Presentation facilitation

• US 20060075348A1
• Filed: 10/01/2004
• Published: 04/06/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 10/01/2004
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Shum, Heung-Yeung, Liu, Bo, Xu, Ying-Qing, Zhang, Ya-Qin, Li, Barn-Wan
• Granted Patent: US 7,640,502 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 715/730
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2203/04803 Split screen, i.e. subdividing the display area or the window area into separate subareas
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0481 based on specific properties of the displayed interaction object or a metaphor-based environment, e.g. interaction with desktop elements like windows or icons, or assisted by a cursor's changing behaviour or appearance
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/04842 Selection of displayed objects or displayed text elements G06F3/0482 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/1423 controlling a plurality of local displays, e.g. CRT and flat panel display
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/10 Office automation; Time management

Abstract

Multiple schemes and techniques for facilitating presentations with an interactive application are described. For example, an interactive application provides a console view overlay for integrating multiple productivity applications into a graphical user interface (GUI) window. An interactive application can also share a selected display portion of the console view overlay with other interactive applications. As another example, presenters and other audience members can draw on the selected display portion being shared, and the drawn graphics are synchronously displayed by the other interactive applications. Interactive applications, as directed by their users, can join various member groups and specific presentations thereof. Moreover, a user may share content in accordance with membership grouping.

Claims

1. One or more processor-accessible media comprising processor-executable instructions that, when executed, direct a device to produce on a display screen items comprising:

a first sub-window displaying first content; and

a second sub-window displaying second content;

wherein the processor-executable instructions, when executed, enable a user to select a sub-window for sharing to one or more other devices.

2. The one or more processor-accessible media as recited in claim 1, wherein the first content is from a first productivity application, and the second content is from a second productivity application.

3. The one or more processor-accessible media as recited in claim 2, wherein the first and second productivity applications comprise different productivity applications selected from a group of productivity applications comprising:

a word processing application, a slide presentation application, an email and/or schedule management application, a web browsing application, an art/drawing application, and a music/movie playing/creating application.

4. The one or more processor-accessible media as recited in claim 2, wherein the processor-executable instructions, when executed, enable the user to access the first content and the second content utilizing features that are provided by the first productivity application and the second productivity application, respectively.

5. The one or more processor-accessible media as recited in claim 2, wherein the processor-executable instructions, when executed, provide a console view overlay for the first productivity application and for the second productivity application.

6. The one or more processor-accessible media as recited in claim 1, wherein the processor-executable instructions, when executed, provide a console view overlay for the first content in the first sub-window and for the second content in the second sub-window.

7. The one or more processor-accessible media as recited in claim 1, wherein the processor-executable instructions, when executed, direct the device to produce on the display screen further items comprising:

a third sub-window displaying third content; and

a fourth sub-window displaying fourth content.

8. The one or more processor-accessible media as recited in claim 1, wherein the processor-executable instructions, when executed, enable user selection of a sub-window for sharing with a menu-based interface.

9. The one or more processor-accessible media as recited in claim 1, wherein the processor-executable instructions, when executed, enable user selection of a sub-window for sharing with at least one share selection window control button that can be active or inactive, wherein activating the at least one share selection window control button causes content of a corresponding sub-window to be shared.

10. The one or more processor-accessible media as recited in claim 9, wherein the at least one share selection window control button comprises a first share selection window control button and a second share selection window control button;

and wherein (i) the first share selection window control button is located at the first sub-window and the second share selection window control button is located at the second sub-window or (ii) the first and second share selection window control buttons are located on a console area main window.

11. The one or more processor-accessible media as recited in claim 1, wherein the first content comprises a presentation slide, and the second content comprises at least one note that is associated with the presentation slide.

12. The one or more processor-accessible media as recited in claim 11, wherein the processor-executable instructions, when executed, enable the device to share the presentation slide that is displayed in the first sub-window with the one or more other devices without sharing the at least one note that is displayed in the second sub-window.

13. The one or more processor-accessible media as recited in claim 11, wherein the processor-executable instructions, when executed, cause the device to synchronously change which note is being displayed in the second sub-window when a user changes which presentation slide is being displayed in the first sub-window based on linkages between respective multiple presentation slides and associated respective multiple notes.

14. The one or more processor-accessible media as recited in claim 11, wherein the processor-executable instructions, when executed, direct the device to produce on the display screen a further item comprising:

a hot spot area with multiple buttons, wherein placing a pointer icon on a button of the multiple buttons causes text of the at least one note that is displayed in the second sub-window to scroll.

15. The one or more processor-accessible media as recited in claim 1, wherein the one or more other devices comprise a display projection device.

16. The one or more processor-accessible media as recited in claim 1, wherein the one or more other devices comprise a processing device running an interactive application, the interactive application capable of causing the processing device to display content from the selected sub-window that is being shared by the device.

17. The one or more processor-accessible media as recited in claim 1, wherein the processor-executable instructions, when executed, cause the device to take a screenshot of the content displayed in the sub-window that is selected for sharing.

18. The one or more processor-accessible media as recited in claim 17, wherein the processor-executable instructions, when executed, cause the device to take new screenshots of the content at a predetermined frequency.

19. The one or more processor-accessible media as recited in claim 17, wherein the processor-executable instructions, when executed, cause the device to transmit the screenshot to the one or more other devices, the one or more other devices comprising at least one of a group administrator or a group member.

20. The one or more processor-accessible media as recited in claim 1, wherein the processor-executable instructions, when executed, cause the device to create an ink layer over at least the first sub-window.

21. The one or more processor-accessible media as recited in claim 20, wherein the processor-executable instructions, when executed, cause the device to capture ink drawn in the ink layer over at least the first sub-window and store the captured ink in an ink layer object.

22. The one or more processor-accessible media as recited in claim 20, wherein the processor-executable instructions, when executed, cause the device to transmit ink collected from the ink layer to at least one of a group administrator or a group member.

23. The one or more processor-accessible media as recited in claim 1, wherein the one or more processor-accessible media comprise at least one of (i) one or more storage media or (ii) one or more transmission media.

24. One or more processor-accessible media comprising processor-executable instructions that, when executed, direct a device to establish a graphical user interface (GUI) capable of presenting a first sub-window and a second sub-window;

the first sub-window displaying first content from a first productivity application, and the second sub-window displaying second content from a second productivity application;

wherein the GUI includes at least one icon for selecting a sub-window for sharing with group members.

25. The one or more processor-accessible media as recited in claim 24, wherein the GUI is capable of presenting the first sub-window and the second sub-window in an integrated console view, the integrated console view comprising a main window that encloses the first sub-window and the second sub-window.

26. The one or more processor-accessible media as recited in claim 25, wherein the integrated console view includes a window or pane that identifies file types that can be opened within the integrated console view.

27. The one or more processor-accessible media as recited in claim 25, wherein the integrated console view includes a window or pane that presents a group membership organizational tree, the group membership organizational tree indicating the group members to which the selected sub-window may be shared.

28. The one or more processor-accessible media as recited in claim 24, wherein the GUI includes color palette buttons and line style selection buttons;

wherein a user is enabled to draw graphics on the first sub-window in colors and line styles that are dependent on activated ones of the color palette buttons and the line style selection buttons, respectively; and

wherein the drawn graphics are shared with the group members.

29. The one or more processor-accessible media as recited in claim 24, wherein a snapshot of the sub-window, which is selected for sharing by the at least one icon of the GUI, is transmitted to the group members in order to share content from the selected sub-window.

30. An arrangement for presentation facilitation, the arrangement comprising:

integration means for integrating displayed content from multiple applications into a console window area;

grouping means for managing interaction between and among group members; and

display means for managing synchronous updates of displayed content data being sent to and received from the group members.

31. The arrangement as recited in claim 30, wherein the grouping means includes information regarding each member of each group and is capable of determining at least one destination for displayed content update data.

32. The arrangement as recited in claim 30, wherein the display means is adapted (i) to synchronize local shared presentations with corresponding member termination devices and (ii) to update a local display sub-window corresponding to received synchronization data from a member termination device.

33. An arrangement as recited in claim 30, wherein the display means

change means for monitoring changes to a display of a particular sub-window;

capture means for capturing a displayed image from the particular sub-window;

retrieval manes for retrieving from the grouping means group member information for a group corresponding to the particular sub-window; and

forwarding means for passing the captured displayed image and the group member information to a lower messaging layer.

34. The arrangement as recited in claim 30, wherein the arrangement comprises at least one of (i) one or more processor-accessible media or (ii) at least one device.

35. A device comprising:

at least one processor; and

one or more media including processor-executable instructions that are capable of being executed by the at least one processor, the processor-executable instructions adapted to direct the device to perform actions comprising;

establishing a main window;

opening first content in a first sub-window of the main window;

opening second content in a second sub-window of the main window;

detecting selection of a sub-window of the main window for sharing; and

forwarding content being displayed in the selected sub-window.

36. The device as recited in claim 35, wherein the action of forwarding comprises an action of broadcasting the content as a screenshot to at least one group member in accordance with group membership organizational information.

37. The device as recited in claim 35, wherein the processor-executable instructions are adapted to cause the device to perform further actions comprising:

collecting ink drawn over the selected sub-window; and

broadcasting the collected ink to at least one group member in accordance with group membership organizational information.

38. The device as recited in claim 35, wherein the processor-executable instructions are adapted to cause the device to perform further actions comprising:

receiving an ink update message having ink update data;

determining if content to which the ink update data corresponds is currently being displayed in a sub-window; and

if so, synchronizing the ink drawn over the corresponding content with the ink update data.

39. The device as recited in claim 35, wherein the processor-executable instructions are adapted to cause the device to perform further actions comprising:

joining a membership group;

requesting to view a resource being shared by a member of the membership group; and

displaying the resource in a third sub-window of the main window.