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A recently uncovered patent reveals that Microsoft is considering the idea of avatars whose appearance depends on users' actual health. To put it in the words of the application, Microsoft's "Avatar Individualized by Physical Characteristics is "An avatar generator for a virtual environment [that] reflects a physiological characteristic of the user, injecting a degree of reality into the capabilities or appearance."

"An undesirable body weight could be reflected in an overweight or underweight appearance for the avatar. Only requisite health levels are allowed to compete in a certain competition level. A dedicated gamer could exercise for a period of time until his health indicator gadget shows a sufficiently high health/health credit in order to allow reentering the avatar environment.'

Health would be determined through a variety of "nonvolitionally obtained" information, like readings from a pedometer, pulse-rate measuring device or some kind of health smart card.

But that's not all. Microsoft also envisions avatars shaped by "psychological and demographic information such as education level, geographic location, age, sex, intelligence quotient, socioeconomic class, occupation, marital/relationship status, religious belief, political affiliation, etc."

Right now, this is in the earliest idea/planning stage. There's no way to know how seriously Microsoft is pursuing the idea, and no time frame for any launch, should a launch ever happen.