Fairly Adding Documents to a Collaborative Session

• US 20150256638A1
• Filed: 03/05/2014
• Published: 09/10/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 03/05/2014
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Ricoh Company Limited
• Original Assignee: Ricoh Company Limited
• Inventors: Schwartz, Edward L.
• Granted Patent: US 9,794,078 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/1462 with means for detecting differences between the image stored in the host and the images displayed on the remote displays
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/18 for broadcast or conference , e.g. multicast
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/4015 where at least one of the additional parallel sessions is real time or time sensitive, e.g. white board sharing, collaboration or spawning of a subconference
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/5651 Reducing the amount or size of exchanged application data

Abstract

A system and method for sharing documents and markup to documents in near real-time. A server coupled with a plurality of client devices via a network is configured to fairly distribute documents to each of the plurality of client devices in one or more collaborative sessions. The server receives a document for distribution to a plurality of client devices associated with a particular collaborative session, breaks the documents into pieces, and repeatedly, until all pieces of the document are distributed: selects a piece of the document for transmission, sends the selected piece to each of the plurality of client devices, computes a delay based on the size of the selected piece and a minimum network bandwidth, and waits for the computed delay.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method comprising:

receiving a document for distribution to a plurality of client devices in a collaboration session;

breaking the document into pieces; and

repeatedly, until all pieces of the document are distributed;

selecting a piece of the document for transmission;

sending the selected piece to each of the plurality of client devices;

computing a delay based on a size of the selected piece and a minimum network bandwidth; and

waiting for the computed delay.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein sending the selected piece further comprises adding the selected piece to a global queue for transmission.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein selecting a piece of the document for transmission comprises:

determining a page most viewed by users of the plurality of client devices; and

selecting the page most viewed for transmission.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the pieces of the document comprise header and stroke pieces.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein the pieces of the document are in scalable vector graphics (SVG) format.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the delay is computed using a token bucket algorithm.

7. The method of claim 1, further comprising transmitting images of the document on a different channel using a lazy loading algorithm.

8. A system comprising:

a plurality of client devices;

a server coupled with the plurality of client devices via a network, the server configured to;

receive a document for distribution to the plurality of client devices in a collaboration session;

break the document into pieces; and

repeatedly, until all pieces of the document are distributed;

select a piece of the document for transmission;

send the selected piece to each of the plurality of client devices;

compute a delay based on a size of the selected piece and a minimum network bandwidth; and

wait for the computed delay.

9. The system of claim 8, wherein to send the selected piece, the server is further configured to add the selected piece to a global queue for transmission.

10. The system of claim 8, wherein the server communicates with the plurality of client devices using eXtensible Messaging and Presence Protocol (XMPP).

11. The system of claim 8, wherein to select a piece of the document for transmission, the server is further configured to:

determine a page most viewed by users of the plurality of client devices; and

select the page most viewed for transmission.

12. The system of claim 8, wherein the pieces of the document comprise header and stroke pieces.

13. The system of claim 12, wherein the pieces of the document are in scalable vector graphic (SVG) format.

14. The system of claim 8, wherein the delay is computed using a token bucket algorithm.

15. The system of claim 8, wherein the server is further configured to transmit images of the document on a different channel using a lazy loading algorithm.

16. The system of claim 8, wherein the plurality of client devices includes one or more of a projector, a monitor, a television, an interactive whiteboard, a webcam, a microphone, a loudspeaker, a CD/DVD player, an electronic paper device, an electronic reader device, a desktop computer, a tablet, or a smartphone.

17. A computer program product comprising a computer usable medium including a computer readable program, wherein the computer readable program when executed on a computer causes the computer to:

receive a document for distribution to the plurality of client devices in a collaboration session;

break the document into pieces; and

repeatedly, until all pieces of the document are distributed;

select a piece of the document for transmission;

send the selected piece to each of the plurality of client devices;

compute a delay based on a size of the selected piece and a minimum network bandwidth; and

wait for the computed delay.

18. The computer program product of claim 17, wherein to send the selected piece, the computer readable program further causes the computer to add the selected piece to a global queue for transmission.

19. The computer program product of claim 17, the computer readable program further causes the computer to send the selected piece using eXtensible Messaging and Presence Protocol (XMPP).

20. The computer program product of claim 17, wherein to select a piece of the document for transmission, the computer readable program further causes the computer to:

determine a page most viewed by users of the plurality of client devices; and

select the page most viewed for transmission.