VR Reputation System Using Corroboration to Prevent Fraud
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Solution Overview
Problem
In multi-user virtual reality environments, users face challenges in determining the trustworthiness of other users due to the anonymity and global nature of these spaces, leading to potential fraudulent interactions and a reluctance to engage with unknown individuals.
Innovation Solution
The system uses directional and gesture information from client computing devices, such as head-mounted displays or cameras, to determine when a user has a positive impression of another, assigning reputation scores based on observed gestures like nodding, thumbs up, or waving, and displays these scores to users, allowing them to make informed interaction decisions.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Adaptability or versatility
If users interact with anonymous avatars in VR environments, then user freedom and exploration are improved, but trustworthiness and safety deteriorate
Solution Approach 1:
The patent introduces a reputation system as an intermediary mechanism that mediates between anonymous users. The system collects corroboration data from multiple witnesses about user behaviors and synthesizes this into reputation scores, which then serve as a trust indicator enabling safe interactions while preserving anonymity. This intermediary layer resolves the contradiction by providing reliability metrics without requiring identity disclosure.
Solution Approach 2:
The system implements feedback loops where user interactions are continuously monitored, corroboration is collected from witnesses, and reputation scores are updated and displayed to other users. This feedback mechanism allows the community to self-regulate trustworthiness, enabling free interaction while maintaining safety through visible reputation indicators that guide user decisions.
2Measurement precision
If the system collects corroboration data from multiple users, then measurement precision of reputation scores is improved, but device complexity and processing requirements worsen
Solution Approach 1:
The system applies partial action by selectively collecting corroboration only from users who are spatially proximate to and observing the interaction in question. Rather than requiring all users in the environment to provide testimony, the system captures data from relevant witnesses within a specified distance, achieving sufficient measurement precision without excessive processing burden.
Solution Approach 2:
The system performs preliminary actions by pre-establishing spatial relationships and user positions in the VR environment, which are then used to quickly determine witness eligibility. This preliminary structuring of data allows the system to efficiently identify and collect corroboration from appropriate users without complex real-time analysis, reducing processing requirements while maintaining precision.
Data Source
AI summary
Embodiments described herein reduce the probability that a user of a VR environment can nefariously rig a system to positively and/or negatively influence another user's reputation score. Information indicative of a positive or negative interaction between an avatar of a first user and an avatar of a second user is received from a client computing device used by the first user. Further information is received from a client computing device used by a third user of the VR environment, and based thereon, there is a determination whether the positive or negative interaction is corroborated or contradicted. If corroborated, a reputation score associated with the second user is increased or decreased. If contradicted, the reputation score associated with the second user is not adjusted, and the reputation score of the first user may be decreased. Such reputation scores can be accessed and used by a user using a client computing device.