Persistent authenticating mechanism to map real world object presence into virtual world object awareness

An apparatus, comprising:

• a processor;
• and
• a memory coupled to the processor, wherein the memory comprises instructions which, when executed by the processor, cause the processor to:
• detect a presence of a real world object within a detection area of a detection device;
• retrieve, from a storage device associated with the data processing system, virtual object characteristic information corresponding to the real world object in response to detecting the presence of the real world object;
• and
• generate a virtual object in a virtual world environment rendered in the data processing system based on the virtual object characteristic information;
• virtual object characteristic information further comprises:
• retrieving virtual object condition information corresponding to the identifier information from a storage device associated with the data processing system;
• and
• rendering the virtual object such that the virtual object has a condition corresponding to the virtual object condition information, wherein:
• the virtual object condition information is virtual object condition information stored in the storage device during a previous user session with the data processing system and corresponds to a last condition of the virtual object in the virtual world during the previous user session, and
• updated virtual object condition information corresponding to a last condition of the virtual object at the end of a current user session is maintained in the storage device between user sessions with the data processing system such that when the real world object is again placed in the detection area of the detection device during a subsequent session with the data processing system, the stored updated virtual object condition information, corresponding to the last condition of the virtual object in the virtual world during the current user session, is retrieved and used to render the virtual object as having a condition corresponding to the stored updated virtual object condition information, in the subsequent user session.

A computer program product comprising a non-transitory computer recordable medium having a computer readable program recorded thereon, wherein the computer readable program, when executed on a computing device, causes the computing device to:

• detect a presence of a real world object within a detection area of a detection device;
• retrieve, from a storage device associated with the data processing system, virtual object characteristic information corresponding to the real world object in response to detecting the presence of the real world object;
• and
• generate a virtual object in a virtual world environment rendered in the data processing system based on the virtual object characteristic information;
• wherein virtual object characteristic information further comprises:
• retrieving virtual object condition information corresponding to the identifier information from a storage device associated with the data processing system;
• and
• rendering the virtual object such that the virtual object has a condition corresponding to the virtual object condition information, wherein:
• the virtual object condition information is virtual object condition information stored in the storage device during a previous user session with the data processing system and corresponds to a last condition of the virtual object in the virtual world during the previous user session, and
• updated virtual object condition information corresponding to a last condition of the virtual object at the end of a current user session is maintained in the storage device between user sessions with the data processing system such that when the real world object is again placed in the detection area of the detection device during a subsequent session with the data processing system, the stored updated virtual object condition information, corresponding to the last condition of the virtual object in the virtual world during the current user session, is retrieved and used to render the virtual object as having a condition corresponding to the stored updated virtual object condition information, in the subsequent user session.