Visual indication of user interests in a computer-generated virtual environment
View Patent ↗Users create profiles containing their interests, professional qualifications, and/or personal information. When users encounter each other in the virtual environment, the information contained in the personal profiles is used to provide visual indications of the profile information so that other users know some modicum of information about the user associated with the Avatar. The user associated with the personal profile may control what information is provided publicly and what information is provided privately. Information in other users' profiles may be filtered to enable relevant information to be presented to the user. Filtering may be explicit and based on user-defined criteria. Filtering may be inherent as well and implemented to select visual indications based on similarities between the user's profile information and the other users' profile information. Inherent matching of attributes may be exact, based on pre-defined similarities or groups, or based on learned similarities between types of attributes, or based on previous interactions of the user with other users in the virtual environment.
1. A method of providing dynamically selected interest information in a computer-generated virtual environment, the method comprising the steps of:
establishing a first user interest profile for a first user of the computer-generated virtual environment, the first user interest profile specifying a first set of interests of the first user of the computer-generated virtual environment;
establishing a second user interest profile for a second user of the computer-generated virtual environment, the second user interest profile specifying a second set of interests of the second user of the computer-generated virtual environment;
receiving input, by a first user virtual environment client, from the first user defining the dynamically selected interest information of the first user while a first Avatar associated with the first user is interacting with other Avatars in the computer-generated virtual environment, the dynamic selected interest information identifying a subset of interests of the first set of interests of the first user in the first user interest profile;
upon encountering a second Avatar associated with the second user by the first Avatar associated with the first user, obtaining by the first user virtual environment client, the second set of interests of the second user from the second user interest profile;
filtering, by the first user virtual environment client, the obtained second set of interests of the second user based on the first set of interests of the first user and the dynamic selected interest information to identify a subset of the second set of interests of the second user from the second user interest profile that match the dynamic selected interest information; and
generating, by the first user virtual environment client, a set of interest icons representing the identified subset of the second set of interests of the second user for display to the user in association with the second Avatar associated with the second user of the computer-generated virtual environment;
wherein the set of interest icons generated for display to the first user in association with the second Avatar are selected individually for the first user and are not provided to other users of the computer-generated virtual environment.
2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the first user profile information includes the first user's interest, job function, and location.
3. The method of claim 1 , wherein the set of interest icons are graphical icons.
4. The method of claim 1 , wherein the set of interest icons include text.
5. The method of claim 1 , wherein at least one of the interest icons of the set of interest icons includes a corporate badge.
6. The method of claim 5 , wherein the corporate badge includes authentication state information to indicate whether the second user was authenticated when entering the computer-generated virtual environment.
7. The method of claim 1 , wherein the interest icons are displayed around the second Avatar associated with the second user and are visible only to the first user.
8. The method of claim 1 , further comprising the step of enabling the user to designate a portion of the second user interest profile as private, and wherein the step of obtaining will not obtain the portion of the second user interest profile that has been designated as private.
9. The method of claim 1 , wherein the step of filtering is inherent.
10. The method of claim 9 , wherein the step of filtering requires the information to match exactly.
11. The method of claim 9 , wherein the step of filtering enables a match to occur based on similarities between information other than an exact match.
12. The method of claim 11 , wherein the step of filtering is based on learned similarities.
13. The method of claim 1 , further comprising the step of:
defining a map showing concentrations of users with interest profiles containing the dynamically selected interest information, the map being implemented as a two dimensional plan view representation of the computer-generated virtual environment.
14. The method of claim 13 , wherein the step of receiving input is implemented in connection with interaction between the first user and the map.
15. The method of claim 1 , wherein at least one of the interest icons indicates that the user has created a note about the other user associated with the Avatar.
16. The method of claim 15 , further comprising the step of enabling the first user to retrieve the note by mousing over the note icon to quickly recall information about the other user.