System and methodology for collaboration, with selective display of user input annotations among member computing appliances of a group/team

• US 8,826,147 B2
• Filed: 05/06/2011
• Issued: 09/02/2014
• 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.
• Primary Examiner(s): TITCOMB, WILLIAM D
• Application Number:
  US13/102,872
• Publication Number:
  US 20120284642A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,215 Days
• Field of Search: 715/753, 715/741
• US Class Current: 715/751
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/169 Annotation, e.g. comment data or footnotes
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/197 Version control for software G06F8/71

Abstract

A system and methodology for collaboration. The illustrated system is comprised of a plurality of computing appliances, each respective one of the plurality of computing appliances, having a user input apparatus to provide respective annotation data as input for the respective user to permit the respective user to provide annotations which appear within a display presentation as an image for viewing and representative of the annotations. A first subset of the plurality of computing appliances, comprising at least two of the computing appliances, form members of a group; wherein separate selective communication of the annotation data is provided separately among the members of the group. There is selective display of the annotation data to selected ones of the members of the group. The annotation data is selectively coupled for distribution to other ones of the plurality of computing appliances in the group for selective viewing at said certain other ones of the plurality of computing appliances. The system is further comprised of selection logic permitting at least one of the users'"'"' to selectively choose which of the other users within the group are selected ones that are to have their corresponding annotations viewed as part of the display presentation for the at least one of the users. The selective display is visible only at the computing appliances of the selected ones of the members of the group.

Claims

1. A system for user by a plurality of users, each of the users having a display apparatus and an input apparatus, the system comprising:

grouping logic associating a plurality of the users into at least one group, each said group comprised of at least two of the users;

display presentation logic providing a display presentation to all of the users in all of the groups, of a same base image display;

input control logic permitting concurrent input of annotations by a plurality of the users, each said input generating corresponding annotation data, wherein said input is made while the users are viewing the same base image display;

non-transitory memory structured as storage comprised of a plurality of addressable areas of memory;

mapping logic associating each said addressable area of memory with one said user, for each of a plurality of the users;

storage logic storing the annotation data for a respective said user in the addressable area of memory associated with said user, for each of the users, responsive to the mapping logic and the input control logic;

group mapping logic, providing for each said group, selection of the addressable areas of memory associated with the users in said group to comprise a selected set of areas associated with said group;

group display presentation logic, providing for each said group, generation of a modified display presentation shown to the users in said group, responsive to the selected set of areas associated with said group.

2. The system in claim 1, further comprising:

communications logic providing selective communication of the annotation data associated with the at least two of the users among a plurality of the users of at least two said groups;

wherein the group display presentation logic provides a display of the modified display presentation on the display apparatus of at least one of the users of the group.

3. The system as in claim 2, further comprising:

inter-group logic associatively mapping at least one of the users of each of the groups to also be a user of an inter-group group; and

,

inter-group display presentation logic generating a modified display presentation shown to at least two of the users in said inter-group-group, responsive to the selected set of areas associated with the users in said inter-group-group.

4. The system as in claim 1,

wherein the addressable areas of the memory are comprised of a plurality of mapped data layers of storage, each of the data layers associatively mapped to store the annotation data input by a respective one of the users of the group;

wherein each of the data layers stores the annotation data as input by the associated users responsive to the mapping logic;

wherein the annotation data that is stored in at least two of the data layers is combined with the based data and utilized by the display generation logic to generate a local said display presentation at the display apparatus for at least two of the users of the group.

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

display control logic enabling at least one of the users to determine which of the data layers are utilized to generate the modified display presentation that is provided to at least one of the users.

6. The system as in claim 1,

wherein at least one said member for each of the groups also provides communication of at least some of the annotations for said group to at least one said member of at least one other of the groups,

wherein the group display presentation logic generates a separate said modified display presentation for viewing on the display apparatus of said at least one said member of said at least one other of said groups, responsive to the communication.

7. The system as in claim 1,

wherein at least one of the plurality of users in a first said group controls selection of selected ones of the annotations to select associated said annotation data of the users of said first said group, to be used in generating the display presentation for at two of the users in the first said group.

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

user input control logic controlling selection of at least two of the users as selected users for which said input apparatus is permitted to provide the input of the annotations.

9. The system as in claim 1,

wherein the display of the annotations appear in the modified display presentation at a position as input by the user relative to the base image, said position comprised of at least one of:

a position relative to a page in a document comprised of multiple pages;

a position relative to a frame in a movie comprised of multiple frames;

a position relative to an image in a gallery of multiple images;

a position relative to a top portion of a page in a document;

a position relative to a display from an interactive game; and

a position relative to a bottom portion of a page in a document.

10. A system for use by a first user to collaborate with at least one other user, each of the users having an input apparatus and a display apparatus, the system comprising:

display presentation logic providing a display presentation of a same base image display to each of the users;

input control logic permitting concurrent input via the input apparatus of user annotations by each of the users, each said input generating corresponding annotation data, wherein said input is made while the users are viewing the same base image display;

wherein said user annotations having an associated image representative of the annotations appearing at a user-defined position relative to the display of the base image;

non-transitory memory structured as storage comprised of a plurality of addressable areas of memory;

mapping logic associating each said addressable area of memory with one said user, for each of the users;

communications logic providing selective communication of the annotation data of the first user to the at least one other user and providing communication of the annotation data of the at least one other user to the first user;

storage logic storing the annotation data for each said user, in the addressable area of memory associated with the user, responsive to the mapping logic, the communications logic and the input control logic;

selection logic, selecting at least two of the addressable areas of memory as a selected set of areas of memory; and

display presentation logic, generating a combined presentation of the base image combined with the associated images for the user annotations responsive to the annotation data from the selected set of areas of memory.

11. The system as in claim 10,

wherein the selection logic selects selected annotations from the addressable areas of memory associated with the annotations from users from within a plurality of the groups;

wherein the group display presentation logic generates a separate said modified display presentation for each said group, responsive to the selected annotations.

12. The system as in claim 10, further comprising:

grouping logic associating a plurality of the users into a plurality of groups, each said group comprised of at least two of the users;

display presentation logic providing a display presentation to all of the users in all of the groups, of a same base image display;

wherein the mapping logic is further provides associating of each said addressable area of memory with one said user, for each of a plurality of the users for a plurality of the groups;

the system further comprising;

group mapping logic, providing for each said group, selection of the addressable areas of memory associated with the users in said group to comprise a selected set of areas associated with said group;

group display presentation logic, providing for each said group, generation of a modified display presentation shown to the users in said group, responsive to the selected set of areas associated with said group.

13. The system as in claim 10,

wherein the base image display is comprised of a display presentation from an interactive game.

14. A method for use by a plurality of users, each of the users having a display apparatus and an input apparatus, the method comprising:

associating a plurality of the users into at least one group, each said group comprised of at least two of the users;

providing a display presentation to all of the users in all of the groups, of a same base image display;

permitting concurrent input of annotations by a plurality of the users, while the users are viewing the same base image display;

structuring storage areas in a non-transitory memory as a plurality of addressable areas of memory;

associating each said addressable area of memory with one said user, for each of a plurality of the users;

storing the annotation data for a respective said user in the addressable area of memory associated with said user, for each of the users;

for each said group, selecting the addressable areas of memory associated with the users in the group as a selected set of areas associated with the group;

for each said group, generating a modified display presentation shown to at least two of the users in said group, responsive to the selected set of areas associated with said group.

15. The method as in claim 14, further comprising:

generating multiple different display presentations responsive to utilizing a plurality of different combinations of the annotation data that are combined with the base image, to generate the multiple separate display presentations.

16. The method as in claim 14,

wherein the annotations have an associated display image and an associated location determined responsive to the user;

wherein each said associated display image appears at the associated location relative to the display of the base image in the modified display presentation.

17. The method as in claim 14,

wherein the plurality of addressable areas of memory are structured as a plurality of data layers;

wherein each said addressable area of memory is comprised of one said data layer from the plurality of data layers;

wherein said associating each said addressable area of memory is comprised of associating each said data layer with one said user, for each of a plurality of the users.

18. A method as in claim 17, further comprising:

providing separate local non-transitory memory,

associating each said separate local memory with one said user for at least two of the users, said local memory comprising a plurality of local data layers,

wherein in each set of the local memory, each one of the users is associated with at least one said local data layer providing for storage of the annotation data for the annotations as input at said one of the users, and

wherein each said local memory stores the annotation data for its said associated user in a first said data layer, and stores the annotation data associated with at least one other said user in associated said local data layers that are each associated with the annotations as input by said user of said another computing appliance in at least one other data layer,

the method further comprising;

displaying a local presentation on the display apparatus to at least one said user responsive to the local data layers in the local memory that is associated with said user.

19. The method as in claim 14,

wherein the modified display presentation is comprised of the display of the base image combined with a display of the annotations as made by a plurality of the users from a plurality of the groups.

20. The method as in claim 14,

wherein for each of the groups, the modified display presentation is provided for viewing by the users in the group, each said group is provided with a different display presentation that is separately generated;

wherein each said different display presentation is comprised of the display of the base image combined with a display of the annotations as made by a plurality of the users from the group.