Granted Patent B1

US 12,597,062 · App. 18/133,371 · Granted Apr 7, 2026

Inventors: Ankush Bagotra (Milpitas, CA); Shreyas Narendra Basarge (Mountain View, CA); Saeed Jahed (Seattle, WA)

Assignee: Meta Platforms, Inc.

G06Q30/0643G06Q20/108G06Q20/123G06Q20/389G06T17/00

Abstract

Claims (57)

1 . A method comprising:

presenting a virtual environment to a plurality of users of a virtual reality system;

presenting, in the virtual environment, a virtual payment object associated with a first user of the plurality of users;

presenting, in the virtual environment, a virtual payment processing object associated with a second user of the plurality of users, wherein the virtual payment object is configured to interact with the virtual payment processing object to initiate a real payment;

associating the virtual payment object with a real payment object;

associating the virtual payment processing object with a real payment processing service;

detecting an interaction in the virtual environment between the virtual payment object and the virtual payment processing object; and

responsive to detection of the interaction between the virtual payment object and the virtual payment processing object;

receiving, via a real time communication (RTC) protocol, multimedia data and data describing the real payment object from a first VR device associated with the first user,

selectively forwarding, via the RTC protocol and in a particular layer of a network that is below an application layer of the network, the multimedia data or the data describing the real payment object to a plurality of VR devices associated with a plurality of users, wherein a field in each data packet in the particular layer of the network indicates whether the data packet contains data describing a real payment object, and

causing the real payment processing service to process a real payment from the real payment object associated with the first user to an account associated with the second user in near real time.

2 . The method of claim 1 , further comprising:

receiving, via the RTC protocol, the data describing the real payment object from a first VR device associated with the first user; and

forwarding, via the RTC protocol, the data describing the real payment object to a second VR device associated with the second user based on the interaction between the virtual payment object associated with the first user and the virtual payment processing object in the virtual environment, causing the second VR device to transmit the data describing the real payment object to the real payment processing service to process the real payment.

3 . The method of claim 1 , wherein selectively forwarding the multimedia data or the data describing the real payment object to a plurality of VR devices associated with a plurality of users comprises:

forwarding, via the RTC protocol, a first portion of the multimedia data and the data describing the real payment object to a second VR device associated with the second user based on interactions between the first user and the second user in the virtual environment; and

forwarding, via the RTC protocol, a second portion of multimedia data without the data describing the real payment object to a third VR device associated with a third user based on interactions between the first user and the third user in the virtual environment.

4 . The method of claim 3 , wherein a first view of the virtual payment object is presented to the first VR device associated with the first user, a second view of the virtual payment object is presented to the second VR device associated with the second user, and a third view of the virtual payment object is presented to the third VR device associated with the third user.

5 . The method of claim 4 , wherein the first view or second view of the virtual payment object includes data describing the real payment object, and the third view of the virtual payment object does not include data describing the real payment object.

6 . The method of claim 1 , wherein selectively forwarding the multimedia data or the data describing the real payment object in the particular layer of the network is performed based on fields in data packets in the particular layer.

7 . The method of claim 6 , wherein selective forwarding the multimedia data or the data describing the real payment object is performed based on the field in each data packet.

8 . The method of claim 7 , wherein selective forwarding the multimedia data or the data describing the real payment object comprises prioritizing data packets that contain data describing a real payment object over data packets that contain multimedia data.

9 . A computer program product comprising a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium having instructions encoded there on that, when executed by a processor, cause the processor to perform steps comprising:

presenting a virtual environment to a plurality of users of a virtual reality system;

presenting, in the virtual environment, a virtual payment object associated with a first user of the plurality of users;

presenting, in the virtual environment, a virtual payment processing object associated with a second user of the plurality of users, wherein the virtual payment object is configured to interact with the virtual payment processing object to initiate a real payment;

associating the virtual payment object with a real payment object;

associating the virtual payment processing object with a real payment processing service;

detecting an interaction in the virtual environment between the virtual payment object and the virtual payment processing object; and

responsive to detection of the interaction between the virtual payment object and the virtual payment processing object;

receiving, via a real time communication (RTC) protocol, multimedia data and data describing the real payment object from a first VR device associated with the first user,

selectively forwarding, via the RTC protocol and in a particular layer of a network that is below an application layer of the network, the multimedia data or the data describing the real payment object to a plurality of VR devices associated with a plurality of users, wherein a field in each data packet in the particular layer of the network indicates whether the data packet contains data describing a real payment object, and

causing the real payment processing service to process a real payment from the real payment object associated with the first user to an account associated with the second user in near real time.

10 . The computer program product of claim 9 , further comprising:

receiving, via the RTC protocol, the data describing the real payment object from a first VR device associated with the first user; and

forwarding, via the RTC protocol, the data describing the real payment object to a second VR device associated with the second user based on the interaction between the virtual payment object associated with the first user and the virtual payment processing object in the virtual environment, causing the second VR device to transmit the data describing the real payment object to the real payment processing service to process the real payment.

11 . The computer program product of claim 9 , wherein

selectively forwarding the multimedia data or the data describing the real payment object to a plurality of VR devices associated with a plurality of users comprises:

forwarding, via the RTC protocol, a first portion of the multimedia data and the data describing the real payment object to a second VR device associated with the second user based on interactions between the first user and the second user in the virtual environment; and

forwarding, via the RTC protocol, a second portion of multimedia data without the data describing the real payment object to a third VR device associated with a third user based on interactions between the first user and the third user in the virtual environment.

12 . The computer program product of claim 11 , wherein a first view of the virtual payment object is presented to the first VR device associated with the first user, a second view of the virtual payment object is presented to the second VR device associated with the second user, and a third view of the virtual payment object is presented to the third VR device associated with the third user.

13 . The computer program product of claim 12 , wherein the first view or second view of the virtual payment object includes data describing the real payment object, and the third view of the virtual payment object does not include data describing the real payment object.

14 . The computer program product of claim 9 , wherein selectively forwarding the multimedia data or the data describing the real payment object in the particular layer of the network is performed based on fields in data packets in the particular layer.

15 . The computer program product of claim 14 , wherein selective forwarding the multimedia data or the data describing the real payment object is performed based on the field in each data packet.

16 . A computer system comprising:

a processor; and

a non-transitory computer-readable medium having instructions encoded thereon that, when executed by the processor, cause the processor to perform steps comprising:

presenting a virtual environment to a plurality of users of a virtual reality system;

presenting, in the virtual environment, a virtual payment object associated with a first user of the plurality of users;

presenting, in the virtual environment, a virtual payment processing object associated with a second user of the plurality of users, wherein the virtual payment object is configured to interact with the virtual payment processing object to initiate a real payment;

associating the virtual payment object with a real payment object;

associating the virtual payment processing object with a real payment processing service;

detecting an interaction in the virtual environment between the virtual payment object and the virtual payment processing object; and

responsive to detection of the interaction between the virtual payment object and the virtual payment processing object;

receiving, via a real time communication (RTC) protocol, multimedia data and data describing the real payment object from a first VR device associated with the first user,

selectively forwarding, via the RTC protocol and in a particular layer of a network that is below an application layer of the network, the multimedia data or the data describing the real payment object to a plurality of VR devices associated with a plurality of users, wherein a field in each data packet in the particular layer of the network indicates whether the data packet contains data describing a real payment object, and

causing the real payment processing service to process a real payment from the real payment object associated with the first user to an account associated with the second user in near real time.

Assignments (1)

References Cited (9)