Shared virtual meeting services among computer applications

• US 6,629,129 B1
• Filed: 06/16/1999
• Issued: 09/30/2003
• Est. Priority Date: 06/16/1999
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: MacLin, Markham F., Bookspan, Matthew D., Dubrow, Deborah L., Donner, Robert. D., Poon, Paul C., Tafoya, John E.
• Primary Examiner(s): Wiley, David
• Assistant Examiner(s): Nguyen, Phuoc H
• Application Number:
  US09/333,694
• Time in Patent Office: 1,567 Days
• Field of Search: 709/200, 709/204, 709/205, 709/232, 345/7, 345/751, 345/759, 348/1, 705/9, 705/8
• US Class Current: 709/204
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/10 Office automation; Time management
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/131 Protocols for games, networked simulations or virtual reality
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 9/40 Network security protocols

Abstract

A method and system for controlling the interaction between a primary application and a virtual meeting application and assigning the responsibility between them for providing user interface components is provided. The virtual meeting application provides the functionality for a virtual meeting and provides user interface components related to transient state changes in the virtual meeting. The virtual meeting application is called from the user interface provided by the primary application. In response to state change event notification sent by the virtual meeting application to the primary application, the primary application updates user interface components that supplement the user interface provided by the virtual meeting application. The virtual meeting application is invoked through an application interface that is exposed by the virtual meeting application in a global name space. The application interface may be associated with a predefined mode that specifies which of the user interface components provided by the virtual meeting application will be displayed in a manner that appears to be part of the primary application'"'"'s user interface and which of the virtual meeting user interface components will be suppressed.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method for forming an instance of a virtual meeting and then sharing the instance of a virtual meeting between a plurality of computer applications, comprising:

providing a first computer application that will be shared by a plurality of meeting participants'"'"' computers during the instance of the virtual meeting, the first computer application having a first user interface;

providing a virtual meeting application for forming and administering the instance of the virtual meeting, the virtual meeting application having a virtual meeting user interface and an application interface;

under the control of the first computer application, invoking the virtual meeting application through the application interface; and

under the control of the virtual meeting application, forming and administering the instance of the virtual meeting.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising sending at least one state notification including a transient state information concerning the instance of the virtual meeting from the virtual meeting application to the first computer application.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the first computer application displays a supplemental user interface in response to the transient state information.

4. The method of claim 3, further comprising a computer readable medium having computer executable instructions for providing the execution of the foregoing method.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising displaying a portion of the virtual meeting user interface as part of the first user interface.

6. The method of claim 5, further comprising a computer readable medium having computer executable instructions for providing the execution of the foregoing method.

7. The method of claim 5, wherein the portion of the virtual meeting user interface is application modal to the first computer application.

8. The method of claim 5, wherein the portion of the virtual meeting user interface includes the display of the transient state information.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein the portion of the virtual meeting user interface is application modal to the first computer application.

10. The method of claim 8, wherein the portion of the virtual meeting user interface comprises an always on top window.

11. The method of claim 10, further comprising suppressing a selected component of the virtual meeting user interface when the virtual meeting application is invoked by the first computer application through the application interface.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein the virtual meeting application exposes a plurality of application interfaces and each application interface defines an associated predefined mode that specifies the components of the virtual meeting user interface that will be suppressed when the virtual meeting application is invoked by way of the first computer application through an application interface associated with that predefined mode.

13. The method of claim 11, wherein the virtual meeting user interface displays the transient state information.

14. The method of claim 11, wherein a meeting state is controlled through the virtual meeting user interface.

15. The method of claim 14, further comprising displaying a supplementary meeting user interface provided by the first computer application in response to the transient state information.

16. The method of claim 15, further comprising hiding the virtual meeting user interface from the user when the virtual meeting application is invoked by the first computer application and the virtual meeting application was not running at the time that the virtual meeting application was invoked by the first computer application.

17. The method of claim 16, further comprising attaching a second computer application having a second computer application user interface to the virtual meeting by way of the second computer application user interface.

18. The method of claim 16, further comprising loading by way of the first computer application a second instance of the virtual meeting application for facilitating a second virtual meeting.

19. The method of claim 18, further comprising sending a state notification to the first computer application when the first computer application invokes the virtual meeting application.

20. The method of claim 15, further comprising:

displaying a supplementary meeting user interface provided by the first computer application;

accepting state change information from the supplementary meeting user interface; and

sending the state change information from the first computer application to the virtual meeting application.

21. The method of claim 20, further comprising changing the state of the virtual meeting with the virtual meeting application in response to the state change information that was sent by the first computer application from the supplementary meeting user interface.

22. The method of claim 1, further comprising sharing an electronic document for collaborative editing of an electronic document between a plurality of meeting attendees during the virtual meeting.

23. The method of claim 22, wherein the virtual meeting application displays a virtual image of the first computer application on a meeting attendee'"'"'s computer, a meeting attendee being able to collaboratively edit the electronic document using the first computer application when the virtual meeting attendee is granted control of the first computer application by the virtual meeting application.

24. The method of claim 23, further comprising displaying a click to take control user interface as the selected component of the virtual meeting user interface provided by the virtual meeting application when the virtual meeting application detects that the virtual meeting attendee requests to take control of the first computer application.

25. The method of claim 23, further comprising displaying a meeting attendee user interface as the selected component of the virtual meeting user interface provided by the virtual meeting application modal to the first computer application as meeting attendees are added and removed from the virtual meeting by the virtual meeting application.

26. The method of claim 23, further comprising displaying a call progress user interface as the selected component of the virtual meeting user interface provided by the virtual meeting application modal to the first computer application as the virtual meeting application establishes the virtual meeting.

27. The method of claim 23, further comprising displaying a call failure user interface as the selected component of the virtual meeting user interface provided by the virtual meeting application modal to the first computer application as the virtual meeting application fails to establish the virtual meeting.

28. The method of claim 1, further comprising transferring the file containing the electronic document from a meeting host'"'"'s computer on which the first computer application is running to a meeting attendee'"'"'s computer using the virtual meeting application.

29. The method of claim 28, wherein the transfer of the file containing the electronic document is initiated when a file transfer option is selected from the supplementary meeting user interface.

30. The method of claim 1, further comprising sending the state notification to a plurality of computer applications that have registered for the virtual meeting.

31. The method of claim 1, further comprising a computer readable medium having computer executable instructions for providing the execution of the foregoing method.

32. A computer-implemented method for accessing a virtual meeting capability of a virtual meeting application from a document editing application, the method comprising:

displaying a menu as part of a document editing application user interface, the menu including a menu item for initiating a virtual meeting;

receiving in the document editing application a selection of the menu item for initiating a virtual meeting; and

invoking the virtual meeting application from the document editing application, the virtual meeting application being invoked by the document editing application in a mode that displays a set of dialogs in the user interface, the set of dialogs being generated by the virtual meeting application.

33. The method of claim 32, wherein the dialogs generated by the virtual meeting application are modal to the document editing application.

34. The method of claim 33, wherein the dialogs generated by the virtual meeting application and displayed in the document editing application include:

a place call dialog for joining a meeting participant to the virtual meeting, the place call dialog receiving a user selection of at least one meeting attendee;

a call progress dialog that displays state information pertaining to a state of the virtual meeting;

a call success dialog if the virtual meeting application is able to join the virtual meeting attendee to the virtual meeting; and

a call failure dialog if the virtual meeting application is unable to join the virtual meeting attendee to the virtual meeting.

35. The method of claim 32, further comprising:

sending a handle associated with the document editing application to the virtual meeting application, the virtual meeting application using the handle to enable sharing of the document editing application among selected meeting attendees that are joined to the virtual meeting.

36. The method of claim 35, wherein the dialogs generated by the virtual meeting application and displayed in the document editing application include:

a click to take control dialog that is displayed in the document editing application when the virtual meeting application has granted control of the document editing application to a meeting attendee.

37. The method of claim 32, further comprising:

sending virtual meeting state notifications from the virtual meeting application to the document editing application; and

displaying in the user interface a supplementary virtual meeting dialog, the document editing application generating the supplementary virtual meeting dialog in response to the virtual meeting state notification received from the virtual meeting application.

38. The method of claim 35, wherein the dialogs generated by the virtual meeting application and displayed in the document editing application include:

a file transfer capability; and

an incoming file transfer dialog that is displayed when the virtual meeting application detects that a file has been transferred from a meeting host.

39. The method of claim 32, further comprising:

specifying an electronic document to be shared during the virtual meeting in a message sent automatically by the document editing application to the virtual meeting application; and

enabling data sharing of the electronic document during the virtual meeting, the data sharing being under the control of the virtual meeting application.

40. The method of claim 39, further comprising displaying as part of a document editing application user interface a portion of a meeting user interface that provides instructions to a user for how to alter the virtual meeting state.

41. The method of claim 39, further comprising displaying as part of the document editing application user interface a portion of a meeting user interface that displays information pertaining to the virtual meeting state.

42. The method of claim 41, further comprising a computer readable medium having computer executable instructions for providing the execution of the foregoing method.