Virtual World Encounter Avoidance via Predictive Route Planning

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Solution Overview

Problem

Users in immersive virtual environments often face challenges in avoiding specific individuals, such as maintaining professionalism during virtual business meetings or avoiding ex-partners in social settings, due to the lack of effective tools for managing interactions within these environments.

Innovation Solution

A system that allows users to create and utilize blacklists, specifying users to avoid based on predefined criteria, which includes absolute or situational avoidance levels, and uses predictive analytics to suggest alternative routes or actions to minimize encounters with blacklisted users.

Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles

VSEngineering Contradiction Analysis

1Adaptability or versatility

If users navigate freely through virtual worlds to interact with multiple avatars, then user engagement and social interaction increase, but the risk of unwanted encounters with specific users increases

Engineering Contradiction:

Improveuser interaction flexibilityVSAvoidunwanted encounters

Core Design Contradiction:

Adaptability or versatilityVSObject-affected harmful factors

Solution Approach 1:

The system allows users to pre-define avoidance criteria and blacklist specific avatars before navigating the virtual world. The server proactively calculates and provides alternative routes that avoid blacklisted avatars, preventing unwanted encounters before they occur rather than reacting after contact is made.

Inventive Principle:

Principle #10Preliminary action

Solution Approach 2:

The server acts as an intermediary between the user's navigation requests and the virtual world environment. It monitors avatar locations, evaluates potential encounters against avoidance criteria, and mediates route suggestions to prevent harmful interactions while maintaining free navigation.

Inventive Principle:

Principle #24Intermediary (Mediator)

2Ease of operation

If the system provides detailed information about blacklisted avatars and alternative routes, then user control over encounters improves, but system complexity increases

Engineering Contradiction:

Improveencounter managementVSAvoidsystem architecture

Core Design Contradiction:

Ease of operationVSDevice complexity

Solution Approach 1:

The system automatically monitors avatar locations, evaluates encounter risks, and generates alternative routes without requiring manual user intervention. Users simply define their avoidance criteria once, and the system self-manages the complex task of real-time encounter prevention and route recalculation.

Inventive Principle:

Principle #25Self-service

Solution Approach 2:

The system continuously provides feedback to users about blacklisted avatar locations and suggested alternative routes. This real-time information feedback enables users to make informed navigation decisions while the system handles the computational complexity of route planning and encounter prediction.

Inventive Principle:

Principle #23Feedback

Data Source

PatentUS8046700B2System for managing encounters in a virtual world environment

Publication Date: 2011.10.25 ACTIVISION PUBLISHING INC

AI summary

Embodiments of the invention provide techniques for providing information for avoiding specific users of an immersive virtual environment. Generally, a primary user may specify other users to be avoided in a blacklist. The blacklisted users may be specified to be avoided at all times, or may be specified to be avoided in certain situations. In one embodiment, a user may be added to the blacklist during a specific situation, resulting in the characteristics of the situation being automatically stored in the blacklist. Subsequently, the blacklist may be used to determine the locations of the blacklisted users matching the current situation. The primary user may then avoid the locations having the greatest probability of encountering blacklisted users.