Automated selection of avatar characteristics for groups
First Claim
1. A method, comprising:
- hosting a multi-participant application in which participants are represented as avatars and the participants are not required to have a same interaction experience as any of the other participants;
providing a set of available avatar characteristics from which participants can select to create their respective user-specific avatars;
recognizing a plurality of the participants as affiliated with a group;
analyzing user-specific avatars of the participants affiliated with the group;
receiving an instruction from at least one participant affiliated with the group that selects and associates a first subset of the available avatar characteristics with the group based on the analysis; and
after receiving the instruction, providing only the first subset of available avatar characteristics to the participants affiliated with the group, at least one avatar characteristic of the first subset being selectable by the participants affiliated with the group.
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Accused Products
Abstract
Systems, apparatuses, and methods for automating avatar selection for groups are disclosed. A representative method includes providing a software application accessible to multiple users, and a database of available avatar characteristics that are selectively combinable to create user-specific avatars with which the users can represent themselves to each other in the application. User(s) associated with a group provide an instruction that associates a first set of the available avatar characteristics with the group. For users associated with the group, access is then restricted to the first set of avatar characteristics, and for users not associated with the group, access is restricted to a different second set of available avatar characteristics. Avatar characteristics in the first set may be selected by an automated procedure that analyzes user-specific avatars of some users, and selects which of the available avatar characteristics to include in the first set based on the analysis.
280 Citations
21 Claims
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1. A method, comprising:
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hosting a multi-participant application in which participants are represented as avatars and the participants are not required to have a same interaction experience as any of the other participants; providing a set of available avatar characteristics from which participants can select to create their respective user-specific avatars; recognizing a plurality of the participants as affiliated with a group; analyzing user-specific avatars of the participants affiliated with the group; receiving an instruction from at least one participant affiliated with the group that selects and associates a first subset of the available avatar characteristics with the group based on the analysis; and after receiving the instruction, providing only the first subset of available avatar characteristics to the participants affiliated with the group, at least one avatar characteristic of the first subset being selectable by the participants affiliated with the group. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8)
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9. An apparatus, comprising:
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storage configured to store a multi-participant application in which participants are represented as avatars and the participants are not required to have a same interaction experience as any of the other participants, and for storing a set of available avatar characteristics from which the participants can select to create their respective avatars; and a processor configured to recognize a plurality of the participants as affiliated with a group, to identify common avatar characteristics selected by participants affiliated with the group, to identify from the set of available avatar characteristics a first subset of avatar characteristics associated with the group based at least in part on the identification of the common characteristics selected by the participants affiliated with the group, and to limit at least some of the avatar characteristics available to the participants affiliated with the group to the first subset of avatar characteristics, wherein at least one avatar characteristic of the first subset is selectable by the participants affiliated with the group. - View Dependent Claims (10, 11, 12, 13)
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14. An apparatus, comprising:
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a receiver configured to receive application information for a multi-user application in which users are represented as avatars and the users are not required to have a same interaction experience as any of the other users, the application information including at least avatar characteristics; a user input configured to facilitate user designation of a group of users in which to be affiliated; a processor configured to identify common avatar characteristics selected by users affiliated with the user designated group and to identify a set of avatar characteristics associated with the user designated group based at least in part on the identification of the common characteristics selected by the users affiliated with the group; and a user output configured to present the set of avatar characteristics as being available for selection by the user in response to becoming affiliated with the group, wherein at least one avatar characteristic of the set is selected by the participants affiliated with the group. - View Dependent Claims (15, 16, 17)
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18. A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium having instructions stored thereon capable of causing a processor to:
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execute an application accessible to a plurality of users, the application being capable of representing the users to each other via user-specific avatars and the users are not required to have a same interaction experience as any of the other users, the application also being capable of associating some of the plurality of users with a group and not associating others of the plurality of users with the group; provide a database of available avatar characteristics that are combinable to create the user-specific avatars; analyze user-specific avatars of users associated with the group; receive an avatar instruction from at least one user associated with the group that selects and associates a first set of the available avatar characteristics with the group based on the analysis; restrict access for users associated with the group to the first set of the available avatar characteristics; and restrict access for users not associated with the group to a second set of the available avatar characteristics, the second set differing from the first set, wherein at least one avatar characteristic of the first subset is selectable by the users associated with the group. - View Dependent Claims (19, 20)
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21. An apparatus comprising:
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means for hosting a multi-participant application in which participants are represented as avatars and the participants are not required to have a same interaction experience as any of the other participants; means for providing a set of available avatar characteristics from which participants can select to create their respective user-specific avatars; means for recognizing a plurality of the participants as affiliated with a group; means for analyzing user-specific avatars of the participants affiliated with the group; means for receiving an instruction from at least one participant affiliated with the group that selects and associates a first subset of the available avatar characteristics with the group based on the analysis; and means for providing only the first subset of available avatar characteristics to the participants affiliated with the group in response to receiving the instruction, wherein at least one avatar characteristic of the first subset is selectable by the participants affiliated with the group.
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Specification