Visual group interface for group connectivity

• US 20030233650A1
• Filed: 06/18/2002
• Published: 12/18/2003
• Est. Priority Date: 06/18/2002
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Ranganath, Rama, Mesgar, Eugene, Saretto, Cesare John, Sanders, Erica, Murarka, Neel Ishwar, Vert, John, Zaner, Melora, Glatzer, Asta, Mulcahy, Kathleen, Savage, Tammy, Zarakhovsky, Eugene
• Granted Patent: US 7,721,216 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 725/32
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/10 Office automation; Time management
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/1822 Conducting the conference, e.g. admission, detection, selection or grouping of participants, correlating users to one or more conference sessions, prioritising transmission

Abstract

A communication icon represents a shared connection allowing members of an online group to interact with each other and participate in different activities together. The icon through which the group interacts resides on each group member'"'"'s desktop and has many attributes including click activation modes and drag and drop functionality. The icon provides each group member with a representation of the group'"'"'s shared relationship. Any group member can change the group icon and have that change propagated to the computers of the other members of the group. The icon can be activated for both non-verbal and verbal communications as well as activity sharing. Online members of the group are kept apprised of the group'"'"'s status and activities via a displayed status bar.

Claims

1. A system for communicably linking a first user of a first computing device having a first display to a group of users of computing devices, the group having at least one member comprising a second user of a second computing device having a display, the system comprising in combination:

a rendered desktop on the display of the first computing device;

a selectable group icon visibly rendered on the desktop, the group icon being associated with the group of users of computing devices whereby selection of the group icon by the first user initiates transmission of a communication over a network from the first computing device to the group of users with the first user not being required to specify the identity of a member of the group of users during or after selection.

2. The system according to claim 1, wherein the selectable group icon displays a group status gathered automatically prior to selection of the group icon by the first user.

3. The system according to claim 2, wherein the group status comprises an indication of at least one activity in which one or more members of the group are currently engaged.

4. The system according to claim 2, wherein the group status comprises an indication of whether each of the group of users is currently connected to the network.

5. The system according to claim 3, wherein the transmission is adapted to allow the first user to participate in the at least one activity in which the group is currently engaged.

6. The system according to claim 1, wherein the group icon is a drag and drop target such that dropping of a dragged file icon onto the group icon initiates transfer of a file associated with the file icon to the computing devices of the group of users.

7. The system according to claim 1, wherein the network comprises multiple peer-to-peer connections.

8. The system according to claim 7, wherein at least one of the multiple peer-to-peer connections omits the first computing device as a direct endpoint.

9. The system according to claim 1, wherein the network comprises a group server communicably linkable to the first computing device and to each of the computing devices of the group of users.

10. The system according to claim 1, wherein a visual appearance of the selectable group icon is modifiable by a modifying user, being one user from among the first user and the group of users, so that a modification of the appearance of the selectable group icon by the modifying user is propagated to a copy of the selectable group icon located on the display of the computing devices of the others of the group of users and the first user.

11. The system according to claim 1, wherein the communication over the network comprises one or more types of material selected from the group consisting of audio information and visual information.

12. The system according to claim 11, wherein the visual information comprises animated material.

13. The system according to claim 11, wherein the visual information comprises video material.

14. The system according to claim 1, wherein the communication over the network comprises a textual message.

15. The system according to claim 1, wherein transmission of the communication over the network from the first computing device to the group of users causes a visual indication to appear on the display of the second computing device in an opaque state and to transform after a predetermined period of time to a transparent state.

16. The system according to claim 1, wherein transmission of the communication over the network from the first computing device to the group of users causes a visual indication to appear on the display of the second computing device in a dominant state, whereby the second user must interact with the visual indication prior to performing any other action on the display of the second computing device.

17. A method of communicating from a first user of a first computing device, having a display associated therewith, to a group of computing device users, each being a user of a computing device having a respective display associated therewith, the group of computing device users comprising at least a second user, the method comprising:

presenting a visual group icon to the first user on the display of the first computing device, the group icon being associated with the group of computing device users;

receiving an activation of the group icon by the first user;

in response to receiving an activation of the group icon by the first user, sending a communication over a network connection from the first computing device to the computing devices associated with the group of computing device users.

18. The method according to claim 17, wherein presenting a visual group icon to the first user on the display of the first computing device further comprises presenting a group status.

19. The method according to claim 18, wherein the group status discloses an activity in which one or more members of the group of computing device users is currently engaged.

20. The system according to claim 18, wherein the group status discloses whether each of the group of users is currently connected to the network.

21. The system according to claim 17, wherein sending a communication over the network connection comprises sending an indication to the computing devices associated with the group of computing device users that the first user wishes to participate in an activity in which one or more members of the group of computing devices are currently engaged.

22. The system according to claim 17, wherein receiving an activation of the group icon by the first user comprises receiving an indication that the user has dropped a file icon onto the group icon, and wherein sending a communication over the network connection from the first computing device to the computing devices associated with the group of computing device users comprises sending an indication that a file associated with the file icon is available to be transferred to the computing devices associated with the group of computing device users.

23. The method according to claim 17, wherein the network is of a type selected from the group consisting of a peer-to-peer network and a network having a central server.

24. The method according to claim 17, wherein a visual appearance of the group icon is modifiable by the first user so that a modification of the appearance of the group icon by the first user is propagated to a copy of the group icon located on the display of the computing device associated with second user.

25. The method according to claim 17, wherein sending the communication over a network comprises sending over the network information having one or more types selected from the group consisting of audio information, video information, animated information, and textual information.

26. The method according to claim 25, wherein sending the communication over a network further comprises sending over the network information sufficient to cause a visual indication to appear on the display of the second computing device in an opaque state and to transform after a predetermined period of time to a transparent state.