Presenting messages to participants based on neighborhoods

• US 10,257,128 B2
• Filed: 11/28/2016
• Issued: 04/09/2019
• Est. Priority Date: 11/28/2016
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Inventors: Tang, John C., Venolia, Gina Danielle, Inkpen, Kori Marie, Miller, Matthew Knudsen, Wilkinson, Gerard
• Primary Examiner(s): Tang, Karen C
• Application Number:
  US15/362,533
• Publication Number:
  US 20180152397A1
• Time in Patent Office: 862 Days
• Field of Search: 709207, 709224
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/1813 for computer conferences, e.g. chat rooms instant messaging H04L51/04; protocols for multimedia communication H04L65/1101; arrangements for multi-party communication H04L65/403; telephonic conference arrangements H04M3/56; television conference systems H04N7/15
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/04 Real-time or near real-time messaging, e.g. instant messaging [IM]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/214 using selective forwarding
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/52 for supporting social networking services

Abstract

Participants of a group of participants in a chat may be associated with neighborhoods. A neighborhood associated with a participant includes a subset of the participants and represents the participants whose messages the associated participant can see in the chat. When a participant generates a message, the message is presented to an audience that includes each participant with the participant that generated the message in their associated neighborhood. As the message receives indications of approval (e.g., “likes”), the size of the audience is increased to include additional participants. Once the message receives a threshold number of indications of approval, the message may be displayed to all of the participants in the chat. The size of the neighborhoods may be dynamically adjusted based on the number of messages that are generated in each neighborhood to keep the number of messages that are presented within a predetermined range.

Claims

1. A computer system for displaying messages to participants in group streaming activities, comprising:

at least one computing device; and

a message engine adapted to;

receive identifiers of a plurality of participants in a computerized group content streaming event, with the participants being computerized components in the computer system, and with the content streaming event comprising sending continuous streaming content to the participants;

for a participant of the plurality of participants in the computer system, generate a computer-readable neighborhood for distributing messages from the participant in conjunction with the streaming event, with the messages being different from the streaming content, wherein the neighborhood comprises a subset of participants of the plurality of participants and does not include all the plurality of participants;

receive a computerized message generated by the participant for distribution to other participants of the plurality of participants in conjunction with the streaming event;

generate a computer-readable audience for the message based on the neighborhood, wherein the audience comprises a subset of participants of the plurality of participants in the streaming event and does not include all the plurality of participants;

present the message to the participants in the generated audience in conjunction with the streaming event;

receive computerized indications of approval for the presented message from participants in the plurality of participants in the streaming event; and

in response to the received indications of approval, add participants of the plurality of participants in the streaming event to the generated audience and present the message to the added participants in conjunction with the streaming event.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the message engine being adapted to present the message to the participants in the generated audience comprises the message engine being adapted to present the messages to the participants in the generated audience along with streaming content.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein the message engine being adapted to generate the neighborhood for the participant comprises the message engine being adapted to select participants from the plurality of participants, and add the selected participants to the neighborhood for the participant.

4. The system of claim 1, wherein the message engine is further adapted to:

determine that a number of indications of approval received for the presented message exceeds a threshold; and

in response to the determination, present the message to a presenter of the streaming content, with the presenter being a computerized component in the computer system.

5. The system of claim 1, wherein a number of participants added to the generated audience is based on a number of indications of approval received for the presented message.

6. The system of claim 1, wherein the message engine is further adapted to:

determine that a number of indications of approval received for the presented message exceeds a threshold; and

in response to the determination, present the message to all of the participants of the plurality of participants in conjunction with the streaming event.

7. The system of claim 1, wherein the message engine being adapted to generate the audience for the message based on the neighborhood comprises the message engine being adapted to:

determine each neighborhood that includes the participant that generated the message; and

for each determined neighborhood, add a participant of the determined neighborhood to the audience.

8. The system of claim 1, wherein the message engine is further adapted to:

for each of multiple participants of the plurality of participants, assign the participant to a position of a plurality of positions of a structure in the computer system, wherein the positions are arranged in a first direction and a second direction around the structure, and wherein the generating of the neighborhood for the participant comprises basing selection of participants for inclusion in the neighborhood on proximity of the selected participants to the participant for which the neighborhood is being generated in one or more of the first direction and the second direction around the structure.

9. The system of claim 8, wherein the message engine being adapted to generate the neighborhood for the participant comprises the message engine being adapted to:

select participants assigned to a number of positions of the structure in the first direction from the position assigned to the participant associated with the neighborhood;

select participants assigned to the number of positions of the structure in the second direction from the position assigned to the participant associated with the neighborhood; and

add the selected participants to the neighborhood for the participant.

10. The system of claim 8, wherein the message engine being adapted to assign the participant to the position of the plurality of positions comprises the message engine being adapted to:

select a position of the plurality of positions that has not yet been assigned; and

assign the participant to the selected position.

11. The system of claim 10, wherein the message engine being adapted to select the position of the plurality of positions that has not yet been assigned comprises one or more of:

the message engine being adapted to randomly select the position;

the message engine being adapted to select the position based on social networking data associated with the participants of the plurality of participants; and

the message engine being adapted to select the position based on preference data associated with the participants of the plurality of participants.

12. A computer-implemented method for displaying messages to participants in group streaming activities, comprising:

receiving a message generated by a participant of a plurality of participants by a computing device for distribution to other participants of the plurality of participants in conjunction with a computerized group content streaming event, with the participants being participants in the streaming event, with the participants being computerized components in a computer system, and with the content streaming event comprising sending continuous streaming content to the participants, with the messages being different from the streaming content, wherein a participant of the plurality of participants is associated with a neighborhood of a plurality of neighborhoods for distributing messages from the participants in conjunction with the streaming event, with the messages being different from the streaming content, and each neighborhood includes a subset of the participants of the plurality of participants and does not include all the plurality of participants;

generating a computer-readable audience for the message based on one or more of the neighborhoods that include the participant that generated the message by the computing device, wherein the audience comprises a subset of participants of the plurality of participants in the streaming event and does not include all the plurality of participants;

presenting the message to the participants in the generated audience by the computing device in conjunction with the streaming event;

receiving computerized indications of approval for the presented message by the computing device from participants in the plurality of participants in the streaming event;

in response to the received indications of approval, adding participants of the plurality of participants in the streaming event to the generated audience by the computing device; and

presenting the message to the added participants by the computing device in conjunction with the streaming event.

13. The method of claim 12, wherein generating the audience for the message based on one or more of the neighborhoods that include the participant that generated the message comprises:

determining each neighborhood that includes the participant that generated the message; and

for each determined neighborhood, adding a participant of the determined neighborhood to the audience.

14. The method of claim 12, further comprising:

determining that a number of indications of approval received for the presented message exceeds a threshold by the computing device; and

in response to the determination, presenting the message to a presenter of the streaming content.

15. The method of claim 12, wherein a number of participants added to the generated audience is based on a number of indications of approval received from the plurality of participants for the presented message.

16. A computer system for displaying messages to participants of group streaming activities, comprising:

at least one computing device; and

a message engine adapted to;

receive identifiers of a plurality of participants in a computerized group content streaming event, with the participants being computerized components in the computer system, and with the content streaming event comprising sending continuous streaming content to the participants;

for each participant of the plurality of participants, assign the participant to a position of a plurality of positions of a structure in the computer system, wherein the positions are arranged in a first direction and a second direction around the structure;

for each participant of the plurality of participants, generate a neighborhood for distributing messages from the participant in conjunction with the streaming event, with the messages being different from the streaming content, wherein each neighborhood comprises a subset of participants of the plurality of participants that includes less than all the plurality of participants, with the generating of the neighborhood for the participant comprising basing selection of participants for inclusion in the neighborhood on proximity of the selected participants to the participant for which the neighborhood is being generated in one or more of the first direction and the second direction around the structure;

receive a message generated by a participant of the plurality of participants for distribution to other participants of the plurality of participants in conjunction with the streaming event;

generate a computer-readable audience for the message based on one or more of the neighborhoods that include the participant that generated the message, wherein the audience comprises a subset of participants of the plurality of participants in the streaming event and does not include all the plurality of participants; and

present the message to the participants in the generated audience in conjunction with the streaming event.

17. The system of claim 16, wherein the message engine is further adapted to determine that a number of indications of approval received for the presented message exceeds a threshold;

and in response to the determination, present the message to all of the participants of the plurality of participants in conjunction with the streaming event.

18. The system of claim 16, wherein the messaging engine is adapted to present a participant with messages generated by all of the participants that are in the neighborhood associated with the participant.

19. The system of claim 16, wherein the message engine being adapted to generate the audience for the message based on the one or more of the neighborhoods that include the participant that generated the message comprises the message engine being adapted to:

determine each neighborhood that includes the participant that generated the message; and

for each determined neighborhood, add a participant of the determined neighborhood to the audience.

20. The system of claim 17, wherein the message engine being adapted to generate a neighborhood comprises the message engine being adapted to generate the neighborhood using a social graph.