Apple has some very exciting and creative plans for Game Center if two new patent applications reported on today by AppleInsider are anything to go by. The first patent is called “Automatic Avatar Creation”, and presents the concept of a 3D character that can be generated automatically from a picture or video still. Basically what the end result would look like on Game Center is a digital, cartoonish caricature of the person in the original picture, which can then be customized by the user, possibly using accessories that have been won or earned during games, as with the Xbox Live avatars, or the Wii’s Miis. The avatar could then be featured in games, or used for social networking and video conferencing purposes. The second patent, called “Avatars Reflecting User States”, expands more on the concept of customization for Game Center avatars, showing the various ways in which avatars can be used to display a user’s mood or status. This could even extend as far as playing happy music to reflect a joyful frame of mind when the avatar appears, and so on.

Source: AppleInsider | Apple exploring photo-generated digital avatars for iOS Game Center