Avatar Transition Zones for Natural Virtual Environment Appearance

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Solution Overview

Problem

Existing virtual environment systems cause avatars to suddenly appear or disappear, disrupting user immersion and creating an unnatural experience, as users see avatars vanish or materialize without a realistic transition, leading to a diminished immersive experience.

Innovation Solution

A method that determines a destination area and an appearance area in the virtual environment, allowing the avatar to gradually move from the appearance area to the destination, ensuring a natural and realistic appearance or disappearance, by selecting areas outside the vision field of other users and optimizing movement paths to maintain immersion.

Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles

VSEngineering Contradiction Analysis

1Speed

If avatars suddenly appear or disappear in virtual environments, then the system can quickly transfer users between locations, but user immersion is disrupted and the experience becomes unnatural

Engineering Contradiction:

Improveavatar transfer speedVSAvoiduser immersion

Core Design Contradiction:

SpeedVSReliability

Solution Approach 1:

The avatar transition process is segmented into distinct phases: disappearance phase (avatar fades out from original location), movement phase (avatar travels through transition zone), and appearance phase (avatar fades in at destination). This segmentation allows each phase to be optimized independently, maintaining speed while ensuring natural transitions that preserve user immersion.

Inventive Principle:

Principle #1Segmentation

Solution Approach 2:

A transition zone is introduced as an intermediary space between the original location and destination. This intermediate area facilitates smooth avatar transformation and movement, acting as a buffer that prevents abrupt appearances or disappearances. The transition zone enables the avatar to gradually emerge or vanish, maintaining realism while achieving quick relocation.

Inventive Principle:

Principle #24Intermediary (Mediator)

2Productivity

If avatars disappear and reappear instantly, then location changes are achieved rapidly, but the behavior becomes unnatural and breaks realism

Engineering Contradiction:

Improvelocation change efficiencyVSAvoidnatural behavior

Core Design Contradiction:

ProductivityVSEase of operation

Solution Approach 1:

The avatar's visual properties are made dynamic during transition. The avatar gradually changes its visibility (opacity) from 100% to 0% during disappearance, and from 0% to 100% during appearance. This dynamic adjustment of visual properties creates natural transitions that feel realistic, while the overall system maintains high productivity through automated transition management.

Inventive Principle:

Principle #15Dynamics

Solution Approach 2:

The avatar transition is designed as a continuous process rather than discrete jumps. The disappearance and appearance actions are executed smoothly over time, maintaining continuity in the virtual environment. This continuous action ensures that the transition feels natural and realistic, while still achieving efficient location changes without requiring user intervention.

Inventive Principle:

Principle #20Continuity of useful action

3Device complexity

If classic teleportation technique is used, then system complexity is reduced, but user engagement decreases due to unnatural avatar behavior

Engineering Contradiction:

Improvepositioning system complexityVSAvoiduser engagement

Core Design Contradiction:

Device complexityVSDuration of action of stationary object

Solution Approach 1:

The system performs preliminary actions by pre-defining transition zones and preparing avatar transition sequences before actual location changes occur. This allows the complex transition logic to be established in advance, reducing the complexity of real-time processing while ensuring engaging and natural avatar behavior that maintains user interest throughout the transition process.

Inventive Principle:

Principle #10Preliminary action

Data Source

PatentUS9108109B2Method for managing the display or deletion of a user representation in a virtual environment

Publication Date: 2015.08.18 ORANGE SA

AI summary

A method is provided for implementing and controlling virtual environments, for example “virtual worlds” by which users can for example meet one another virtually and communicate through their respective terminals. For example, the method relates to the display, rendering and/or deletion of the representations of users acting in these virtual environments, at the different terminals in which these representations can be viewed. The method includes the following steps for a given user: determination of a destination zone in the virtual environment in which the representation of the user is to be rendered; determination of an appearance zone in the virtual environment; displaying of the representation in the appearance zone; and automatic movement of the representation from the appearance zone to the destination zone.