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US 8,819,565 B2Granted
Describing elements in a virtual world based on changes since a previous encounter
AssigneeInternational Business Machines Corporation
InventorsBrian John Cragun, Zachary Adam Garbow, Christopher A. Peterson
Life of this patent
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Abstract
Embodiments of the invention may be used to enhance the presentation of a virtual environment for certain users, e.g., a visually impaired user. Because users may visit, and revisit, locations within the virtual environment, the state of elements in the virtual environment may change. Accordingly, audible descriptions of an object, person or environment, may be adjusted to prevent redundant or unnecessary descriptions. For example, when the user encounters a given element a second time, rather than describe each characteristic of the element, only changes to the characteristics of the element are described.
Claims19
A computer-implemented method of presenting a virtual environment to a user, the method comprising:
- upon detecting a first arrival of the user at a first virtual location in the virtual environment:
- determining a then-current state of a first element based on one or more characteristics associated with the first element;
- and
- generating an audio description of a plurality of elements identified as being present at the first virtual location, including a first element and a second element;
- detecting, subsequent to the first arrival, a second arrival of the user at the first virtual location;
- detecting one or more visually perceptible differences between a now-current state and the then-current state of the first element within the virtual environment;
- programmatically determining that a subset of the one or more visually perceptible differences of the first element are significant relative to one or more visually perceptible differences in the first element that are not in the subset;
- and
- generating an audio description of the significant subset of the one or more visually perceptible differences of the first element based at least in part on an amount of time elapsed between the first arrival and the second arrival, wherein an audio description of the second element is not generated because no visually perceptible differences of the second element exist between the first arrival and the second arrival.
6 more elements
A computer-readable storage medium containing a program that when executed, performs an operation of presenting a virtual environment to a user, the operation comprising:
- upon detecting a first arrival of the user at a first virtual location in the virtual environment:
- determining a then-current state of a first element based on one or more characteristics associated with the first element;
- and
- generating an audio description of a plurality of elements identified as being present at the first virtual location, including a first element and a second element;
- detecting, subsequent to the first arrival, a second arrival of the user at the first virtual location;
- detecting one or more visually perceptible differences between a now-current state and the then-current state of the first element within the virtual environment;
- programmatically determining that a subset of the one or more visually perceptible differences of the first element are significant relative to one or more visually perceptible differences in the first element that are not in the subset;
- and
- generating an audio description of the significant subset of the one or more visually perceptible differences of the first element based at least in part on an amount of time elapsed between the first arrival and the second arrival, wherein an audio description of the second element is not generated because no visually perceptible differences of the second element exist between the first arrival and the second arrival.
6 more elements
A system, comprising:
- a processor;
- and
- a memory containing a containing a program that, when executed by the processor, performs an operation for presenting a virtual environment to a user, the operation comprising:
- upon detecting a first arrival of the user at a first virtual location in the virtual environment:
- determining a then-current state of a first element based on one or more characteristics associated with the first element;
- and
- generating an audio description of a plurality of elements identified as being present at the first virtual location, including a first element and a second element;
- detecting, subsequent to the first arrival, a second arrival of the user at the first virtual location;
- detecting one or more visually perceptible differences between a now-current state and the then-current state of the first element within the virtual environment;
- programmatically determining that a subset of the one or more visually perceptible differences of the first element are significant relative to one or more visually perceptible differences in the first element that are not in the subset;
- and
- generating an audio description of the significant subset of the one or more visually perceptible differences of the first element based at least in part on an amount of time elapsed between the first arrival and the second arrival, wherein an audio description of the second element is not generated because no visually perceptible differences of the second element exist between the first arrival and the second arrival.
9 more elements
A computer-implemented method of presenting a virtual environment to a user, comprising:
- monitoring a set of actions by an avatar, under the control of the user, in the virtual environment;
- during a first encounter, by the avatar user, with an element in the virtual environment:
- interacting, by the avatar, with the element;
- generating a first audio description of the element, based on one or more visually perceptible characteristics associated with the element, and
- presenting the first generated audio description of the element to the user;
- and
- during a second encounter, subsequent to the first encounter, by the avatar, with the element in the virtual environment:
- detecting visually perceptible changes to the one or more characteristics described in the first description;
- programmatically determining that the detected visually perceptible changes are significant;
- generating a second description of the element based at least in part on an amount of time elapsed between the first encounter and the second encounter;
- and
- presenting the second generated description of the element to the user.
9 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.