Method for spell check based upon target and presence of avatars within a virtual environment

• US 8,095,878 B2
• Filed: 06/23/2008
• Issued: 01/10/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 06/23/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Rakuten Group, Inc.
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Bates, Cary Lee, Garbow, Zachary A.
• Primary Examiner(s): Do, Chat
• Assistant Examiner(s): Nunez, Jordany
• Application Number:
  US12/144,176
• Publication Number:
  US 20090319915A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,296 Days
• Field of Search: 715/706, 715/753, 715/754, 715/755, 715/756, 715/757, 715/758, 715/256, 715/257, 715/258, 715/259, 715/260, 715/261, 709/204, 709/205, 709/206
• US Class Current: 715/706
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/232 Orthographic correction, e.g. spell checking or vowelisation
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/107 Computer-aided management of electronic mailing [e-mailing]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/043 using or handling presence information

Abstract

The exemplary embodiment of the present invention relates to the dynamic activation and deactivation of a spell check feature option for instant message chat session features within a virtual environment. As such, the spell check feature can be activated and deactivated within the virtual environment based upon the identity of an engaged party to chat session or the identities of other parties that are in proximity to the chat session parties within the virtual environment.

Claims

1. A method for the activation or deactivation of an instant messaging spell check feature based upon the presence of a target avatar or a predetermined set of avatars within a virtual world environment, the method comprising:

assigning avatar users and their associated avatars with either a formal avatar user group or an informal avatar user group, wherein an avatar user and their associated avatar can be manually assigned to a group or automatically assigned to a group by;

identifying a target avatar user and the user'"'"'s associated avatar;

setting a spell check feature of an instant messaging component within a virtual world application environment to an AUTOMATIC mode of operation;

performing a spell check operation upon the text comprised within an instant message chat session occurring between a system user and the target avatar user;

monitoring the spell check operation in order to determine if the spell check corrections provided by the spell check feature are accepted or ignored by the system user, wherein;

in the instance that a spell check correction is accepted by the system user a formal user score that is associated with the target avatar user is incremented and an informal user score that is associated with the target avatar user is decremented;

in the instance that the spell check correction is ignored by the system user the informal user score that is associated with the target avatar user is incremented and the formal user score that is associated with the avatar user is decremented; and

determining if the accrued formal and informal user scores are respectfully greater than a predetermined formal user score threshold and an informal user score threshold value, wherein;

in the instance that the formal user score is greater than the formal user score threshold value then the avatar user is designated as a formal user and the spell check feature will be set to an ON mode of operation, further, thereafter within any instant messaging chat session that is initiated between the system user and the avatar user the spell check feature will be set to the ON mode of operation, and

in the instance that the informal user score is greater than the formal user score threshold value then the avatar user is designated as an informal user and the spell check feature will be set to an OFF mode of operation, further, thereafter within any instant messaging chat session that is initiated between the system user and the avatar the spell check feature will be set to the OFF mode of operation; and

initiating an instant messaging chat session, comprising;

enabling the spell check feature in the instance that an instant message chat session is initiated with a target avatar that is associated with the formal avatar user group;

disabling the spell check feature in the instance the an instant message chat session is initiated with a target avatar that is associated with the informal avatar user group; and

enabling the spell check feature in the instance that a secondary avatar that is associated with the formal avatar user group is in proximity within the virtual world environment of the system user and target avatar user that allows a secondary avatar user to witness the instant message chat session between the system user and the target avatar user.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein if neither the formal user score or the informal user score are greater than their respective thresholds, then the user score of greater value will be used to set the spell check mode of operation.