Differential resource application in virtual worlds based on payment and account options

• US 9,311,693 B2
• Filed: 01/06/2014
• Issued: 04/12/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 05/14/2008
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Kyndryl Incorporated
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Hamilton, Rick A. II, Harrison, Steven M., O'Connell, Brian M., Pickover, Clifford A., Walker, Keith R.
• Primary Examiner(s): Xiao, Ke
• Assistant Examiner(s): Imperial, Jed-Justin
• Application Number:
  US14/148,192
• Publication Number:
  US 20140118383A1
• Time in Patent Office: 827 Days
• Field of Search: 345/418, 345/419, 345/581, 345/619, 709/203, 715/700, 715/706
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0482 Interaction with lists of selectable items, e.g. menus
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/22 Payment schemes or models
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/02 Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 15/005 General purpose rendering architectures
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 19/006 Mixed reality object pose determination, tracking or camera calibration for mixed reality G06T7/00
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 19/20 Editing of 3D images, e.g. changing shapes or colours, aligning objects or positioning parts
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 2200/16 involving adaptation to the client's capabilities
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 2200/24 involving graphical user interfaces [GUIs]
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 2210/36 Level of detail
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 5/00 Image enhancement or restoration

Abstract

A system and method for enhancing the rendering of one or more objects based on payment and account options. The system includes a computer infrastructure configured to control enhancement rendering of an object in a virtual universe by providing at least one augmentation attribute to a tag of the object. The method includes providing enhancement rendering of an object in a virtual universe by augmenting the object based on a status of a user viewing the object.

Claims

1. A system for controlling display of an object on a display device comprising:

at least one tag to identify one or more levels of enhancement rendering of the object;

an augmentation database comprising at least one augmentation attribute that defines how the object is rendered on the display device, the at least one augmentation attribute being linked to at least one of the one or more levels of the enhancement rendering; and

a computer infrastructure configured to control the enhancement rendering of the object in a virtual universe by providing the at least one augmentation attribute to the at least one tag of the object based on a user status related to one or more actions taken by a user within the virtual universe,

wherein the at least one augmentation attribute represents at least one of a geometric detail, a color palette, and a refresh rate of the display device.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein:

the at least one augmentation attribute further represents a rendering method; and

the user status comprises how much money the user has spent in the virtual universe.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein the at least one augmentation attribute comprises multiple levels of enhancement rendering.

4. The system of claim 1, wherein the computer infrastructure is further configured to provide a metadata field for the object which contains instructions describing the enhancement rendering.

5. The system of claim 1, further comprising a tag interpreter configured to interrogate metadata of the object to ascertain whether a virtual universe server must modify its methods to enhance a presentation of the object.

6. The system of claim 1, further comprising a pass through tag identifier that is configured to determine whether an enhancement download to a remote client is required.

7. The system of claim 1, further comprising a selectable context menu providing a mechanism for a user to request the enhancement rendering at a remote location from a virtual universe server.

8. The system of claim 1, wherein the one or more levels of the enhancement rendering is selective to a subset of objects.

9. The system of claim 1, wherein the at least one augmentation attribute corresponds to the user status or a payment level.

10. The system of claim 1, wherein the object is comprised of one or more smaller objects structured and arranged to be rearranged, resized, rotated, twisted, tapered, dimpled, and/or linked on the display device by one or more levels of the enhancement rendering.

11. The system of claim 1, wherein the computer infrastructure is further configured to:

provide one or more discounted rates for the one or more levels of the enhancement rendering of the object to the user based on the user status; and

provide a fee for the one or more levels of the enhancement rendering of the object to the user based on an original level of enhancement rendering of the object for the user.

12. The system of claim 1, wherein the at least one augmentation attributes is associated with at least one augmentation attribute ID and the at least one augmentation attribute is stored in the at least one tag according to the at least one augmentation attribute ID.

13. A method for controlling display of an object on a display device comprising:

determining whether one or more levels of enhancement rendering on the display device is to be applied to the object displayed on the display device;

interrogating metadata for instructions describing the one or more levels of the enhancement rendering of the object, wherein the metadata is represented as one or more tags having augmentation attributes associated with the one or more tags, and the one or more tags correlate levels of enhancement with augmentation attribute IDs;

determining a status of a user; and

providing one or more levels of the enhancement rendering of the object in a virtual universe by augmenting the display of the object on the display device based on the status of the user viewing the object, the status of the user being related to one or more actions taken by the user within the virtual universe,

wherein the augmenting the object on the display device include at least one of increasing;

a refresh rate of the object;

a geometric detail of the object; and

a color palette.

14. The method of claim 13, further comprising modifying the object when the user accesses another level of the one or more levels of the enhancement rendering.

15. The method of claim 13, further comprising adjusting computational resources to accommodate for utilization of the augmenting.

16. The method of claim 13, wherein:

the augmenting the object on the display device further includes increasing a rendering method; and

the status of the user comprising how many interactions the user has had in the virtual universe within a predetermined time period and how much money the user has spent in the virtual universe.

17. The method of claim 13, further comprising allowing one or more users temporary access to an augmentation attribute which provides the one or more levels of the enhancement rendering.

18. The method of claim 13, further comprising determining whether an augmentation attribute associated with the one or more levels of the enhancement rendering is required to be sent to the user.

19. The method of claim 13, wherein the steps of claim 13 are implemented on a computer infrastructure maintained, deployed, created and supported by a service provider on one of a fee and/or subscription basis.

20. A computer program product comprising a non-transitory computer-readable medium having readable program code embodied in the medium for controlling display of an object on a display device, wherein the computer program product includes at least one component operable to:

determine a total number of one or more levels of enhancement rendering that are available for the object in a virtual universe;

interrogate metadata for instructions describing the one or more levels of the enhancement rendering of the object, wherein the metadata is represented as one or more tags having augmentation attributes associated with the one or more tags, and the tags correlate levels of enhancement with augmentation attribute IDs;

ascertain a user status and a payment level, the user status being related to one or more actions taken by a user within the virtual universe, and the user status comprising how many interactions the user has had in the virtual universe within a predetermined time period and how much money the user has spent in the virtual universe;

permit the user access to an augmentation attribute based on the user status and the payment level; and

augment the object by providing the at least one of the total number of the one or more levels of the enhancement rendering to the object,

wherein the at least one augmentation attribute represents at least one of a geometric detail, a color palette, and a refresh rate of the display device.