System and method for group control in a metaverse application

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10326667-B2
Application number	US-201514594892-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jan 12, 2015
Priority date	Jan 9, 2008
Publication date	Jun 18, 2019
Grant date	Jun 18, 2019

Abstract

A metaverse system includes a client computer coupled to a network, a metaverse server coupled to the client computer, the metaverse server to host a metaverse application, and a group link engine coupled to the server. The engine opens a group link connection in response to a request from a user. A linked group associated with the connection includes at least two linked users, and at least one of the linked users is designated as a leader, and each of the at least two linked users is associated with an avatar different from the avatar associated with the other. The engine includes a group link controller to allow the leader to control an action of a second avatar of a second user. The action of the second avatar can be viewed separately from each avatar associated with the at least one linked users that are designated as the leader.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A metaverse system comprising:
a client computer coupled to a network;
a metaverse server coupled to the client computer, the metaverse server to host a metaverse application;
a group link engine coupled to the metaverse server, the group link engine to open a group link connection in response to a request from a user to open the group link connection, wherein a linked group associated with the group link connection comprises at least two linked users, and at least one of the linked users is designated as a leader of the linked group associated with the group link connection and at least one user of the linked group is designated as a follower of the linked group associated with the group link, wherein each of the at least two linked users is associated with a different avatar, the group link engine comprising:
a group link controller to allow the user designated as the leader to control an action of the avatar of the at least one follower based on an action of the leader to control the avatar of the leader, wherein the action of the avatar of the at least one follower mimics action of the avatar of the leader to control the avatar of the leader without input by the at least one follower, wherein the action of the avatar of the at least one follower can be viewed separately from the avatar associated with the leader,
wherein the group movement comprises a delayed teleport, wherein the leader teleports to a new location apart from a remainder of the linked group, and after a predetermined delay, the remainder of the avatars in the linked group are then teleported to the new location without input from the users in the linked group not designated as leader.

2. The metaverse system of claim 1 , the group link engine further comprising a group link configuration engine coupled to the group link controller, the group link configuration engine to send a group link invitation to the second user to join the linked group.

3. The metaverse system of claim 2 , wherein the group link configuration engine terminates the group link invitation in response to a user's rejection of the group link invitation.

4. The metaverse system of claim 3 , wherein the group link configuration engine is further configured to disconnect temporarily a linked user from the group link connection and reconnect the linked user, that was temporarily disconnected from the group link connection, to the linked group.

5. The metaverse system of claim 1 , wherein the group link controller stores a plurality of group movements on a storage device in response to a request from a user in a linked group to save the plurality of group movements.

6. The metaverse system of claim 1 , the group link controller further configured to control a group movement in response to an input command by the leader of the linked group, wherein the group movement comprises one or more of:
a cascaded group movement, wherein a user in the linked group is ranked in a predetermined order to allow a movement initiated by the leader to be performed by the avatar of the leader first, and then after a predetermined delay for each avatar, each additional avatar separately performs that movement according to the rank of each user in the linked group not designated as leader without input from the users in the linked group not designated as leader; and
a verified teleport, wherein the leader teleports to a new location apart from the remainder of the linked group, and the remainder of the avatars of the linked group teleport to the new location in response to a verification by the leader to travel to the new location without input from the users in the linked group not designated as leader.

7. The metaverse system of claim 6 , wherein the group link controller stores a plurality of group movements on a storage device in response to a request from a user in a linked group to save the plurality of group movements.

8. The metaverse system of claim 1 , wherein the group link controller allows the second user to decline the action that one of the users designated as the leader initiates to control the avatar of the second user.

9. A method comprising:
opening a group link connection in response to a request from a user to open the group link connection, wherein a linked group associated with the group link connection comprises at least two linked users, and at least one of the linked users is designated as a leader of the linked group associated with the group link connection; and
controlling an action of a plurality of avatars of the linked group associated with the group link connection in response to an input command by one of the users designated as the leader of the linked group, wherein the action of one or more avatars of the linked group not designated as the leader mimics an action of the avatar of the user designated as the leader without input by the users of the linked group not designated as the leader, the action of the avatar of the user designated as the leader in response to the input command, wherein the action of each of the plurality of avatars can be viewed separately, wherein the group movement comprises a delayed teleport, wherein the leader teleports to a new location apart from a remainder of the linked group, and after a predetermined delay, the remainder of the avatars in the linked group are then teleported to the new location without input from the users in the linked group not designated as leader.

10. The method of claim 9 , further comprising:
sending a group link invitation to another user to join the linked group;
linking the other user to the group link connection in response to the other user accepting the group link invitation to join the linked group; and
saving a group link connection profile.

11. The method of claim 9 , further comprising:
disconnecting at least temporarily a linked user from the group link connection; and
reconnecting the linked user, that temporarily disconnected from the group link connection, to the linked group.

12. The method of claim 9 , further comprising:
requesting a transfer of the designation of the user as the leader of the group link connection; and
transferring the designation of at least one of the users designated as the leader of the group link connection to another user of the group link connection.

13. An apparatus, comprising:
means for establishing a linked group of metaverse users, each metaverse user associated with an avatar of a metaverse application, wherein one of the metaverse users is designated as a leader of the linked group; and
means for controlling an action of all of the avatars of the linked group in response to an action of the avatar associated with the leader of the linked group of metaverse users, wherein the action of one or more avatars of the linked group not designated as the leader mimics the action of the avatar of the user designated as the leader designated as the leader without input by the metaverse users not designated as the leader, the action of the avatar of the user designated as the leader in response to the input command, wherein the action of each avatar of the linked group can be viewed separately, wherein the group movement comprises a delayed teleport, wherein the leader teleports to a new location apart from a remainder of the linked group, and after a predetermined delay, the remainder of the avatars in the linked group are then teleported to the new location without input from the users in the linked group not designated as leader.

Assignees

• IBM

Inventors

• Jones Angela Richards
• Lyle Ruthie D
• Mallempati Vandana

Classifications

• H04L65/403

  Arrangements for multi-party communication, e.g. for conferences (data switching systems for conference H04L12/18; arrangements for connecting several subscribers to a common circuit, i.e. affording conference facilities H04M3/56; television conferencing systems H04N7/15) · CPC title

• H04L41/22 Primary

  comprising specially adapted graphical user interfaces [GUI] · CPC title

• G06N3/006 Primary

  based on simulated virtual individual or collective life forms, e.g. social simulations or particle swarm optimisation [PSO] · CPC title