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US 8,176,421 B2Granted
Virtual universe supervisory presence
AssigneeInternational Business Machines Corporation
InventorsChristopher J. Dawson, Carl P. Gusler, Rick A. Hamilton, II, Clifford A. Pickover
Life of this patent
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Abstract
It is understood that the terms computer-readable medium or computer useable medium comprise one or more of any type of physical embodiment of the program code. In particular, the computer-readable/useable medium can comprise program code embodied on one or more portable storage articles of manufacture (e.g., a compact disc, a magnetic disk, a tape, etc.), on one or more data storage portions of a computing device, such as the memory 316 and/or the storage system 332 (e.g., a fixed disk, a read-only memory, a random access memory, a cache memory, etc.).
Claims20
A method for monitoring a virtual universe resident avatar through an associated supervisory avatar, comprising:
- monitoring an engagement of the a user avatar with a virtual universe for an event occurrence, the user avatar representing an agent account of a user within the virtual universe;
- associating a symbiont with the user avatar as a function of detecting the event occurrence through the monitoring;
- selecting a symbiont type from a plurality of symbiont types as a function of a user avatar characteristic and an objective of a virtual universe provider, each of the plurality of symbiont types comprising divergent agendas selected from a plurality of agendas comprising a first agenda beneficial to an interest of the user avatar, and a second agenda that is in contravention to an interest of the user avatar and beneficial to an interest of a third party or the virtual universe provider;
- populating the symbiont with the selected symbiont type;
- the populated symbiont appearing to the user as a supervising avatar associated with the user avatar and having a distinctive visual character appearance informative to the user of the agenda of the supervising avatar as the first or the second agenda;
- the populated symbiont processing the event occurrence and determining an action as a function of the first or second agenda of the selected symbiont type;
- and
- the populated symbiont taking the determined action.
5 more elements
A service for monitoring a virtual universe resident avatar through an associated supervisory avatar, comprising:
- providing a computer infrastructure comprising a processing means, a memory in communication with the processing means and a network interface in communication with a virtual universe, wherein the processing means is configured to:
- monitor an engagement of a user avatar with the virtual universe for an event occurrence, the user avatar representative of an agent account of a user;
- associate a symbiont with the user avatar as a function of detecting the event occurrence through the monitoring;
- select a symbiont type from a plurality of symbiont types as a function of a user avatar characteristic and an objective of a virtual universe provider, each of the plurality of symbiont types comprising divergent agendas selected from a plurality of agendas comprising a first agenda beneficial to an interest of the user avatar, and a second agenda that is in contravention to an interest of the user avatar and beneficial to an interest of a third party or the virtual universe provider;
- populate the symbiont with the selected symbiont type, wherein the populated symbiont is configured to appear to the user as a supervising avatar associated with the user avatar and having a distinctive visual character appearance informative to the user of the agenda of the supervising avatar as the first or the second agenda;
- wherein the populated symbiont is configured to process the event occurrence and determine an action as a function of the first or second agenda of the selected symbiont type;
- and
- wherein the populated symbiont is configured to take the determined action.
5 more elements
An article of manufacture, comprising:
- a tangible computer readable storage medium comprising computer executable program code stored thereon and the program code comprising instructions which, when executed on a computer system, cause the computer system to:
- monitor an engagement of a user avatar with a virtual universe for an event occurrence, the user avatar representative of an agent account of a user;
- associate a symbiont with the user avatar as a function of detecting the event occurrence through the monitoring;
- select a symbiont type from a plurality of symbiont types as a function of a user avatar characteristic and an objective of a virtual universe provider, each of the plurality of symbiont types comprising divergent agendas selected from a plurality of agendas comprising a first agenda beneficial to an interest of the user avatar, and a second agenda that is in contravention to an interest of the user avatar and beneficial to an interest of a third party or the virtual universe provider;
- populate the symbiont with the selected symbiont type, wherein the populated symbiont is configured to appear to the user as a supervising avatar associated with the user avatar and having a distinctive visual character appearance informative to the user of the agenda of the supervising avatar as the first or the second agenda;
- the populated symbiont configured to process the event occurrence and determine an action as a function of the first or second agenda of the selected symbiont type;
- and
- the populated symbiont configured to take the determined action.
5 more elements
A programmable device comprising:
- a processing means;
- a memory in communication with the processing means comprising a symbiont provider logic component, an event processor logic component and an action performer logic component;
- and
- a network interface in communication with the processing means and the memory;
- wherein the processing means is configured to use the event processor logic component to monitor an engagement of a user avatar, within a virtual universe for an event occurrence, the user avatar representative of an agent account of a user;
- wherein the processing means is configured to use the symbiont provider logic component to associate a symbiont with the user avatar as a function of detecting the event occurrence, select a symbiont type from a plurality of symbiont types as a function of a user avatar characteristic and an objective of a virtual universe provider, each of the plurality of symbiont types comprising divergent agendas selected from a plurality of agendas comprising a first agenda beneficial to an interest of the user avatar and a second agenda that is in contravention to an interest of the user avatar and beneficial to an interest of a third party or the virtual universe provider, and populate the symbiont with the selected symbiont type, the symbiont configured to appear to the user as a supervising avatar associated with the user avatar and having a distinctive visual character appearance informative to the user of the agenda of the supervising avatar as the first or the second agenda;
- wherein the processing means is configured to use the action performer logic component to process the event occurrence and determine an action as a function of the first or second agenda of the selected symbiont type;
- and
- wherein the populated symbiont is configured to take the determined action.
6 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.