Communicating between a virtual area and a physical space

A method, comprising:

• transforming human perceptible physical stimuli in a physical space into physical space data streams of different respective data stream types;
• publishing respective ones of the physical space data streams in a zone of a virtual area in a virtual communications environment, wherein the zone defines a respective persistent context for realtime communications between network nodes of respective communicants who are present in the zone;
• establishing a respective presence in the zone for each of multiple communicants associated with respective client network nodes, each of one or more of the client network nodes publishing one or more respective client data streams;
• provisioning data stream connections for transmitting respective ones of the published physical space data streams to respective ones of the client network nodes, transmitting respective ones of the published client data streams to respective ones of the client network nodes, and transmitting respective ones of the published client data streams to the physical space;
• and
• transforming the published client data streams transmitted to the physical space into human perceptible physical stimuli in the physical space.

A method, comprising:

• administering zones of one or more virtual areas in a virtual communications environment, wherein each of respective ones of the zones defines a respective persistent context for realtime communications between network nodes of respective communicants who are present in the zone, and the administering comprises administering realtime communications between the respective network nodes of co-present communicants in respective ones of the zones;
• for each of multiple physical apparatus in respective real-world locations,
• establishing a respective presence for the physical apparatus in a respective one of the zones based on mappings between the respective real-world location and the respective zone, and
• creating a respective object that represents the physical apparatus in the respective zone and is associated with a respective interface for communicant interaction with the physical apparatus;
• transmitting to each of one or more of the respective network nodes a respective specification of a visualization of a spatial layout of the zones, graphical representations of the objects in their respective zones of presence, and graphical representations of avatars representing communicants in their respective zones of presence;
• provisioning respective data stream connections between respective ones of the physical apparatus and respective ones of the network nodes.

A method, comprising:

• administering a virtual area in a virtual communications environment, wherein the virtual area comprises one or more zones each of which defines a respective persistent context for realtime communications between network nodes of respective communicants who are present in the zone, and the administering comprises for each zone administering realtime communications between the respective network nodes of communicants who are co-present in the zone;
• for each of respective ones of the communicants who are present in the virtual area, transmitting a respective specification of a visualization of the virtual area comprising graphical representations of the one or more zones and avatars respectively representing the communicants in the one or more zones in which they respectively have presence;
• from sensing apparatus co-located with a particular one of the communicants in a physical space, receiving state information describing information relating to a physical state of the particular communicant;
• based on the state information, updating the specification of the visualization of the virtual area and the avatars and transmitting the updated specification to each of respective ones of the communicants who are present in the virtual area.