Location/event based dictionaries to facilitate communication in a virtual world location

• US 9,678,940 B2
• Filed: 07/22/2008
• Issued: 06/13/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 07/22/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Cannon, Ulysses L., Jones, Angela Richards, Lyle, Ruthie D.
• Primary Examiner(s): Corrielus, Jean M
• Application Number:
  US12/177,713
• Publication Number:
  US 20100023476A1
• Time in Patent Office: 3,248 Days
• Field of Search: 707732, 707769, 707738
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/242 Dictionaries

Abstract

Embodiments of the present invention address deficiencies of the art in respect to jargon usage in a location in a virtual world and provide a method, system and computer program product for location and event based dictionaries to facilitate communication in location in a virtual world. In an embodiment of the invention, a method for communication facilitation in a location within the virtual world can include identifying jargon in a message exchanged in a location in a virtual world, looking up a glossary entry for the jargon in a dictionary of jargon for the location in the virtual world, and rendering the glossary entry in connection with the jargon in the message.

Claims

1. A method for communication facilitation in a location within a virtual world, the method comprising:

providing in a computer a virtual world including multiple different locations in which different avatars interact through an exchange of messages;

identifying jargon including acronyms for an organizational relationship characteristic of a particular one of the different locations in one of the messages the jargon being terminology common to an organizational culture specific to the particular one of the locations in the virtual world, but foreign to others of the participants not belonging to the organizational culture specific to the particular one of the locations in the virtual world; and

,

responding to a selection of a word in the one of the messages by determining if the selected word is jargon and if so, looking up a glossary entry for the jargon of the selected word, emphasizing the jargon of the selected word from other text in the one of the messages upon finding the glossary entry for the jargon of the selected word in the dictionary of jargon and rendering the glossary entry in the one of the messages in connection with the emphasized jargon.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein identifying jargon comprises comparing words in the message to jargon in the dictionary of jargon to detect a match.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein identifying jargon comprises:

parsing the message into words; and

,

comparing the words to jargon in the dictionary of jargon to detect a match.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein rendering the glossary entry comprises:

rendering a pop-up box with the glossary entry in connection with the one of the messages.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein rendering the glossary entry comprises:

rendering a pop-up box with the glossary entry in connection with the one of the messages responsive to a mouse over event associated with the selected word.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein emphasizing the jargon comprises:

activating the emphasized jargon in the one of the messages to respond to the selection of the word; and

,

displaying the activated emphasized jargon in the one of the messages.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the message exchanged between participants is an instant message.

8. A virtual world management data processing system comprising:

a virtual world server executing in a memory of a host computing platform and creating and managing multiple different locations for a virtual world that provides a computer-based simulated environment in which participants interact with one another through three-dimensional visually displayable surrogates referred to as avatar;

a dictionary of jargon coupled to the virtual world server, the dictionary of jargon comprising entries specific to a location in the virtual world simulating a real world location, each of the entries comprising jargon and a corresponding explanation of a meaning of the jargon, wherein the jargon is defined as terminology common to an organizational culture specific to the location in the virtual world, but foreign to the participants not involved in the organizational culture; and

,

jargon management logic executing in a memory of a computing device and coupled both to the dictionary of jargon and the virtual world server, the jargon management logic comprising program code enabled to identify jargon including acronyms for an organizational relationship characteristic of a particular one of the different locations in one of the messages, and to respond to a selection of a word in the one of the messages by determining if the selected word is jargon and if so, to look up a glossary entry for the jargon of the selected word, to emphasize the jargon of the selected word from other text in the one of the messages upon finding the glossary entry for the jargon of the selected word in the dictionary of jargon, and to render the glossary entry in the one of the message messages in connection with the emphasized jargon.

9. The system of claim 8, wherein the jargon management logic is included as part of the virtual world server.

10. The system of claim 8, wherein the jargon management logic executing in the memory of the computing device is a remote service accessible by the virtual world server.

11. The system of claim 8, wherein the computing device is the host computing platform and the jargon management logic executes in the memory of the host computing platform.

12. The system of claim 8, wherein the message exchanged between participants is an instant message.

13. A computer program product comprising a non-transitory computer usable storage medium embodying computer usable program code for communication facilitation in a location within a virtual world, the computer program product comprising:

computer usable program code for providing in a computer a virtual world including multiple different locations in which different avatars interact through an exchange of messages;

computer usable program code for identifying jargon including acronyms for an organizational relationship characteristic of a particular one of the different locations in one of the messages the jargon being terminology common to an organizational culture specific to the particular one of the locations in the virtual world, but foreign to others of the participants not belonging to the organizational culture specific to the particular one of the locations in the virtual world; and

,

computer usable program code for responding to a selection of a word in the one of the messages by determining if the selected word is jargon and if so, looking up a glossary entry for the jargon of the selected word, emphasizing the jargon of the selected word from other text in the one of the messages upon finding the glossary entry for the jargon of the selected word in the dictionary of jargon and rendering the glossary entry in the one of the messages in connection with the emphasized jargon.

14. The computer program product of claim 13, wherein the computer usable program code for identifying jargon comprises computer usable program code for comparing words in the message to jargon in the dictionary of jargon to detect a match.

15. The computer program product of claim 13, wherein the computer usable program code for identifying jargon comprises:

computer usable program code for parsing the message into words; and

,

computer usable program code for comparing the words to jargon in the dictionary of jargon to detect a match.

16. The computer program product of claim 13, wherein the computer usable program code for rendering the glossary entry comprises:

computer usable program code for rendering a pop-up box with the glossary entry in connection with the one of the messages.

17. The computer program product of claim 13, wherein the computer usable program code for rendering the glossary entry comprises:

computer usable program code for rendering a pop-up box with the glossary entry in connection with the one of the messages responsive to a mouse over event associated with the selected word.

18. The computer program product of claim 13, wherein the computer usable program code for emphasizing the jargon comprises:

computer usable program code for activating the emphasized jargon in the one of the messages to respond to the selection of the word; and

,

computer usable program code for displaying the activated emphasized jargon in the one of the messages.

19. The computer program product of claim 13, wherein the message exchanged between participants is an instant message.