Electrical computers and digital processing systems: multicomput – Computer conferencing
Reexamination Certificate
1998-12-16
2001-05-01
Luu, Le Hien (Department: 2152)
Electrical computers and digital processing systems: multicomput
Computer conferencing
C709S230000, C709S227000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06226669
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to World Wide Web (WWW) technology, and more particularly, to a method and system for implementing real-time interactivity across a shared multiple-participant three-dimensional (3D) virtual-reality environment on the WWW, with the purpose of allowing a plurality of users (participants) to participate in a 3D virtual-reality world where the participants can share information and interact with each other substantially in real time.
2. Description of Related Art
Virtual reality is a computer-generated simulation of a 3D scene that a user can experience and manipulate as if it were physically real. A 3D virtual-reality environment can be, for example, a chat room, a campus, a playground, a conference room, and so on, where users can experience the virtual-reality effect through a browser program. On the Internet, a multiple-participant 3D virtual-reality environment allows a number of users at different locations to browse information and interact with the other users participating in the same 3D virtual-reality world. Inside such an environment, each participant is represented by a 3D icon, commonly referred to as an avatar, that depicts the participant's virtual-reality identity in the environment. Participating in the same virtual-reality environment, all the participants from the distributed locations can see the same scene and hear the same sound provided by the 3D virtual-reality world.
In the design of a multiple-participant 3D virtual-reality environment, it is desired to maintain spatial consistency and time coherency among the various participants. Due to the intrinsic latency in network communications, however, time coherency is nearly unattainable. Spatial consistency, on the other hand, can be attained through the use of appropriate communication protocols that can send updated data in real time to each of the participants.
On the Internet, the WWW is based on a client/server architecture under which each WWW server serves up information to each client on a request-and-response basis, i.e., the connection between the client and the server is established only when the client issues a request to the server, and after the requested information has been served, the connection is immediately broken. The request-and-response operation can help reduce network traffic. In the use of a multiple-participant system, however, the request-and-response operation leads to three drawbacks: lack of server-to-client call-back capability, lack of client information recording capability and excessive network loading.
The drawback of lack of server-to-client call-back capability arises due to the fact that the connection between client and server is established only when the client issues a request to the server and is immediately broken after the requested information has been served. Due to this drawback, it is impossible for one user to send a message to any of the other users participating in the same 3D virtual-reality world. Moreover, after the re- quested information has been served, the server will record no information about the client who has just requested information from the 3D virtual-reality world.
One solution to provide server-to-client call-back and client information recording capabilities is disclosed in “
MOLTIP-UID and R-HTTP Specification
” by Chin, Chee-Kai, which is available online at:
www.ontc.ncb.gov.sg/staff/cheekai/htm/moltip-techspe.html
Chin's method utilizes a unique user identification number, named as a MOLTIP-UID number, for each client site. The MOLTIP-UID number consists of the following pieces of data: machine type (M), operating system (O), login usemame (L), timestamp (T), process ID (I), and listening port (L). When the link between the client site and the WWW server is established, the client site will send a MOLTIP-UID number to the WWW server. For the WWW server, the Chin's method utilizes a modified HTTP protocol, called Retum-HTTP (R-HTTP), which is capable of registering related identification information about each client site connected to the WWW server and sending information back to the connected client site based on the registered identification information.
One drawback to the Chin's method, however, is that it requires a modification to the existing HTTP protocol, which would make the implementation inconvenient to carry out. There exists, therefore, a new method which requires no modification to the existing HTTP protocol on the WWW server.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
It is therefore an objective of this invention to provide a method and system for implementing real-time interactivity across a shared multiple-participant 3D virtual-reality environment on the WWW, which includes a server-to-client call-back capability that allows each of the users participating in the same 3D virtual-reality world to send a message to any one of the other users participating in the same 3D virtual-reality world.
It is another objective of this invention to provide a method and system for implementing real-time interactivity across a shared multiple-participant 3D virtual-reality environment on the WWW, which includes a client-information recording capability that can record the client information of each of the users participating in the same 3D virtual-reality world.
It is still another objective of this invention to provide a method and system for implementing real-time interactivity across a shared multiple-participant 3D virtual-reality environment on the WWW, which can perform network communication without excessive network loading.
In accordance with the foregoing and other objectives of this invention, a novel method and system is provided for implementing real-time interactivity across a shared multiple-participant 3D virtual-reality environment on the WWW.
The method of the invention is provided for use on a network system, such as the Internet, which includes a plurality of client sites and a WWW server providing a shared multiple-participant 3D virtual-reality environment. The method comprising the steps of: (1) providing a CIMP module with a client table for registering client information about each client site participating in the shared multiple-participant 3D virtual-reality environment; (2) linking the CIMP module via a CGI module to the WWW server; (3) at a newcomer's client site that just logs into the shared multiple-participant 3D virtual-reality environment, issuing a login request via the network system to the WWW server, causing the WWW server to download a virtual-reality scene file back to the newcomer's client site; (4) at the newcomer's client site, issuing an Initial PDU via the network system to the WWW server when the downloaded virtual-reality scene file is received; (5) at the WWW server, forwarding the received Initial PDU via the CGI module to the CIMP module;(6) at the CIMP module, upon receiving the Initial PDU, performing the steps of: (6-1) issuing an Acknowledge PDU with a uniquely-assigned User ID via the network system back to the newcomer's client site; and (6-2) forwarding the received Initial PDU together with the newcomer's User ID to every other client site that is previously regis- tered in the client table indicative of current participation in the shared multiple- participant 3D virtual-reality environment; (7) at any client site, if a change in avatar state occurs, issuing a corresponding Object-State PDU indicative of the change in avatar state to the CIMP module; and (8) at the CIMP module, broadcasting the received Object-State PDU to every other client site currently participating in the shared multiple-participant 3D virtual-reality environment, if any.
The SharedWeb system of the invention includes: (a) a WWW server for serving up a plurality of virtual-reality scene files, each representing a 3D virtual-reality world; (b) a browser program running at each of the participating client sites; (c) a CGI module connected to the WWW server; and (d) a CIMP module having a client tab
Chang Jia-Lin
Huang Jiung-Yao
Lee Ai-Jye
Bacon & Thomas PLLC
Huang Jiung-Yao
Luu Le Hien
LandOfFree
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