Method and apparatus for providing remote peer-to-peer collaborative user interfaces
First Claim
1. A method for providing feedback to multiple users of a computer application program having means for collaborative review and revision of a document comprising:
- providing a means for enabling two or more users to simultaneously collaborate on a software application, each user accessing the application via a display, each user having means for displaying some or all of the document, and, providing a visual indicator of each users location in the document, providing a visual indicator for changes made by the user that are associated to that user being visually indicated on the users display, and providing a visual indicator for displaying selection or pointing gestures by the various users.
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Abstract
A method and apparatus for producing computer programs with real-time synchronized data models across multiple computers/devices and a mechanism for producing deeply collaborative user interfaces enabling multiple users to concurrently work together interactively and in real time. This mechanism enables users to concurrently have synchronized views of the same underlying data model or have desynchronized views of the underlying model enabling them to view different portions or rendering of the underlying model. Additionally this mechanism enables the creation of software applications where multiple users can concurrently modify different portions of the same underlying data models. Also included is a feedback mechanism using colors/patterns that indicates remote user focus, views, selections and sub-model data locks. To address unexpected or catastrophic propagation-web segmentation or participating peer termination in a synchronized model or collaboration, a method and apparatus for lock and data resolution is also described.
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Citations
25 Claims
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1. A method for providing feedback to multiple users of a computer application program having means for collaborative review and revision of a document comprising:
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providing a means for enabling two or more users to simultaneously collaborate on a software application, each user accessing the application via a display, each user having means for displaying some or all of the document, and, providing a visual indicator of each users location in the document, providing a visual indicator for changes made by the user that are associated to that user being visually indicated on the users display, and providing a visual indicator for displaying selection or pointing gestures by the various users. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13)
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- 14. A computer system for providing feedback to multiple users of a computer application program comprising providing multiple user terminals having means for collaborative review and revision of a document supported by software resident in the computer system, means for enabling two or more users to simultaneously collaborate on the software application supported document, each user accessing the application via a display, each user having means for displaying some or all of the document, and, visual indicator means for indicating the location in the document of each user, such that changes made by one user are associated to that user by the visual indication means on the other users displays, and having means for displaying selection or pointing gestures by the various users distinguishable by visual indication means.
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16. The computer system of 14 wherein the visual indicator means are selected from the group consisting of color, text, graphics and combinations thereof.
Specification