Patent Publication Number: US-2021185105-A1

Title: Automatic Session Establishment in Peer-to-Peer Communication

Description:
CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS 
     Under 35 U.S.C. § 119(e), this application claims the benefit of U.S. Provisional Application No. 61/716,316, filed Oct. 19, 2012, the entirety of which is incorporated herein by reference. 
     This application also relates to the following co-pending patent applications, the entirety of each of which is incorporated herein by reference: U.S. patent application Ser. No. 13/409,344, filed Mar. 1, 2012; U.S. patent application Ser. No. 13/229,349, filed Sep. 9, 2011; U.S. patent application Ser. No. 13/229,395, filed Sep. 9, 2011; U.S. patent application Ser. No. 13/209,812, filed Aug. 15, 2011; U.S. patent application Ser. No. 12/825,512, filed Jun. 29, 2010; U.S. patent application Ser. No. 12/694,126, filed Jan. 26, 2010; U.S. patent application Ser. No. 12/509,658, filed Jul. 27, 2009; U.S. application Ser. No. 12/418,243, filed Apr. 3, 2009; U.S. patent application Ser. No. 12/418,270, filed Apr. 3, 2009; U.S. patent application Ser. No. 12/354,709, filed Jan. 15, 2009; U.S. application Ser. No. 12/630,973, filed on Dec. 4, 2009; U.S. patent application Ser. No. 12/818,517, filed Jun. 18, 2010; U.S. patent application Ser. No. 12/855,210, filed Aug. 12, 2010; U.S. patent application Ser. No. 13/554,051, filed Jul. 20, 2012; U.S. patent application Ser. No. 13/554,084, filed Jul. 20, 2012; and U.S. Provisional Patent Application No. 61/563,088, filed Nov. 23, 2011. 
    
    
     BACKGROUND 
     When face-to-face communications are not practical, people often rely on one or more technological solutions to meet their communications needs. Traditional telephony systems enable voice communications between callers. Instant messaging (also referred to as “chat”) communications systems enable users to communicate text messages in real time through instant message computer clients that are interconnected by an instant message server. Some instant messaging systems and interactive virtual reality communications systems allow users to be represented by user-controllable graphical objects (referred to as “avatars”). What are needed are improved systems and methods for realtime network communications. 
    
    
     
       DESCRIPTION OF DRAWINGS 
         FIG. 1  is a diagrammatic view of examples of relationships between virtual and real world states of a communicant on the communications connections with the communicant and the communications interface presented to the communicant. 
         FIG. 2  is a diagrammatic view of an example of a network communications environment. 
         FIG. 3  is a diagrammatic view of an example of the network communications environment of  FIG. 2  in which virtual presence apparatus bridges communicant interactions between a physical area and a virtual area. 
         FIG. 4  is a diagrammatic view of an example of a mapping between graphical representations of communicants in a spatial visualization of a virtual area and real world locations in a physical area. 
         FIG. 5  is a diagrammatic view of an example of a graphical user interface. 
         FIG. 6  is a diagrammatic view of an example of a graphical user interface. 
         FIG. 7  is a diagrammatic view of an example of a graphical user interface. 
         FIG. 8  is a diagrammatic view of an example of a graphical user interface. 
         FIG. 9  is a diagrammatic view of an example of a graphical user interface. 
         FIG. 10  is a diagrammatic view of an example of a graphical user interface. 
         FIG. 11  is a diagrammatic view of an example of a graphical user interface. 
         FIG. 12  is a flow diagram of an example of a method. 
         FIG. 13  is a diagrammatic view of an example of an area server platform administering communicant interactions in a virtual area. 
         FIG. 14  is a diagrammatic view of an example of an area server platform administering communicant interactions in a virtual area. 
         FIG. 15A  is a diagrammatic view of an example of a physical area and an example of a graphical user interface. 
         FIG. 15B  is a diagrammatic view of an example of a physical area and an example of a graphical user interface. 
         FIG. 16A  is a diagrammatic view of an example of a physical area and an example of a graphical user interface. 
         FIG. 16B  is a diagrammatic view of an example of a physical area and an example of a graphical user interface. 
         FIG. 17A  is a diagrammatic view of an example of a graphical user interface showing interactions between communicants in a virtual area. 
         FIG. 17B  is a diagrammatic view of an example of a graphical user interface showing interactions between communicants in a virtual area. 
         FIG. 18  is a flow diagram of an example of a method of switching communication connections between communication devices. 
         FIG. 19A  is a diagrammatic view of an example of a physical area and an example of a graphical user interface. 
         FIG. 19B  is a diagrammatic view of an example of a physical area and an example of a graphical user interface. 
         FIG. 19C  is a diagrammatic view of an example of a physical area and an example of a graphical user interface. 
     
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION 
     In the following description, like reference numbers are used to identify like elements. Furthermore, the drawings are intended to illustrate major features of exemplary embodiments in a diagrammatic manner. The drawings are not intended to depict every feature of actual embodiments nor relative dimensions of the depicted elements, and are not drawn to scale. 
     I. Definition of Terms 
     A “communicant” is a person who communicates or otherwise interacts with other persons over one or more network connections, where the communication or interaction may or may not occur in the context of a virtual area. A “user” is a communicant who is operating a particular network node that defines a particular perspective for descriptive purposes. 
     A “computer” is any machine, device, or apparatus that processes data according to computer-readable instructions that are stored on a computer-readable medium either temporarily or permanently. A “computer operating system” is a software component of a computer system that manages and coordinates the performance of tasks and the sharing of computing and hardware resources. A “software application” (also referred to as software, an application, computer software, a computer application, a program, and a computer program) is a set of instructions that a computer can interpret and execute to perform one or more specific tasks. A “data file” is a block of information that durably stores data for use by a software application. 
     The term “computer-readable medium” (also referred to as “memory”) refers to any tangible, non-transitory medium capable storing information (e.g., instructions and data) that is readable by a machine (e.g., a computer). Storage devices suitable for tangibly embodying such information include, but are not limited to, all forms of physical, non-transitory computer-readable memory, including, for example, semiconductor memory devices, such as random access memory (RAM), EPROM, EEPROM, and Flash memory devices, magnetic disks such as internal hard disks and removable hard disks, magneto-optical disks, DVD-ROM/RAM, and CD-ROM/RAM. 
     A “window” is a visual area of a display that typically includes a user interface. A window typically displays the output of a software process and typically enables a user to input commands or data for the software process. A window that has a parent is called a “child window.” A window that has no parent, or whose parent is the desktop window, is called a “top-level window.” A “desktop” is a system-defined window that paints the background of a graphical user interface (GUI) and serves as the base for all windows displayed by all software processes. 
     A “data sink” (referred to herein simply as a “sink”) is any of a device (e.g., a computer), part of a device, or software that receives data. 
     A “data source” (referred to herein simply as a “source”) is any of a device (e.g., a computer), part of a device, or software that originates data. 
     A “network node” (also referred to simply as a “node”) is a junction or connection point in a communications network. Examples of network nodes include, but are not limited to, a terminal, a computer, and a network switch. A “server” network node is a host computer on a network that responds to requests for information or service. A “client network node” is a computer on a network that requests information or service from a server. 
     A “network connection” is a link between two communicating network nodes. A “connection handle” is a pointer or identifier (e.g., a uniform resource identifier (URI)) that can be used to establish a network connection with a network resource. A “network communication” can include any type of information (e.g., text, voice, audio, video, electronic mail message, data file, motion data stream, and data packet) that is transmitted or otherwise conveyed from one network node to another network node over a network connection. 
     Synchronous conferencing refers to communications in which communicants participate at the same time. Synchronous conferencing encompasses all types of networked collaboration technologies, including instant messaging (e.g., text chat), audio conferencing, video conferencing, application sharing, and file sharing technologies. 
     A “communicant interaction” is any type of direct or indirect action or influence between a communicant and another network entity, which may include for example another communicant, a virtual area, or a network service. Examples of types of communicant communications include communicants communicating with each other in realtime, a communicant entering a virtual area, and a communicant requesting access to a resource from a network service. 
     “Presence” refers to the ability and willingness of a networked entity (e.g., a communicant, service, or device) to communicate, where such willingness affects the ability to detect and obtain information about the state of the entity on a network and the ability to connect to the entity. 
     A “realtime data stream” is data that is structured and processed in a continuous flow and designed to be received with no delay or only imperceptible delay. Realtime data streams include digital representations of voice, video, user movements, facial expressions and other physical phenomena, as well as data within the computing environment that may benefit from rapid transmission, rapid execution, or both rapid transmission and rapid execution, including for example, avatar movement instructions, text chat, realtime data feeds (e.g., sensor data, machine control instructions, transaction streams and stock quote information feeds), screen shares, and file transfers. 
     A “physical space” is a three-dimensional real world environment in which a communicant can be located physically. 
     A “virtual area” (also referred to as an “area” or a “place”) is a representation of a computer-managed space or scene. Virtual areas typically are one-dimensional, dimensional, two-dimensional, or three-dimensional representations; although in some examples a virtual area may correspond to a single point. Oftentimes, a virtual area is designed to simulate a physical, real world space. For example, using a traditional computer monitor, a virtual area may be visualized as a two-dimensional graphic of a three-dimensional computer-generated space. However, virtual areas do not require an associated visualization. A virtual area typically refers to an instance of a virtual area schema, where the schema defines the structure and contents of a virtual area in terms of variables and the instance defines the structure and contents of a virtual area in terms of values that have been resolved from a particular context. 
     A “persistent virtual area” is a virtual area that persists even after all communicants have disconnected from the virtual area. The state of a persistent virtual area is preserved so that it can be restored the next time a communicant connects to the virtual area. A “persistent association” between a virtual area and virtual presence apparatus is an association that persists even after all communicants and the virtual presence apparatus have disconnected from the virtual area. 
     A “virtual area application” (also referred to as a “virtual area specification”) is a description of a virtual area that is used in creating a virtual environment. A virtual area application typically includes definitions of geometry, physics, and realtime switching rules that are associated with one or more zones of the virtual area. 
     A “virtual area enabled communications application” is a client communications application that integrates realtime communications (e.g., synchronous conferencing functionalities, such as audio, video, chat, and realtime other data communications) with a virtual area. 
     A “virtual environment” is a representation of a computer-managed space that includes at least one virtual area and supports realtime communications between communicants. 
     A “position” in a virtual area refers to a location of a point or an area or a volume in the virtual area. A point typically is represented by a single set of one-dimensional, two-dimensional, or three-dimensional coordinates (e.g., x, y, z) that define a spot in the virtual area. An area typically is represented by the three-dimensional coordinates of three or more coplanar vertices that define a boundary of a closed two-dimensional shape in the virtual area. A volume typically is represented by the three-dimensional coordinates of four or more non-coplanar vertices that define a closed boundary of a three-dimensional shape in the virtual area. 
     VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) refers to systems and methods of delivering voice and other communications over Internet Protocol (IP) networks. 
     As used herein, the term “includes” means includes but not limited to, the term “including” means including but not limited to. The term “based on” means based at least in part on. 
     II. Bridging Virtual and Physcial Spaces 
     The embodiments that are described herein provide systems and methods of bridging virtual and physical spaces. 
     Referring to  FIG. 1 , in some examples, communicants&#39; real world and virtual states  2 ,  6  are separate layers of experience that drive communications connections  4  between communicants, and communications interfaces  8  for visualizing those layers of experience. In these examples, a particular communicant&#39;s real world state  2  drives changes in one or more of the communications connections  4 , virtual state  6 , and communications interface  8  of the particular communicant or another communicant. For example, a particular communicant&#39;s real world (absolute or relative) location may drive changes in the virtual state (e.g., real world location based switching of the communicant&#39;s virtual location), communications connections (e.g., real world location based switching between communications devices), and communications interface (e.g., representing real world location and presence in a graphical communications interface) of the particular communicant or another communicant. In the illustrated example, a particular communicant&#39;s virtual state  6  also drives changes in the communications connections  4  between communicants, and communications interfaces  8  for visualizing real world and virtual states of communicants. For example, a particular communicant&#39;s virtual location also may drive changes in one or more of the communications connections  4  (e.g., switching communications connections based on virtual location) and communications interface  8  (e.g., representing virtual location and presence in a graphical communications interface) of the particular communicant or another communicant. 
       FIG. 2  shows an example of a network communications environment  10  that includes an example of a first client network node  12  (Client Node A), an example of a second client network node  14  (Client Network Node B), an example  18  of the virtual area platform  2 , and an optional proxy network node  19  that are interconnected by a network  20 , which may include one or more of a local area network (LAN), a metropolitan area network (MAN), and a wide area network (WAN) (e.g., the internet). 
     The first client network node  12  includes a computer-readable medium  22  (or “memory”), a processor  24 , and input/output (I/O) hardware  25  (including, e.g., a display and network communication hardware). The processor  24  executes at least one virtual area enabled communications application  26  that is stored in the memory  22 . The second client network node  14  typically is configured in substantially the same way as the first client network node  12 , with a computer-readable medium  30  storing at least one virtual area enabled communications application  32 , a processor  34 , and I/O hardware  36 . 
     Each of the client network nodes  12 ,  14  has a respective set of one or more sources and an exemplary set of one or more sinks. Exemplary sources include an audio source (e.g., an audio capture device, such as a microphone), a video source (e.g., a video capture device, such as a video camera), a chat source (e.g., a text capture device, such as a keyboard), a motion data source (e.g., a pointing device, such as a computer mouse), and other sources (e.g., file sharing source or a source of a customized real-time data stream). Exemplary sinks include an audio sink (e.g., an audio rendering device, such as a speaker or headphones), a video sink (e.g., a video rendering device, such as a display monitor), a chat sink (e.g., a text rendering device, such as a display monitor), a motion data sink (e.g., a movement rendering device, such as a display monitor), and other sinks (e.g., a printer for printing shared files, a device for rendering real-time data streams different from those already described, or software that processes real-time streams for analysis or customized display). Each of the client network nodes  12 ,  14  also typically includes administrative policies, user preferences (including preferences regarding the exportation of the user&#39;s presence and the connection of the user to the virtual area platform  18  and other communicants), and other settings that define a local configuration that influences the administration of realtime connections with the virtual presence apparatus  12 , the virtual area platform  18 , and other network nodes. 
     The virtual area platform  18  includes at least one server network node  40  that provides a network infrastructure service environment  42  that manages sessions of the first and second client nodes  12 ,  14  in one or more virtual areas  44  in accordance with respective virtual area applications  46 . One or more of the virtual area applications  44  typically are synchronous conferencing applications that support one or more types of communications between the client nodes  12 ,  14  (e.g., text chat, audio conferencing, video conferencing, application sharing, and file sharing). The network infrastructure service environment  42  typically includes one or more network infrastructure services that cooperate with the communications applications  26 ,  32  in the process of establishing and administering network connections between the client nodes  12 ,  14  and other network nodes. Among the network infrastructure services that are included in the example of the network infrastructure service environment  42  are an account service, a security service, an area service, a rendezvous service, an interaction service, and a capabilities engine. The area service administers a virtual area  44  by managing sessions of the first and second client nodes  12 ,  14  in the virtual area  44  in accordance with the virtual area application  46 . Examples of the virtual area platform  18  and the virtual area applications  46  are described in U.S. Provisional Patent Application No. 61/563,088, filed Nov. 23, 2011. Examples of an account service, a security service, an area service, a rendezvous service, and an interaction service are described in U.S. patent application Ser. No. 12/630,973, filed Dec. 4, 2009. Examples of a capabilities engine are described in U.S. Provisional Patent Application No. 61/535,910,filed Sep. 16, 2011. 
     The network infrastructure service environment  42  maintains a relationship database  47  that contains records  48  of interactions between communicants, and social network profiles  50  that are associated with respective communicants. Each interaction record describes the context of an interaction between a pair of communicants. Each social network profile  50  typically includes: identity characteristics (e.g., name, age, gender, and geographic location information such as postal mailing address) that describe a respective communicant or a persona that is assumed by the communicant; explicit relationship information that is declared by the communicant; and relationship information that is inferred from the communicant&#39;s interactions in the network communication environment  10 . Additional details regarding the relationship database  47  and the search and retrieval functionalities associated with the relationship database as described in U.S. patent application Ser. No. 12/354,709, filed Jan. 15, 2009, U.S. patent application No. 12/418,243, filed Apr. 3, 2009, U.S. patent application Ser. No. 12/631,026, filed Dec. 4, 2009, and U.S. patent application Ser. No. 13/432,837, filed Mar. 28, 2012. 
     The virtual area enabled communications applications  26 ,  32 , the area applications  46 , and the network infrastructure service environment  42  together provide a platform that administers the realtime connections with network nodes in an instance of a virtual area subject to a set of constraints  43  (e.g., capabilities and other types of permissions, rules, and preferences). Each of the virtual area applications  46  is hosted by a respective one of the virtual areas  44  and includes a description of the respective virtual area  44 . Communicants respectively operating the client nodes  12 ,  14  connect to the virtual areas  44  through the virtual area enabled communications applications  26 ,  32 . 
     The virtual area enabled communications applications  26 ,  32  typically present respective views of the virtual areas  44  in accordance with data received from the network infrastructure service environment  42 . The virtual area enabled communications applications  26 ,  32  also provide respective interfaces (e.g., one or more of a voice input interface, and audio output interface, and a visual graphical user interface) for receiving commands from the communicants. In visual graphical user interfaces, communicants typically are represented in the virtual areas  44  by respective avatars (e.g., sprites). In audio output interfaces, communicants&#39; states and activities are described using audio signals (e.g., synthesized speech). Communicant avatars typically move about the virtual areas  44  in response to commands that are input by the communicants at their respective network nodes. In some examples, the virtual area enabled communications applications  26 ,  32  establish realtime data stream connections between the first and second client network nodes  12 ,  14  and other network nodes connected to the virtual area  44  based on the positions of the communicants&#39; avatars in the virtual areas  44 . In some examples, each of the client network nodes  12 ,  14  includes a respective realtime kernel of the type described in U.S. patent application Ser. No. 12/630,973, filed Dec. 4, 2009, which supports remote configuration of stream handlers for processing data streams (e.g., rendering audio and video data streams) on a client network node. 
     A virtual area  44  may correspond to a visual virtual area of the type disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 7,769,806 and 7,844,724 that is defined with respect to one-, two- or three-dimensional geometric coordinates, or an abstract (non-geometric) virtual area of the type described in US application Ser. No. 12/631,008, which was filed on Dec. 4, 2009, that is defined with respect to abstract coordinates. Visual virtual areas are associated with respective visualizations, whereas abstract virtual areas may or may not be associated with respective visualizations. 
     A virtual area typically includes one or more zones. A zone may be a rendered spatial extent, a set of rules applied to a spatial extent, or both. Zones may be arranged hierarchically in a virtual area, with an outermost zone (referred to herein as the “global governance zone”) enclosing all other zones in the virtual area. Within the global governance zone, there can be location zones (e.g., rooms of a virtual area) or smaller governance zones that enclose a group of location zones and provide regions of governance on the map. A zone definition typically also includes one or more channel definitions that describe how to create respective channels in the zone and specify the information about the channel that is published to a client network node that becomes present in the zone. A channel is always uniquely defined point-to-point and is unique to a virtual area application and a session between a client network node and the virtual area platform. 
     Examples of the types of rules that may be associated with a zone include switching rules, governance rules, and permission rules. 
     Switching rules govern realtime stream connections between network nodes that are linked to the virtual area (e.g., network nodes that are associated with objects, such as avatars, in the virtual area). The switching rules typically include a description of conditions for connecting sources and sinks of realtime data streams in terms of positions in the virtual area. Each switching rule typically includes attributes that define the realtime data stream type to which the rule applies and the location or locations in the virtual area where the rule applies. In some examples, each of the rules optionally may include one or more attributes that specify a required role of the source, a required role of the sink, a priority level of the stream, and a requested data routing topology. In some examples, if there are no explicit switching rules defined for a particular part of the virtual area, one or more implicit or default switching rules may apply to that part of the virtual area. 
     Governance rules control who has access to resources (e.g., the virtual area itself, regions with the virtual area, and objects within the virtual area), who has access to data (e.g., data streams and other content) that is associated with the virtual area, what is the scope of that access to the data associated the virtual area (e.g., what can a user do with the data), and what are the follow-on consequences of accessing that data (e.g., record keeping, such as audit logs, and payment requirements). In some examples, an entire virtual area or a zone of the virtual area is associated with a “governance mesh” that enables a software application developer to associate governance rules with a virtual area or a zone of a virtual area. This avoids the need for the creation of individual permissions for every file in a virtual area and avoids the need to deal with the complexity that potentially could arise when there is a need to treat the same document differently depending on the context. 
     A permission rule defines a respective capability requirement (e.g., for a respective action, behavior, or state) in terms of one or more capabilities, attributes, and settings, which may be persistent or transient. Examples of capabilities systems for administering permission rules are described in U.S. Provisional Patent Application No. 61/535,910, filed Sep. 16, 2011. 
     In some examples, a virtual area is defined by a specification that includes a description of geometric elements of the virtual area and one or more rules, including switching rules and governance rules. Examples of virtual area specifications are described in U.S. patent application Ser. No. 12/418,243, filed Apr. 3, 2009, U.S. patent application Ser. No. 12/818,517, filed Jun. 18, 2010, U.S. patent application Ser. No. 12/855,210, filed Aug. 12, 2010, and U.S. Provisional Patent Application No. 61/563,088, filed Nov. 23, 2011. 
     The virtual area platform  18  enables a wide variety of highly customizable virtual area applications to be created. Examples of such applications include virtual area applications for creating a virtual office, a virtual personal space, a virtual art gallery, a virtual concert hall, a virtual auditorium, a virtual conference room, and a virtual clubhouse. The virtual area platform  18  supports the creation of virtual area applications that define network connections between network nodes in the same zone of a virtual area, as well as one-way or two-way network connections between network nodes in different zones. 
       FIG. 3  shows an example  60  of the network communications environment  10  in which the network  20  interconnects the virtual area platform  18 , the remote client network node  12 , and virtual presence apparatus  62  that is located in a physical space  64 . 
     In the illustrated example, the virtual presence apparatus  62  is positioned on a table  66  in a real world conference room (the “East Conference” room) containing five communicants  68 ,  70 ,  72 ,  74 ,  76 , where the four communicants  68 - 74  are seated around the table  66 , and the fifth communicant  76  is standing beside a viewscreen  78 . The communicants  68 - 72  are operating respective client network nodes  80 ,  82 ,  84  (e.g., mobile computers, such as laptop computers, tablet computers, and mobile phones). A communicant  77  is operating the remote client network node  12  in a real world residential building  120  (the “Home” location). The client network nodes  12 ,  80 ,  82 ,  84  are running virtual area enabled communications applications that establish respective presences for the communicants  68 - 72  and  77  in a particular one  79  of the virtual areas  46 . The virtual presence apparatus  62  is logged into the virtual area  79  and interfaces the two communicants  74 ,  76  in the physical space  64  (who are not operating respective network nodes) with the virtual area  79  by, for example, transceiving realtime communications and other data (e.g., location data and co-presence data) between the physical space  64  and the network nodes of communicants in the virtual area  79 . 
     The virtual presence apparatus  62  includes software and hardware resources that enable the virtual presence apparatus  62  to connect to the virtual area platform  18  and the client network nodes  12 ,  80 - 84 , either directly (e.g., peer-to-peer) or through a hosted network connection. In some examples, the virtual presence apparatus  62  or a network node hosting the virtual presence apparatus  62  includes a complete or modified version of the virtual area enabled communications application  26  that provides functions for communicating with the virtual area platform  18  and establishing network connections and communicating realtime data streams with the client network nodes  12 ,  80 - 84 . When connected to the virtual area platform  18 , the virtual area platform  18  may register the virtual presence apparatus  62  in association with one or more virtual areas and/or log the virtual presence apparatus  62  into the one or more virtual areas. When logged into a virtual area, the virtual presence apparatus  62  transduces human perceptible stimulus (e.g., audio, visual, mechanical, and other sensory stimulus) between the physical space  64  and the client network nodes of communicants who are present in the virtual area  79 . In this way, the virtual presence apparatus  62  bridges a physical experience of the physical space  64  to communicants in the virtual area  79  and bridges communicant interactions in the virtual area  79  to communicants in the physical space  64 . 
     An example of the virtual presence apparatus  62  includes an input transducer, an output transducer, a communication interface, a computer-readable memory that stores a globally unique identifier of the virtual presence apparatus, and a processor. The virtual presence apparatus  62  typically encodes output data generated by the input transducer from communicant activity in the physical space  64  into an output signal that is sent to the network nodes  12 ,  80 - 84  that are connected to the virtual area; the virtual presence apparatus  62  also typically decodes input signals that are received from the remote network nodes  12 ,  80 - 84  in connection with the virtual area, into input data that is sent to the output transducer. 
     The input transducer generates output data from human perceptible stimulus  82  in the physical space  64 . The input transducer typically generates the output data from human perceptible stimulus that is broadcasted into the physical space. Depending on the desired communication application, the input transducer may generate output data from one or more human perceptible stimuli, including for example audio, visual, mechanical, and other sensory stimuli. In some examples, the input transducer includes one or more of an acoustic-to-electric transducer (e.g., a microphone, which may be a component of a telephony device, such as a mobile phone or a VoIP phone, or a headset), a light-to-electric transducer (e.g., a camera, such as a still image camera, a video camera, and a scanner that scans physical documents into scanned images), an electric-to-electric transducer (e.g., a touchscreen or other touch-sensitive sensor equipped with resistive, capacitive, surface acoustic wave, optical, or other touch-sensitive technologies), a mechanical-to-electric transducer (e.g., a tactile or other pressure- or force-sensitive transducer, a texture-sensitive transducer), and a chemical-to-electric transducer (e.g., a olfactory sensor that is capable of detecting one or more odorants). 
     The output transducer generates human perceptible stimulus in the physical space  64 . The output transducer typically broadcasts the human perceptible stimulus into the physical space. Depending on the desired communications application, the output transducer may generate one or more human perceptible stimuli from input data, including for example audio, visual, mechanical, and other sensory stimuli. In some examples, the output transducer includes one or more of an electric-to-acoustic transducer (e.g., a speaker, which may be a component of a telephony device, such as a mobile phone or a VoIP phone, or a headset), an electric-to-light transducer (e.g., an image projector such as a digital projector, a touchscreen display, a light beam projector such as a laser pointer, or a three-dimensional hologram generator), an electric-to-mechanical transducer (e.g., a haptic transducer, an electric motor that moves mechanical components, such as light sources and robot tools, and other components in the physical space, and a printer that outputs printed documents or three-dimensional objects), and an electric-to-chemical transducer (e.g., an electric odorant delivery system). 
     The virtual presence apparatus  62  may be implemented in a variety of different ways. In some examples, the virtual presence apparatus  62  is composed of multiple components (e.g., two or more of a speaker, a microphone, a light projector, and a camera) that are integrated into a unitary device. In other examples, the virtual presence apparatus  62  is composed of a central hub (e.g., a virtual area enabled network switch or router) that controls and configures one or more separate and distinct peripheral components (e.g., a speakerphone, a digital projector, a camera, and a remote-controlled laser pointer) that are connected to respective ports (e.g., Universal Serial Bus (USB) ports) of the hub. Examples of the virtual presence apparatus  62  may have different industrial designs. In some examples, the virtual presence apparatus  62  has the form factor of a desktop appliance (e.g., a form factor similar to that of a computer, speakerphone, a digital projector, or a network hub), whereas other examples of the virtual presence apparatus  62  have robotic form factors (e.g., a remote-controlled electro-mechanical machine). 
     Additional details regarding the construction and operation of examples of the virtual presence apparatus  82  are described in U.S. patent application Ser. No. 13/554,051, filed Jul. 20, 2012, and U.S. patent application Ser. No. 13/554,084, filed Jul. 20, 2012. 
     In some examples, the virtual area platform  18  establishes a respective presence in the virtual area  79  for a communicant based on a determination that the communicant is in the physical space  64 . 
     In some examples, the virtual area platform  18  receives location data (e.g., location based services data, such as Global Positioning System (GPS) data) that is associated with the particular communicant (e.g., by a GPS component of a mobile device, such as a mobile phone or other mobile communication device), and determines that the particular communicant is in the physical space based on comparison of the received location data with location data associated with the physical space. In other examples, the virtual area platform  18  determines that a communicant is in the physical space  64  based on sensor data (e.g., image data, motion sensing data, speech detection data) that is generated by the virtual presence apparatus  62  and transmitted to the virtual area platform  18 . 
     In addition to detecting the presence of communicants in the physical space  64 , the virtual area platform  18  also typically attempts to identify the communicants who are in the physical space  64 . In some examples, the virtual presence apparatus  62  includes an input device (e.g., a microphone, a camera, a magnetic stripe reader, a bar code reader, a proximity reader, a smart card reader, a biometric reader, or a wireless reader, such as a RFID reader or a Bluetooth reader) that acquires communicant identifying information that the virtual area platform  18  can use to identify communicants who are present in the physical space  64 . In some examples, the virtual presence apparatus  62  captures images of communicants in the physical space  64  and sends the captured images to the virtual area platform  18 , which recognizes faces in the images using face recognition image processing techniques. In some examples, the server network node  42  receives audio data from the virtual presence apparatus  62 , and associates the audio data with a communicant in the physical space  64  based on comparison of the audio data with one or more voice data records that are associated with respective communicants. The voice records typically correspond to voiceprints (also referred to as voice templates or voice models) that are created from features that are extracted from the recorded speech of known communicants in accordance with a speaker recognition enrollment process. Each voiceprint is associated with the identity of a particular communicant. The virtual area platform  18  typically associates the audio data with the communicant&#39;s identity in response to a determination that features extracted from the audio data correspond to the voiceprint previously associated with the communicant. 
     Using one or more of these or other identification techniques, the virtual area platform  18  automatically identifies communicants who are in the physical space  64  without requiring them to log into the virtual area platform  18  through respective client network nodes. Once a particular communicant in the physical space  64  has been identified, the virtual area platform  18  can automatically establish a presence for that communicant in the particular virtual area that is associated with the virtual presence apparatus  62 , track utterances from that communicant in the audio data captured by the virtual presence apparatus  62 , and present visual cues indicative of the state of that communicant&#39;s voice (e.g., speaking or silent) in the communications interfaces that are displayed to the communicants who are present in the virtual area. In some examples, subject to any applicable permissions and capabilities that are associated with the virtual area, if a particular communicant is determined to be present in the physical space  64  but cannot be identified, the virtual area platform  18  establishes a presence for that communicant in the associated virtual area without naming or otherwise identifying that communicant in the communications interface. 
     In the illustrated example, each of the virtual area enabled communications applications  26  running on the client network nodes  12 ,  80 - 84  provides a communications interface for receiving user commands and presents a respective spatial visualization  81  of a zone  118  (the “East Conference” zone, or ECZ) of the virtual area  79  in accordance with data received from the virtual area platform  18 . The spatial visualization  81  includes respective graphical representations  82 ,  84 ,  86 ,  88 ,  90 ,  92  (referred to herein as “avatars” or “sprites”) of the communicants who are present in the virtual area  46  in the spatial visualization  81 . In the illustrated example, the sprites  82 ,  86 ,  88  represent the three communicants  68 ,  70 ,  72  who are seated in the physical space  64  and are operating the local client network nodes  80 ,  82 ,  84 , the sprite  88  represents the communicant  77  who is operating the remote client network node  12 , the sprite  92  represents the seated communicant  74 , and the sprite  82  represents the communicant  76  who is standing beside the viewscreen  78  in the East Conference room  64 . The spatial visualization  81  may include other objects. Examples of such objects include a viewscreen object  94  for interfacing with application sharing functions of the platform (as described in, e.g., U.S. patent application Ser. No. 12/418,270, filed Apr. 3, 2009), a table object  96  for interfacing with file sharing functions of the platform, and a VPA object  98  for interfacing with the virtual presence apparatus  62  in the physical space  64 . The spatial visualization  81  typically is presented in a respective window  100  that is generated by the virtual area enabled communications application  26  on a “desktop” or other system-defined, base window on the display hardware of the client network nodes  12 ,  80 - 84 . 
     In the illustrated example, the activities of the communicants in the virtual area can be inferred from the activities on the various communication channels over which the respective client network nodes are configured to communicate. The activities on the communication channels are represented in the graphical interface by visual cues that are depicted in association with the graphical representations  82 - 92  of the communicants. For example, the “on” or “off” state of a communicant&#39;s local speaker channel is depicted by the presence or absence of a headphones graphic  102  on the communicant&#39;s sprite. When the speakers of the communicant who is represented by the sprite are on, the headphones graphic  102  is present (see sprites  86 ,  88 ) and, when the communicant&#39;s speakers are off, the headphones graphic  102  is absent. The “on” or “off” state of the communicant&#39;s microphone is depicted by the presence or absence of a microphone graphic  104  on the communicant&#39;s sprite. When the microphone is on, the microphone graphic  104  is present (see sprite  88 ); and, when the microphone is off, the microphone graphic  104  is absent. The headphones graphic  102  and the microphone graphic  104  provide visual cues of the activity states of the communicant&#39;s sound playback and microphone devices. In addition, the current activity on a communicant&#39;s microphone channel is indicated by a dynamic visualization that lightens and darkens the communicant&#39;s avatar in realtime to reflect the presence or absence of audio data on the microphone channel. Thus, whether or not their local speakers are turned on, communicants can determine when another communicant is speaking by the “blinking” of the coloration of that communicant&#39;s avatar. 
     The activity on a communicant&#39;s text chat channel is depicted by the presence or absence of the hand graphic  106  adjacent the communicant&#39;s sprite (see sprite  90 ). Thus, when a communicant is transmitting text chat data to another network node the hand graphic  106  is present, and when a communicant is not transmitting text chat data the hand graphic  106  is not present. In some embodiments, text chat data is transmitted only when keyboard keys are depressed, in which case the visualization of the communicant&#39;s text channel appears as a flashing on and off of the hand graphic  106 . 
     The viewscreen object  94  is associated with application sharing functionality of the platform that enables communicants to share applications operating their respective client network nodes. The application sharing functionality is invoked by activating a viewscreen object  94  (e.g., by single-clicking the viewscreen object with an input device). In some embodiments, the platform provides visual cues that indicate whether or not a communicant is sharing an application over an application sharing channel. In response to a communicant&#39;s selection of the viewscreen object  94 , the communicant&#39;s sprite automatically is moved to a position in the graphical representation of the virtual area that is adjacent the viewscreen object  94 . The position of a communicant&#39;s sprite adjacent the viewscreen object  94  indicates that the communicant currently is sharing or is about to share an application with the other communicants in the virtual area. In addition, the avatar of each communicant who is viewing a shared application is depicted with a pair of “eyes” to indicate that the represented communicants are viewing the content being shared in connection with the viewscreen object  94 . The graphical depiction of a viewscreen object  94  is changed depending on whether or not an active application sharing session is occurring. For example, the depicted color of the viewscreen object  94  may change from a brighter color during an active application sharing session to a darker color when there is no application sharing taking place. Examples of the application sharing process are described in connection with  FIGS. 26-28  of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 12/354,709, filed Jan. 15, 2009, and in U.S. patent application Ser. No. 12/418,270, filed Apr. 3, 2009. 
     In some examples, the virtual area platform  18  enhances the immersive connections between virtual area locations (e.g., virtual area and/or virtual area zones) and physical spaces by creating persistent associations between the virtual area locations and the respective physical spaces. The virtual area platform  18  typically stores these persistent associations in in a table or other data structure that maps each real world location to a respective area/zone. In some of these examples, the virtual area platform  18  reinforces these associations in the visualizations of the virtual area locations that connote the real world physical spaces (e.g., by having a virtual presentation that resembles one or more distinctive visual features of the real world physical space or by including a descriptive name or other label that is associated with the real world physical space). 
     In the illustrated example, the physical area  64  is a conference room (the “East Conference” room) in a building  112  in a real world space  114 . The virtual area platform  18  has created a persistent association  116  between the East Conference Room  64  of the building  112  and the East Conference zone  118  of the virtual area  79 . The virtual area platform  18  reinforces this association in the visualization  81  of the virtual East Conference zone  118  of the virtual area  79  that connote the elements of the corresponding real world East Conference room  64  of building  112 . In the example shown in  FIG. 3 , the virtual East Conference zone  118  is labeled with a name (e.g., East Conference) that corresponds to the name that identifies the corresponding real world East Conference room. The virtual presentation  81  of the virtual East Conference zone  118  also includes respective features (e.g., the number, placement, and orientation of the virtual viewscreen object  94 , the table object  96 , and the virtual presence apparatus object  98 ) that correspond to distinctive visual features of the associated real world East Conference room  64 . 
     The resulting visualization  81  of the East Conference zone  118  allows a user to see conversations and other interactions between communicants who are located in different physical spaces (i.e., the East Conference room  64  and the Home  120  of communicant  77 ) in a single view according to a spatial metaphor that allows the user to quickly learn who is meeting with whom and the context of those interactions (as defined by the virtual zone in which the meeting is occurring and the physical locations of the individual communicants). In addition, the virtual presence apparatus object  98  in the East Conference zone  118  provides an interface for remote communicants in the virtual East Conference zone  118  to interact with the associated virtual presence apparatus  62  in the real world East Conference room  64  and thereby be bridged into that physical space. 
       FIG. 3  also shows another example of a graphical visualization  124  of a virtual area  126  that is persistently associated with a real world building  128 . The spatial visualization  124  of the virtual area  126  is generated the communications applications  26  running on the client network nodes of the communicants in a zone (the “ABC HQ-Main” zone) of the virtual area  126 . In this example, the virtual area visualization  124  is a map view that shows a virtual representation of a real world geographic area in which the real world building  128  (ABC HQ) is located and emphasizes the persistent association between the virtual area  126 , the real world building  128 , and the real world location of the building  128 . 
     In some examples, communicants&#39; real world and virtual states are separate layers of experience that drive interfaces for visualizing those layers. In some examples, communicants&#39; real world locations and virtual locations are reflected in the representations of the communicants and their interactions in virtual areas. For example, some of these representations depict socially relevant information regarding the current real world locations and virtual locations of communicants. Such information includes indications of the current real world locations of the communicants, indications of the current virtual locations of the communicants, indications of the communicants who currently are physically co-present, and indications of the communicants who currently are virtually co-present. 
     In some examples, the virtual area platform  18  determines the real world locations of the communicants who are in a virtual area. The virtual area platform  18  may determine the real world location information in a variety of different ways. In some examples, a communicant&#39;s network node reports its current real world location (e.g., location based services data, such as GPS data) to the virtual area platform  18 . In other examples, the virtual area platform  18  determines the presence of communicants in the physical space  64  based on the known physical location of the virtual presence apparatus  62  together with data generated by one or more sensors (e.g., a microphone, a camera together with image processing and depth sensing technologies, a magnetic stripe reader, a bar code reader, a proximity reader, a smart card reader, a biometric reader, or a wireless reader, such as a RFID reader or a Bluetooth reader) associated with the virtual presence apparatus  62 . The virtual area platform  18  may learn the physical location of the virtual presence apparatus  62  from, for example, a real world location entered by an administrator, or other data (e.g., GPS data or network address data) that is transmitted to the virtual area platform  18 . Based on the known location of the virtual presence apparatus  62 , the virtual area platform  18  may determine that any communicants that are detected near the virtual presence apparatus  62  are in the same physical location as the virtual presence apparatus  62 . In some examples, the virtual presence apparatus  62  uses the sensor data to determine the locations of detected communicants relative to the virtual presence apparatus  62 . Based on this relative position information, the virtual area platform  18  may determine the positions of the communicants in the physical area  64  relative to one another or relative to objects (e.g., a viewscreen) in the physical area  64 , and reflect those positions in the presentation of the communicants in the visualization of the associated virtual area. 
     In the illustrated example, the virtual area platform  18  associates with each avatar a respective label that describes the determined physical locations of the associated communicant. For example, each of the avatars  82 ,  84 ,  86 ,  90 ,  92  corresponding to the communicants who are located in the East Conference room  64  is associated with the location label “ECR” that denotes the East Conference room  64 , and the avatar  88  (which corresponds to the communicant  77  in the real world home location) is associated with the location label “Home” that denotes the Home physical space  120 . This location based information is socially relevant to the remote communicant  77  because he otherwise would not know that the other communicants in the virtual East Conference zone  118  are all physically co-located in the real world East Conference room  64 , information which the remote communicant  77  would need in order to notice or understand nuances in the communications between the other communicants that might arise from their physical co-presence. 
       FIG. 4  shows an example of a two-dimensional visualization of a virtual area  200  (the “SococoHQ” virtual area). The SococoHQ virtual area  200  includes a lobby zone  202 , a Main zone  204 , a West Conference zone  206 , the East Conference zone  118  shown in  FIG. 3 , a West Nook zone  210 , an East Nook zone  212 , a Courtyard zone  214 , and sixteen office zones. The conference zones  118 ,  204 ,  206  include respective viewscreen objects, table objects, and objects representing respective virtual presence apparatus, and supports realtime audio, chat, and application and network resource sharing communications between the network nodes in the same conference zone. Each of the offices includes respective viewscreen objects (not shown) and a respective telephony object (not shown) and supports realtime audio, chat, and application and network resource sharing communications between the network nodes in the same office. Each of the telephony objects supports shared dial-in and dial-out telephony communications as described in U.S. Patent Application No.  13 / 165 , 729 , filed June  21 ,  2011 , and communicants interacting with the telephony objects are represented by avatars that decorated with a graphical representation of a telephone (see, e.g., the avatar  216  in Carl&#39;s Office). Each of the West Nook zone  210 , East Nook zone  212 , and Lobby zone  202  respectively supports realtime audio and chat communications between the network nodes in the same zone. 
     In some examples, the conference zones  118 ,  204 ,  206  are associated with different real world physical spaces. The different real world physical spaces may be physically connected to or proximate one another (e.g., rooms connected by a common structure, such as rooms in an office building, or disconnected rooms of related co-located structures, such as rooms in a distributed office building complex) or they may be physically separated from one another (e.g., rooms in separate and distinct real world office buildings, which may be in the same or different geographic regions). The virtual area platform  18  reinforces these associations with visual cues in the visualizations of the virtual area locations that connote the corresponding real world physical spaces. In the example shown in  FIG. 4 , each of the virtual conference rooms  118 ,  204 ,  206  is labeled with a respective name (e.g., Main, West Conference, and East Conference) that corresponds to the name that is used to identify the corresponding real world physical space. In addition, virtual presentations of the virtual conference zones  118 ,  204 ,  206  include respective features (e.g., the number and placement of virtual viewscreen objects, virtual plants  218 ,  220  and virtual artwork  222 ) that correspond to distinctive visual features of the associated real world physical spaces. The resulting visualization of the SococoHQ virtual area  200  allows a user to see multiple concurrent independent conversations and other interactions that are occurring in different physical spaces in a single view in which the interactions are organized according to a spatial metaphor that allows the user to quickly learn who is meeting with whom and the contexts of those meetings (as defined by the zones in which the meetings are occurring). In addition, the virtual presence apparatus objects in the virtual conference zones  118 ,  204 ,  206  provide interfaces for communicants in the virtual area  200  to interact with the associated virtual presence apparatus and thereby be bridged into the corresponding physical spaces. 
     Referring to  FIG. 4 , each of the communicants in the SococoHQ virtual area  200  is located in a respective geographic location that is indicated in the map view  224 , which shows a virtual representation of a real world geographic area in which the communicants are located physically. In some cases, multiple of the communicants in the same zone of the SococoHQ virtual area  200  are physically co-located in the same geographic area. As explained above, the physical co-presence of communicants who also are in the same virtual zone is socially relevant to communicants who are present in that zone but not in the same physical space because physical co-location changes the social context of the interactions between the communicants. For example, knowing that communicants are co-present in the same physical space, typically will affect how the remote communicants interpret interactions between the physically co-located communicants and how the remote communicants interact with the physically co-located communicants. For at least these reasons, it is desirable to reflect the physical co-presence of communicants in the visualization of the virtual areas and zones in the communications interfaces that are presented to the remote communicants in the same virtual areas and zones. 
       FIG. 5  shows an example of a people panel graphical user interface  230  that is generated by an example of the virtual area enabled communications application  26  in a window on a display of the client network node from which a user of the client application (“Art” in this example) is operating. The people panel  230  depicts the realtime availabilities and activities of communicants that are associated with Art (e.g., by being a contact of Art or being a member of or present in a virtual area of which Art is a member) across different communication contexts. 
     In the people panel  230 , each communicant is represented graphically by a respective circular sprite (or avatar) that is associated with a respective name of the communicant (i.e., “Art,” “Beth,” “Carl,” “Dan,” “Ed,” “Fran,” and “Garth”) and a status line that includes additional information about the communicant, such as physical location of presence, availability (e.g., busy, idle), a status message (e.g., “Out of the office next Wednesday”), and the name of the client node from which the communicant is operating (e.g., “workstation 1” or “mobile phone”). As explained above, the virtual area platform  18  monitors the activities on various communication channels over which the respective communicants are configured to communicate in the virtual areas and generates state data that indicate state information about the communicants and real-time data streams (RDS) that indicate the current realtime activities of the communicants. These states and activities are represented by visual cues that are depicted in association with the graphical representations of the communicants in the people panel  230 . 
     The people panel  230  is associated with filtering criteria that highlight interaction activities grouped by virtual area and by zone within each virtual area, allowing the user to readily determine where the potentially interesting interactions are occurring across the user&#39;s areas of membership. In the illustrated example, the people panel  230  shows the realtime availabilities and activities of the communicants who are present in the SococoHQ virtual area  200 . The people panel  230  includes a header bar  232  that includes a descriptive label associated with the virtual area (e.g., the name of the virtual area and other information, such as an announcement, relating to the virtual area) and a respective toggle control that can be toggled to selectively collapse and expand the SococoHQ section of the people panel  230 . In the illustrated example, the SococoHQ section is expanded. 
     Within the SococoHQ section, the communicants who are present in the virtual area are grouped as follows: the communicants in the user&#39;s current zone of presence (i.e., Art&#39;s Office in this example) are displayed in a capsule  234  at the top of the SococoHQ section; next, communicants who are co-presence with other communicants in respective zones of the virtual area are displayed in respective zones of co-presence capsules  236 ,  238   240 ; the communicants who are alone in respective zones of the virtual area are displayed in a respective “Other Zones” capsule  242  (shown collapsed); and the communicants who are members of the SococoHQ virtual area but currently are not present are listed in a “Not Present” capsule  243  (shown collapsed). The zones of co-presence filtering criteria identify those communicants who are co-present in respective zones of a virtual area. Thus, for each virtual area, the communicants in each group of two or more co-present communicants in the same zone of the virtual area are listed in a separate, selectively expandable and collapsible zone of co-presence capsule  236 - 240  in a respective section of the people panel  230 . The depiction of the zones of co-presence enables Art to readily visualize all of the conversations that are occurring across all of the communication contexts that are defined by the virtual areas of which Art is a member. In this way, Art can determine whether or not there are any ongoing conversations that he would like to join. 
     In some examples, each of the co-presence capsules  234 - 240  is associated with a respective descriptive user navigable link that may reference, for example, the associated zone of co-presence or a Real World View of a physical location that is mapped to the associated zone of co-presence. The link may be, for example, a URI link that includes the name of the associated zone or physical location, along with other information, such as a label that describes the topic of a meeting currently taking place in the zone (e.g., “Daily Standup” or “Sales Management Meeting”). In some examples, each of the co-presence capsules  234 - 240  also is associated with a respective door icon (not shown) that reflects the current state (e.g., open or closed) of the door object that is associated with the zone. In this way, the user can quickly determine of the type of meeting that is occurring in the respective zones (e.g., an open or casual meeting, or a closed or private meeting). Additional details regarding the navigatable links and door objects are described in U.S. patent application Ser. No. 13/487,159, filed Jun. 2, 2012. 
     Within each of the co-presence capsules  236 - 240 , the communicants who are present in the associated zone additionally are grouped by physical co-presence. presence. In the illustrated example, the communicants Beth, Carl, Dan, Ed, and Matt are co-present in the virtual Main zone of the SococoHQ virtual area. In addition to being virtually co-present, Dan, Ed, and Matt also are physically co-present in Ji&#39;s Coffee, which is a real world location in Palo Alto, Calif. The physical co-presence of Dan, Ed, and Matt is depicted in the people panel  230  by grouping their avatars  244 ,  246 ,  248  within a physical co-presence capsule  250  and by merging their respective status lines into a single status line  252  that identifies their physical location of co-presence (i.e., “Ji&#39;s Coffee - Palo Alto,” which also is associated with a user navigatable URI link  253  that references an associated virtual area or zone, or a Real World View of the associated real world location). Similarly, the communicants Jim, Sam, Todd, and Josh are co-present in the virtual West Conference zone of the SococoHQ virtual area. In addition to being virtually co-present, Jim, Sam, and Todd also are physically co-present in the real world West Conference room in the Sococo Mountain View office. The physical co-presence of Jim, Sam, and Todd is depicted in the people panel  230  by grouping their avatars within a physical co-presence capsule  254  and by merging their respective status lines into a single status line  256  that identifies their physical location of co-presence (i.e., “Sococo MV, W-Conf”). 
     Typically, the virtual area platform  18  automatically determines the physical co-presence of communicants by applying a co-presence predicate to the real world locations of the communicants, locations which may be determined, for example, using any of the communicant locating methods described herein. In some examples, the virtual area platform  18  determines that communicants are physically co-present if the real world locations of the communicants satisfy a proximity predicate (e.g., the communicants are within a particular distance from one another). In one example, the virtual area platform  18  determines that communicants operating respective network nodes are co-present if the locations of the network nodes can be circumscribed by a imaginary circular boundary with a diameter of at most a specified threshold length (e.g., three meters). In another example, the virtual area platform  18  determines that communicants are physically co-present if the locations of their network nodes network nodes are located within a specified distance of a target location (e.g., a fixed real world location, such as a location defined by specified latitude and longitude coordinates, or a transient real world location, such as the location of one of the network nodes). 
     The people panel  230  also includes: a Contacts section  260  that shows Art&#39;s contacts who are not members of the SococoHQ virtual area; a Frequent contacts section  262  in which Art&#39;s contacts are sorted by the frequency of their respective interactions with Art; a Recent contacts section  264  in which Art&#39;s contacts are sorted by the recentness of their respective interactions with Art; an Online contacts section  266  that lists all of Art&#39;s contacts who currently are online (i.e., connected to the network  20 ); and an Offline contacts group  268  that lists all of Art&#39;s contacts who currently are offline (i.e., disconnected from the network  20 ). 
       FIG. 6  shows an exemplary graphical user interface  270  that is generated by an example of the virtual area enabled communications application  26  in a window  272  on a display of the user&#39;s client network node. The graphical user interface  270  includes the people panel  230 , a viewer panel  274 , an audio interaction toolbar  276 , a set of panel view controls  278 , a Phone button  280 , a respective Viewscreen button  282 - 288  for each viewscreen object in the current zone of presence, a Virtual Area View button  290 , a Real World View button  291 , and a meeting button  292 . 
     The audio interaction toolbar  276  includes a headphone control  294  that enables Art to toggle on and off the local speakers of the client network node, and a microphone control  296  that enables Art to toggle on and off the local microphone of the client network node. 
     The panel view controls  278  include a people panel button  298  for opening and closing the people panel  230 , a chat panel button  300  for opening and closing a chat panel, and a viewer panel button  302  for opening and closing the viewer panel  274 . 
     The Phone button  280  is associated with telephony related functionality of the platform that enables a user of a Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN) terminal device to participate in virtual area based communications (e.g., by the PSTN terminal device user calling into a zone of the virtual area or by a user of the communications application  26  to call out to the PSTN terminal device user), as described in U.S. patent application Ser. No. 13/165,729, filed Jun. 21, 2011. 
     The Meeting button  292  sets the view presented in the viewer panel  274  to a user interface for visualizing assemblies of communicants in the virtual area, as described in U.S. patent application Ser. No. 13/432,837, filed Mar. 28, 2012. 
     The graphical user interface  270  also includes a home button  304  that is associated with a control that returns the user&#39;s presence to a designated “home” location in the virtual environment (e.g., a designed zone, such as a personal zone or other office that is assigned to the user). Additional details regarding the structure, function, and operation of examples of the navigation controls are described in U.S. patent application Ser. No. 12/354,709, filed Jan. 15, 2009. 
     The graphical user interface  270  also includes a Chat button  303  and a Get button  305 . Selection of the Chat button  303  opens the chat panel that enables Art to initiate a chat with other communicants who are present in the area application where Art is present. Selection of the Get button  305  opens an invite window that enables Art to invite one or more communicants to a selected virtual area location. Additional details regarding embodiments of the methods and functions invoked by the Chat button  303  and the Get button  305  are described in U.S. patent application Ser. No. 12/354,709, filed Jan. 15, 2009, and U.S. Provisional Patent Application No. 13/209,812, filed Aug. 15, 2011. 
     Selection of the Virtual Area View button  290  sets the view presented in the viewer panel  274  to a spatial visualization of the virtual area. 
     In the example shown in  FIG. 6 , the viewer panel  274  is in the Virtual Area View mode (as denoted by the highlighted Virtual Area View button  290 ), which presents a spatial visualization of the SococoHQ virtual area  200  that is zoomed to the user&#39;s current zone of presence (i.e., SococoHQ/Main as shown in the location bar  306 , which indicates that Main is a zone within the virtual area SococoHQ). Each of the communicants who is present in the SococoHQ/Main zone is represented graphically in the viewer panel  274  by a respective avatar that corresponds to the communicant&#39;s avatar shown in the Main zone capsule  236  of people panel  230 . The SococoHQ/Main zone is represented graphically by a two-dimensional top view of a rectangular space. In some examples, the communicants&#39; avatars automatically are positioned in predetermined locations (or “seats”) in the SococoHQ/Main zone when the communicants initially enter the zone. In other examples, the communicants&#39; avatars are positioned in the SococoHQ/Main zone at locations that reflect the communicants&#39; relative locations in the physical space associated with the zone, as determined by the virtual presence apparatus  62  in the associated physical space  64 . 
     The Main zone includes four viewscreen objects  310 - 316  and a table object  318 . Communicants interact with the objects by selecting them with an input device (e.g., by single-clicking on the objects with a computer mouse, touch pad, touch screen, or the like). The viewscreen objects  310 - 316  are associated with application sharing functionality of the platform that enables communicants to share applications operating their respective client network nodes. The application sharing functionality is invoked by activating a viewscreen (e.g., by single-clicking the viewscreen object with an input device). 
     Each of the Viewscreen buttons  282 - 286  sets the viewer panel  274  to display the content the content being shared in connection with a corresponding one of the viewscreen objects in the current zone of presence or, if no content is being shared in connection with the current viewscreen object, to display a Share button that allows the user to initiate an application sharing session in connection with the selected viewscreen object. 
     In some examples, one or more of the viewscreen objects  310 - 316  may be associated with respective uniform resource identifiers (URIs) of network resources to enable communicants to interact with and share information associated with the network resources via the application sharing (e.g., web browser sharing) functionality associated with the viewscreen objects as described in U.S. patent application Ser. No. 13/399,737, filed Feb. 17, 2012. 
     The table object  318  is associated with file share functionality of the platform that enables communicants to upload computer data files to server storage in association with respective ones of the zones of the virtual area and to download data files that are associated with zones of the virtual area from the server storage to the respective client network nodes. In example shown in  FIG. 6 , there are two document objects  322 ,  324  that are associated with the table object  318  in the Main zone of the SococoHQ virtual area. The document objects  322 ,  324  are linked to respective documents that are have been shared in the virtual area and stored in server storage with an index that refers to the unique identifier of the Main zone. Any of the document objects  322 ,  324  may be selected by a communicant (e.g., by double-clicking the document object with an input device, such as a computer mouse) to initiate downloading of the associated document to the communicant&#39;s client network node. Additional details regarding the structure, function, and operation of the table object  318  may be obtained from U.S. patent application Ser. No. 12/354,709, filed Jan. 15, 2009. 
     The Real World View button  291  sets the view presented in the viewer panel  274  to a visualization of one or more real world locations associated with the virtual area. 
       FIG. 7  shows an example of the viewer panel  274  in the Real World View mode, which presents a spatial visualization  330  of the current real world locations of presence of the communicants in the user&#39;s current zone of presence of the SococoHQ virtual area (i.e., the Main zone of the SococoHQ virtual area). 
     In the illustrated example, the people panel  230  shows visual cues depicting the realtime interactions of the communicants Beth, Carl, Dan, Ed, Matt, and Art in the SococoHQ/Main zone. The people panel  230  also shows that Dan, Ed, and Matt are physically co-located in Ji&#39;s Coffee in Palo Alto, Calif. by grouping the avatars of Dan, Ed, and Matt in the co-presence capsule  250  and presenting the status message  252 , which describes the real world location of presence as “Ji&#39;s Coffee-Palo Alto.” 
     The viewer panel  274  shows the spatial visualization  330  of the current real world locations of the communicants Beth, Carl, Dan, Ed, Matt, and Art in the SococoHQ/Main zone. The spatial visualization shows a virtual representation of the communicants&#39; real world locations in which the communicants&#39; avatars are positioned on a geographic map  331  at respective locations that correspond to the communicants&#39; real world locations. In this regard, Beth&#39;s avatar  332  is positioned at the location of the Los Angeles International Airport (LAX), Carl&#39;s avatar  334  is positioned at the location of the Sococo office in Mountain View, Calif., the avatars  336 ,  338 ,  340  of Dan, Ed, and Matt are positioned at the location of Ji&#39;s Coffee in Palo Alto, Calif., and Art&#39;s avatar  342  is positioned at the location of Monterey, Calif. Each of the avatars  332 - 342  is associated with respective name of the communicant (i.e., “Art,” “Beth,” “Carl,” “Dan,” “Ed,” and “Matt”) and a status line that includes the communicants&#39; current geographic location. The co-presence of Dan, Ed, and Matt at the same geographic location is demarcated by enclosing their avatars  336 - 340  in a co-presence capsule  344 . The visualization  330  typically is zoomed automatically to a magnification level that allows all of the communicants&#39; real world locations to be shown in the viewer panel  274 . A zoom control  332  allows the user to change the magnification level of the visualization  330  presented in the viewer panel  274 . 
     In some examples, the physical co-presence capsule  344  is associated with a status line  346  that includes the names of the co-present communicants and a descriptive, user-navigable link  348  that references an associated virtual area or zone, or a Real World View of the associated real world location. In the example shown in  FIG. 7 , the navigatable link  348  is associated with a label that describes the associated real world location (i.e., Ji&#39;s Coffee) and references a particular virtual area location (i.e., the Main zone of the Ji&#39;s Coffee virtual area). 
       FIG. 8  shows an example of a view the Main zone  350  of the Ji&#39;s Coffee virtual area that is presented in the viewer panel  274  in response to the user&#39;s selection of the link  348  that is associated with the physical co-presence capsule  344  shown in  FIG. 7 . The Main zone  350  of the Ji&#39;s Coffee virtual area includes six viewscreen objects  352 ,  353 ,  354 ,  355 ,  356 ,  357 , and three table objects  358 ,  360 ,  362 . The viewscreen objects  352 - 354  are respectively linked to information, social media, and shopping network resources, which are accessed by activating (e.g., with a user input device) the viewscreen objects  352 - 356 . The viewscreen objects  355 - 357  are associated with application sharing functionality. Each of the table objects  358 - 362  has a set of four “seats” that define predetermined locations where communicant avatars can be positioned. Each table object  358 - 362  is located within a separate non-rendered table zone  359 ,  361 ,  363  that is associated with a respective set of switching rules that allows realtime audio, chat, application sharing, and file sharing between communicants in the same table zone. The Main zone  350  also is associated with switching rules that allow: audio communications between a communicant with the role of Barista (e.g., Linda) and the communicants in any of the table zones; and text chat communications between any communicants in the Main zone  350 . 
     The people panel  230  depicts the avatars of the communicants who are in the Main zone  350  of the Ji&#39;s Coffee virtual area. The virtual co-presence of Dan, Ed, and Matt in the table zone  363  is depicted in the people panel  230  by grouping their avatars within a virtual co-presence capsule  360 . Similarly, the virtual co-presence of Tom and Jill in the table zone  361  is depicted in the people panel  230  by grouping their avatars within a virtual co-presence capsule  362 . 
     By selecting the Real World View button  291 , the user can change the view mode of the viewer panel  274  from the Virtual Area View mode shown in  FIG. 8  to a Real World View mode shown in  FIG. 9 , which presents a spatial visualization  364  of the current real world locations of presence of the communicants in the user&#39;s current zone of presence in the Ji&#39;s Coffee virtual area (i.e., the Main zone). 
     Alternatively, by selecting a Map View button  366  in the spatial visualization shown in  FIG. 8 , the user can change the view mode of the viewer panel  274  from the Virtual Area View mode shown in  FIG. 8  to a Map View mode shown in  FIG. 10 , which presents a spatial visualization  368  of a real world location that is persistently associated with the Ji&#39;s Coffee virtual area. In this example, the spatial visualization  368  is a map view showing a virtual representation (i.e., a street map) of a real world geographic area containing a real world building corresponding to the Ji&#39;s Coffee virtual area. The real world location of Ji&#39;s Coffee is indicated in the map view by a coffee cup icon  370  that suggests a specific type of business (i.e., a coffee shop). A popup window  372  is displayed in response to user selection of the coffee cup icon  370 . The popup window  372  presents the name, address, phone number, and a URL that can be selected to navigate to a network resource (e.g., a web page) that is associated with Ji&#39;s Coffee. The popup window  372  also includes a navigatable “walkup view” link  374  that allows the user to change the view mode of the viewer panel  274  from the Map view mode shown in  FIG. 10  to the Walkup View mode shown in  FIG. 11 , which shows real world imagery (e.g., a photograph or video images) of a real world geographic area containing a real world building  376  that is associated with the Ji&#39;s Coffee virtual area. 
     The user also can select a Walkup View button  378  in the spatial visualization shown in  FIG. 8  to change the view mode of the viewer panel  274  from the Virtual Area View mode shown in  FIG. 8  to the Walkup View mode shown in  FIG. 11 . 
     In some examples, a user&#39;s real world state drives changes in the virtual state of the user or another communicant. For example, a user&#39;s real world (absolute or relative) location may drive changes in the virtual state (e.g., real world location based switching of the communicant&#39;s virtual location) of the user or another communicant. 
       FIG. 12  shows an example of a method by which the area server platform  18  changes a particular communicant&#39;s presence state based on the physical state of a user, where the particular communicant may be the user or another communicant. In accordance with this method, the area server platform  18  administers realtime communications between network nodes respectively associated with a user and other communicants in a network communications environment ( FIG. 12 , block  400 ). The area server platform  18  receives real world data that includes one or more attributes that define a physical state of the user ( FIG. 12 , block  402 ). The area server platform  18  applies one or more conditions to the one or more attributes ( FIG. 12 , block  404 ). Based on results of the applying, the area server platform  18  changes a particular communicant&#39;s presence state in the network communications environment ( FIG. 12 , block  406 ). 
     In some examples, the user is the particular communicant whose virtual presence state is changed. In some of these examples, the area server platform  18  establishes a presence for the user in a virtual area based on results of applying the one or more conditions to the one or more attributes defining the user&#39;s physical state. In some of these examples, at least one of the one or more attributes defines a real world location of the user, and the area server platform  18  establishes the user&#39;s presence in the virtual area based on a determination that the real world location of the user is within a particular physical area. In some cases, the particular physical area is defined in relation to a current real world location of another communicant. In some of these examples, the area server platform  18  establishes the user&#39;s presence in the virtual area based on a determination that the user and the other communicant are physically co-present. In some of these examples, the area server platform  18  creates the virtual area for the user and the other communicant based on a determination that the real world locations of the user and the other communicant are physically co-present. In some of these examples, the area server platform  18  terminates the user&#39;s presence in a virtual area based on application of one or more conditions to at least one of the one or more attributes defining the user&#39;s physical state. For example, in some cases, at least one of the one or more attributes defines a real world location of the user, and the area server platform  18  terminates the presence of the user in the virtual area based on a determination that the user&#39;s real world location is outside a particular physical area. In some cases, the particular physical area is defined in relation to a current real world location of another communicant. In some examples, the area server platform  18  terminates the user&#39;s presence in the virtual area based on a determination that the real world locations of the user and the other communicant are not physically co-present. 
     In some examples, the user is not the particular communicant whose virtual presence state is changed. In some of these examples, the area server platform  18  establishes a presence for the particular communicant in a virtual area based on results of applying the one or more conditions to the one or more attributes that define the user&#39;s physical state. In some of these examples, at least one of the one or more attributes defines a real world location of the user, and the area server platform  18  establishes the presence of the other communicant in the virtual area based on a determination that the user&#39;s real world location is within a particular physical area. In some of these examples, the area server platform  18  terminates the presence of the other communicant in a virtual area based on application of one or more conditions to at least one of the one or more attributes defining the user&#39;s physical state. For example, in some cases, at least one of the one or more attributes defines a real world location of the user, and the area server platform  18  terminates the presence of the other communicant in the virtual area based on a determination that the user&#39;s real world location is outside the particular physical area. 
     In the following examples, the virtual area platform  18  changes the presence state of the user or another communicant in the network communications environment based on a determination that the user&#39;s real world coordinates satisfy a location-based predicate. 
     Referring to  FIG. 13 , in some examples, the virtual area platform  18  changes the presence state of the user or particular other communicant based on application of a proximity predicate to the user&#39;s real world location in relation to the real world locations of one or more other communicants (e.g., the communicants are within a particular distance from one another). In other examples, the virtual area platform  18  changes the presence state of the user or the particular communicant based on a determination that his or her network node is located within a specified distance of a target one of one or more other communicants&#39; network nodes. In some examples, the virtual area platform  18  conditions the change in the presence state of the user or the particular communicant on satisfaction of an optional time predicate (e.g., the communicants must satisfy the proximity predicated for at least a threshold length of time, such as one minute). 
     In the illustrated example, the virtual area platform  18  changes the presence state of the user or the particular communicant in relation to a virtual area  420  based on the size of the smallest imaginary circular boundary  422  that circumscribes the real world locations of the user&#39;s network node (e.g., tablet computer  424 ) and one or more other communicants&#39; network nodes. For example, if the real world locations of the user&#39;s network node and the one or more other network nodes can be circumscribed by an imaginary circular boundary  422  with a diameter of at most a specified threshold length (e.g., three meters), the virtual area platform  18  automatically establishes a presence for the user or the particular communicant in the virtual area  420 . 
     In some cases, the other communicants already are present in the virtual area  420  and the user or the particular communicant automatically are entered into the virtual area  420  when the location of the user&#39;s network node  424  in relation to the network nodes of the one or more other communicants satisfies the proximity predicate. In other cases, the virtual area platform  18  automatically creates the virtual area  420  at the time the proximity predicate is satisfied. The virtual area  420  may be a persistent virtual area that is uniquely associated with a particular set of one or more communicants or it may be a transient virtual area that exists only from the time that it is created to the time when all the communicants have left the virtual area, at which point the virtual area is deleted. In some cases, the locations of the user and one or more other communicants may satisfy the proximity predicate while the user is virtually co-present with a particular communicant in a particular virtual area or zone. In some of these cases, the virtual area platform  18  automatically may establish presences for the one or more other communicants in the particular virtual area or zone so that the particular communicant will see the socially relevant fact that the user now is physically co-present with the one or more other communicants. In this way, the physical location of the user drives the virtual presences of the one or more other communicants in the network communications environment (see, e.g., the description below in connection with  FIGS. 17A-17B ). 
     In some examples, the area server platform  18 : associates a virtual area with a particular real world location; ascertains a user&#39;s current real world location over time; determines whether the current real world location of the user coincides with the particular real world location; and based on a determination that the current real world location of the user coincides with the particular real world location, automatically connects the user to the virtual area platform  18 , which supports realtime communications between communicants in the virtual area. 
       FIG. 14  shows an example in which the virtual area platform  18  changes the virtual presence state of the user or particular other communicant based on the physical location of the user&#39;s network node in relation to a designated real world area. In the illustrated example, the virtual area platform  18  changes the virtual presence state of the user or the particular communicant with respect to a virtual area  407  based on the location of the user&#39;s network node (e.g., mobile phone  408 ) in relation to a specified real world coordinate boundary  410  within a real world building  412 . In some examples, if the user&#39;s network node  408  is within the coordinate boundary  410 , the virtual area platform  18  establishes a presence for the user or the particular communicant in the virtual area  407  that is associated with the coordinate boundary  410 . In some examples, if the user&#39;s network node  408  is outside the coordinate boundary  410 , the virtual area platform  18  terminates the virtual presence of the user or the particular communicant in the virtual area  407 . 
     In the example shown in  FIG. 14 , the virtual area  407  is associated with the physical space demarcated by the coordinate boundary  410 . The physical space may correspond to the physical location of a business establishment (e.g., an office building, a retail store, such as a coffee shop or a department store, a restaurant, sports bar, social club, athletic club, or sports and exhibition facility) and the virtual area  407  may be a virtual area that is associated with the business establishment. In some of these examples, the physical location of the user in relation to the coordinate boundary  410  drives the user&#39;s virtual presence in the associated virtual area  407 . In some of these cases, when the user enters the business establishment, she automatically enters the virtual area  407 , allowing her to seamlessly interact both physically with the communicants who are in the physical retail store and virtually with the communicants who are in the associated virtual area  407 . Similarly, when the user leaves the business establishment, she automatically leaves the virtual area  407 . 
     In other examples, the physical location of the user in relation to the coordinate boundary  410  drives another communicant&#39;s virtual presence in the associated virtual area  407 . In some of these cases, while being virtually co-present with a particular communicant in a particular virtual area or zone, the user may enter the physical space demarcated by the coordinate boundary  410  and thereby become physically co-present with one or more other communicants in the physical space. In these cases, the virtual area platform  18  automatically may establish presences for the one or more other communicants in the particular virtual area or zone so that the particular communicant will see the socially relevant fact that the user now is physically co-present with the one or more other communicants (see, e.g., the description below in connection with  FIGS. 16A-16B ). 
       FIG. 15A  shows an example in which a user  430  (Linda) enters a retail establishment of a retailer. The retail establishment is demarcated by the coordinate boundary  410  in the building  412  shown in  FIG. 14 . In this example, when the user&#39;s network node  408  enters the physical area circumscribed by the coordinate boundary  410 , the virtual area platform  18  automatically establishes a presence for the user  430  in the virtual area  407 . This is reflected in a graphical user interface  432  that is generated in a window  434  on a display by a virtual area enabled communications application running on the user&#39;s network node  408 . The graphical user interface  432  includes a first viewer panel  436  that shows a Map View  440  of the retail establishment, and a second viewer panel  438  that shows a spatial visualization of a lobby zone  442  of the virtual area  407 . In some examples, the Map View  440  and the spatial visualization  442  are rendered views that are specified in the virtual area application defining the virtual area  407 . 
     In the first viewer panel  436 , the Map View  440  shows a two-dimensional dimensional graphical floor plan showing graphical representations of the layout of aisles and rows between shelves  444  in the retail establishment. In the Map View  440 , the shelves  444  are represented graphically by rectangles  446 . Communicants who have been detected as being physically present in the retail establishment are represented by respective avatars in the first viewer panel  436 . In the illustrated example, the user  430  has been detected as being present in the lobby of the retail establishment and therefore is represented by a circular sprite  448  in a graphical representation  450  of the lobby of the retail establishment. 
     In the second viewer panel  438 , the spatial visualization shows the user&#39;s current zone of presence (i.e., the lobby zone  442 ) of the virtual area  407 . In the illustrated example, the lobby zone is represented graphically by a two-dimensional top view of a rectangular space that contains two viewscreen objects  449 ,  451 , and a respective avatar  452 ,  454 ,  456  for each of the communicants who is present in the lobby zone  442 . In this example, the avatar  452  represents the user  430 , the avatar  454  represents a communicant  458  (Trevor) who is operating a remote network node  460 , and the avatar  456  represents a communicant  462  (Max) who is operating a remote network node  464 . The communicant  458  is a customer service representative who is physically located in the retail department headquarters (Retail HQ) of the retailer, and the communicant  462  is an expert in the ABC department who is physically located in the research and development headquarters (R&amp;D HQ) of the retailer. Graphical user interfaces analogous to the graphical user interface  432  are respectively generated by virtual area enabled communications applications running on the communicants&#39; network nodes  460 ,  464 . 
     In the illustrated example, the viewscreen object  449  is linked to network-based self-help resources (e.g., online resources for identifying products, checking product availability, comparing different products, submitting queries to and receiving query responses from a knowledgebase, and specific self-help content, such as user guides, and FAQs) that provide information that might help the user  430  to resolve an issue without requiring the assistance of a customer service representative or an expert. If the user  430  cannot resolve an issue using the self-help resources, the user  430  can select the viewscreen object  451  to interact with an issue tracking system that manages and maintains lists of issues. The customer may request a new ticket or enter the identifier of a ticket that already has been issued to the customer. In response, the issue tracking system may create or update reported customer issues, and update an issue tracking database accordingly. The ticket is used to track the issue, and potentially to schedule support for the customer&#39;s issue. After a ticket has been created, a customer service person (e.g., communicant  458 , Trevor) who designated for providing first tier support and is available to discuss the ticket with the customer (e.g., using audio, video, and/or chat) typically joins the user  430  in the lobby to discuss the issue. The customer service person may be able to resolve the issue or escalate the customer to an expert (e.g., communicant  462 , Max) for assistance. If escalated, the expert may join the user  430  in the lobby when he is available to discuss the issue with the user  430 . The user may browse the retail establishment while waiting for the customer service representative or the expert in the virtual lobby zone  442 . 
     In the process of resolving the issue, the user  430  may interact with one or both of the customer service representative  458  and the expert  462  in the virtual lobby zone  442  over one or more realtime audio, video, text chat, application sharing, and file sharing communication channels. If a particular product is identified, one of the customer service representative  458  and the expert  462  may assist the user  430  in locating the product on the shelves  444  of the physical retail establishment. For example, one of the communicants  458 ,  462  may interact with the virtual area platform  18  to cause the location of the product to be indicated by a star icon  466  in the Map View  440  shown in the first viewer panel  436  of the user&#39;s graphical user interface  434 . Using the Map View  440  as a guide, the user  430  may then navigate to the real world location of the product of the product in the retail establishment. In some examples, the virtual area platform  18  tracks the user&#39;s position in the retail establishment (e.g., using one or more of the communicant locating techniques described above) and moves the user&#39;s sprite  448  to the locations of the Map View  440  corresponding to the real world locations of the user  430 , thereby visually guiding the user to the location  466  of the desired product. In some of these examples, the virtual area platform  18  provides step-by-step directions from the user&#39;s current real world location to the real world location  466  of the desired product, where the directions may be presented to the user  430  in the form of a text-based list or synthesized speech. 
     Referring to  FIG. 15B , various virtual area extensions are activated as the user moves about the retail establishment. In the illustrated example, the physical area is divided into non-overlapping and non-rendered sections that are designated by respective aisle and row coordinates (e.g., aisle  2 , row  2 ). Each of the sections is associated with a respective section zone within the Main zone  442  of the virtual area  407 . Each section zone is associated with viewscreen object and a respective set of switching rules that allows realtime audio, chat, and application sharing communications between communicants in the same section zone. In the illustrated example, when the user enters the Aisle  2 , Row  2  section of the real world retail establishment, the virtual area platform  18  automatically moves the user&#39;s avatar  452  into the associated Aisle  2 , Row  2  section zone  468  of the Main zone of the virtual area  407 . The Aisle  2 , Row  2  section zone  468  includes a viewscreen object  470  that is associated with a URI link that references a network resource providing information about the products carried on the shelves in the Aisle  2 , Row  2  section of the real world retail establishment (e.g., list of products, inventories, pricing, product comparisons, promotions, advertising, and resources for ordering products online). 
     In some examples, when the user  430  enters a particular one of the sections of the retail establishment, the virtual area platform  18  automatically notifies a relevant retail establishment employee (e.g., a customer service representative or an expert) who is available to join the user  430  in the associated section zone of the virtual area  407 . In the illustrated example, in response to a notification received from the virtual area platform  18 , a communicant  472  (Todd, who is an expert regarding the products offered in the Aisle  2 , Row  2  section of the retail establishment) has moved his avatar  474  into in the Aisle  2 , Row  2  section zone  468  of the virtual area  407  in order to offer his assistance to the user. 
     In the example shown in  FIGS. 15A-15B , upon entering the physical space of the retail establishment or a section thereof, the user  430  not only can obtain immediate access to self-help and other network-based resources, but also can communicate with one or more people over one or more realtime communication channels to obtain general assistance or expert technical support and advice no matter where those people are located in the real world. Since the physical locations of the support personnel are not constrained to be in the retail establishment, the retailer is free to staff its real world retail establishments with lower levels of support and specialized expertise or none at all. In addition, the retailer also is able to extend the support and specialized expertise that is available across different geographic areas to increase the efficiency and responsiveness of its customer support operations. 
     As explained above, the physical location of the user also may drive another communicant&#39;s virtual presence in a virtual area. 
       FIG. 16A  shows an example in which the user  430  (Linda) and another communicant  514  (Bob) are co-present in Linda&#39;s Office zone  600  of the SococoHQ virtual area  200 , and two other communicants  510 ,  512  (Carl, John) are co-present in the East Conference zone  118  of the SococoHQ virtual area  200  (shown in  FIG. 4 ). The communicants  430 ,  510 - 514  are operating respective network nodes  519 - 524  (e.g., mobile computers, such as laptop computers, tablet computers, and mobile phones). The network nodes  520 - 524  run respective virtual area enabled communications applications that establish respective presences for the communicants  510 - 512  in respective zones of the SococoHQ virtual area  200 . Linda&#39;s presence in Linda&#39;s Office zone  600  is established either by using her network node  519  to call a specific dial-in telephone number that is associated with Linda&#39;s Office zone  600  or receive a telephone call from a communicant in Linda&#39;s Office zone  600  in connection with a telephony object (not shown) in the Linda&#39;s Office zone  600 . The virtual presence apparatus  62  is logged into the East Conference zone  118  and interfaces the two communicants  510 ,  512  in the physical space  64  with the East Conference zone  118  by, for example, transceiving realtime communications and other data (e.g., location data and co-presence data) between the East Conference zone  118  and the physical space  64 . In some examples, the audio sources and sinks of the client network nodes  530 - 522  are turned off either automatically by the virtual area platform  18  or manually by the communicants  510 - 512  in order to avoid echo and other audio artifacts that otherwise might occur as a result of being interfaced with the East conference zone  118  concurrently by the virtual presence apparatus  62  and their respective network nodes  520 ,  522 . 
     Linda  430  currently is located on Castro Stre.et in Mountain View, California, Carl  510  and John  512  are located in in the real world East Conference room of the Sococo Headquarters located in the building  112  in Mountain View, California, and Bob  514  is located in his home office in Iowa. The real world locations of the communicants  430 ,  510 - 512  are reflected in a graphical user interface  516  that is generated in a window  518  on a display by a virtual area enabled communications application running on the Carl&#39;s network node  520 . (Graphical user interfaces analogous to the graphical user interface  432  are respectively generated by virtual area enabled communications applications running on the other communicants&#39; network nodes  522 - 524 .) The graphical user interface  516  includes a first viewer panel  526  and a second viewer panel  528 . The first viewer panel  526  shows a spatial visualization of the East Conference zone  118  and the second viewer panel  528  shows a spatial visualization of Linda&#39;s Office zone  600 . In the illustrated example, each of the East Conference zone  118  and Linda&#39;s Office zone  600  is represented graphically by a respective two-dimensional top view of a rectangular space that contains the viewscreen object  94 ,  602 , and a respective avatar  452 ,  532 ,  534 ,  536  for each of the communicants who is present in lobby zone. In this example, the avatar  452  represents the user  430  (Linda), the avatar  532  represents the communicant  510  (Carl), the avatar  534  represents the communicant  512  (John), and the avatar  536  represents the communicant  514  (Bob). Each of the avatars  452 ,  532 - 536  is associated with a respective status line that includes the name of the communicant and his or her current real world location. 
     In some examples, while being virtually co-present with Bob  514  in Linda&#39;s Office zone  600 , Linda  430  may enter the real world East Conference room  64  and thereby become physically co-present with Carl  510  and John  512 . In these examples, in response to a determination that Linda is co-present with Carl  510  and John  512  in the physical space  64 , the virtual area platform  18  automatically establishes presences for Carl  510  and John  512  in Linda&#39;s Office zone  600  so that Bob will see the socially relevant fact that Linda now is physically co-present with Carl  510  and John  512 . In some examples, the virtual area platform  18  determines Linda&#39;s arrival in the East Conference room  64  based on comparison of location-based services information (e.g., GPS data) received from Linda&#39;s network node  519  with a known location of the East Conference room  64 . In other examples, the virtual presence apparatus  62  detects the physical presence of Linda and sends information to the virtual area platform  18  that can be used to identify Linda.  FIG. 16B  shows the East Conference room  64  and the spatial visualization of Linda&#39;s Office zone  600  after Linda has arrived at the East Conference room  64 , and the virtual area platform  18  has established respective presences for Carl  510  and John  512  in Linda&#39;s Office zone  600 . 
     After Linda has entered the real world East Conference room  64 , the virtual area platform  18  determines whether to establish Linda&#39;s presence in the virtual counterpart East Conference zone  118  or maintain Linda&#39;s presence in Linda&#39;s Office zone  600 . In the illustrated example, the virtual area platform  18  is configured to maintain Linda&#39;s current virtual location of presence so long as she is virtually co-present with at least one other communicant in that location; otherwise, the virtual area platform  18  will move Linda&#39;s current virtual location of presence from Linda&#39;s Office zone  600  to the virtual location associated with her new physical location of presence. In the illustrated example, Linda and Bob still are co-present in Linda&#39;s Office zone  600  at the time Linda enters the real world East Conference room  64 , therefore the virtual area platform  18  establishes a presence for Linda in the East Conference zone  118  and maintains her presence in Linda&#39;s Office zone  600 . The virtual area platform  18  also is configured to inform a communicant who is virtually co-present with another communicant when the other communicant is physically co-present with one or more communicants. Thus, in the illustrated example, the virtual area platform  18  automatically establishes a virtual presence for Carl  510  and John  512  in Linda&#39;s Office zone  600  when Linda becomes physically co-present with them in the East Conference room  64 . This is reflected in the second viewer panel  528  in the graphical user interface  516  shown in  FIG. 16B . 
     The functionality associated with the communicant presences that are established as a result of the change in Linda&#39;s physical co-presence state is configurable. 
     In some examples, the virtual area platform  18  merely depicts dummy (or placeholder) avatars representing Carl  510  and John  512  into Linda&#39;s Office zone  600  in order to merely inform the remote communicant (Bob  514 ) that Linda now is physically co-present with Carl and John. In these examples, Carl  510  and John  512  cannot control the dummy avatars nor can they receive any communications from Linda&#39;s Office zone  600  (e.g., the virtual area platform  18  may automatically mute audio communications associated with the dummy avatars); instead, the virtual area platform  18  simply notifies Carl  510  and John  512  that respective passive presences have been established for them in Linda&#39;s Office zone  600 . In some of these examples, the virtual area platform  18  may include with the notification a navigatable URI link that references Linda&#39;s Office zone  600  and thereby allows Carl  510  and John  512  to formerly join Linda  430  and Bob  514  in Linda&#39;s Office zone  600 . 
     In other examples, the virtual area platform  18  automatically establishes fully functional presences for Carl  510  and John  512  in the East Conference zone  118  when Linda  430  becomes physically co-present with them in the East Conference room  64 . In some of these examples, the virtual area platform  18  moves the presences of Carl  510  and John  512  from the East Conference zone  118  to Linda&#39;s Office zone  600 , whereas in other examples, the virtual area platform  18  maintains presences for Carl  510  and John  512  in both the East Conference zone  118  and Linda&#39;s Office zone  600 . 
       FIGS. 17A and 17B  show an example in which Linda  430  and Bob  514  are virtually co-present in Bob&#39;s Office zone  604  of the SococoHQ virtual area  200  (see  FIG. 17A ) and, subsequently, and another communicant (Teddy  602 ) becomes physically co-present with Linda  430  by satisfying a proximity predicate  606  (see  FIG. 17B ). In this example, in response to a determination that the real world locations of Linda  430  and Teddy  602  satisfy the co-presence proximity predicate  606  (see the discussion above in connection with  FIG. 13 ), the virtual area platform  18  automatically establishes a presence for Teddy  602  (as represented by an avatar  608 ) in Bob&#39;s Office zone  604  so that Bob  536  will see the socially relevant fact that Linda  430  now is physically co-present with Teddy  602 . In this way, Linda&#39;s physical location drives the virtual presences of Teddy  602  in the network communications environment  10 . 
     In some examples, a user&#39;s physical state drives the communications connections between the user and one or more other communicants in a virtual area. 
       FIG. 18  shows an example of a method by which the virtual area platform  18  switches communications connections between a user and one or more other communicants based on the user&#39;s physical state. In accordance with this method, the virtual area platform  18  establishes respective presences for a user and another communicant in a virtual area ( FIG. 18 , block  500 ). The virtual area platform  18  administers realtime communication connections between communication devices respectively associated with the user and the other communicant in the virtual area ( FIG. 16 , block  502 ). The virtual area platform  18  receives real world data comprising one or more attributes defining a physical state of the user ( FIG. 18 , block  504 ). The virtual area platform  18  applies one or more conditions to the one or more attributes ( FIG. 18 , block  506 ). Based on results of the applying, the virtual area platform  18  switches communication connections between communication devices associated with the user and another communicant while maintaining the established presences of the user and the other communicant in the virtual area ( FIG. 18 , block  508 ). 
     In some examples, at least one of the one or more attributes defines a real world location of the user. In some of these examples, the virtual area platform  18  administers a first communication connection between a first communication device associated with the user and a particular communication device associated with the other communicant and, based on results of applying one or more of the conditions to the real world location of the user, the virtual area platform  18  terminates the first communication connection and administers a second communication connection between a second communication device associated with the user and the particular communication device associated with the other communicant. In some cases, the first communication connection is terminated and the second communication connection is administered based on a determination that the real world location of the user coincides with a particular physical area. The first communication device may be, for example, a mobile communication device associated with the user, and the second communication device is in the particular physical area (e.g., a real world conference room) and is associated with the user when the user is in the particular physical area. The virtual area platform  18  typically associates the second communication device with the physical area (e.g., by storing a record in a database). In some cases, the virtual area platform  18  associates the second communication device with the user based on the determination that the real world location of the user coincides with the particular physical area. In some examples, after the first communication connection is terminated, the virtual area platform  18  administers a second communication connection between the first communication device and the particular communication device based on a determination that the real world location of the user is outside a particular physical area. 
     In some examples, the user&#39;s presence in the virtual area is established based on application of one or more of the conditions to at least one of the one or more attributes defining a physical state of the user. In some of these examples, at least one of the one or more attributes defines a real world location of the user, and the virtual area platform  18  establishes the user&#39;s presence in the virtual area based on a determination that the user&#39;s real world location coincides with a particular physical area. In some examples, the virtual area platform  18  associates the virtual area with the particular physical area. In some of these examples, the particular physical area is defined in relation to a current real world location of the other communicant. In some examples, the virtual area platform  18  establishes the user&#39;s presence in the virtual area based on a determination that the user and the other communicant are physically co-present. In some of these examples, the virtual area platform  18  creates the virtual area for the user and the other communicant based on a determination that the user and the other communicant are physically co-present. 
     In some examples, the virtual area platform  18  terminates the presence of the user in the virtual area based on application of one or more conditions to at least one of the one or more attributes that define the user&#39;s physical state. In some of these examples, the at least one attribute defines a real world location of the user, and the virtual area platform  18  terminates the user&#39;s presence in the virtual area based on a determination that the real world location of the user is outside a particular physical area. In some cases, the particular physical area is defined in relation to a current real world location of the other communicant. In some examples, the virtual area platform  18  terminates the user&#39;s presence in the virtual area based on a determination that the real world locations of the user and the other communicant are not physically co-present in the particular physical area. 
     In some examples, the virtual area platform  18  receives from the user a request to navigate out of the virtual area and, responsive to the request, terminates the user&#39;s presence in the virtual area and terminates the communication connection between the communication devices associated with the user and the other communicant. 
       FIG. 19A  shows an example in which the user  430  (Linda) and three other communicants  510 ,  512 ,  514  (Carl, John, Bob) are co-present in the East Conference zone  118  of the SococoHQ virtual area  200  (see, e.g.,  FIG. 4 ). The communicants  430 ,  510 - 512  are operating respective network nodes  519 - 524  (e.g., mobile computers, such as laptop computers, tablet computers, and mobile phones). The network nodes  520 - 524  are able to run respective virtual area enabled communications applications that are able to establish respective presences for the communicants  510 - 512  in East Conference zone  118 . Linda&#39;s presence in the East Conference zone  118  is established either by using her network node  519  to call a specific dial-in telephone number that is associated with the East Conference zone  118  or receive a telephone call from a communicant in the East Conference zone  118  in connection with a telephony object in the East Conference zone  118 . In the illustrated example, the telephony object is incorporated into the virtual presence apparatus  62 . The virtual presence apparatus  62  is logged into the East Conference zone  118  and interfaces the two communicants  510 ,  512  in the physical space  64  with the East Conference zone  118  by, for example, transceiving realtime communications and other data (e.g., location data and co-presence data) between the East Conference zone  118  and the physical space  64 . In some example, the audio sources and sinks of the client network nodes  530 - 522  are turned off either automatically by the virtual area platform  18  or manually by the communicants  510 - 512  in order to over echo and other audio artifacts that otherwise might occur as a result of being interfaced with the East conference zone  118  by the virtual presence apparatus  62 . 
     Linda currently is located on Castro Street in Mountain View, California, Carl and John are located in in the real world East Conference room of the Sococo Headquarters located in the building  112  in Mountain View, California, and Bob is located in his home office in Iowa. The real world locations of the communicants  430 ,  510 - 512  are reflected in a graphical user interface  516  that is generated in a window  518  on a display by a virtual area enabled communications application running on the Carl&#39;s network node  520 . (Graphical user interfaces analogous to the graphical user interface  516  are respectively generated by virtual area enabled communications applications running on the other communicants&#39; network nodes  522 - 524 .) 
     The graphical user interface  516  includes a first viewer panel  526  and a second viewer panel  528 . 
     The first viewer panel  526  shows a spatial visualization  442  of the Carl&#39;s current zone of presence (i.e., the East Conference zone  118  of the SococoHQ virtual area  200 ). In the illustrated example, the East Conference zone  118  is represented graphically by a two-dimensional top view of a rectangular space that contains the viewscreen object  94 , and a respective avatar  452 ,  532 ,  534 ,  536  for each of the communicants who is present in lobby zone. In this example, the avatar  452  represents the user  430 , the avatar  532  represents the communicant  510  (Carl), the avatar  534  represents the communicant  512  (John), and the avatar  536  represents the communicant  514  (Bob). Each of the avatars  452 ,  532 - 536  is associated with a respective status line that includes the name of the communicant and his or her current real world location. 
     The second viewer panel  528  shows a Map View  540  of Linda&#39;s current real world location in relation to a target destination. In the Map View  540 , Linda is represented by a circular sprite  560  that is positioned at a location in the Map View  540  that corresponds to her current real world location. The Map View also includes a title bar  562  that labels the view as “Map View” and presents the distance between Linda&#39;s current real world location and a target destination and optionally an estimate of the current time (e.g., absolute time or a differential time) when Linda is expected to arrive at the target destination. In the illustrated example, the target destination is the real world location of the physical counterpart (i.e., the real world East Conference room  64 ) to Linda&#39;s current location of virtual presence (i.e., the East Conference zone  118  in the SococoHQ virtual area). Information about a particular communicant&#39;s current real world location and expected time of arrival at a particular target destination is particularly useful in contexts (e.g., meetings, appointments) in which the physical presence of the particular communicant is required. 
     In the example shown in  FIG. 19A , the Map View  440  is displayed in response to Carl&#39;s selection of a Map View control  564  in a person card  566  that is displayed in response to Carl&#39;s selection of Linda&#39;s avatar  452 . In addition to the Map View control  564 , the person card  566  also shows the selected communicant&#39;s name, current virtual location, current real world location, and a Walkup View control  568  that causes the virtual area enabled communications application running on the Carl&#39;s network node  520  to present in the second viewer panel  528  a walkup view of Linda&#39;s current real world location (as an example, see the walkup view shown in the viewer panel  274  of the graphical user interface  270  shown in  FIG. 11 ). 
     The virtual area platform  18  establishes a presence for the user (Linda) in the East Conference zone  118  of the SococoHQ virtual area  200  as a result of a telephone connection between Linda&#39;s network node  519  and the East Conference zone  118 . In some examples, this telephony connection is made through a VOIP gateway server includes a VOIP gateway server process for communicating with the area server  40 , a respective VOIP gateway client process for each of the client network nodes in a virtual area, and an interprocess pipe through which the gateway server process communicates with the gateway client processes. Examples of such a VOIP gateway server are described in U.S. patent application Ser. No. 13/165,729, filed Jun. 2, 2011. 
     Referring to  FIG. 19B , when Linda arrives at the real world counterpart to the East Conference zone  118  (as indicated in the Map View  540  shown in the second viewer panel  528 ), the virtual area platform  18  seamlessly transitions the realtime communications between Linda and the other communicants in the East Conference zone  118  from the telephone connection through the VOIP gateway server to a connection through the virtual presence apparatus  62 . In this process, the virtual area platform  18  establishes a presence for the user through the virtual presence apparatus  62  and terminates the connection between Linda&#39;s network node  519  and the VOIP gateway server. In this way, the virtual area platform  18  switches the communication connections between the network nodes of Linda and the other communicants in the East Conference zone  118  while maintaining the presences of Linda and the other communicants in the East Conference zone  118 . 
     After the transition from the telephony connection to the connection through the virtual presence apparatus  62 , the depiction of user&#39;s avatar in the spatial visualization shown in the first viewer panel  526  includes visual cues indicating the physical state of the user as detected by the virtual presence apparatus  62  instead of the visual cue  567  indicating that the user is connected to the East Conference zone  118  over a telephony connection. In the illustrated example, the virtual presence apparatus  62  monitors various aspects of the physical state of the user, including whether or not the user is viewing the real world viewscreen in the physical space. In response to a determination that the user is viewing the real world viewscreen, the user&#39;s avatar is depicted with a pair of eyes  569  indicating that the user is viewing the real world viewscreen corresponding to the virtual viewscreen object  94 . 
     Referring to  FIG. 19C , while Linda is in the real world East Conference room  64 , she is able to dial the telephone number associated with another zone of the SococoHQ virtual area  200 . In the illustrated example, Linda has dialed the telephone number associated with Matt&#39;s Office zone  570  of the SococoHQ virtual area  200 . In response, the virtual area platform  18  has moved Linda&#39;s virtual presence from the East Conference zone  118  to Matt&#39;s Office zone  570 . In this process, the virtual area platform  18  terminates Linda&#39;s virtual presence in the East Conference zone  118 , and establishes Linda&#39;s virtual presence in Matt&#39;s Office zone  570 . As a result of the change in her virtual presence location, Linda is no longer virtually co-present with Carl, John, and Bob in the East Conference zone  118 , and instead now is virtually co-presence with Matt and Mike in Matt&#39;s Office zone  570 . In addition, the virtual area platform  18  switches the communication connections of Linda&#39;s network node  519  from the communication connections with the other communicants in the East Conference zone  118  through the virtual presence apparatus  62  to communication connections with the other communicants in Matt&#39;s Office zone  570  through Linda&#39;s network node  519 . 
     Linda&#39;s change in virtual presence location is reflected in the graphical user interface  516  by removing Linda&#39;s avatar  452  from the visualization of the East Conference zone  118  presented in the first viewer panel  526 , and depicting her avatar  452  decorated with a graphical representation of a telephone  567  in the visualization of Matt&#39;s Office zone presented in the second viewer panel  528 . In other examples, the virtual area platform  18  maintains Linda&#39;s virtual presence in both the East Conference zone  118  and Matt&#39;s Office zone  570 . 
     In some examples, the virtual area enabled communications applications operating on the network nodes of Carl, John, and Bob will display in the graphical user interface  516  respective people panels that include respective co-presence capsules showing the virtual co-presence of Linda with Matt and Mike and the physical co-presence of Linda with Carl and John (see, e.g., the co-presence capsules  236 ,  250  shown in  FIG. 5 ). Analogously, the virtual area enabled communications applications operating on the network nodes of Matt and Mike will display in the graphical user interface  516  respective people panels that include respective co-presence capsules showing the virtual co-presence of Linda with Matt and Mike and the physical co-presence of Linda with Carl and John. 
     III. Conclusion 
     Other embodiments are within the scope of the claims.