SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR TAGGING OBJECTS FOR HETEROGENEOUS SEARCHES

• US 20100058208A1
• Filed: 08/26/2008
• Published: 03/04/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 08/26/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Kyndryl Incorporated
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Finn, Peter G., Hamilton, Rick A. II, Katz, Neil A., Seaman, James W.
• Granted Patent: US 8,473,356 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 715/764
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/00 Commerce
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0625 Directed, with specific intent or strategy

Abstract

A system and method in a virtual universe system for tagging objects in one virtual world so that avatars in other virtual worlds can search for, review, purchase, and exchange real goods and virtual objects. In a virtual universe having more than one virtual world, an object in one virtual world may be tagged with a seller identification, an advertising location, an item type, and details of the item. The object may then be externalized to other virtual worlds within the virtual universe for searching.

Claims

1. A method of tagging a virtual object associated with an item having an item type and item details to create an object tag, the method comprising:

tagging the virtual object with the item type; and

tagging the virtual object with the item details.

2. The method as defined in claim 1 wherein the virtual object is contained in a virtual world and wherein the item has a seller identification and an advertising location, the method further comprising:

tagging the virtual object with the seller identification; and

tagging the virtual object with the advertising location.

3. The method as defined in claim 2 wherein the virtual world is associated with a plurality of virtual worlds, at least one virtual world having an avatar and another having a virtual store, the method further comprising the avatar communicating with the virtual store in the another virtual world.

4. The method as defined in claim 2 further comprising externalizing the object tag outside of its virtual world.

5. The method as defined in claim 1 further comprising tagging the virtual object as being associated with a real item.

6. The method as defined in claim 1 further comprising tagging the virtual object as being associated with a virtual item.

7. The method as defined in claim 1 further comprising tagging the virtual object as being associated with a company identification tag.

8. The method as defined in claim 1 further comprising tagging the virtual object as being associated with an individual identification tag.

9. The method as defined in claim 1 further comprising tagging the virtual object as being associated with at least one of a seller'"'"'s rating, a rank order for display of the items, and a cost of the item in the object tag.

10. A system comprising a central repository for receiving, storing and externalizing virtual object tags relating to virtual objects for sale.

11. The system as defined in claim 10 further comprising a searcher for receiving a search request from an avatar for an object and for searching a virtual universe for the object.

12. The system as defined in claim 11 wherein the virtual universe comprises a second repository, the system further comprising a search passer for passing the search request to the second repository when the searcher cannot satisfy the search request from the avatar for the object.

13. The system as defined in claim 12 wherein the first repository further comprises a search counter for counting the number of searches and for stopping the searches when a maximum number of searches is reached.

14. The system as defined in claim 13 wherein a search string further has a search filter, the system further comprising a filtering unit for filtering the search based upon a real/virtual relational database field in the virtual object tag.

15. A system for tagging a virtual object associated with an item, and for identifying the virtual object and the item, the system comprising:

an object tagging unit for tagging the virtual object with an item type; and

a details tagging unit for tagging the virtual object with details of the item.

16. The system as defined in claim 15 wherein the object tagging unit further comprises a real item tagging unit.

17. The system as defined in claim 16 wherein the object tagging unit further comprises a virtual item tagging unit.

18. The system as defined in claim 17 wherein the object tagging unit further comprises a company identification tagging unit.

19. The system as defined in claim 18 wherein the object tagging unit further comprises an individual identification unit.

20. A computer program product embodied in a computer readable medium for operating in a system comprising a network interface, a processing unit and one or more databases, for implementing a method for tagging a virtual object associated with an item, the method comprising:

tagging the virtual object with an item type; and

tagging the virtual object with details of the item.

21. A method for deploying 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 of tagging a virtual object associated with an item to create an object tag, the process comprising:

tagging the virtual object with an object type; and

tagging the virtual object with details of the object.

22. The method as defined in claim 21 further comprising externalizing the object tag.

23. The method as defined in claim 22 further comprising tagging the virtual object with at least one of a seller'"'"'s rating, a rank order for display of the items, and a cost of the item in the object tag.