System and method for sharing avatars
AssigneeAT&T Intellectual Property I, L.P.
InventorsHorst Schroeter, E-Lee Chang, Linda Roberts, Madhur Khandelwal, Darnell Clayton
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A system that incorporates teachings of the present disclosure may include, for example, an avatar engine having a controller to present a user an avatar correlated to a profile of the user, detect a communication exchange between the user and the avatar, identify from the communication exchange a directive from the user to share the avatar with an other user, and submit to an other avatar engine associated with the other user a shared avatar comprising a usage policy and at least one of a replica in whole or in part of the avatar engine or in whole or in part of characteristics of the avatar. Other embodiments are disclosed.
Claims25
An avatar engine, comprising:
- a memory of a mobile communication device to store instructions;
- and
- a processor of the mobile communication device coupled to the memory, wherein responsive to executing the instructions the processor performs operation comprising:
- providing, from the mobile communication device to a set-top box, an avatar correlated to a profile of a user for presentation by the set-top box via a presentation device operably coupled with the set-top box;
- detecting a communication exchange between the user and the avatar, wherein the communication exchange comprises speech initiated by the user that causes the processor to generate synthesized speech associated with the avatar for responding to the speech of the user, thereby providing interactive avatar services to the user;
- identifying from the communication exchange a directive from the user to share the avatar with another user;
- and
- submitting to another avatar engine a shared avatar comprising a usage policy and a replica of all or some characteristics of the avatar, wherein the usage policy is configured to manage a usage of the shared avatar at the other avatar engine.
A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium, comprising instructions, wherein responsive to executing the instructions, a processor of a mobile communication device performs operations comprising:
- providing an avatar from the mobile communication device for presentation at a presentation device that is a separate device from the mobile communication device;
- identifying from a communication exchange with the avatar a directive by a first user to share the avatar with a second communication device of a second user, wherein the communication exchange comprises speech initiated by the first user that causes the processor to generate synthesized speech associated with the avatar for responding to the speech of the first user, thereby providing interactive avatar services;
- and
- transmitting a shared avatar to an avatar engine utilized by the second communication device of the second user, wherein the shared avatar comprises a replica of all or some characteristics of the avatar, wherein the shared avatar conforms to a usage policy for managing usage of the shared avatar by the avatar engine utilized the second communication device of the second user.
A recipient avatar engine comprising:
- a memory to store instructions;
- and
- a processor coupled to the memory, wherein responsive to executing the instructions, the processor performs operations comprising:
- receiving a shared avatar from a source avatar engine, wherein the shared avatar comprises a usage policy and a first avatar engine comprising a first replica of some or all of the source avatar engine or a first avatar comprising a second replica of some or all characteristics of an avatar produced by the source avatar engine, wherein the shared avatar is received responsive to a directive detected from a communication exchange between a user and the avatar, and wherein the communication exchange comprises speech initiated by the user that causes the source avatar engine to generate synthesized speech associated with the avatar for responding to the speech of the user, thereby providing interactive avatar services to the user;
- constructing the shared avatar according to the usage policy and one of the first avatar engine or the first avatar;
- and
- presenting the shared avatar through a presentation device, wherein the usage policy prevents distribution of the shared avatar to other devices but does not limit usage of the shared avatar at the presentation device by the recipient avatar engine.
A method, comprising:
- detecting, by a first avatar engine comprising a processor, a directive to share an avatar from a communication exchange, wherein the communication exchange comprises speech initiated by a user that causes the processor to generate synthesized speech associated with the avatar for responding to the speech of the user, thereby providing interactive avatar services;
- and
- transmitting, by the first avatar engine, a shared avatar comprising in whole or in part an avatar produced by the first avatar engine to a second avatar engine, wherein a usage of the shared avatar is managed from the second avatar engine in accordance with a usage policy, wherein the usage policy prevents distribution of the shared avatar to other devices but does not limit usage of the shared avatar at a presentation device by the second avatar engine.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.