Asymmetric collaborative virtual environments

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-11757947-B2
Application number	US-202217955007-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Sep 28, 2022
Priority date	Apr 29, 2019
Publication date	Sep 12, 2023
Grant date	Sep 12, 2023

Abstract

Systems and methods for facilitating virtual collaboration between users within virtual environments are disclosed. A plurality of users access a collaborative virtual environment system using interface devices with varying capabilities to establish a virtual collaboration session in which users communicate via a bidirectional real-time communication channel and interact within a virtual environment. Annotations or other user interactions within the virtual environment are automatically propagated to each user in the virtual collaboration session in order to facilitate collaboration. Data from such virtual collaboration sessions may be captured for later use.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A computer-implemented method for virtual collaboration, comprising:
providing, with a processor, a high-fidelity virtual environment representing a physical location to a first interface device, wherein the high-fidelity virtual environment includes data tools for data capture or presentation;
providing, with the processor, a low-fidelity virtual environment representing the physical location to a second interface device, wherein the physical location includes a structure;
generating a first model of the structure;
generating a second model of the structure, wherein the second model renders the structure in a lower image resolution than the first model;
storing the first model and the second model;
receiving, with the processor, user interaction data from the first interface device and associated with one of the data tools, wherein the user interaction data indicates one or more of a portion of the physical location or a viewing perspective relative to the physical location;
generating, with the processor and based on the user interaction data, a high-fidelity response corresponding to the high-fidelity virtual environment and a low-fidelity response corresponding to the low-fidelity virtual environment; and
synchronizing, by the processor, the high-fidelity virtual environment and the low-fidelity virtual environment by:
providing the high-fidelity response to the first interface device, and
providing the low-fidelity response to the second interface device, wherein the synchronizing causes the high-fidelity virtual environment and the low-fidelity virtual environment to be implemented on respective devices simultaneously.

2. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 , wherein the low-fidelity virtual environment presents a limited field of view representing a smaller region of the physical location than the high-fidelity virtual environment.

3. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 , wherein:
the first interface device is associated with a first user,
the second interface device is associated with a second user,
the user interaction data indicates the viewing perspective of the first user in the high-fidelity virtual environment, and
the low-fidelity response includes causing a second viewing perspective of the second user within the low-fidelity virtual environment to match the viewing perspective of the first user within the high-fidelity virtual environment.

4. The computer-implemented method of claim 3 , wherein the high-fidelity response includes presenting an indicator of synchronization of viewing perspectives to the second user within the high-fidelity virtual environment.

5. The computer-implemented method of claim 3 , wherein the low-fidelity response includes presenting a high-fidelity fixed-view two-dimensional image of the viewing perspective of the first user in the high-fidelity virtual environment to the second user.

6. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 , wherein the low-fidelity virtual environment represents the physical location with the lower image resolution than the high-fidelity virtual environment.

7. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 , wherein the first interface device is associated with a first user and the second interface device is associated with a second user, and wherein the low-fidelity virtual environment is configured to receive voice commands from the second user.

8. The computer-implemented method of claim 7 , wherein the voice commands including one or more of:
moving within the low-fidelity virtual environment,
capturing a fixed-view two-dimensional image of a second viewing perspective within the low-fidelity virtual environment,
recording a voice note, or
synchronizing the second viewing perspective of the second user within the low-fidelity virtual environment with the viewing perspective of the first user within the high-fidelity virtual environment.

9. A computer system for virtual collaboration, comprising:
one or more processors;
a communication module communicatively connected to the one or more processors and configured to communicate with computing devices via a communication network; and
a non-transitory program memory communicatively coupled to the one or more processors and storing executable instructions that, when executed by the one or more processors, cause the computer system to:
provide a high-fidelity virtual environment representing a physical location to a first interface device, wherein the first interface device is associated with a first user;
provide a low-fidelity virtual environment representing the physical location to a second interface device, wherein the second interface device is associated with a second user and the low-fidelity virtual environment is configured to receive voice commands from the second user;
receive user interaction data from the first interface device, wherein the user interaction data indicates one or more of a portion of the physical location or a viewing perspective relative to the physical location;
generate, based on the user interaction data, a high-fidelity response corresponding to the high-fidelity virtual environment and a low-fidelity response corresponding to the low-fidelity virtual environment; and
synchronize the high-fidelity virtual environment and the low-fidelity virtual environment by:
providing the high-fidelity response to the first interface device, and
providing the low-fidelity response to the second interface device, wherein the synchronizing causes the high-fidelity virtual environment and the low-fidelity virtual environment to be implemented on respective devices simultaneously.

10. The computer system of claim 9 , wherein the voice commands including one or more of:
moving within the low-fidelity virtual environment,
capturing a fixed-view two-dimensional image of a second viewing perspective within the low-fidelity virtual environment,
recording a voice note, or
synchronizing the second viewing perspective of the second user within the low-fidelity virtual environment with the viewing perspective of the first user within the high-fidelity virtual environment.

11. The computer system of claim 9 , wherein:
the first interface device is associated with a trainer and the second interface device is associated with a trainee,
the high-fidelity virtual environment includes data tools for data capture or presentation from the trainer,
the user interaction data indicates the viewing perspective of the trainer in the high-fidelity virtual environment,
the low-fidelity response includes causing a second viewing perspective of the trainee within the low-fidelity virtual environment to match the viewing perspective of the trainer within the high-fidelity virtual environment, and
the high-fidelity response includes presenting an indicator of synchronization of viewing perspectives to the trainer within the high-fidelity virtual environment.

12. The computer system of claim 9 , wherein:
the low-fidelity response includes presenting a high-fidelity fixed-view two-dimensional image of the viewing perspective of the first user in the high-fidelity virtual environment to the second user.

13. The computer system of claim 9 , wherein:
the first interface device includes a high-capability virtual environment interface device or a high-capability virtual reality system, and
the second interface device includes a low-capability virtual environment interface device, a mobile phone, or a mobile computing device.

14. A tangible, non-transitory computer-readable medium storing executable instructions for virtual collaboration that, when

Assignees

• State Farm Mutual Automobile Insurance Co

Inventors

• Little Rebecca A
• Nussbaum Bryan R
• Ho An
• Summers Nathan C
• Reeves Tyler
• Simonson Jacob

Classifications

• H04L65/1083

  In-session procedures · CPC title

• H04L65/1069 Primary

  Session establishment or de-establishment · CPC title

• H04L65/4015 Primary

  where at least one of the additional parallel sessions is real time or time sensitive, e.g. white board sharing, collaboration or spawning of a subconference · CPC title

• H04L65/80

  Responding to QoS · CPC title

• 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