Virtual world construction

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9378296-B2
Application number	US-86203810-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Aug 24, 2010
Priority date	Aug 24, 2010
Publication date	Jun 28, 2016
Grant date	Jun 28, 2016

Abstract

A mechanism is provided for generating a customized virtual world. A set of entities to be rendered within the customized virtual world is identified. An entity is a location within the customized virtual world. A representation associated with a target style for each entity in the set of entities is selected to form a set of selected representations. A customized virtual world is constructed using the set of selected representations. The set of representations are rendered within the customized virtual world.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A computer implemented method for generating a customized virtual world, the computer implemented comprising:
receiving, by a query server, a query from a client computing device comprising a target style, wherein the query requests entry points to virtual worlds having content associated with at least one criterion and wherein the target style is a user selected style for portal representations;
identifying, by the query server data processing system, a set of portals from a virtual world database to be rendered within the customized virtual world, wherein the set of portals are objects representing entry points to alternate virtual worlds that satisfy the query and wherein each portal is an entry point at a location within the customized virtual world;
selecting, by a construction server, a representation associated with the target style for each portal in the set of portals to form a set of selected representations, wherein selecting a representation associated with the target style further comprises:
identifying a given portal in the set of portals;
searching a set of preferred representations associated with the given portal for a preferred representation matching the target style; and
responsive a failure to identify a matching preferred representation for the given portal matching the target style, selecting a default representation to form the selected representation for the given portal;

constructing, by the construction server, a virtual world with the set of selected representations to form the customized virtual world, wherein the set of representations are rendered within the customized virtual world; and
returning the customized virtual world to the client computing device as a response to the query.

2. The computer implemented method of claim 1 further comprising:
assigning a position to each portal in the set of portals relative to a reference entry point to form a set of assigned positions, wherein an assigned position comprises at least one of a set of coordinates and an orientation of an object within the customized virtual world; and
constructing the customized virtual world using the set of selected representations and the set of assigned positions to generate a representation for each portal in the set of portals.

3. The computer implemented method of claim 1 further comprising:
clustering representations of relevant portals, wherein clustering further comprises:
receiving location metadata for each portal in the set of portals, wherein the location metadata comprises at least one of a relevance score, a weighting, and preferential position data;
retrieving a user review ranking associated with a representation for each entity in the set of portals from a review server;
assigning a position within the customized virtual world to the representation associated with the each portal in the set of portals based on the location metadata and the user review ranking to form a set of assigned positions, wherein a representation for a portal with a higher relevance to a query is assigned a position closer to an avatar associated with the user, and wherein a representation associated with a portal with a lower relevance to the query is assigned a location farther away from the avatar associated with the user; and
constructing the customized virtual world using the set of selected representations and the set of assigned positions.

4. The computer implemented method of claim 1 further comprising:
querying the virtual world database for a set of virtual worlds responsive to the query;
receiving a set of entry points, wherein each entry point in the set of entry points is a predetermined location within a virtual world in the set of virtual worlds;
obtaining a free shard;
constructing the customized virtual world on the free shard; and
returning a reference entry point within the customized virtual world to the client computing device.

5. The computer implemented method of claim 1 further comprising:
receiving review data associated with a given representation for a portal from a set of users;
generating a rating for the representation based on a set of user suggested ratings; and
responsive to a threshold number of negative ratings for the representation, indicating that the given representation is an unsuitable representation, wherein an unsuitable representation is unavailable for utilization.

6. The computer implemented method of claim 1 further comprising:
receiving, by a client computing device, the customized virtual world having the set of portals responsive to the query;
identifying, by the client computing device, a set of client virtual world software platforms installed at a data processing system associated with a user to form a set of available client platforms;
rendering, by the client computing device, the customized virtual world with the set of portals;
activating, by the client computing device, each portal in the set of portals associated with a platform in the set of available client platforms on the client computing device; and
inactivating, by the client computing device, each portal in the set of portals associated with a platform that is absent from the set of available client platforms on the client computing device.

7. The computer implemented method of claim 6 wherein identifying a set of client virtual world software platforms further comprises:
receiving, by the client computing device, a target rating for the customized virtual world; and
identifying, by the client computing device, a set of client virtual world software platforms installed at a data processing system associated with the user to form the set of available client platforms, wherein each client virtual world software platforms in the set of client virtual world software platforms has a rating that is equal to or less than the target rating.

8. The computer implemented method of claim 6 further comprising:
responsive to positive review data associated with a given portal in the set of portals associated with a platform in the set of available client platforms, activating, by the client computing device, the given portal; and
responsive to a threshold number of negative reviews associated with a given portal in the set of portals associated with a platform in the set of available client platforms, de-activating, by the client computing device, the given portal.

9. A computer program product for generating a customized virtual world, the computer program product comprising:
a non-transitory computer readable storage medium having computer readable program code stored thereon, the computer readable program code comprising:
computer readable program cod code configured to cause a query server to receive a query from a client computing device comprising a target style, wherein the query requests entry points to virtual worlds having content associated with at least one criterion and wherein the target style is a user selected style for portal representations;
computer readable program code configured to cause the query server to identify a set of entities from a virtual world database to be rendered within the customized virtual world, wherein the set of portals are objects representing entry points to alternate virtual worlds that satisfy the query and wherein each portal is an entry point at a location within the customized virtual world;
computer readable program code configured to cause a construction server to select a representation associated with the target style for each portal in the set of portals to form a set of selected representations, wherein selecting a representation associated with the target style further comprises:
identifying a given portal in t

Assignees

• Clarke Michael P
• IBM

Inventors

• Clarke Michael P

Classifications

• G06F16/972 Primary

  Access to data in other repository systems, e.g. legacy data or dynamic Web page generation · CPC title

• G06T17/00

  Three-dimensional [3D] modelling for computer graphics · CPC title

• G06F17/30893 Primary

  Physics · mapped topic