Context avatar

• US 7,979,067 B2
• Filed: 02/15/2007
• Issued: 07/12/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 02/15/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: R2 Solutions LLC (Acacia Research Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Yahoo! Inc. (Apollo Global Management, Inc.)
• Inventors: Nair, Rahul
• Primary Examiner(s): LY, NGHI H
• Application Number:
  US11/707,789
• Publication Number:
  US 20080201638A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,608 Days
• Field of Search: 455/432.3, 455/414.2, 455/404.2, 455/456.3, 455/566
• US Class Current: 455/432.3
• CPC Class Codes: G06N 3/004 Artificial life, i.e. computing arrangements simulating life
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 11/00 2D [Two Dimensional] image generation
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/131 Protocols for games, networked simulations or virtual reality
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/02 Services making use of location information
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/029 Location-based management or tracking services

Abstract

Methods and systems for generating information about a physical context of a user are provided. These methods and systems provide the capability to render a context avatar associated with the user as a composite image that can be broadcast in virtual environments to provide information about the physical context of the user. The composite image can be automatically updated without user intervention to include, among other things, a virtual person image of the user and a background image defined by encoded image data associated with the current geographic location of the user.

Claims

1. A method for displaying information about a physical context of a user, comprising:

(a) obtaining information about the physical context of the user;

(b) generating an encoded representation of the physical context based on the information by adding information related to the physical context at the present time;

(c) creating a composite image including a virtual person image of the user and the encoded representation, the composite image being created upon obtaining the physical context of the user to represent the physical context of the user at a present time; and

(d) displaying the composite image,

wherein (a)-(c) are performed without intervention by the user.

2. The method as recited in claim 1, further including:

performing (a)-(d) every pre-defined time interval or upon receipt of a notification that the physical context of the user has changed, wherein the pre-defined time interval is set by the user.

3. The method as recited in claim 1, wherein displaying the composite image includes broadcasting the composite image to one or more viewers interested in obtaining the information about the physical context of the user, and wherein broadcasting the composite image further includes publishing the composite image on a webpage.

4. The method as recited in claim 1, wherein the composite image includes additional virtual person images, wherein each of the additional virtual person images corresponds to a third party user acting within the physical context of the user.

5. The method as recited in claim 1, further including:

determining a geographic location of the user at the present time based on location information of a mobile device; and

selecting a background image associated with the geographic location, wherein the encoded representation includes the background image.

6. The method as recited in claim 5, wherein selecting the background image further includes:

determining a most recent image from a plurality of images associated with the geographic location; and

downloading the most recent image to use as the background image.

7. The method as recited in claim 1, wherein obtaining the information about the physical context of the user includes one or more of:

determining a geographic location of the user at the present time from location information of a mobile device, the location information being associated with the user; and

determining activity of the user at the present time from an electronic calendar system.

8. The method as recited in claim 7, wherein the virtual person image of the user is clothed according to the geographic location of the user at the present time.

9. The method as recited in claim 7, wherein determining the geographic location of the user includes one of:

retrieving the location information of the mobile device and user identifier information associated with the mobile device from the mobile device, if the mobile device is a cellular phone, the location information including a cell tower ID;

retrieving the location information of the mobile device and user identifier information associated with the mobile device from the mobile device, if the mobile device is the Global Positioning System (GPS)-capable device, the location information including GPS coordinates;

or

retrieving the location information of the mobile device and user identifier information associated with the mobile device from the mobile device, if the mobile device is a computing device, the location information including an Internet Protocol (IP) address or a WiFi (Wireless Fidelity) BSSID (Basic Service Set ID).

10. The method as recited in claim 9, wherein the cell tower ID is associated with the cellular phone and a cellular phone tower of a cellular communication system.

11. The method as recited in claim 9, wherein the GPS coordinates include a latitude and longitude.

12. The method as recited in claim 7, wherein generating the encoded representation further includes one or more of:

adding weather information corresponding to the geographic location of the user, the weather information representing weather conditions at the geographic location of the user at the present time; and

adding time of day information corresponding to the geographic location of the user at the present time.

13. The method as recited in claim 12, wherein the virtual person image of the user is clothed according to the current weather conditions.

14. The method as recited in claim 12, wherein the current weather conditions include one or more of:

rain, freezing rain, lightning, snow, wind, overcast, sunny, partly sunny, mostly sunny, and temperature.

15. The method as recited in claim 7, wherein the encoded representation further includes an icon image, the icon image including one or more of:

an image representing current time of day at the geographic location of the user at the present time; and

an image representing current weather conditions at the geographic location of the user at the present time.

16. The method as recited in claim 15,

wherein the image representing current time of day at the geographic location of the user is a sun image, if the current time of day is between sunrise and sunset, and

wherein the image representing current time of day at the geographic location of the user is a moon image, if the current time of day is between sunset and sunrise.

17. The method as recited in claim 7, wherein generating the encoded representation includes providing a background image defined by image data associated with a city where the user is located at the present time.

18. The method as recited in claim 17, wherein providing the background image includes obtaining the image data associated with the geographic location of the user by one of:

searching an image database for representative image data corresponding to the geographic location of the user;

downloading a custom image from the Internet;

or

downloading a temporary image from the Internet.

19. The method as recited in claim 18, wherein the custom image is a ZoneTag™

image having a “

setlocationbadge”

tag.

20. The method as recited in claim 19, wherein downloading the custom image includes:

(i) identifying one or more uploaded images tagged as custom image data;

(ii) identifying which of the one or more uploaded images identified at (i) are associated with the location information of the mobile device; and

(iii) selecting the custom image to download from the one or more uploaded images identified at (ii), wherein the custom image selected to download is a most recently uploaded custom image.

21. The method as recited in claim 18, wherein the temporary image is a ZoneTag™

image having a “

setbadge”

tag.

22. The method as recited in claim 21, wherein downloading the temporary image further includes:

(i) identifying one or more uploaded images tagged as temporary image data;

(ii) identifying which of the one or more uploaded images identified at (i) were uploaded within a pre-defined time period; and

(iii) selecting the temporary image to download from the one or more uploaded images identified at (ii), wherein the temporary image selected to download is a most recently uploaded temporary image.

23. A computer-readable media for directing a computer system to generate information about a physical context of a user, comprising:

instructions for obtaining information about the physical context of the user;

instructions for generating an encoded representation of the physical context based on the information by adding information related to the physical context at the present time;

instructions for creating a composite image including a virtual person image of the and the encoded representation, the composite image being created upon obtaining the physical context of the user to represent the physical context of the user at a present time; and

instructions for displaying the composite image.

24. A system for generating information about a physical context of a user, comprising:

a mobile device coupled to the Internet, the mobile device being capable of providing location information of the mobile device and user identifier information associated with the mobile device; and

a processing server coupled to the Internet, wherein the processing server is capable of;

obtaining information about the physical context of the user from the Internet, including the location information of the mobile device and the user identifier information, the location information and the user identifier information being used to determine a geographic location of the user;

generating an encoded representation of the physical context based on the information by adding information related to the geographic location of the context at the present time; and

generating a composite image including a virtual person image of the user and the encoded representation, the composite image being created upon obtaining the physical context of the user to represent the physical context of the user at a present time.

25. The system as recited in claim 24, further comprising a cellular communication system coupled between the mobile device and the Internet,

wherein the mobile device is a cellular phone,

the mobile device being capable of obtaining the location information of the cellular phone from the cellular communication system, the location information including a cell tower ID, and

the mobile device being capable of providing the location information and the user identifier information associated with the cellular phone on the Internet via the cellular communication system.

26. The system as recited in claim 24, further comprising a satellite communication system coupled between the mobile device and the Internet,

wherein the mobile device is a GPS-capable mobile device,

the mobile device being capable of obtaining the location information of the GPS-capable mobile device from the satellite communication system, the location information including GPS coordinates, and

the mobile device being capable of providing the location information and the user identifier information associated with the GPS-capable mobile device on the Internet via the satellite communication system.

27. The system as recited in claim 24,

wherein the mobile device is a computing device, and

wherein the location information includes an Internet Protocol (IP) address or a WiFi (Wireless Fidelity) BSSID (Basic Service Set ID).