Virtual world system supporting a consumer experience

Abstract

A system and method for creating a virtual world for supporting a consumer experience is disclosed. The apparatus in an example embodiment includes providing access to a database of item listing categories, each item listing category in the database having an associated link to a source for physical items corresponding to the item listing category; generating an image of a virtual store in a three-dimensional (3D) virtual environment; populating the virtual store with at least one first object representing an item listing category; receiving a signal indicative of user interaction with the at least one first object; and using the associated link to re-direct the user to the source for physical items corresponding to the item listing category represented by the at least one first object with which the user interacted.

Description

RELATED APPLICATIONS[0001]This application is related to and hereby claims the priority benefit of U.S. Provisional Patent Application No. 61 / 034,137 filed Mar. 5, 2008 and entitled “VIRTUAL WORLD SYSTEM”, which application is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety.BACKGROUNDCopyright Notice[0002]A portion of the disclosure of this patent document contains material that is subject to copyright protection. The copyright owner has no objection to the facsimile reproduction by anyone of the patent document or the patent disclosure, as it appears in the Patent and Trademark Office patent files or records, but otherwise reserves all copyright rights whatsoever. The following notice applies to the software and data as described below and in the drawings that form a part of this document: Copyright 2007-2008, eBay Inc., All Rights Reserved.TECHNICAL FIELD[0003]This disclosure relates to methods and systems supporting computing and data processing systems. More particularly, a sys...

AI Technical Summary

Benefits of technology

[0091]These basic functions in the player object 602 allow it to act as an interface between the player and the main object 601. This helps us to overcome some of the difficulties which Second Life presents when creating a game.Server

[0164]Listing creation applications 2218 allow sellers conveniently to author listings pertaining to goods or services that they wish to transact via the networked system, and listing management applications 2220 allow sellers to manage such listings. Specifically, where a particular seller has authored and / or published a large number of listings, the management of such listings may present a challenge. The listing management applications 2220 provide a number of features (e.g., auto-relisting, inventory level monitors, etc.) to assist the seller in managing such listings. One or more post-listing management applications 2222 also assist sellers with a number of activities that typically occur post-listing. For example, upon completion of an auction facilitated by one or more auction applications 2202, a seller may wish to leave feedback regarding a particular buyer. To this end, a post-listing management application 2222 may provide an interface to one or more reputation applications 2208, so as to allow the seller conveniently to provide feedback regarding multiple buyers to the reputation applications 2208.

Problems solved by technology

However, these prior systems are typically one-dimensional.

These conventional systems cannot provide multi-dimensional context analysis to provide a multi-dimensional output based on (customized from) a collection of activity from a community of users gathered over time.

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