Rendering of Real World Objects and Interactions Into A Virtual Universe

• US 20090150802A1
• Filed: 12/06/2007
• Published: 06/11/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 12/06/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Seacat, Lisa A., Do, Lydia M., Nesbitt, Pamela A.
• Granted Patent: US 8,386,918 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 715/757
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/011 Arrangements for interaction with the human body, e.g. for user immersion in virtual reality blind teaching G09B21/00

Abstract

Systems are disclosed herein that can capture image data reflecting real world objects and/or actions and convert this data into a format that, is usable in a virtual universe (VU). Thus, image data representing real world/actual objects and actions can be acquired, converted into virtual universe compatible data, sent to a VU server where the actions and objects can be associated with a virtual area or an avatar, and a recreation of the objects and actions can be displayed to a user in the VU. This allows a participant to customize activities and objects in the VU, and provide a unique “personality” for their avatar and their VU. Other embodiments are also disclosed.

Claims

1. A method comprising;

configuring a sensor to receive input associated with at least one of an object or an interaction;

acquiring data associated with the at least one of an object or an interaction;

associating a participant with the acquired data;

associating a virtual universe with the acquired data; and

automatically converting, the acquired data to data that is usable to render a representation of the at least one of an object or an interaction in the virtual universe.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein configuring comprises configuring a multi-touch interactive system.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising automatically rendering the converted data in a virtual environment.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising assigning an identifier to the acquired data such that the virtual universe compatible data is associable with an avatar.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the acquired data is one of metadata or pixel data.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising simulating the at least one object as a possession of the avatar.

7. The method of claim 1, further comprising acquiring participant input regarding the placement of the at least one object in the virtual universe.

8. The method of claim 1, further transmitting, the virtual universe compatible data and simulating the at least one object or interaction in a virtual universe.

9. The method of claim 1, further comprising accepting a user input to classify the at least one object or interaction.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein receiving comprises receiving image data from an optical recording device.

11. A system comprising:

an object-interaction acquisition module to acquire one of object image data or interaction image data;

an identification module to identify a participant associated with the object image data and the interactions image data;

an association module to associate the image data with the participant; and

a data conversion module to translate the image data into virtual universe compatible format such that the object or interaction rendered in a virtual universe resemble the object or interaction in the real world.

12. The system of claim 11, further comprising a graphical user interface module to provide user selectable inputs and to facilitate receiving user input.

13. The system of claim 11, wherein the object-interaction acquisition module comprises a multi-touch interactive system.

14. The system of claim 11, wherein the object-interaction acquisition module comprises a transceiver.

15. The system of claim 11, wherein the object-interaction acquisition module comprises a pixel generator.

16. A machine-accessible medium containing instructions which, when the instructions are executed by a machine, cause said machine to perform operations, comprising:

configuring a sensor to receive input data usable to create at least an image;

associating the input data with a virtual universe;

acquiring image data representing at least one of, an object or an interaction; and

converting the image data into data usable to create a virtual universe.

17. The machine-accessible medium of claim 16, that when executed causes the computer to wherein the sensor comprises a multi-touch interactive system.

18. The machine-accessible medium of claim 16, that when executed causes the computer to further comprising assigning an identifier to the virtual universe compatible data such that the virtual universe compatible data can be associated with an avatar.

19. The machine-accessible medium of claim 16, that when executed causes the computer to receive a transmission and identify an object based on the relieved transmission.

20. The machine-accessible medium of claim 16, that when executed causes the computer to simulate the at least one object as a possession of the avatar.