System and method for detecting inappropriate content in virtual worlds

• US 9,056,248 B2
• Filed: 12/02/2008
• Issued: 06/16/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 12/02/2008
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Kyndryl Incorporated
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Alewine, Neal J., Hamilton, Rick A. II, Hood, Robert A., Seaman, James W.
• Primary Examiner(s): Pulliam, Christyann
• Assistant Examiner(s): HOLLAND, SHERYL L
• Application Number:
  US12/326,228
• Publication Number:
  US 20100138455A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,387 Days
• Field of Search: 707/803
• US Class Current: 1/1
• 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 13/25 Output arrangements for video game devices
• 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 13/35 Details of game servers
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 13/75 Enforcing rules, e.g. detecting foul play or generating lists of cheating players
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 2300/535 for monitoring, e.g. of user parameters, terminal parameters, application parameters, network parameters
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 2300/5586 for enforcing rights or rules, e.g. to prevent foul play
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/24575 using context
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9535 Search customisation based on user profiles and personalisation
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/955 using information identifiers, e.g. uniform resource locators [URL]
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/50 Monitoring users, programs or devices to maintain the integrity of platforms, e.g. of processors, firmware or operating systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2221/032 Protect output to user by software means
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/087 Inventory or stock management, e.g. order filling, procurement or balancing against orders
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0607 Regulated
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0641 Shopping interfaces
• CPC Class Codes: G07F 17/3281 wherein game attributes are transferred between players, e.g. points, weapons, avatars
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/105 Multiple levels of security
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/131 Protocols for games, networked simulations or virtual reality
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/306 User profiles
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/52 specially adapted for the location of the user terminal

Abstract

A system for detecting inappropriate content in a virtual world environment has and a corresponding method utilizes a rating unit for rating each of one or more virtual objects based upon its content. The system has and the method utilizes a tagging unit for tagging each of the one or more virtual objects with its respective rating, an object tagging database for storing ratings of the one or more virtual objects, and a policy database for storing policies associated with the ratings and the regions. Further the system has and the method utilizes an object monitor for monitoring the movement of each of the one or more virtual objects, a security scanner for scanning each of the one or more virtual objects to determine the rating of each of the one or more virtual objects, and an enforcement module to enforce the policies of the policy database based upon the rating and the respective region.

Claims

1. A method for identifying virtual objects having inappropriate content in a virtual universe (VU) having one or more regions, the VU having virtual objects, each of the virtual objects having content, the method comprising:

rating each virtual object based upon an appropriateness of its content for each of a set of avatars within the VU, the appropriateness based upon at least one of;

a sexual nature of the content, a morally offensive nature of the content, and a socially offensive nature of the content, wherein each of the virtual objects comprises at least one of the following;

a virtual object purchasable by an avatar, and a virtual object stored in an inventory of an avatar, and wherein the rating for each virtual object is generated upon initial creation of each virtual object;

tagging each virtual object with its rating;

receiving a plurality of ratings for each virtual object from the set of avatars within the VU;

tagging each virtual object with an updated rating;

storing each virtual object rating in an object tagging database;

storing policies associated with the ratings and the regions in a policy database;

monitoring movement of a location of each virtual object within the VU;

scanning the inventory of the avatar to determine each virtual object rating, wherein the scanning of the inventory occurs when the avatar moves from one region to another region of the one or more regions; and

enforcing the policies of the policy database based upon the rating of each virtual object and its respective region.

2. The method as defined in claim 1 further comprising selecting a rating system.

3. The method as defined in claim 2 further comprising selecting a taxonomy based rating system.

4. The method as defined in claim 2 further comprising selecting a folksonomy based rating system.

5. The method as defined in claim 1 wherein the set of avatars comprises members and non-members, the method further comprising allowing the members to rate each virtual object and prohibiting the non-members to rate each virtual object.

6. The method as defined in claim 1 wherein the set of avatars comprises members and non-members, the method further comprising weighting the ratings from the members more heavily than the ratings from the non-members.

7. The method as defined in claim 1 further comprising scanning each virtual object when each virtual object moves from a first region to a second region.

8. The method as defined in claim 7 wherein the virtual universe has at least one mature region having one or more mature objects and at least one family-oriented region, the method further comprising prohibiting movement of the one or more mature objects from the mature region to the family-oriented region.

9. The method as defined in claim 1 wherein each virtual object is acquired in a location, the method further comprising tagging the one or more virtual objects based on the location.

10. The method as defined in claim 1 wherein each virtual object has a life cycle, the method further comprising tracking each virtual object through the respective life cycles of each virtual object.

11. A system for identifying virtual objects having inappropriate content in a virtual universe (VU), the VU having virtual objects, the VU further having one or more regions, the system comprising:

a VU processing unit;

a memory unit operably associated with the VU processing unit;

an object management tool storable in the memory unit and executable by the VU processing unit, the object management tool comprising;

a rating unit configured for rating each of the one or more virtual objects based upon an appropriateness of its content for each of a set of avatars within the VU, the appropriateness based upon at least one of;

a sexual nature of the content, a morally offensive nature of the content, and a socially offensive nature of the content, wherein each of the one or more virtual objects comprises at least one of the following;

a virtual object purchasable by an avatar, and a virtual object stored in an inventory of an avatar, and wherein the rating for each of the one or more virtual objects is generated upon initial creation of each of the one or more virtual objects;

a tagging unit configured for;

tagging each of the one or more virtual objects with its respective rating;

receiving a plurality of ratings for each of the one or more virtual objects from the set of avatars within the VU; and

tagging each of the one or more virtual objects with an updated rating;

an object tagging database configured for storing ratings of the one or more virtual objects;

a policy database configured for storing policies associated with the ratings and the regions;

an object monitor configured for monitoring movement of a location of each virtual object within the VU;

a security scanner configured for scanning the inventory of the avatar to determine each virtual object rating of each of the one or more virtual objects, wherein the scanning of the inventory occurs when the avatar moves from one region to another region of the one or more regions; and

an enforcement module configured to enforce the policies of the policy database based upon the rating of each virtual object and its respective region.

12. The system as defined in claim 11, the object management tool further comprising a notification module configured to provide notification if the one or more virtual objects violate the policies.

13. The system as defined in claim 12, wherein each of the one or more virtual objects has a rating life, the object management tool further comprising a life cycle tracker configured for tracking the rating life of each of the one or more virtual objects.

14. The system as defined in claim 13, wherein the virtual universe further has one or more avatars, the system further comprising a ballot box configured for receiving rating votes on the one or more virtual objects from the one or more avatars based upon the content of the one or more virtual objects.

15. A non-transitory computer-readable storage device storing computer instructions, which when executed, enables a system comprising a processing unit, a memory, a bus, and one or more input/output (I/O) interfaces to implement a method for identifying virtual objects having inappropriate content in a virtual universe (VU) having one or more regions, the VU having virtual objects, each of the virtual objects having content, the computer instructions comprising:

rating each virtual object based upon an appropriateness of its content for each of a set of avatars within the VU, the appropriateness based upon at least one of;

a sexual nature of the content, a morally offensive nature of the content, and a socially offensive nature of the content, wherein each of the virtual objects comprises at least one of the following;

a virtual object purchasable by an avatar, and a virtual object stored in an inventory of an avatar, and wherein the rating for each virtual object is generated upon initial creation of each virtual object;

tagging each virtual object with its rating;

receiving a plurality of ratings for each virtual object from the set of avatars within the VU;

tagging each virtual object with an updated rating;

storing each virtual object rating in an object tagging database;

storing policies associated with the ratings and the regions in a policy database;

monitoring movement of a location of each virtual object within the VU;

scanning the inventory of the avatar to determine each virtual object rating, wherein the scanning of the inventory occurs when the avatar moves from one region to another region of the one or more regions; and

enforcing the policies of the policy database based upon the rating of each virtual object and its respective region.

16. The non-transitory computer-readable storage device as defined in claim 15 wherein the computer instructions further comprise using a taxonomy based rating system.

17. The non-transitory computer-readable storage device as defined in claim 15 wherein the computer instructions further comprise using a folksonomy based rating system.

18. The non-transitory computer-readable storage device as defined in claim 17 wherein the computer instructions further comprise receiving one or more rating votes on each of the virtual objects from the set of avatars, aggregating the one or more rating votes and storing the aggregated rating votes in the object tagging database.

19. The non-transitory computer-readable storage device as defined in claim 18 wherein the set of avatars comprises members and non-members, wherein the computer instructions further comprise allowing the members to rate the one or more virtual objects and prohibiting the non-members to rate the one or more virtual objects.

20. A method for deploying a computing infrastructure, comprising integrating computer-readable code into a computing system, wherein the code in combination with the computing system is capable of performing a process for identifying virtual objects having inappropriate content in a virtual universe (VU) having one or more regions, the VU having virtual objects, each of the virtual objects having content, the process comprising:

rating each virtual object based upon an appropriateness of its content for each of a set of avatars within the VU, the appropriateness based upon at least one of;

a sexual nature of the content, a morally offensive nature of the content, and a socially offensive nature of the content, wherein each of the virtual objects comprises at least one of the following;

a virtual object purchasable by an avatar, and a virtual object stored in an inventory of an avatar, and wherein the rating for each virtual object is generated upon initial creation of each virtual object;

tagging each virtual object with its rating;

receiving a plurality of ratings for each virtual object from the set of avatars within the VU;

tagging each virtual object with an updated rating;

storing each virtual object rating in an object tagging database;

storing policies associated with the ratings and the regions in a policy database;

monitoring movement of a location of each virtual object within the VU;

scanning the inventory of the avatar to determine each virtual object rating, wherein the scanning of the inventory occurs when the avatar moves from one region to another region of the one or more regions; and

enforcing the policies of the policy database based upon the rating of each virtual object and its respective region.