Avatar appearance transformation in a virtual universe

• US 8,108,774 B2
• Filed: 09/26/2008
• Issued: 01/31/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 09/26/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Activision Publishing Incorporated (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Li, Jenny S., SAND, ANNE R., Finn, Peter G., Hamilton, II, Rick A.
• Primary Examiner(s): Nguyen, Cao "Kevin"
• Application Number:
  US12/238,580
• Publication Number:
  US 20100083148A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,222 Days
• Field of Search: 715763-765, 715851-853, 715706-707, 715757-758, 715/826, 345/419
• US Class Current: 715/706
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 13/12 involving interaction between a plurality of game devices, e.g. transmisison or distribution systems protocols for networked virtual reality, networked games H04L29/06034
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 13/30 Interconnection arrangements between game servers and game devices; Interconnection arrangements between game devices; Interconnection arrangements between game servers
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 13/60 Generating or modifying game content before or while executing the game program, e.g. authoring tools specially adapted for game development or game-integrated level editor
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 13/79 involving player-related data, e.g. identities, accounts, preferences or play histories
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 2300/5553 user representation in the game field, e.g. avatar
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 13/40 of characters, e.g. humans, animals or virtual beings

Abstract

Methods, articles of manufacture, systems, articles and programmable devices are provided for configuring a chameleon avatar in response to data associated with a target avatar within a virtual universe. In response to determining that an engagement of a chameleon avatar with a target avatar is indicated, it is determined whether the chameleon avatar should maintain an initial appearance or be auto-morphed for engagement with the target avatar. Auto-morphing may be accomplished by reading an attribute from metadata associated with the target avatar, selecting a baseline avatar template and auto-morphing the baseline template to incorporate the read attribute. Target avatar attributes include gender, interests, outfits attribute, ethnic data, language and preferences, as well as others. The chameleon may mimic an appearance of the target avatar.

Claims

1. A method for configuring a chameleon avatar in response to data associated with a target avatar within a virtual universe, the method comprising:

determining that an engagement of a chameleon avatar with a target avatar within a region of a virtual universe is indicated, wherein the chameleon avatar presents one or more initial gender, ethnic, body dimension and clothing attire appearances to other avatars within the virtual universe;

determining whether any of the initial chameleon avatar gender, ethnic, body dimension or clothing attire appearances should be changed for the indicated engagement with the target avatar within the indicated virtual universe region;

if determined that one of the initial chameleon avatar gender, ethnic, body dimension or clothing attire appearances should be changed for the indicated engagement with the target avatar within the indicated virtual universe region, reading an attribute from metadata associated with the target avatar or the indicated virtual universe region and changing the one of the initial gender, ethnic, body dimension and clothing attire appearances as a function of the read attribute; and

the chameleon avatar engaging the target avatar within the indicated virtual universe region in the initial gender, ethnic, body dimension or clothing attire appearances if determined that none of the appearances should be changed, or in the changed ones of the initial gender, ethnic, body dimension and clothing attire appearances if determined that the at least one of the initial gender, ethnic, body dimension and clothing attire appearances should be changed.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising identifying a group of avatars associated with the target avatar;

and

forming the changed gender, ethnic, body dimension or clothing attire appearance as an amalgam of the gender, ethnic, body dimension or clothing attire appearances of each of the plurality of the group of avatars.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the reading the attribute from the metadata associated with the target avatar or the indicated virtual universe region comprises reading a gender attribute, an interest attribute, an outfit attribute, an ethnic data attribute, a language-used attribute, a likes attribute or a preferences attribute of the target avatar.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein the step of changing the at least one chameleon avatar initial gender, ethnic, body dimension or clothing attire appearance as a function of the read attribute comprises mimicking a gender, a body dimension, a style of clothing, a hair style, a skin color, a language accent, a language slang expression, or an ethnic appearance of the target avatar.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein the step of changing the at least one of the initial gender, ethnic, body dimension or clothing attire appearance further comprises:

adding a delta value to a value of the read attribute to generate a delta-revised read attribute value; and

changing the at least one gender, ethnic, body dimension or clothing attire appearance to an appearance that is different from a corresponding appearance of the target avatar as a function of the delta-revised read attribute value.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein the changing the at least one gender, ethnic, body dimension or clothing attire appearance to an appearance that is different from the corresponding appearance of the target avatar as a function of the delta-revised read attribute value comprises at least one of:

changing the gender appearance of the chameleon avatar to one opposite to a gender of the target avatar; and

changing a height of the chameleon avatar to a height greater than or less than a height of the target avatar.

7. The method of claim 5, further comprising randomly setting the delta value.

8. The method of claim 7, further comprising:

defining a list of target avatars for the chameleon avatar;

detecting a proximity of an avatar within a defined proximity of the chameleon avatar; and

determining that the engagement of the chameleon avatar with the target avatar within the region of a virtual universe is indicated if the avatar detected within the defined proximity matches a listed avatar.

9. The method of claim 8 further comprising:

defining a plurality of engagement contexts within the virtual universe for which automatically changing the at least one of the gender, ethnic, body dimension or clothing attire appearances of the chameleon is triggered;

detecting an engagement context of the indicated virtual universe region; and

automatically changing the at least one of the gender, ethnic, body dimension or clothing attire appearances of the chameleon avatar if the detected engagement context of the indicated virtual universe region matches a one of the predefined plurality of engagement contexts.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein the plurality of engagement contexts comprises a business attire context and a social context, and the automatically changing the at least one of the gender, ethnic, body dimension or clothing attire appearances of the chameleon avatar comprises:

changing the clothing attire appearance of the chameleon avatar to a business attire if the detected engagement context of the indicated virtual universe region matches a business attire context of the predefined plurality of engagement contexts; and

changing the clothing attire appearance of the chameleon avatar to a casual attire if the detected engagement context of the indicated virtual universe region matches a social attire context of the predefined plurality of engagement contexts.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein the attribute read from metadata associated with the target avatar indicates that the target avatar is wearing a business suit, the method further comprising:

changing the clothing attire appearance of the chameleon avatar to a business casual attire if the detected engagement context of the indicated virtual universe region matches the social attire context of the predefined plurality of engagement contexts; and

changing the clothing attire appearance of the chameleon avatar to a business suit if the detected engagement context of the indicated virtual universe region matches the business attire context of the predefined plurality of engagement contexts.

12. The method of claim 11, further comprising:

associating an auto-morph on indicator or an auto-morph off indicator with each of the plurality of engagement contexts and the at least one listed target avatar; and

changing the at least one gender, ethnic, body dimension or clothing attire appearance of the chameleon avatar in response to an association of the auto-morph on indicator with an at least one listed target avatar matching the target avatar detected within the defined proximity and a one of the predefined plurality of engagement contexts matching a current context.

13. The method of claim 12, further comprising:

defining a proximity threshold for the determining whether the chameleon avatar should be auto-morphed for engagement; and

determining the chameleon avatar should be auto-morphed in response to a location of the target avatar within the proximity threshold.

14. The method of claim 13, wherein the target avatar is a first target avatar and the read attribute is a first read attribute, further comprising:

determining that an engagement of the chameleon avatar with a second target avatar is indicated;

reading a second appearance attribute from metadata associated with the second target avatar, wherein auto-morphing the baseline template to incorporate the second read attribute produces an auto-morphed avatar appearance conflicting with a auto-morphed avatar appearance generated by auto-morphing the baseline template in response to the first read attribute; and

resolving the conflict by selecting the first read attribute over the second read attribute as a function of preferring the first target avatar over the second target avatar, and auto-morphing the baseline template to incorporate the selected attribute.

15. The method of claim 14, comprising preferring the first target avatar over the second target avatar as a function of at least one of:

a closer proximity of the first target avatar to the chameleon avatar relative to a proximity of the second target avatar to the chameleon avatar; and

a higher status of the first target avatar relative to a status of the second target avatar.

16. A service for configuring a chameleon avatar within a virtual universe in response to data associated with a target avatar, comprising:

deploying an engagement determiner within a virtual universe that determines whether an engagement of the chameleon avatar with a target avatar within a region of the virtual universe is indicated, the chameleon avatar having one or more initial gender, ethnic, body dimension and clothing attire appearances, and determines whether any of the initial chameleon avatar gender, ethnic, body dimension and clothing attire appearances should be changed for the indicated engagement with the target avatar within the indicated virtual universe region;

deploying an avatar attribute analyzer within the virtual universe that reads an attribute from metadata associated with the target avatar or the indicated virtual universe region if the engagement determiner determines that at least one of the initial chameleon avatar gender, ethnic, body dimension and clothing attire appearances should be changed for the indicated engagement; and

deploying an avatar morpher within the virtual universe that changes at least one of the initial gender, ethnic, body dimension and clothing attire appearances for the indicated engagement with the target avatar as a function of the read attribute if the engagement determiner determines that at least one of the initial chameleon avatar gender, ethnic, body dimension and clothing attire appearances should be changed.

17. The service of claim 16, wherein the avatar attribute analyzer reads a gender attribute, an interest attribute, an outfit attribute, an ethnic data attribute, a language-used attribute, a likes attribute or a preferences attribute of the target avatar;

and

wherein the avatar morpher adds a delta value to a value of the read attribute to generate a delta-revised read attribute value; and

changes the at least one gender, ethnic, body dimension or clothing attire appearance to an appearance that is different from a corresponding appearance of the target avatar as a function of the delta-revised read attribute value.

18. The service of claim 17, wherein avatar morpher causes an appearance of a one of the chameleon avatar gender, ethnic, body dimension or clothing attire appearances to mimic an appearance of the target avatar associated with the read attribute, comprising:

a gender, a body dimension, a style of clothing, a hair style, a skin color, a language accent, a language slang expression, and an ethnic appearance.

19. The service of claim 18 wherein the avatar attribute analyzer further determines a business or social context of the indicated engagement region of the virtual universe;

and

the avatar morpher changes the clothing attire appearance of the chameleon avatar to a business casual attire to engage the target avatar if the avatar attribute analyzer determines the social context for the indicated engagement region, and to a business suit attire to engage the target avatar if the avatar attribute analyzer determines the business context for the indicated engagement region.

20. An article of manufacture comprising:

a computer-readable tangible storage device having computer-readable program code embodied therewith, the program code comprising instructions that, when executed by a computer system, cause the computer system to;

determine that an engagement of a chameleon avatar with a target avatar within a region of a virtual universe is indicated, the chameleon avatar presenting one or more initial gender, ethnic, body dimension and clothing attire appearances to other avatars within the virtual universe;

determine whether any of the initial chameleon avatar gender, ethnic, body dimension and clothing attire appearances should be changed for the indicated engagement with the target avatar within the indicated virtual universe region; and

if determined that at least one of the initial chameleon avatar gender, ethnic, body dimension and clothing attire appearances should be changed for the indicated engagement with the target avatar within the indicated virtual universe region, read an attribute from metadata associated with the target avatar or the indicated virtual universe region and change at least one of the initial gender, ethnic, body dimension and clothing attire appearances as a function of the read attribute; and

cause the chameleon avatar to engage the target avatar in the initial gender, ethnic, body dimension and clothing attire appearances if determined that none of the appearances should be changed, or in the changed ones of the initial gender, ethnic, body dimension and clothing attire appearances if determined that the at least one of the initial gender, ethnic, body dimension and clothing attire appearances should be changed.

21. The article of manufacture of claim 20, wherein the read attribute is a gender attribute, an interest attribute, an outfit attribute, an ethnic data attribute, a language-used attribute, a likes attribute or a preferences attribute of the target avatar, the program code comprising instructions which, when executed on the computer system, further causing the computer system to:

add a delta value to a value of the read attribute to generate a delta-revised read attribute value; and

change the at least one gender, ethnic, body dimension or clothing attire appearance to an appearance that is different from a corresponding appearance of the target avatar as a function of the delta-revised read attribute value.

22. The article of manufacture of claim 21, the program code comprising instructions which, when executed on the computer system, further causing the computer system to:

determine a context of the indicated engagement as a social context or a business context;

change the clothing attire appearance of the chameleon avatar to a business suit if the determined engagement context is the business context; and

change the clothing attire appearance of the chameleon avatar to a casual attire if the determined engagement context is the social context.

23. A programmable device comprising:

a processing means;

a computer-readable memory in communication with the processing means; and

a computer-readable storage medium;

wherein the processing means, when executing program instructions stored on the computer-readable storage medium via the computer readable memory configures a chameleon avatar within a virtual universe by;

determining that an engagement of the chameleon avatar with a target avatar within a region of the virtual universe is indicated, the chameleon avatar presenting one or more initial gender, ethnic, body dimension and clothing attire appearances to other avatars within the virtual universe;

determining whether any of the presented initial chameleon avatar gender, ethnic, body dimension and clothing attire appearances should be changed for the indicated engagement with the target avatar within the indicated virtual universe region;

if determined that at least one of the initial chameleon avatar gender, ethnic, body dimension and clothing attire appearances should be changed for the indicated engagement, reading an attribute from metadata associated with the target avatar or the indicated virtual universe region and changing at least one of the initial gender, ethnic, body dimension and clothing attire appearances as a function of the read attribute; and

causing the chameleon avatar to engage the target avatar in the initial gender, ethnic, body dimension and clothing attire appearances if determined that none of the appearances should be changed, or in the changed ones of the initial gender, ethnic, body dimension and clothing attire appearances if determined that the at least one of the initial gender, ethnic, body dimension and clothing attire appearances should be changed.

24. The programmable device of claim 23, wherein the processing means is further configured to:

detect a current context of the indicated engagement region of the virtual universe as a social context or a business context;

change the clothing attire appearance of the chameleon avatar to a business suit if the detected engagement context is the business context; and

change the clothing attire appearance of the chameleon avatar to a casual attire if the detected engagement context is the social context.

25. The programmable device of claim 24, wherein the processing means is configured to select the read attribute from a first target avatar over an attribute of a second target avatar as a function of at least one of:

a closer proximity of the first target avatar to the chameleon avatar relative to a proximity of a second target avatar to the chameleon avatar; and

a higher status of the first target avatar relative to a status of the second target avatar.