System and method for record and playback of collaborative web browsing session

• US 20040054728A1
• Filed: 03/18/2003
• Published: 03/18/2004
• Est. Priority Date: 11/18/1999
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Red Hat, Inc. (International Business Machines Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Raindance Communications Incorporated (West Corporation)
• Inventors: Rust, David Bradley
• Granted Patent: US 7,313,595 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/205
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/95 Retrieval from the web
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2216/07 Guided tours
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2216/15 Synchronised browsing
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/131 Protocols for games, networked simulations or virtual reality
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/14 Session management for real-time applications in data packet communications networks H04L65/1066
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/535 Tracking the activity of the user network monitoring arrangements H04L43/00; recording of computer activity G06F11/34
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/329 in the application layer [OSI layer 7]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 9/40 Network security protocols

Abstract

A collaborative Web browsing session may take place over a network, allowing the presenter on a first computer to direct the audio and visual components of a browser on one or more second computers. The second computer is instructed to log into a control site that downloads an active control, such as an applet, to the second computer. The present invention allows a collaborative Web browsing session (“session”), as created by the presenter and witnesses by one or more users on second computers, to be recorded and archived by the control site. When a user of a computer is connected to the control site through a communication network such as the World Wide Web, that user may log into the control site and request to view an archived session. The session will then be replayed by the control site on the user'"'"'s computer, directing the audio and visual components of the browser on the user'"'"'s computer as if the user was attending the live session. The recorded session replays the events of the live session in real time such that they playback experience contains the same audio and visual events that took place when the session was originally being recorded.

Claims

1. A computer implemented method for recording audio and visual data in a collaborative Web browsing session comprising the steps of:

at a first computer, sending audio and visual data of said session to a control server;

at said control server, storing said audio and visual data elements in a presentation file; and

at a second computer, selecting said presentation file on said control server and displaying said audio and visual data sent from said control server.

2. The computer implemented method of claim 1 wherein the audio and visual data elements are stored separately and later merged into a presentation file.

3. The computer implemented method of claim 1 wherein the visual data elements include images dynamically integrated into the collaborative Web browsing session.

4. A computer system including a first computer, a control site computer, and a second computer, wherein said first, control site, and second computers are coupled together through a computer network, said computer system comprising:

an initiator for creating audio and visual events;

a first transmitter coupled to the first computer for transmitting said audio and visual event to the control site computer;

an archiver coupled to the control site computer for storing said audio and visual events in a presentation file;

a second transmitter coupled to the second computer for sending a request to the control site computer;

a third transmitter coupled to the control site computer for sending the presentation file to the second computer;

a display coupled to the second computer for displaying the visual events on the second computer; and

a player coupled to the second compute for playing the audio events on the second computer.

5. The system of claim 4 wherein the first computer has a selector for selecting the same of the presentation file.

6. The system of claim 4 wherein said archiver stores the audio and visual events separately, further comprising

a merger coupled to the control site computer for merging the audio and visual events into a presentation file.

7. The system of claim 4 wherein said initiator created predetermined visual events and dynamically generated audio and visual events.

8. The system of claim 4 wherein the computer network is the Internet.

9. A system for allowing a first computer to create audio and visual events comprising a collaborative Web browsing session and allowing a control site computer to record the session and for allowing a second computer to playback the recorded session, comprising:

at the first computer, means for creating the audio and visual events and transmitting them to the control site computer;

at the control site computer, means for storing the audio and visual events for later replay on the second computer; and

at the second computer, means for requesting the recorded session and playing the audio events and display the visual events of said session.

10. The system of claim 9 further comprising:

storing the audio events separately from the visual events; and

later merging the audio and visual events together.

11. The system of claim 9 wherein said means for creating the audio and visual events further comprise:

means for creating predetermined visual events; and

means for creating dynamically generated audio and visual events.

12. The system of claim 9 wherein said means for transmitting is a network.

13. A computer system including a first computer with a first display, a control site computer, and a second computer, wherein said first, control site, and second computers are coupled together through a computer network, said computer system comprising:

an initiator coupled to the first computer for creating audio and visual data

a selector for selecting a region on the first display;

a first transmitter coupled to the first computer for transmitting audio and visual data including an image associated with said region to the control site computer;

an archiver coupled to the control site computer for storing audio and visual data

a second transmitter coupled to the control site computer for transmitting audio and visual data including said image to the second computer;

a requestor coupled to the second computer for requesting the playback of said stored data from the control server;

a player coupled to the second computer for playing audio data

a display coupled to the second computer for displaying visual data including said image on the second computer.

14. The system of claim 13 wherein the selector uses a combination of keystrokes to capture the image of said region on said first display.

15. The system of claim 13 wherein the selector automatically refreshes said region and automatically retransmits said region to said control site computer.

16. The system of claim 15 wherein subsequent captures transmit only the changes in said region.

17. The system of claim 13 wherein the computer network is the Internet.

18. The system of claim 17 wherein said region is converted into GIF format before transmission to the control site computer.