Virtual space communication system for executing communication among computers sharing a virtual space

• US 6,738,807 B1
• Filed: 03/16/1998
• Issued: 05/18/2004
• Est. Priority Date: 06/27/1997
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Fujitsu Limited
• Original Assignee: Fujitsu Limited
• Inventors: Matsui, Kazuki, Ohno, Takashi, Iwakawa, Akinori, Kawaguchi, Naohisa
• Primary Examiner(s): DAVIS, DAVID DONALD
• Application Number:
  US09/039,241
• Time in Patent Office: 2,255 Days
• Field of Search: 709/224, 709/225, 709/226, 709/205, 709/223, 463/42, 707/103, 707/10
• US Class Current: 709/223
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/1101 Session protocols
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/403 Arrangements for multi-party communication, e.g. for conferences data switching systems for conference H04L12/18; arrangements for connecting several subscribers to a common circuit, i.e. affording conference facilities H04M3/56; television conferencing systems H04N7/15
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/131 Protocols for games, networked simulations or virtual reality

Abstract

A virtual space communication system includes a virtual space management computer which manages information regarding a virtual space, a plurality of client computers each of which receives information regarding the virtual space from the virtual space management computer and generates communication information used in the virtual space, each of the plurality of client computers having an object state changing unit for changing a state of an object included in the virtual space, and a communication management computer which intermediates communications regarding communication information and information representing change of a state of an object among the plurality of client computers sharing the virtual space. The virtual space communication system further comprises a changing unit for, when a state of an object is changed in one of the plurality of client computers, changing information of the virtual space managed by the virtual space management computer based on a changed state of the object.

Claims

1. A virtual space communication system, comprising:

a virtual space management computer to manage information representing a virtual space that has objects with states;

a plurality of client computers each to receive the information representing the virtual space from said virtual space management computer, and to generate change request messages representing client changes to the states of the objects in the information that the clients received from the management computer, each of said plurality of client computers having an object state changing means for changing the states of the objects in the information received from the virtual space management computer;

a communication management computer to transfer, to both the clients and the virtual space management computer, the change request messages generated by the clients, where the communication management computer transfers responsive to receiving the messages from the clients; and

changing means for changing the information managed by said virtual space management computer based on changes to the states of the objects,

said virtual space management computer and said communication management computer being coupled via a network, so that the states of the objects managed at the virtual space management computer are changed by the changing means of the virtual space management computer responsive to and after said communication management computer receives the change request messages from the client computers and transfers them to said virtual space management computer.

2. The virtual communication system as claimed in claim 1, wherein said changing means has change informing means for informing said virtual space management computer of state change information indicating that a state of an object has been changed in one of said plurality of client computers, and virtual space changing means, provided in said virtual space management computer, for changing the information regarding the virtual space based on the state change information.

3. The virtual space communication system as claimed in claim 2, wherein said virtual space management computer has an object state table indicating states of respective objects forming the virtual space, and wherein said virtual space changing means has table rewriting means for rewriting the state of an object in said object state table based on the informed state change information.

4. The virtual space communication system as claimed in claim 1, wherein said means for managing the relationship between the plurality of objects and a plurality of management computers which manage virtual spaces is provided in said communication management computer, and wherein when said communication management computer receives from the one of said plurality of client computers information indicating that the state of the one client has been changed, said communication management computer informs said management computer, based on the relationship managed by said relationship management means, that the state of the one object has been changed.

5. The virtual space communication system as claimed in claim 1, wherein said changing means has change informing means for informing all client computers sharing the virtual space of the changed information when the information regarding the virtual space managed by said virtual space management computer is changed.

6. The virtual communication system as claimed in claim 1, further comprising:

identification information generating means for generating identification information identifying an object upon generation in one of said plurality of client computers, the identification information being unique in said system.

7. The virtual space communication system as claimed in claim 1, further comprising:

means for managing users having authorities based on which the respective objects forming the virtual space are changed; and

means for determining whether a user of said one of said plurality of client computers is identical to a user who is managed by said managing means as a user having an authority of change of the one object when the one of said plurality of client computers requests such change,

wherein when both the users are identical to each other, the information regarding the virtual space managed by said virtual space management computer is changed.

8. The method apparatus according to claim 1, wherein said communication computer distributes the information representing the change of the state of the object to said plurality of client computers after said management computer changes the state of the object according to the transferred object state change request message.

9. The apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the communication management computer is dedicated to communication management, and the communication management computer does not manage the virtual space.

10. The apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the states of the objects are not updated by the communication management server.

11. A virtual space communication system, comprising:

a virtual space management computer to manage information indicating a state of a virtual space;

a plurality of client computers each initiating a local state of the virtual space based on information received from said virtual space management computer wherein each of said plurality of client computers selectively changes a state of an object included in the local state of the virtual space and in response sends a corresponding update message to a communication management computer; and

said communication management computer to intermediate communication between the client computers and the virtual space management computer by sending to the management computer the update message representing a change of the state of the object among said plurality of client computers,

wherein the information managed by said virtual space management computer is dynamically changed in response to a changed state of the object in one of said plurality of client computers, and

said communication management computer distributes the update message to said plurality of client computers excluding said one of said plurality of client computers, which update their local state of the virtual space according to the update message received from the communication management computer.

12. The virtual space communication system as claimed in claim 11, wherein said virtual space management computer has an object state table indicating states of respective objects forming the virtual space, and the state of a selected object in said object state table is re-written in response to a changed state of the selected object in one of said plurality of client computers.

13. A virtual space communication method, comprising:

managing information regarding a state of a virtual space at a management server;

receiving information from the management server by a plurality of client computers regarding the virtual space, by which the client computers establish a local state of the virtual space corresponding to the state of the virtual space at the management server;

generating communication information which is used in the virtual space, wherein one of said plurality of client computers selectively changes a state of an object included in its local state of the virtual space and sends a corresponding update message to a communication management computer; and

intermediating communication, with the communication management computer, regarding the communication information and the update message representing a change of the state of the object among said plurality of client computers,

wherein the information managed by said virtual space management computer is dynamically changed in response to receiving from the communication management computer the update message representing a changed state of the object in said one of said plurality of client computers, and said communication management computer distributes the update message representing the change of the state of the object to said plurality of client computers excluding said one of said plurality of client computers, where the plurality of client computers excluding said one of said plurality of client computers use the update message to synchronize their local state of the virtual space with the updated state of the virtual space at the management computer.

14. A virtual space communication system, comprising:

a virtual space management computer to manage information representing a virtual space that has objects with states;

a plurality of client computers each to receive the information representing the virtual space from said virtual space management computer, and to generate change request messages representing client changes to the states of the objects in the information that the clients received from the management computer, each of said plurality of client computers having an object state changing means for changing the states of the objects in the information received from the virtual space management computer;

a communication management computer to transfer, to both the clients and the virtual space management computer, the change request messages generated by the clients, where the communication management computer transfers responsive to receiving the messages from the clients; and

changing means for dynamically changing the information managed by said virtual space management computer in response to receiving the change request messages,

wherein said communication management computer distributes the change request messages representing the changes of the states of the object to both said virtual space management computer and to said plurality of client computers excluding said one of said plurality of client computers responsive to receiving the change request message.

15. The virtual space communication system according to claim 14, wherein the object data are distributed among the plurality of virtual space management computers.

16. The virtual space communication system according to claim 15, wherein the object data stored in the plurality of virtual space management computers are mutually different.