Microsoft has filed a patent application for “Avatar Individualised by Physical Characteristics,” with the hope of eliminating artificiality, promoting users to go outside and get some exercise, and making it easier for other users to know what the people they play with actually look like.

The application reads, “An Avatar generator for a virtual environment reflects a physiological characteristic of the user, injecting a degree of reality into the capabilities or appearance.

“Thereby, many of the incentives of the real world are replicated in a virtual environment.

“Physiological data that reflect a degree of health of the real person can be linked to rewards of capabilities of a gaming Avatar, an amount of time budgeted to play, or a visible indication.

“Thereby, people are encouraged to exercise. Physiological data that reflect the health and perhaps also mood also improve social interaction in virtual environments.

“People seeking to meet and become acquainted with particular types of people are not thwarted by the artificiality of Avatars.”

The data can be compiled by a third party health repository, a healthcare smart-card or a physiological sensor that reads blood pressure, heart rate, blood sugar and so on, reports gamesindustry.biz. Thanks to the aforementioned.