object is permitted to access each of the information objects within the virtual reality space.

6. The apparatus of claim 5, wherein the status attributes represented by the Su of a particular user object includes an access history of the information objects by the particular user object.

7. The apparatus of claim 5, wherein the status attributes represented by the Su of a particular user object includes a characteristic of a corresponding user'"'"'s personal data.

8. The apparatus of claim 7, wherein the characteristic of a corresponding user'"'"'s personal data includes a client type of the user object.

9. The apparatus of claim 7, wherein the characteristic of a corresponding user'"'"'s personal data includes an age of the user object.

10. The apparatus of claim 7, wherein the characteristic of a corresponding user'"'"'s personal data includes a sex of the user object.

11. The apparatus of claim 7, wherein the characteristic of a corresponding user'"'"'s personal data includes an occupation of the user object.

12. The apparatus of claim 7, wherein the characteristic of a corresponding user'"'"'s personal data includes an address of the user object.

13. The apparatus of claim 7, wherein the characteristic of a corresponding user'"'"'s personal data includes a grade of an owned credit card of the user object.

14. The apparatus of claim 5, wherein the status attributes represented by the Su of a particular user object includes an allowed usage duration of a cyberspace.

15. The apparatus of claim 5, wherein the status attributes represented by the Su of a particular user object includes an indication of the presence of desired information.

16. The apparatus of claim 5, wherein the status attributes represented by the Si of a particular information object includes a type of information to be supplied by the information object.

17. The apparatus of claim 5, wherein the status attributes represented by the Si of a particular information object includes a term of validity of information to be supplied by the information object.

18. The apparatus of claim 5, wherein the clients include user terminals, the user objects are associated with a particular user terminal, and the user objects and the information objects exist on the server.

19. A cyberspace information access control method comprising the steps of:

assigning one or more status attributes to one or more information objects within a virtual reality space, wherein the information objects include associated information;

assigning one or more status attributes to one or more user objects within the virtual reality space, wherein the user objects are operable to access the information objects within the virtual reality space to receive the associated information of the information objects;

computing the value of F(Si, Su) where Si represents the status attributes of the information objects, Su represents the status attributes of the user objects, and F represents a function for determining whether a particular user object is permitted to access a particular information object within the virtual reality space;

allowing the user objects access to the associated information of the information objects if the computed value of F(Si, Su) is true for the particular information object and the particular user object within the virtual reality space; and

disallowing the user objects access to the associated information of the information objects if the computed value of F(Si, Su) is not true for the particular information object and the particular user object within the virtual reality space.

20. The method of claim 19, further comprising the steps of:

accessing the associated information of the information objects by the user objects if the user objects access is allowed; and

returning an error message if the user objects access is disallowed.