Patent ID: 8543930

Claim:
A method for verifying an avatar owner as a human user of an avatar in a virtual world, said method comprising: providing, by a server device, a communication system for establishing a virtual world environment in which users may interact through avatars, representing each one or more users visually, in said virtual world environment; enabling, via client devices associated with one or more users, said users to interact through their said representing avatars, said client devices and server device communicating over a network; detecting, by a first human user while interacting through said representative avatar in said virtual world environment, an avatar suspected by that first human user of exhibiting non-human behavior in said virtual world; initiating, by said first human user, a request to challenge said suspect avatar to determine whether said suspect avatar is controlled by an automated application program (bot); receiving, at said server device, said request for challenging said suspect avatar in said virtual world environment; identifying, in response to said received challenging request, a user client device associated with the suspect challenged avatar; generating, for display at a user client device, a Human Identification Proof (HIP) surface challenge directed at said suspect avatar in said virtual world to detect a human user versus an application program user controlling said suspect avatar, said HIP surface challenge requiring a response from said avatar; determining, from said response, whether said user is an application program user (bot) or a human user; and, preventing, at said server device, said suspect avatar from further interaction in said virtual world environment, or performing any other punitive action, when said challenged avatar is determined to be a bot.