AfterDawn: News

Microsoft patents avatars that will resemble their users

Microsoft has applied for a a patent dubbed "Avatars Individualized by Physical Characteristics," meaning the company is considering introducing avatars that will look the gamer behind the controller.

Says the application, via Eurogamer: "An Avatar generator for a virtual environment reflects a physiological characteristic of the user, injecting a degree of reality into the capabilities or appearance. Thereby, many of the incentives of the real world are replicated in a virtual environment.Physiological data that reflect a degree of health of the real person can be linked to rewards of capabilities of a gaming Avatar, an amount of time budgeted to play, or a visible indication. Thereby, people are encouraged to exercise. Physiological data that reflect the health and perhaps also mood also improve social interaction in virtual environments. People seeking to meet and become acquainted with particular types of people are not thwarted by the artificiality of Avatars."



The data can accessed from third-party health repositories, a physiological sensor, or a health care smart-card.

Written by: Andre Yoskowitz @ 24 Dec 2009 15:04

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• 9 comments

• DXR88

  thats funny now i have a xbox that will tell me how fat and lazy i am, great stuff really.

  24.12.2009 15:12 #1

• canuckerz

  It would be a monumental ammount of BS if this were to be awarded a patent. What so a company can get sue'd now if I make the character in my game bear a likeness to myself?

  24.12.2009 18:00 #2

• Hrdrk20

  Wow DXR88, what an honest fella you are. I'm expecting to see everyone's avatars resembling Brad Pitt and Carrie Underwood :) lol

  24.12.2009 20:07 #3

• atomicxl

  Sounds cool to me. I wanted to make my avatar look like me but after like an hour of tweaking I called it a wrap and the only similarities are that we're both black and have a goatee. If this is automatic, i'm for it.

  25.12.2009 12:58 #4

• beanos66

  Originally posted by atomicxl: Sounds cool to me. I wanted to make my avatar look like me but after like an hour of tweaking I called it a wrap and the only similarities are that we're both black and have a goatee. If this is automatic, i'm for it.would you still be for it if this patent is granted and no other company is allowed to make a programme or hardware that uses avatars that can be made to look like the user

  25.12.2009 13:12 #5

• redux79

  avatars.. well ok... I made my xbl avatar and it looks nothing like me, to each there own.

  25.12.2009 15:28 #6

• atomicxl

  Quote:Originally posted by atomicxl: Sounds cool to me. I wanted to make my avatar look like me but after like an hour of tweaking I called it a wrap and the only similarities are that we're both black and have a goatee. If this is automatic, i'm for it.would you still be for it if this patent is granted and no other company is allowed to make a programme or hardware that uses avatars that can be made to look like the userI'm still for the technology. I mean, it's stupid that someone was able to patent the concept of a virtual shopping cart but it doesn't mean that I hate the concept of a virtual shopping cart and think it's a dumb idea.
  
  On top of that I have a 360 and I've used MS operating systems ever since 1st grade so I'll never be missing out on it.
  
  It's kinda funny that people complain about MS getting a patent on something that a lot of companies and people would benefit from using but earlier in the week they were cheering that MS got sued for using a patent that a lot of companies and people would benefit from using. For a while, restrictive patents were the coolest thing in the world to Afterdawn users... then MS gets one and now patents are back to being the tool of the devil. But now i'm ranting...

  25.12.2009 17:18 #7

• dufas

  So much for medical privacy..
  
  The medical community will not even let my wife see my medical records, authorities need a warrant to view the records, doctors have to have a valid reason to access medical records. The medical records used to be kept in high security storage, controlled only by authorized individuals.....
  
  Now, what was supposed to be private and confidential can be accessed by gaming licensees and eventually spread all over the net.

  26.12.2009 14:09 #8

• WJ99

  Am I missing something? What then happens to the Wii's Miis? They then have to pay MS?
  
  How the hell could they do this?

  28.12.2009 08:58 #9