Computer method and apparatus for persisting pieces of a virtual world group conversation

• US 8,612,868 B2
• Filed: 03/26/2008
• Issued: 12/17/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 03/26/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation, ServiceNow Incorporated
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Cheng, Li-Te, Rohall, Steven L., Patterson, John F.
• Primary Examiner(s): Shih, Haoshian
• Application Number:
  US12/055,650
• Publication Number:
  US 20090249228A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,092 Days
• Field of Search: 715/751, 715/753, 715/758, 715/848, 715/850, 715/757, 715/759, 709204-206
• US Class Current: 715/758
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0481 based on specific properties of the displayed interaction object or a metaphor-based environment, e.g. interaction with desktop elements like windows or icons, or assisted by a cursor's changing behaviour or appearance

Abstract

Computer method and apparatus persists portions of group conversations in a virtual environment. A group conversation is formed of group member communications. Indications or illustrations, such as chat bubbles, are displayed to end users to represent the group member communications. The invention system enables a user to persist a portion of the group conversation by selecting respective indicators (e.g., chat bubbles) corresponding to one or more of the group member communications. The processor (persist engine) also enables any user to interact with persisted conversation portions. Interactions supported include moving, arranging, tagging with metadata and saving snapshots of the persisted conversation portions, in the virtual environment.

Claims

1. A computer method of persisting a portion of group conversations in a virtual environment, comprising:

providing a group conversation in a virtual environment, the group conversation being formed of a plurality of group member communications;

displaying to a user chat bubble indications of the group member communications in the plurality, wherein the virtual environment includes avatars representing users and includes the chat bubble indications of the group member communications, the displayed chat bubble indications initially being non-persistent wherein each of the chat bubble indications has a non-persistent state and a persistent state and has a user interface effecting change in state of the chat bubble indication; and

enabling the user to selectively persist a portion of the group conversation by the user selecting, through respective user interface of chat bubble indications, ones of the group member communications, and each of the user selected ones of the group member communications and corresponding chat bubble indications changing from the respective non-persistent state to a persistent state and being persisted as a respective virtual object in the virtual environment such that the user selected ones are prevented from disappearing, after a time limit, from the virtual environment, and such that the corresponding chat bubble indications change, user-selectively, from being non-persistent to being respective persistent virtual objects displayed as chat bubble indications, wherein the respective virtual objects are user moveable in the virtual environment and are user manipulateable in the virtual environment.

2. A method as claimed in claim 1 wherein the virtual environment is any one of a virtual world, a gaming environment, a 3D video, a simulation, an online session, and a computer network session.

3. A method as claimed in claim 1 wherein the group conversation is bubble based such that each of the group member communications is indicated in a respective graphical bubble of an avatar in the virtual environment, different users being represented by different avatars in the virtual environment.

4. A method as claimed in claim 3 wherein the step of enabling includes persisting the user selected ones of the group member communications corresponding to graphical bubbles selected by the user.

5. A method as claimed in claim 4 further comprising enabling any user to interact with the user selected graphical bubbles, for a given user selected graphical bubble, said interacting with including any of:

moving the given graphical bubble, tagging the given graphical bubble with user specified metadata, making an arrangement of the given graphical bubble with other graphical bubbles in the virtual environment and making a snapshot of at least the given graphical bubble.

6. A method as claimed in claim 4 further comprising enabling any user to save a snapshot of one or more of the user selected graphical bubbles as arranged on a working surface in the virtual environment.

7. A method as claimed in claim 1 wherein the group conversation is instant messaging based.

8. A method as claimed in claim 1 wherein the group conversation is chat based.

9. Computer apparatus for persisting a portion of group conversations in a virtual environment, comprising:

a communication system formed a computer memory and digital processor, said communication system providing a group conversation in a virtual environment, the group conversation being formed of a plurality of participant-users'"'"' communications and the plurality of participant-users'"'"' communications being illustrated in the virtual environment using bubble-type indications, wherein the virtual environment includes avatars representing users, wherein each chat bubble-type indication has a non-persistent state and a persistent state and has a user interface effecting change in state of the bubble-type indication, and the bubble-type indications initially being non-persistent; and

a persist engine executable by the processor enabling a subject user to selectively persist a portion of the group conversation by the subject user selecting, through the virtual environment illustrations and respective user interface of bubble type indications, ones of the participant-users'"'"' communications, and the subject user selected ones changing from non-persistent state to persistent state and being persisted as respective virtual objects in the virtual environment that can be moved and manipulated by a virtual environment user interface action such that the user selected ones are prevented from disappearing, after a time limit, from the virtual environment, and such that corresponding bubble-type indications change, user-selectivity, from being non-persistent to being respective persistent virtual objects displayed as bubble type indications, wherein the persist engine enables the subject user to select the bubble-type indications representing the respective ones of the participant-users'"'"' communications, and the user selected bubble-type indications are persisted as respective bubble type indications in the virtual environment.

10. Computer apparatus as claimed in claim 9 wherein the virtual environment is any one of a virtual world, a gaming environment, a 3D video, a simulation, an online session, and a computer network session.

11. Computer apparatus as claimed in claim 9 wherein the group conversation is bubble based such that each of the participant-user'"'"'s communications is illustrated in a respective graphical bubble of an avatar in the virtual environment, different users being represented by different avatars in the virtual environment.

12. Computer apparatus as claimed in claim 11 wherein the persist engine persists the subject user selected ones of the participant-user'"'"'s communications corresponding to graphical bubbles selected by the subject user.

13. Computer apparatus as claimed in claim 12 wherein the persist engine further enables any user to interact with the subject user selected graphical bubbles, said interacting with including any of:

moving one or more of the subject user selected graphical bubbles, tagging with metadata any of the subject user selected graphical bubbles, making an arrangement in the virtual environment of one or more of the subject user selected graphical bubbles, and saving a snapshot of one or more of the subject user selected graphical bubbles.

14. Computer apparatus as claimed in claim 12 wherein the persist engine further enables any user to save a snapshot of one or more of the subject user selected graphical bubbles as arranged on a working surface in the virtual environment.

15. Computer apparatus as claimed in claim 9 wherein the group conversation is instant message based.

16. Computer apparatus as claimed in claim 9 wherein the group conversation is chat based.

17. A computer system for persisting a portion of group conversations in a virtual environment, comprising:

group communication means for providing a group conversation in a virtual environment, the group conversation being formed of a plurality of group member communications;

a user interface means for displaying to a user bubble indications of the group member communications, wherein the virtual environment includes avatars representing users and includes the bubble indications of the group member communications the displayed bubble indications initially being non-persistent, wherein each bubble indication has a non-persistent state and a persistent state and has a user interface effecting change in state of the bubble indication; and

processor means for enabling the user to selectively persist a portion of the group conversation by the user selecting, through respective user interface of bubble indications, ones of the group member communications, and respective bubble indications of the user selected ones of the group member communications changing from non-persistent state to persistent state and being persisted as respective virtual objects in the virtual environment such that the user selected ones are prevented from disappearing, after a time limit, from the virtual environment, and such that the respective bubble indications change, user-selectivity, from being non-persistent to being respective persistent virtual objects displayed as bubble indications, wherein the respective virtual objects are user moveable and user manipulateable in the virtual environment.

18. A computer system as claimed in claim 17 wherein the virtual environment is any one of a virtual world, a gaming environment, a 3D video, a simulation, an online session, and a computer network session.

19. A computer system as claimed in claim 17 wherein the group conversation is one of:

graphical bubble based, instant messaging based and chat based.

20. A computer program product comprising:

a nontransitory computer readable storage medium having a computer readable program, wherein the computer readable program when executed on a computer causes;

providing a group conversation in a virtual environment, the group conversation being formed of a plurality of a group member communications;

displaying to a user bubble-type illustrations of the group member communications in the plurality, wherein the virtual environment includes avatars representing users and includes the bubble-type illustrations of the group member communications, the displayed bubble-type illustrations being in a non-persistent state wherein each bubble-type illustration has a persistent state and a non-persistent state and has a user interface effecting change in state of the bubble-type illustration; and

enabling the user to selectively persist a portion of the group conversation by the user selecting, through respective user interface of bubble-type illustrations, ones of the group member communications, and the respective bubble-type illustrations of the user selected ones changing from non-persistent state to persistent state and being persisted as respective objects in the virtual environment such that the user selected ones are prevented from disappearing, after a time limit, from the virtual environment, and such that the respective bubble-type illustrations change, user selectively, from being non-persistent to being respective persistent bubble-type illustration objects, wherein the respective bubble-type illustration objects are user moveable and user manipulateable in the virtual environment.