Managing information about avatars across virtual worlds
AssigneeInternational Business Machines Corporation
InventorsLisa Seacat DeLuca, Martin A. Oberhofer
Life of this patent
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Abstract
Techniques are disclosed for managing relationship information across virtual worlds. In one embodiment, information about avatars in virtual worlds is received. A correlation is derived between two avatars based on the received information. The derived correlation between the two avatars is stored and queried by one or more applications.
Claims21
A computer-implemented method to derive relationships between avatars across a plurality of virtual environments, each virtual environment provided by a respective server application communicably connected to a management application via a respective connector application, the method comprising:
- receiving avatar information from each virtual environment via the respective connector application, wherein each connector application is configured to communicate according to a different messaging protocol specific to the server application providing the respective virtual environment, wherein the received avatar information includes information elements pertaining to a first avatar from a first virtual environment and a second avatar from a second virtual environment, respectively;
- generating, based on the received avatar information and for each of the first avatar and the second avatar, an avatar entity identifying the respective avatar and the virtual environment of the respective avatar;
- upon determining, based on the generated avatar entities, that the first avatar and the second avatar are used by a single user, generating, by operation of one or more computer processors when executing the management application, a single user entity identifying the single user and associated with each of the generated avatar entities, wherein the single user entity and the avatar entities are stored according to a predetermined data model;
- and
- responsive to receiving a request from a requesting entity to retrieve information elements of the single user across the plurality of virtual environments, generating, based on the single user entity, a result set that includes the information elements pertaining to the first and second avatars, respectively, wherein the generated result set is output to the requesting entity.
A computer program product to derive relationships between avatars across a plurality of virtual environments, each virtual environment provided by a respective server application communicably connected to a management application via a respective connector application, the computer program product comprising:
- a computer-readable storage medium having computer-readable program code embodied therewith, the computer-readable program code comprising:
- computer-readable program code configured to receive avatar information from each virtual environment via the respective connector application, wherein each connector application is configured to communicate according to a different messaging protocol specific to the server application providing the respective virtual environment, wherein the received avatar information includes information elements pertaining to a first avatar from a first virtual environment and a second avatar from a second virtual environment, respectively;
- computer-readable program code configured to generate, based on the received avatar information and for each of the first avatar and the second avatar, an avatar entity identifying the respective avatar and the virtual environment of the respective avatar;
- computer-readable program code included in the management application and configured to, upon determining, based on the generated avatar entities, that the first avatar and the second avatar are used by a single user, generate, by operation of one or more computer processors when executing the management application, a single user entity identifying the single user and associated with each of the generated avatar entities, wherein the single user entity and the avatar entities are stored according to a predetermined data model;
- and
- computer-readable program code configured to, responsive to receiving a request from a requesting entity to retrieve information elements of the single user across the plurality of virtual environments, generate, based on the single user entity, a result set that includes the information elements pertaining to the first and second avatars, respectively, wherein the generated result set is output to the requesting entity.
A system to derive relationships between avatars across a plurality of virtual environments, each virtual environment provided by a respective server application communicably connected to a management application via a respective connector application, the system comprising:
- one or more computer processors;
- a memory containing a program, which when executed by the one or more computer processors is configured to perform an operation comprising;
- receiving avatar information from each virtual environment via the respective connector application, wherein each connector application is configured to communicate according to a different messaging protocol specific to the server application providing the respective virtual environment, wherein the received avatar information includes information elements pertaining to a first avatar from a first virtual environment and a second avatar from a second virtual environment, respectively;
- generating, based on the received avatar information and for each of the first avatar and the second avatar, an avatar entity identifying the respective avatar and the virtual environment of the respective avatar;
- upon determining, based on the generated avatar entities, that the first avatar and the second avatar are used by a single user, generating a single user entity identifying the single user and associated with each of the generated avatar entities, by the management application, wherein the single user entity and the avatar entities are stored according to a predetermined data model;
- and
- responsive to receiving a request from a requesting entity to retrieve information elements of the single user across the plurality of virtual environments, generating, based on the single user entity, a result set that includes the information elements pertaining to the first and second avatars, respectively, wherein the generated result set is output to the requesting entity.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.