Shared online experience history capture and provision system and method

• US 20040221309A1
• Filed: 02/03/2004
• Published: 11/04/2004
• Est. Priority Date: 06/18/2002
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Walkush, Joe, Ferguson, Heather, Vert, John, Zaner, Melora, Savage, Tammy, Chung, Eun-Kyung, Sposato, Jonathan, Elliott, Geoffrey
• Granted Patent: US 8,196,051 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 725/46
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/10 Office automation; Time management
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/1822 Conducting the conference, e.g. admission, detection, selection or grouping of participants, correlating users to one or more conference sessions, prioritising transmission

Abstract

A novel technique automatically stores synchronized group history related to an online group interaction and enables individual group members to later view and access the group history. In an embodiment of the invention, the group history is accessible by group members independently of group interactions at any later time. According to various embodiments of the invention, the group history may be presented in an overview form or a detailed form. With respect to the detailed form, the group history may be presented graphically, such as in an icon timeline or collage, textually, such as in list form, or in any combination of presentation formats. In a further embodiment of the invention, the synchronized group history is writable by group members in addition to being automatically maintained.

Claims

1. A method of providing a shared history of transactions occurring between two or more members of an interaction group, each member of the interaction group being associated with a respective member machine for interacting with one or more other members through their respective member machines over a network, the method comprising:

observing a transaction between two or more members of the interaction group, at least one of the members being currently online with respect to the network, the transaction originating from a member that is currently online with respect to the network;

automatically storing a reference to the transaction in a group history file;

synchronizing the group history file for all member machines.

2. The method according to claim 1, wherein synchronizing the group history file for all member machines comprises transmitting an indication of the transaction to at least one group member who was not online with respect to the network when the transaction occurred.

3. The method according to claim 1, wherein synchronizing the group history file for all member machines comprises transmitting an indication of the transaction to at least one group member who is online with respect to the network when the transaction occurs.

4. The method according to claim 1, wherein automatically storing a reference to the transaction in a group history file comprises storing the reference to the transaction on a member machine that is online at the time that the transaction occurs.

5. The method according to claim 1, wherein automatically storing a reference to the transaction in a group history file comprises storing the reference to the transaction on a server.

6. The method according to claim 2, wherein transmitting an indication of the transaction to at least one group member who was not online with respect to the network when the transaction occurred comprises transmitting the indication from a member machine that was online at the time of the transaction to the at least one group member.

7. The method according to claim 2, wherein transmitting an indication of the transaction to at least one group member who was not online with respect to the network when the transaction occurred comprises transmitting the indication from a server to the at least one group member.

8. The method according to claim 1, further comprising the step of displaying a summary of group history to a user of a member machine.

9. The method according to claim 8, wherein displaying a summary of group history to a user of a member machine comprises displaying a timeline wherein each transaction is represented as a graphical icon arranged with respect to the timeline to convey the time of occurrence of each transaction.

10. The method according to claim 9, wherein each graphical icon is active such that user-selection of the graphical icon causes more information regarding the respective transaction to be displayed.

11. The method according to claim 8, wherein displaying a summary of group history to a user of a member machine comprises displaying a collage of graphical icons wherein each transaction is represented as a graphical icon.

12. The method according to claim 11, wherein each graphical icon is active such that user-selection of the graphical icon causes further information regarding the respective transaction to be displayed.

13. The method according to claim 8, wherein displaying a summary of group history to a user of a member machine comprises displaying a listing identifying one or more past transactions.

14. A computer-readable medium having stored thereon computer-executable instructions for displaying a user interface for accessing stored group history related to one or more transactions among two or more members of a particular network interaction group, each of the one or more transactions having a type, the user interface comprising a visual indication related to the type and number of the one or more transactions, wherein the visual indication comprises a distinct shape for each transaction type and wherein a property of the shape is based on the number of transactions of that transaction type.

15. The computer-readable medium according to claim 14, wherein the distinct shapes are mutually distinguished by one or more qualities selected from the group consisting of position and color.

16. The computer-readable medium according to claim 14, wherein each distinct shape has a visual extent within the user interface, and wherein the relative visual extents of the shapes are based on the relative numbers of transactions of the respective types.

17. The computer-readable medium according to claim 14, wherein the one or more transactions are transactions in which one of the two or more members did not participate.

18. A computer-readable medium having stored thereon computer-executable instructions for displaying a user interface on a user machine for accessing stored group history related to a plurality of transactions among two or more members of a particular network interaction group including the user of the user machine, at least one transaction originating from the user machine and at least one transaction originating from another machine, the user interface comprising a visual representation associated with each of the one or more transactions.

19. The computer-readable medium according to claim 18, wherein the visual representation comprises a collection of icons, each representative of a transaction, wherein the icons are arranged in time order of the associated transactions.

20. The computer-readable medium according to claim 19, wherein each icon is user-selectable to display further information regarding the associated transaction.

21. The computer-readable medium according to claim 18, wherein the visual representation comprises a listing of transactions.