Electronic whiteboard with multi-functional user interface
First Claim
Patent Images
1. A whiteboard comprising:
- a drawing area on the whiteboard'"'"'s surface upon which a user may draw using a writing instrument of a type generally used with whiteboards;
a plurality of touch-selectable control areas on the whiteboard'"'"'s surface, the plurality including at leasta first control area which, when selected, indicates a color anda second control area which, when selected, indicates a view mode;
means, responsive to drawing activity by said user in said writing area for causing transmission of information representing said drawing activity to a computer;
means, responsive to selection of said first control area for causing transmission of pen color information to said computer which is indicative of a pen color selected by said user for said drawing activity in said information subsequent to said selection; and
means, responsive to selection of said second control area, for causing transmission of a command to said computer which causes said computer to display a current image made from said information on a display.
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Abstract
An electronic whiteboard is coupled to a computer which receives information from the whiteboard indicative of graphical user inputs entered via a writing region of the whiteboard and control inputs entered via a control region of the whiteboard. A driver executing on the computer receives the information transmitted by the whiteboard, performs certain actions on the received information and causes an application program to retrieve the information and store the information to a session file. The application provides a user interface which allows a user to view images generated on the whiteboard, store such images, view previously stored images and to manipulate the images in a variety of ways.
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Citations
15 Claims
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1. A whiteboard comprising:
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a drawing area on the whiteboard'"'"'s surface upon which a user may draw using a writing instrument of a type generally used with whiteboards; a plurality of touch-selectable control areas on the whiteboard'"'"'s surface, the plurality including at least a first control area which, when selected, indicates a color and a second control area which, when selected, indicates a view mode; means, responsive to drawing activity by said user in said writing area for causing transmission of information representing said drawing activity to a computer; means, responsive to selection of said first control area for causing transmission of pen color information to said computer which is indicative of a pen color selected by said user for said drawing activity in said information subsequent to said selection; and means, responsive to selection of said second control area, for causing transmission of a command to said computer which causes said computer to display a current image made from said information on a display. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 9)
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7. Apparatus for responding to first inputs received from a touch sensitive white board and second inputs, the whiteboard having a drawing area on the whiteboard'"'"'s surface upon which a user may draw using a writing instrument of a type generally used with whiteboards and a plurality of touch-selectable control areas on the whiteboard'"'"'s surface, the control areas including at least a view mode selection area, a color selection area, and a print selection area, the apparatus comprising:
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means for causing generation of a window for display on a display responsive to said apparatus, said window including a current board region which contains a current image corresponding to current drawing inputs of the first inputs by a user upon said drawing area of said whiteboard, a snapshot region which contains a plurality of snapshots viewable by said user, each of said snapshots representative of past drawing inputs on said drawing area of said whiteboard, and a selection region which shows a snapshot image corresponding to a snapshot selected by said user from said snapshot region; means, responsive to user size change inputs of the second inputs, for causing the size of said current board region, said snapshot region and said selection region to be changed in accordance with said user size change inputs; means, responsive to an input of the first inputs entered in said view mode selection area for causing said window to be displayed as a foreground window on said computer screen; means, responsive to an input of the first inputs in said color selection area, for causing storage and display of subsequent said current drawing inputs in a color selected by said input in said color selection area; and means, responsive to a print selection input of the first inputs in said print selection area, for causing printing of said current image.
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8. Apparatus for responding to first inputs received from a touch sensitive white board and second inputs, the whiteboard having a drawing area on the whiteboard'"'"'s surface upon which a user may draw using a writing instrument of a type generally used with whiteboards and a plurality of touch-selectable control areas on the whiteboard'"'"'s surface, the control areas including at least a display mode selection area, a color selection area, and a print selection area, the apparatus comprising:
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means for storing current drawing inputs of the first inputs by a user upon said drawing area to a computer file, and for periodically storing time stamps in said file to provide an indication of a date and time at which said current drawing inputs are stored to said computer file; means, responsive to control area inputs of said first inputs received from said touch-selectable control areas, for causing display of a current image corresponding to said current drawing inputs in a graphical window on a display responsive to the apparatus, and means responsive to a subsequent user generated view input of said second inputs for causing enlargement of said window, comprising, means responsive to a color selection control area input, for displaying an image corresponding to subsequent current drawing inputs in a color corresponding to said color selection control area input; means responsive to a wide erase control area input, for causing existing current drawing inputs to be erased in accordance with subsequent current drawing inputs; means responsive to a narrow erase control area input, for causing existing current drawing inputs to be erased in accordance with subsequent current drawing inputs, said narrow erase input causing erasure of said existing current drawing inputs along a path which is narrower than said erasure caused in accordance with said wide erase input; and means, responsive to an erase board control area input for causing all existing current drawing inputs to be erased; means, responsive to a bookmark control area input, for causing a bookmark to be stored in said computer file among said drawing inputs; means, responsive to a print control area input, for causing said apparatus to transmit to a printer data for causing said printer to print said current image; means, responsive to a retrieve input of the second inputs, for causing display of an image corresponding to said drawing inputs which are stored between a pair of said bookmarks; and means, responsive to initiation of said means for causing display of said current image, for causing a plurality of thumbnail size images of sets of prior drawing inputs, each of said sets comprising drawing inputs which are stored between a pair of said bookmarks, to be displayed in said window.
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10. A touch-sensitive whiteboard which may be coupled to a computer that has a display and that responds to inputs from the whiteboard, the white board comprising:
a drawing area on the whiteboard'"'"'s surface upon which a user may draw using a writing instrument of a type generally used with whiteboards; a plurality of touch-selectable control areas on the whiteboard'"'"'s surface, the plurality including at least a first control area which, when selected, indicates a color and a second control area which, when selected, indicates a view mode; and means for causing transmission of positions of touch inputs to the computer, the computer responding when the whiteboard is coupled thereto to a touch input positioned in the first control area by associating the color indicated by the first control area with subsequent touch inputs in the drawing area and to a touch input positioned in the second control area by displaying a current image made using touch inputs from the drawing area. - View Dependent Claims (11, 12, 13, 14, 15)
Specification