Conversation detection in a virtual world

A virtual world management data processing system configured for conversation detection in a virtual world, the system comprising:

• a virtual world host server supporting a virtual world executing in the host server and providing access to different end users over a computer communications network, the host server having a processor and a memory;
• a plurality of avatars disposed in different locations in the virtual world and
• managed by the virtual world host server;
• and,
• conversation determination logic coupled to the host server, the logic comprising program code enabled to record a sequence of statements from different avatars, to locate a position of each of the avatars in the virtual world, to compute a temporal proximity of each of the recorded statements to others of the recorded statements, group selected ones of the recorded statements in the virtual world if corresponding ones of the avatars are geographically proximate to one another in the virtual world and if the statements have occurred within a threshold temporal proximity of one another, and to persist the grouped statements in the virtual world as a conversation.

A non-transitory computer program product comprising a computer usable storage medium storing computer usable program code for conversation management in a virtual world data processing system, the computer program product comprising:

• computer usable program code for recording a sequence of statements from different avatars in a virtual world;
• computer usable program code for locating a position of each of the avatars in the virtual world;
• computer usable program code for computing a temporal proximity of each of the recorded statements to others of the recorded statements;
• computer usable program code for grouping selected ones of the recorded statements in the virtual world if corresponding ones of the avatars are geographically proximate to one another in the virtual world and if the selected ones of the statements have occurred within a threshold temporal proximity of one another;
• and,
• persisting the grouped statements in the virtual world as a conversation.