Spatial Avatar Interface for Multi-Server Communication Status
Find Innovative SolutionsGenerate Solutions
Solution Overview
Problem
Current communication technologies lack effective interfaces for promoting real-time interactions between users in network communications environments, failing to provide comprehensive visualizations of contacts' availabilities and activities across different communication contexts.
Innovation Solution
The development of a system that offers a real-time visualization of communicants' contacts' availabilities and activities through graphical user interfaces, using avatars and spatial metaphors to organize interface elements, allowing users to make informed interaction decisions and join ongoing conversations.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Ease of operation
If traditional telephony and instant messaging systems are used, then basic communication functionality is provided, but the interfaces fail to promote real-time interactions and provide comprehensive visualizations of contacts' availabilities and activities
Solution Approach 1:
The patent transitions from traditional one-dimensional communication interfaces to a two-dimensional spatial metaphor interface. Users interact with contacts represented as avatars distributed across a virtual space, allowing simultaneous visualization of multiple contacts and their activities in different spatial zones, thereby reducing information loss and improving interface effectiveness.
Solution Approach 2:
The interface is segmented into multiple spatial zones that correspond to different communication contexts. Each zone can display specific contact information and activity streams, allowing users to organize and access information about different contacts simultaneously without overwhelming the interface with a single consolidated view.
2Productivity
If comprehensive visualization of contact statuses and activities is implemented, then user interaction is enhanced, but system complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The spatial metaphor interface serves multiple functions simultaneously: it visualizes contact availability, displays activity streams, organizes communication contexts, and facilitates user interaction. By consolidating these functions into a single integrated environment rather than separate systems, the patent achieves improved communication efficiency without proportionally increasing system complexity.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent introduces an intermediary layer between users and raw communication data. This intermediary visualization layer automatically processes and translates complex contact status and activity information into intuitive spatial representations, reducing the burden on users to interpret raw data while maintaining comprehensive information access.
Data Source
AI summary
In a network communication environment in which communicants operating from respective client network nodes connect to different server applications, communicants who are related to a target communicant are ascertained, statuses of the related communicants with respect to the different server applications are determined, and indications of the related communicants and the determined statuses of the related communicants are transmitted to the target communicant. Graphical representations of the related communicants and graphical indications of the statuses of the related communicants with respect to connections to the different server applications may be displayed on a display. A contact list including a respective graphical representation of each of one or more of the communicants also may be displayed in association with visual cues representing the ascertained types of current interaction activities respectively engaged in by the one or more communicants. A single universal user identifier may be used to identify each communicant.