Systems And Methodologies Providing For Collaboration Among A Plurality Of Users At A Plurality Of Computing Appliances

• US 20120284605A1
• Filed: 05/06/2011
• Published: 11/08/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 05/06/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Collaboration Technologies, LLC
• Original Assignee: David H Sitrick
• Inventors: Sitrick, David H, Fling, Russell T
• Granted Patent: US 8,875,011 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 715/230
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 17/00 Digital computing or data processing equipment or methods, specially adapted for specific functions information retrieval, database structures or file system structures therefor G06F16/00
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/10 Office automation; Time management
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 50/20 Education

Abstract

A system and methodology for collaboration among a plurality of users at a plurality of computing appliances. A respective one computing appliance of the plurality of computing appliances is for use by each respective one user of the plurality of users. Each said respective one computing appliance is comprised of a processor, a display apparatus providing a display presentation, and a communications interface providing coupling of data between itself and at least one other of the plurality of computing appliances. A memory provides storage that is associatively structured as a plurality of data layers. Each of the data layers is associatively mapped to a respective at least one of said plurality of computing appliances, to provide mapped storage in each respective data layer of respective layer data representative of annotations originated from at least one respective one of said plurality of computing appliances, preferably for each of at least two of said plurality of the computing appliances. The display apparatus at at least one of said plurality of the computing appliances provides a display presentation generated responsive to said at least two of the plurality of the data layers. In one embodiment, the display apparatus for at least two of the computing appliances provide a same said display presentation. In a preferred embodiment, said same said display presentation is comprised of an underlying image which appears as an underlying display relative to which is aligned a display presentation of the annotations as made atop the respective underlying image.

Claims

1. A system for collaboration among a plurality of users, the system comprising:

a plurality of computing appliances, a respective one computing appliance of the plurality of computing appliances each for use by a respective one user of the plurality of users, each said respective one computing appliance comprised of a memory, a display apparatus providing a display presentation, and a communications interface between itself and at least one other of the plurality of computing appliances;

wherein the memory provides storage that is structured as a plurality of data layers;

wherein each of said data layers is associatively mapped to a respective at least one of said plurality of computing appliances, to provide mapped storage in each respective data layer of respective layer data representative of annotations originated at at least one respective one of said plurality of computing appliances, for each of at least two of said plurality of the computing appliances;

wherein the communications interface provides coupling of the respective layer data for the at least two of the data layers, to each of the at least two of the computing appliances; and

wherein the display apparatus at at least one of said plurality of the computing appliances provides a display presentation generated responsive to said at least two of the plurality of the data layers.

2. The system as in claim 1,

wherein said at least two of said plurality of the computing appliances provide a common same said display presentation, generated responsive to a same said at least two of the plurality of the data layers.

3. The system as in claim 1,

wherein at least one of the data layers provides storage of respective base layer data that is representative of a respective display presentation therefor that is utilized as an underlay portion of a combined display presentation;

and

wherein the display apparatus at at least one of said plurality of the computing appliances provides said display presentation generated responsive to said at least two of the plurality of the data layers and responsive to said base data layer.

4. The system as in claim 1,

wherein at least two of said plurality of the computing appliances provide a same said display presentation generated responsive to said at least two of the plurality of the data layers.

5. The system as in claim 1,

wherein at least one of the plurality of computing appliances has an input apparatus which is responsive to the respective user thereof, to provide annotation data responsive to input by said respective user, for storage as corresponding layer data stored as associatively mapped in a respective one of the data layers for storage in the respective data layer representative of annotations originated at at least said one of said plurality of computing appliances.

6. The system as in claim 1,

wherein each respective one of the plurality of computing appliances has an input apparatus which is responsive to the respective user thereof at said each respective one of the plurality of computing appliances, to provide respective annotation data responsive to respective input by said respective user, for storage as corresponding layer data that is stored as associatively mapped in a respective one of the data layers for storage in the respective data layer representative of annotations originated at at least said one of said plurality of computing appliances.

7. The system as in claim 6,

wherein the annotation data is representative of annotations, made by the respective user, made relative to and aligned with the display presentation on the display apparatus of said respective one of the plurality of computing appliances.

8. The system as in claim 1,

wherein each respective one of the plurality of computing appliances has an input apparatus which is responsive to the respective user of said each respective one of the plurality of computing appliances, to provide annotation data responsive to input by said respective user, for storage as corresponding layer data stored as associatively mapped in each respective one of the data layers for storage in the respective data layer representative of annotations originated at, at least said two of said plurality of computing appliances.

9. The system as in claim 1,

wherein the display apparatus for at least two of the computing appliances provide a same said display presentation to each said respective user at each of said at least two of the computing appliances;

and

wherein each said respective user is enabled to provide annotations made relative to said same said display presentation.

10. The system as in claim 9,

wherein said same said display presentation is comprised of an underlying image which appears as an underlying display relative to which is aligned a display presentation of the annotations for a respective user appearing as made atop of the respective underlying image within the display presentation provided to the respective user.

11. The system as in claim 10,

wherein the underlying image is representative of a display of one of a Word document, an Excel document, a PowerPoint document, an image document, a text document, a spreadsheet document, a presentation document, a JPEG file, a TIFF file, an MP4 file, and a PDF document.

12. The system as in claim 1, further comprising:

display control logic which determines an ordering hierarchy for utilization of the data layers in generation of the display presentation for at least one of the plurality of computing appliances; and

wherein the display presentation is generated responsive to the ordering hierarchy.

13. The system as in claim 12,

wherein the display control logic determines an ordering hierarchy for each of the plurality of computing appliances.

14. The system as in claim 6,

wherein the annotation data is representative of annotations made by the respective user, made relative to the display presentation on said respective one of the plurality of computing appliances as is associated with the respective user thereof.

15. The system as in claim 1,

wherein each respective one of the plurality of computing appliances has an input apparatus which is responsive to the respective user of said each respective one of the plurality of computing appliances, to provide annotation data responsive to input of annotations by said respective user;

wherein the memory provides storage of the respective annotation data as corresponding layer data stored as associatively mapped in a respective one of the data layers;

wherein at least one of the respective computing appliances is designated as a teacher which has an associated teacher data layer storing teacher provided data, and which has an associated display presentation associated therewith and generated responsive thereto; and

wherein at least one of the respective computing appliances is designated as a student which has an associated student data layer storing student provided data, and which provides a display presentation responsive to the teacher data layer and responsive to a data layer associated with said respective computing appliance that is designated as the student.

16. The system as in claim 1,

wherein the respective users at at least two of the plurality of computing appliances provide inputs of annotations made relative to and viewed aligned to a common same said display presentation.

17. The system as in claim 1,

wherein the annotations for each of said respective users are stored as respective layer data in a separate respective said data layer of the plurality of data layers;

wherein each of the respective computing appliances has an input apparatus responsive to the respective user to provide annotation data for said respective user that is stored in a respective one of the data layers associated with the respective user, as representative of annotations made by the respective user;

wherein the display presentation is thereafter generated wherein the annotations appear atop of and aligned relative to a display presentation provided to the respective user; and

wherein a same said display presentation appears concurrently on each said respective one of the at least two of said computing appliances.

18. The system as in claim 1,

wherein a respective computing appliance has its respective said user designated as a teacher and can make changes to the layer data for a respective teacher data layer responsive to input by the teacher that is the respective user of the respective computing appliance;

and

wherein said respective computing appliance of the teacher communicates said changes to the layer data for the respective teacher data layer, to all other of the plurality of computing appliances for local storage within each of them.

19. The system as in claim 1,

wherein there is duplicated storage in duplicate sets of the data layers provided locally at each of said plurality of computing appliances for locally storing the annotation data as respective layer data in local data layers;

and

wherein the display presentation at at least one respective one of the plurality of computing appliances is generated responsive the respective layer data in the local data layers for the at least one respective one of the plurality of computing appliances.

20. The system as in claim 19, further comprising:

synchronization logic for managing updating of stored content in the duplicated storage in duplicate sets of the data layers provided locally at each of said plurality of computing appliances to keep all the stored content duplicated in the duplicate sets.

21. The system as in claim 1,

wherein at least two of the respective computing appliances has an input apparatus which is responsive to the respective user of said each respective one of the respective computing appliances, to provide annotation data for said respective user that is stored in a respective one of the data layers which is associated with the respective user of the respective input apparatus;

wherein the annotation data is representative of annotations made by the respective user, made as aligned relative to and atop of a display presentation presented on the display apparatus at said respective one of the computing appliances; and

wherein at least one of the computing appliances provides for generation of the display presentation utilizing the annotation data from the at least two of the user data layers and base image data stored in a base image layer of the data layers and representative of a respective base image.

22. The system as in claim 21,

wherein the base image is representative of a common underlying image which forms a common visual display image within the generated display presentation that is provided to the at least two users.

23. The system as in claim 1,

wherein a user of at least one of the plurality of computing appliances provides annotation data for annotations that appear in the display presentation;

wherein the annotation data is representative of the respective said annotations, stored as changes to the respective layer data that is stored at another one of the plurality of computer appliances; and

wherein the respective said annotation data is utilized in generating the display presentation at said another one of said plurality of computing appliances.

24. The system as in claim 23,

wherein said computing appliance at which the respective user provides the annotations, thereafter communicates data for said changes which is stored as layer data for storage in a respective said data layer for the respective selected one of said computing appliances.

25. The system as in claim 1,

wherein at least one of the computing appliances has an input apparatus to provide input of annotations that are input as visually aligned relative to a then current display presentation being displayed to the respective user of the at least one of the plurality of computing appliances responsive to said data layers of the data storage.

26. The system as in claim 25,

wherein said at least one of the plurality of said computing appliances thereafter communicates the respective data representative of said input of annotations for storage in a same defined one of the data layers in all other ones of the plurality of computing appliances.

27. The system as in claim 2,

wherein a specific data layer is associated with each respective one of the plurality of computing appliances and is utilized to generate, as associated with each respective said user, a separately identifiable display image within the display presentation, appearing at at least two of the plurality of computing appliances.

28. The system as in claim 27,

wherein at least one of the computing appliances is designated with a leader role to be a leader computing appliance, and is responsive to a respective user input to make annotations for storage in the memory on at least one other of the plurality of computing appliances for use therein to provide local display presentation responsive thereto.

29. The system as in claim 28,

wherein said leader computing appliance communicates the annotations as changes for storage in a respective leader layer located locally in the memory of all other said computing appliances in the team.

30. The system as in claim 1,

wherein at least one of the computing appliances is an editor computing appliance, and has a role designation of editor;

wherein role control logic of the editor computing appliance designates which of the data layers in the memory are selected data layers that are used in creating the display presentation; and

wherein the role control logic of the editor computing appliance communicates with all other ones of the plurality of computing appliances so that all of the plurality of computing appliances use a set of the same said selected data layers within local data storage at each of the plurality of computing appliances, that is used for local display generation of a local display presentation at each respective said computing appliance.

31. The system as in claim 1,

wherein there are specifically defined respective layers of data storage in the memory that are utilized for storage of respective data representative of the annotations provided at each respective one of the plurality of computing appliances;

and

wherein respective selected ones of said data layers are used locally in each respective one of the plurality of computer appliances to locally generate a respective local display presentation.

32. A method for collaboration among a plurality of users at a respective plurality of computing appliances, a respective one computing appliance of the plurality of computing appliances each for use by a respective one user of the plurality of users, each said respective one computing appliance comprised of a memory, and a display apparatus, the method comprising:

coupling of data between a first one and a second one of the plurality of computing appliances;

providing structured storage in the memory as a plurality of data layers;

associatively mapping each of said data layers to a respective at least one of said plurality of computing appliances, to provide mapped storage in each respective data layer of respective annotation data representative of annotations originated at at least one respective one of said plurality of computing appliances, for each of at least two of said plurality of the computing appliances; and

providing a combined display presentation at the display apparatus of at said at least one of said plurality of the computing appliances generated responsive to said at least two of the plurality of the data layers.

33. The method as in claim 32, further comprising:

providing a common said display presentation at each of said at least two of said plurality of the computing appliances that is generated responsive to said at least two of the plurality of the data layers.

34. The method as in claim 32, further comprising:

providing storage of respective base layer data, in at least one of the data layers;

wherein the base layer data is representative of a respective display presentation therefor that is utilized as an underlay portion of a combined display presentation; and

providing said combined display presentation at the display apparatus at at least one of said plurality of the computing appliances generated responsive to said at least two of the plurality of the data layers and responsive to said base data layer.

35. The method as in claim 32,

wherein the annotation data is representative of annotations made by the respective user that are made relative to and aligned with a then current display presentation provided to the respective user on a respective said display apparatus of said respective one of the plurality of computing appliances.

36. The method as in claim 32, further comprising:

providing a same display presentation to each said respective user at each of the respective said display apparatus for at least two of the computing appliances.

37. The method as in claim 36,

wherein said same said display presentation is comprised of an underlying image which appears as a display of an underlying image relative to which is aligned a display of the annotations for a respective user made and appearing atop the underlying image within the respective display presentation provided to the respective user.

38. The method as in claim 37,

wherein the underlying image is representative of a display of one of a Word document, an Excel document, a PowerPoint document, an image document, a text document, a spreadsheet document, a presentation document, a JPEG file, A TIFF file, an MP4 file, and a PDF document.

39. The method as in claim 32, further comprising:

selecting an ordering hierarchy for controlling utilization of the data layers in generation of the display presentation for at least one of the plurality of computing appliances; and

generating the display presentation responsive to the ordering hierarchy.

40. The method as in claim 39, further comprising:

determining an ordering hierarchy for each and all of the plurality of computing appliances.

41. The method as in claim 32, further comprising:

communicating said respective layer data for said computing appliance at which the respective user provides the annotation data for respective storage as layer data stored in a respective data layer in a different one of said plurality of computing appliances.

42. The method as in claim 33, further comprising:

associating a specific data layer with each respective one of the plurality of computing appliances; and

utilizing the respective said specific data layer to generate a respective user specific identifiable display image within the display presentation appearing at at least two of the plurality of computing appliances.

43. The method as in claim 32, further comprising:

storing annotation data for respective user input of annotations made at at least one of the computing appliances for storage in the memory on at least one other one of the plurality of computing appliances; and

providing a local display presentation on the at least one other one of the computing appliances responsive to the annotation data as stored in the memory of the other one of the plurality of computing apparatus.

44. The method as in claim 32, further comprising:

organizing at least two of the plurality of computing appliances to be on a same team; and

communicating said annotation data from said one of the plurality of computing appliances for storage in a respective same data layer in the memory of all other ones of said plurality of computing appliances on the same team.

45. The method as in claim 32, further comprising:

designating which part of each said data layer that is stored in the memory of one of the computing appliances, is selected data; and

communicating the selected data part of the data layer among all other ones of the plurality of computing appliances so that all of the plurality of computing appliances store and use the same selected data to locally create the respective display generation at each respective said computing appliance.

46. The method as in claim 32, further comprising:

defining selected ones of said data layers in the memory to be selected data layers that are utilized for storage of respective data representative of the annotations provided at a respective one of the plurality of computing appliances; and

generating the respective local display presentation at each respective one of the computer appliances responsive to the selected data layers.

47. The method as in claim 46, further comprising:

providing the display generation for each respective one of the plurality of computing appliances responsive to the selection of which of said data layers are to be used locally.

48. A method for collaboration among a plurality of users at a plurality of computing appliances, a respective one computing appliance of the plurality of computing appliances each for use by a respective one user of the plurality of users, each said respective one computing appliance comprised of a display apparatus, the method comprising:

providing storage that is structured as a plurality of data layers, each said data layer providing storing of user input annotations in respective associated ones of the data layers;

associatively mapping each of said data layers to a respective at least one of said plurality of computing appliances;

providing mapped storage in each respective data layer of respective layer data representative of annotations originated at at least one respective one of said plurality of computing appliances, for each of at least two of said plurality of the computing appliances;

providing a display presentation at the display apparatus at at least one of said plurality of the computing appliances; and

wherein the display presentation is generated responsive to said at least two of the plurality of the data layers.

49. The method as in claim 48, further comprising:

providing a same said display presentation to each said respective user at each of said at least two of the computing appliances; and

wherein said same said display presentation is comprised of an underlying image which appears as an underlying display relative to which is aligned a display presentation of the annotations for a respective user appearing as made atop of the respective underlying image within the display presentation provided to the respective user.

50. The method as in claim 48, further comprising:

determining an ordering hierarchy for utilization of the data layers in generation of the display presentation for at least one of the plurality of computing appliances; and

wherein the display presentation is generated responsive to the ordering hierarchy.