Rendering of real world objects and interactions into a virtual universe

• US 8,386,918 B2
• Filed: 12/06/2007
• Issued: 02/26/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 12/06/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Do, Lydia M., Nesbitt, Pamela A., Seacat, Lisa A.
• Primary Examiner(s): PHANTANA ANGKOOL, DAVID
• Application Number:
  US11/951,889
• Publication Number:
  US 20090150802A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,909 Days
• Field of Search: 715/230, 715/706, 715/757
• US Class Current: 715/230
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/011 Arrangements for interaction with the human body, e.g. for user immersion in virtual reality blind teaching G09B21/00

Abstract

Systems are disclosed herein that can capture image data reflecting real world objects and/or actions and convert this data into a format that, is usable in a virtual universe (VU). Thus, image data representing real world/actual objects and actions can be acquired, converted into virtual universe compatible data, sent to a VU server where the actions and objects can be associated with a virtual area or an avatar, and a recreation of the objects and actions can be displayed to a user in the VU. This allows a participant to customize activities and objects in the VU, and provide a unique “personality” for their avatar and their VU. Other embodiments are also disclosed.

Claims

1. A method comprising;

configuring a multi-touch interactive system to support concurrent interactions by multiple participants, the system detecting objects respectively associated with the participants and receiving input associated with the objects;

acquiring data associated with one of the objects;

associating the acquired data with one of the participants;

associating a virtual universe with the acquired data;

automatically converting the acquired data to data that is usable to render an avatar associated with said one participant interacting with a representation of the object in the virtual universe; and

assigning an identifier to the acquired data such that the virtual universe compatible data is associable with the avatar.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising automatically rendering the converted data in a virtual environment.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the acquired data is one of metadata or pixel data.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising simulating the object as a possession of the avatar.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising acquiring participant input regarding the placement of the object in the virtual universe.

6. The method of claim 1, further transmitting the virtual universe compatible data and simulating the object in a virtual universe.

7. The method of claim 1, further comprising accepting a user input to classify the object.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein receiving comprises receiving image data from an optical recording device.

9. A system comprising:

a multi-touch interactive system to support concurrent interactions by multiple participants;

an object-interaction acquisition module implemented on a processor and coupled to the multi-touch interactive system to detect objects respectively associated with the participants, receive input associated with the objects, and acquire object image data associated with one of the objects;

an identification module implemented on the processor to identify a participant associated with the object image data;

an association module implemented on the processor to associate the object image data with the identified participant and to assign an identifier to the object image data such that the object image data is associable with an avatar of the identified participant;

a data conversion module implemented on the processor to translate the object image data into virtual universe compatible format such that the object rendered in a virtual universe resembles the object in the real world; and

a rendering module implemented on the processor to render the avatar of the identified participant interacting with the object.

10. The system of claim 9, further comprising a graphical user interface module implemented on the processor to provide user selectable inputs and to facilitate receiving user input.

11. The system of claim 9, wherein the object-interaction acquisition module comprises a transceiver.

12. The system of claim 9, wherein the object-interaction acquisition module comprises a pixel generator.

13. A machine-accessible storage medium containing instructions which, when the instructions are executed by a machine, cause said machine to perform operations, comprising:

configuring a multi-touch interactive system to support concurrent interactions by multiple participants, the system detecting objects respectively associated with the participants and receiving input data associated with one of the objects and usable to create at least an image;

associating the input data with a virtual universe;

acquiring image data representing the object;

converting the image data into data usable to create the virtual universe;

assigning an identifier to the image data such that the image data is associable with an avatar; and

rendering an avatar of the participant interacting with the object in the virtual universe.

14. The machine-accessible storage medium of claim 13, that when the instructions are executed cause the machine to receive a transmission and identify an object based on the received transmission.

15. The machine-accessible storage medium of claim 13, that when the instructions are executed cause the machine to simulate the object as a possession of the avatar.