Presentation of an avatar in association with a merchant system

Abstract

A system that incorporates teachings of the present disclosure may include, for example, an avatar engine having a controller to retrieve a user profile, cause a presentation device to present a user an avatar having characteristics that correlate to the user profile, detect one or more responses of the user, identify from the one or more responses a need to communicate with a merchant system, establish a communication session with the merchant system, receive a notification from the merchant system of a merchant avatar engine, establish communication with the merchant avatar engine, adapt the characteristics of the avatar at least in part according to instructions supplied by the merchant avatar engine, and cause the presentation device to present the user the adapted avatar. Other embodiments are disclosed.

What is claimed is: 
     
         1 . A computer-implemented method comprising:
 receiving, at an avatar engine, at least one of a speech command or a tactile command from a user requesting access to an interactive avatar that is to be displayed to the user;   retrieving a user profile associated with the user;   identifying, from the received speech or tactile command, a need to communicate with at least one merchant system to complete the user's speech or tactile command;   establishing a communication link with the merchant system over which the user's user profile is transmitted to the merchant system;   receiving adaptation instructions from the merchant system configured to adapt one or more presentation aspects of the interactive avatar based on the user profile;   adapting the interactive avatar based on the received adaptation instructions; and   providing the adapted avatar for display to the user.   
     
     
         2 . The computer-implemented method of  claim 1 , wherein the speech or tactile command comprises an explicit command to communicate with the merchant system. 
     
     
         3 . The computer-implemented method of  claim 1 , wherein identifying, from the received speech or tactile command, the need to communicate with the merchant system to complete the user's speech or tactile command is inferred based on one or more words in the speech command. 
     
     
         4 . The computer-implemented method of  claim 3 , wherein the merchant system with which communication is established is inferred from information in a user profile associated with the user. 
     
     
         5 . The computer-implemented method of  claim 3 , wherein the merchant system with which communication is established is inferred from one or more past interactions with the merchant system and one or more other merchant systems. 
     
     
         6 . The computer-implemented method of  claim 1 , wherein the merchant system with which communication is established is selected from a prioritized list of merchants having a specified priority sequence. 
     
     
         7 . The computer-implemented method of  claim 6 , wherein the priority sequence of the list of merchants is inferred based on one or more previous user interactions with the list of merchants. 
     
     
         8 . The computer-implemented method of  claim 1 , wherein a user profile associated with the user includes an indication of at least one of: a preferred gender for the interactive avatar, a preferred image for the interactive avatar, a preferred personality for the interactive avatar, one or more preferred search preferences, one or more preferred content sources, or one or more preferred merchants of goods or services. 
     
     
         9 . The computer-implemented method of  claim 1 , further comprising generating an avatar image for the interactive avatar that is determined to be appropriate for the user based on one or more factors. 
     
     
         10 . The computer-implemented method of  claim 1 , wherein the received adaptation instructions from the merchant system comprise artificial intelligence instructions interpretable by the avatar engine. 
     
     
         11 . The computer-implemented method of  claim 10 , wherein the artificial intelligence instructions adapt and portray to the user at least one newly attained skill of the interactive avatar. 
     
     
         12 . A system comprising:
 a processing system including a processor; and   a memory that stores executable instructions that, when executed by the processing system, facilitate performance of operations, comprising:   receiving, at an avatar engine, at least one of a speech command or a tactile command from a user requesting access to an interactive avatar that is to be displayed to the user;   retrieving a user profile associated with the user;   identifying, from the received speech or tactile user command, a need to communicate with at least one merchant system to complete the user's speech or tactile command;   establishing a communication link with the merchant system over which the user's user profile is transmitted to the merchant system;   receiving adaptation instructions from the merchant system configured to adapt one or more presentation aspects of the interactive avatar based on the user profile;   adapting the interactive avatar based on the received adaptation instructions; and   providing the adapted avatar for display to the user.   
     
     
         13 . The system of  claim 12 , further comprising a microphone configured to receive the speech command. 
     
     
         14 . The system of  claim 12 , further comprising a tactile interface configured to receive the tactile command. 
     
     
         15 . The system of  claim 12 , wherein the avatar engine at least temporarily shares control of the avatar with the merchant system. 
     
     
         16 . The system of  claim 12 , wherein the user provides a subsequent speech input to select one or more items presented by the merchant system. 
     
     
         17 . A computer-readable medium comprising:
 computer-readable instructions that, when executed by at least one processor of a computing device, cause the computing device to:
 receive, at an avatar engine, at least one of a speech command or a tactile command from a user requesting access to an interactive avatar that is to be displayed to the user; 
 retrieve a user profile associated with the user; 
 identify, from the received speech or tactile user command, a need to communicate with at least one merchant system to complete the user's speech command or tactile command; 
 establish a communication link with the merchant system over which the user's user profile is transmitted to the merchant system; 
 receive adaptation instructions from the merchant system configured to adapt one or more presentation aspects of the interactive avatar based on the user profile; 
 adapt the interactive avatar based on the received adaptation instructions; and 
 provide the adapted avatar for display to the user. 
   
     
     
         18 . The computer-readable medium of  claim 17 , wherein the avatar engine maintains one or more original presentation aspects of the interactive avatar. 
     
     
         19 . The computer-readable medium of  claim 18 , wherein at least one of the original presentation aspects that are to be maintained by the avatar engine is specified in a subsequent speech command. 
     
     
         20 . The computer-readable medium of  claim 18 , wherein the original presentation aspects that are to be maintained by the avatar engine comprise at least one of: facial features of the original interactive avatar, user behavior associated with the user, and a voice profile associated with the user.