System and method for advanced interfaces for virtual environments

• US 6,683,625 B2
• Filed: 08/03/2001
• Issued: 01/27/2004
• Est. Priority Date: 12/19/1997
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Texas Instruments, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Texas Instruments, Inc.
• Inventors: Courtney, Jonathan D., Cole, Edwin R., Muthusamy, Yeshwant K.
• Primary Examiner(s): Cabeca, John
• Assistant Examiner(s): Thai, Cuong T.
• Application Number:
  US09/921,131
• Publication Number:
  US 20020080193A1
• Time in Patent Office: 907 Days
• Field of Search: 345/727, 345/700, 345/764, 345/848, 345/849, 345/978, 345/851, 345/751, 345/753, 345/757, 345/758, 345/759, 704/9, 704/231, 704/246, 704/250, 704/251, 704/255, 706/55, 706/59, 706/60, 706/206
• US Class Current: 715/764
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/04815 Interaction with a metaphor-based environment or interaction object displayed as three-dimensional, e.g. changing the user viewpoint with respect to the environment or object

Abstract

A system and method for providing a controllable virtual environment includes a computer (11) with processor and a display coupled to the processor to display 2-D or 3-D virtual environment objects. Speech grammars are stored as attributes of the virtual environment objects. Voice commands are recognized by a speech recognizer (19) and microphone (20) coupled to the processor whereby the voice commands are used to manipulate the virtual environment objects on the display. The system is further made role-dependent whereby the display of virtual environment objects and grammar is dependent on the role of the user.

Claims

1. A multi-user, multiple role-dependent collaborative virtual environment representing a physical object comprising:

a storage of multi-user, multiple role-dependent sets of virtual objects each representing role-dependent views of said physical object wherein each virtual object has different virtual object interfaces that are role dependent;

said storage stores information about possible interactions with said virtual environment objects as attributes inside said virtual objects along with graphical information describing the virtual object'"'"'s visual appearance;

a separate role-dependent display for each role-dependent set of virtual objects representing said views and role-dependent user input means for each set of virtual objects; and

a processor coupled to said storage and said separate role-dependent display for said each role-dependent set of virtual objects representing said views and responsive to role of user and role-dependent user input means for providing a role-dependent display of virtual objects dependent on the role of said user.

2. A multi-user, multiple role-dependent collaborative virtual environment system comprising:

a storage of multi-user, multiple role-dependent sets of virtual objects each representing role-dependent views of a given object wherein each virtual object has different virtual object interfaces that are role dependent;

said storage stores information about possible interactions with said virtual objects as attributes inside said virtual objects along with graphical information describing the virtual object'"'"'s visual appearance;

a separate role-dependent display for each role-dependent set of virtual objects representing said views and role-dependent user input means for each set of virtual objects;

a processor coupled to said storage and said separate role-dependent display for said each role-dependent set of virtual objects representing said views and responsive to role of user and role-dependent user input means for providing a role-dependent display of virtual objects dependent on the role of said user and

said role-dependent input means includes a speech recognizer coupled to said processor responsive to role-dependent speech commands and said role-dependent storage includes speech grammars as attributes in said virtual objects.

3. The system of claim 2 wherein said objects inherit function properties from other classes through inheritance and aggregation.