Routing a teleportation request based on compatibility with user contexts

• US 9,256,347 B2
• Filed: 09/29/2009
• Issued: 02/09/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 09/29/2009
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Finn, Peter G., Hamilton, Rick A. II, Hangai, Dana H., Walker, Keith R.
• Primary Examiner(s): Badawi, Sherief
• Assistant Examiner(s): Raab, Christopher J
• Application Number:
  US12/568,802
• Publication Number:
  US 20110078170A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,324 Days
• Field of Search: 707/769, 715/757
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 13/10 Control of the course of the game, e.g. start, progess, end
• 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 13/35 Details of game servers
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 13/45 Controlling the progress of the video game
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 13/77 involving data related to game devices or game servers, e.g. configuration data, software version or amount of memory
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 2300/8082 Virtual reality
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/245 Query processing
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/04815 Interaction with a metaphor-based environment or interaction object displayed as three-dimensional, e.g. changing the user viewpoint with respect to the environment or object

Abstract

A teleportation proxy and teleportation proxy service which monitors the usage of a networked computer or terminal to determine contextual metadata for a user reflecting current usage of the networked computer or terminal. A search engine then searches metadata of virtual universe locations in accordance with at least a portion of said contextual metadata and candidate matches are compared against the contextual metadata to determine suggested teleportation destinations in a virtual universe.

Claims

1. A method of suggesting teleportation destinations in one or more virtual universes (VU) which are personalized to a current context of a user, the method comprising:

collecting current contextual metadata corresponding to at least one of a location, a time/date, an activity/event and a person/object and wherein said contextual metadata is related to a current island or VU of an avatar of said user, wherein said contextual metadata comprises information corresponding to the current context or circumstances of current usage of a computer or terminal by said user in regard to said at least one of said location, time/date, activity/event and/a person/object and excludes terms derived from a query or communication using said computer;

developing a search query for a search engine based on said current contextual metadata;

when a change occurs in said contextual metadata collected in said collecting step, developing a new search query and searching for VU locations having metadata corresponding to said new search query to form search results; and

responsive to said forming of search results based on said new search query, suggesting one or more VU locations having metadata corresponding to a portion of said current contextual metadata based on said search results as a potential teleportation destination for an avatar corresponding to said user into said VU location, wherein the one or more VU locations are in one or more alternative islands or VUs offering a similar or same virtual experience of said current island or VU in terms of setting, whereby suggestions of potential teleportation destinations related to said current context and circumstances of computer usage by said user are made to said user transparently.

2. The method as recited in claim 1, further including:

filtering said contextual metadata collected in said collecting step to form filtered metadata wherein said search query is developed from said filtered metadata.

3. The method as recited in claim 1, wherein said collecting includes searching a network to determine a location of a user.

4. The method as recited in claim 1, further comprising:

sorting locations resulting from said searching.

5. The method as recited in claim 4, wherein weights are applied to said search results to prioritize said sorting.

6. A computer program product for suggesting teleportation destinations in one or more virtual universes (VU) which are consistent with current user context comprising a computer readable medium storing non-transitory signals for causing a digital data processor to perform steps of:

collecting current contextual metadata corresponding to at least one of a location, a time/date, an activity/event and a person/object and wherein said contextual metadata is related to a current island or VU of an avatar of said user, wherein said contextual metadata comprises information corresponding to the current context or circumstances of current usage of a computer or terminal by said user in regard to said at least one of said location, time/date, activity/event and/a person/object and excludes terms derived from a query or communication using said computer;

developing a search query for a search engine based on said current contextual metadata;

when a change occurs in said contextual metadata collected in said collecting step, developing a new search query and searching for VU locations having metadata corresponding to said new search query to form search results; and

responsive to said forming of search results based on said new search query, suggesting one or more VU locations having metadata corresponding to a portion of said current contextual metadata based on said search results as a potential teleportation destination for an avatar corresponding to said user into said VU location, wherein the one or more VU locations are in one or more alternative islands or VUs offering a similar or same virtual experience of said current island or VU in terms of setting, whereby suggestions of potential teleportation destinations related to said current context and circumstances of computer usage by said user are made to said user transparently.

7. The computer program product as recited in claim 6, further including signals for performing steps of:

filtering said contextual metadata collected in said collecting step to form filtered metadata wherein said search query is developed from said filtered metadata.

8. The computer program product as recited in claim 6, wherein said collecting includes searching a network to determine a location of a user.

9. The computer program product as recited in claim 6, further comprising signal for performing a step of:

sorting locations resulting from said searching.

10. The computer program product as recited in claim 9, wherein weights are applied to said search results to prioritize said sorting.

11. Apparatus for providing suggestions of virtual universe (VU) locations to a user of a networked computer or terminal wherein said suggestions are consistent with current usage of said networked computer or terminal, said apparatus comprising:

a detector to detect at least one of a location, a time/date, an activity/event and a person/object in data available to said networked computer or terminal and related to a current island or VU of an avatar of said user to form contextual metadata for said user, wherein said contextual metadata comprises information corresponding to the current context or circumstances of current usage of a computer or terminal by said user corresponding to said at least one of a location, a time/date, an activity/event and a person/object detected by said detector and excludes terms derived from queries or communications using said computer;

a memory for storing said contextual metadata;

a search engine for searching for VU locations having metadata corresponding to a portion of said contextual metadata upon detection of a current change in said contextual metadata to form search results; and

an interface, responsive to said forming of search results based on said new search query, for prompting a user to view a suggestion of one or more VU locations having metadata corresponding to said contextual metadata based on said search results as a potential teleportation destination for an avatar corresponding to said user into said VU location, wherein the one or more VU locations are in one or more alternative islands or VUs offering a similar or same virtual experience of said current island or VU in terms of setting, whereby suggestions of potential teleportation destinations related to said current context and circumstances of computer usage by said user are made to said user transparently.

12. Apparatus as recited in claim 11, further including:

a filter interposed between said memory and said search engine to prevent selected contextual metadata from reaching said search engine.

13. Apparatus as recited in claim 11, further comprising:

a comparator for comparing said contextual metadata and said search results.

14. Apparatus as recited in claim 11, further comprising:

a further memory for storing said search results.

15. Apparatus as recited in claim 11, further comprising

a display control to sort said search results based upon quality of match to said contextual metadata.

16. A teleportation proxy service comprising furnishing use of software to a user of a networked computer or terminal participating in a virtual universe system to configure a computer accessible to said networked computer or terminal to provide:

a detector to detect at least one of a location, a time/date, an activity/event and a person/object in data available to said networked computer or terminal and related to a current island or VU of an avatar of said user to form contextual metadata for said user, wherein said contextual metadata comprises information corresponding to the current context or circumstances of current usage of a computer or terminal by the user in regard to said at least one of said location, time/date, activity/event and/a person/object and excludes terms derived from a query or communication using said computer;

a memory for storing said contextual metadata;

a search engine for searching for VU locations having metadata corresponding to a portion of said contextual metadata upon detection of a current change in said contextual metadata to form search results; and

an interface, responsive to said forming of search results based on said new search query, for prompting a user to view a suggestion of one or more VU locations having metadata corresponding to said contextual metadata based on said search results as a potential teleportation destination for an avatar corresponding to said user into said VU location, wherein the one or more VU locations are in one or more alternative islands or VUs offering a similar or same virtual experience of said current island or VU in terms of setting, whereby suggestions of potential teleportation destinations related to said current context and circumstances of computer usage by said user are made to said user transparently.

17. A teleportation proxy service as recited in claim 16, wherein said software further configures said computer to provide:

a filter interposed between said memory and said search engine to prevent selected contextual metadata from reaching said search engine.

18. A teleportation proxy service as recited in claim 16, wherein said software further configures said computer to provide:

a comparator for comparing said contextual metadata and said search results.

19. A teleportation proxy service as recited in claim 16, wherein said software further configures said computer to provide:

a further memory for storing said search results.

20. A teleportation proxy service as recited in claim 16, wherein said software further configures said computer to provide:

a display control to sort said search results based upon quality of match to said contextual metadata.

21. A method of operating a virtual universe (VU) in connection with another activity of a user being conducted on a networked data processor, said method including steps of

collecting current contextual metadata corresponding to at least one of a location, a time/date, an activity/event and a person/object and wherein said contextual metadata is related to a current island or VU of an avatar of said user, wherein said contextual metadata comprises information corresponding to the current context or circumstances of current usage of a computer or terminal by said user in regard to said at least one of said location, time/date, activity/event and/a person/object and excludes terms derived from a query or communication using said computer;

developing a query for a search engine based on said contextual metadata collected in said collecting step;

searching for VU locations having metadata corresponding to said query to form search results upon detection of a change in said contextual metadata; and

responsive to said forming of search results based on said new search query, suggesting one or more VU locations having metadata corresponding to a portion of said contextual metadata based on said search results as a potential teleportation destination for an avatar corresponding to said user into said VU location, wherein the one or more VU locations are in one or more alternative islands or VUs offering a similar or same virtual experience of said current island or VU in terms of setting, whereby suggestions of potential teleportation destinations related to said current context and circumstances of computer usage by said user are made to said user transparently.