Systems And Methodologies Providing Controlled Voice And Data Communication Among A Plurality Of Computing Appliances Associated As Team Members Of At Least One Respective Team Or Of A Plurality Of Teams And Sub-Teams Within The Teams

• US 20120284645A1
• Filed: 05/06/2011
• Published: 11/08/2012
• 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.
• Granted Patent: US 8,918,724 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 715/753
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/169 Annotation, e.g. comment data or footnotes
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/101 Collaborative creation, e.g. joint development of products or services
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 50/20 Education
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 30/40 for processing medical images, e.g. editing

Abstract

A system and methodology for communication and collaboration among a plurality of computing appliances associated as team members. The system is comprised of: at least one local communication means for use by at least one local team member, and conveying data (preferably media data and collaboration data); at least one other communication means for use by at least one other team member, and conveying data. Gateway means conveys data between each of the communication means. Network means links said at least one local communication means, and, said at least one other communication means, and enables the conveyance of the data. Display means provides a display presentation of a display image of display image data, for viewing by respective users at each of said at least one local communication means and said at least one other communication means. Input means provides annotation data representative of a respective user providing an input of annotations made relative to viewing the display of the common base image at a respective display apparatus at each of said at both the communication means (local and other). Storage means stores the annotation data as associated with the respective user at each of said local and said other communication means. Selection means permits selection as to which of the annotation data is selected annotation data. A display apparatus provides a combined display presentation responsive to the display image data and to the selected annotation data.

Claims

1. A system for communication among a plurality of users at a respective plurality of computing appliances each of which is associated as team members of at least one respective team, the system comprising:

(a) at least one local communication means for use by at least one local team member, and conveying data to and from the at least one local team member;

(b) at least one other communication means for use by at least one other team member, and conveying data to and from the at least one other team member;

(c) gateway means for conveying data between said at least one local communication means and said at least one other communication means for use by at least one other team member;

(d) network means linking said at least one local communication means, and, said at least one other communication means, and enabling the conveyance of the data;

(e) conference apparatus for coupling voice communications between said at least one local communication means and said at least one other communication means;

(f) respective display apparatus providing a display of a display image of display image data, for viewing at the computing appliance at said at least one local communication means, and at the computing appliance at said at least one other communication means;

(g) respective display apparatus providing a display of a display image of display image data, for viewing at the computing appliance of said at least one other communication means;

(h) input means providing annotation data responsive to and associated with a respective user input of annotations made relative to viewing the display of the common base image at the respective display apparatus, at the computing appliance of each of said at least one local communication means and said at least one other communication means;

(i) storage means, storing the annotation data as associated with the respective user making the input of that said annotation data at each of said at least one local communication means and said at least one other communication means;

(j) selection means, permitting selection of annotations as selected annotations, to provide for selection as to which of the annotation data is selected annotation data; and

(k) display logic providing a combined display presentation at each of the respective display apparatus, providing the combined display presentation responsive to the display image data and to the selected annotation data.

2. The system as in claim 1,

wherein the selection means provides the selection of annotations as selected annotations, responsive to selection of at least one selected user of the respective user at said at least one local communication means and of the respective user at said at least one other communication mean, to provide for selection as to which of the annotation data is selected annotation data;

and

wherein the display apparatus provides the combined display presentation responsive to the common base image data and to the selected annotation data.

3. The system as in claim 1,

wherein the selection of annotations is responsive to selection of a selected user, thereby selecting the annotation data this is associated with the selected user.

4. The system as in claim 3,

wherein the display apparatus provides the combined display presentation responsive to the display image data associated with a common base image data and to the selected annotations that are associated with the at least one selected user.

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

conference apparatus for coupling voice communication between said at least one local communication means and said at least one other communications means.

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

team membership logic providing for selection of respective members of each of the at least two respective teams; and

wherein each of the members of each of the at least two teams has a respective said display apparatus providing a respective combined display presentation associated with the respective one of the at least two teams.

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

means for selecting which of the users are selected members of a respective team; and

means for selectively utilizing those parts of the annotation data of the selected members, in generating the combined display presentation.

8. The system as in claim 7,

wherein there are at least two members each on each of at least two teams.

9. The system as in claim 7, further comprising:

intra-team selection means for each respective team of the at least two respective teams, the intra-team selection means providing selection as to which of the annotation data for the members of said each respective team is selected annotation data for that said respective team;

wherein the display image data is comprised of common base image data representative of a common base display image;

wherein there is a separate display apparatus for each said member; and

wherein each said separate display apparatus provides a combined display presentation to the respective members of that said respective team, responsive to the common base image data and to the selected annotation data for that said respective team.

10. The system as in claim 7,

wherein at least one user of said at least one local communication means and one user of said at least one other communication means, are each selected as a common user that is a respective said member of each said respective team of the at least two respective teams;

and

wherein the annotations associated with the common user are utilized to provide the display presentations to the respective members of each of the at least two teams.

11. The system as in claim 1,

wherein there are at least two respective teams, each of the at least two respective teams having its own members, and each of the at least two respective teams providing at least one associated display presentation to its members.

12. The system as in claim 1,

wherein the input means provides annotation data responsive to and representative of a respective user providing an input of annotations made relative to viewing of the display presentation of the display image of the common base image at the respective display apparatus.

13. The system as in claim 1,

wherein the gateway means is a central server which stores a copy of all the annotation data and the base image data, and conveys respective said annotation data from any one team member to at least one other team member.

14. The system as in claim 1,

wherein the data is comprised of at least one of voice, video, annotations, text, animations, music, graphic images, photographic images, documents, multi-media presentations, and the respective annotation data as input by a respective user.

15. The system as in claim 1,

wherein the conference apparatus further provides video conference.

16. The system as in claim 1,

wherein there are two teams, each with respective members associated therewith, each team having its own respective associated display presentation comprised of the annotations of the users of the respective team;

wherein at least one user from each one of said at least one local communication means and said at least one other communication means, is selected as a common user that is a respective said member of each said respective team of the at least two respective teams; and

wherein the annotations associated with the common user are utilized to provide the display presentations to the respective members of each of the at least two teams.

17. A method for communication among users of computing apparatus as respective members of a respective team, the method comprising:

(a) associating a first one of the computing apparatus located at a first location, as a local team member;

(b) associating a second one of the computing apparatus located at a second location, as a distant team member;

(c) providing a display presentation of a common base image of common base image data, for viewing by each of said at least one local team member and said at least one distant team member;

(d) providing annotation data responsive to and representative of a respective user providing an input annotation made relative to the display of the common base image provided for viewing at a respective display apparatus;

(e) storing the annotation data as associatively mapped according to the respective said member which is providing input of that said annotation data;

(f) selecting which of the annotation data is selected annotation data; and

(g) providing a combined display presentation responsive to the common base image data and to the selected annotation data.

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

conveying voice communication and annotation data between the computing apparatus of said at least one local team member and said at least one distant team member.

19. The method as in claim 17, further comprising:

providing selection of a respective member as a selected member, to provide selection of certain of said annotations that were provided by the respective member, as selected annotations, having associated respective said annotation data, to provide selection of the associated said annotation data as the selected annotation data; and

providing the combined display presentation responsive to the common base image data and to the selected annotation data.

20. The method as in claim 19, further comprising:

providing selection of selected ones of said annotations for display, responsive to selection of the selected member; and

providing the combined display presentation responsive to the common base image data and to the selected annotations that are associated with the selected member.

21. The method as in claim 17,

wherein the combined display presentation is provided to all of the members.

22. The method as in claim 17, further comprising:

selecting as to each of the members, which respective said member, is a selected member of the respective team; and

utilizing the respective annotation data from each said selected member of the team, in generating the combined display presentation for the respective said selected members of the team.

23. The method as in claim 17,

wherein there are at least two separate teams, each of the at least two separate teams having its own group of members;

and

the method further comprising;

providing an associated display presentation to the members of each of the at least two separate teams.

24. The method as in claim 17, further comprising:

providing selection of respective members of each of at least two respective teams; and

providing a respective combined display presentation associated with the respective one of the at least two teams, to the members of each respective team of the at least two respective teams.

25. The method as in claim 24, further comprising:

providing for each respective team, selection of the annotation data associated with the members of the respective team, as selected annotation data for that said respective team; and

providing a combined display presentation to the respective members of each said respective team, responsive to the common base image data and to the selected annotation data for that said respective team.

26. The method as in claim 24,

wherein at least one of the members of each of the two separate teams is selected as a common member;

wherein the annotations for each said common member is communicated to each respective said member of each said respective team of the at least two separate teams,

the method further comprising;

utilizing the annotations associated with the common user in providing the display presentations to the respective members of each of the at least two separate teams.

27. A method for communication between a plurality of computing apparatus, the method comprising:

selecting at least two of the plurality of computing apparatus to be associated together forming members of at least one respective team;

providing a display presentation of a common base image of common base image data, for viewing on a local display apparatus at the respective said computing apparatus for each of the members of the respective team;

providing annotation data responsive to and representative of an input of annotations made relative to viewing of the display presentation of the common base image as a local display presentation, by a respective user at the local computing apparatus;

storing the annotation data as associated with the respective user of the local apparatus, in a respective separate memory mapped location in the computing apparatus of at least one of the members of the respective team;

permitting selection of annotations for at least one said respective user, of the annotations associated with the at least one said respective user, as selected annotations;

providing respective said annotation data for the selected annotations; and

providing a combined display presentation responsive to the common base image data and to the selected annotation data.

28. The method as in claim 27, further comprising:

selecting the selected annotations associated with a respective said user, by selection of the associated respective user;

providing selection of those said annotations that are associated with each of the members of the respective team, as the selected annotations;

providing selection as to corresponding said annotation data is the selected annotation data; and

wherein the local display presentation provides the combined display presentation responsive to the common base image data and to the selected annotation data.

29. The method as claim 27,

wherein the selection of the selected annotations is responsive to selection of at least one respective one of the members as an associated selected user;

and

wherein the combined display presentation is provided responsive to the common base image data and to the selected annotations that are associated with the selected user.

30. The method as in claim 27, further comprising:

providing a same combined display presentation to all of the members.

31. The method as in claim 30,

conveying voice communication between each of the members of a same said respective team.

32. The method as in claim 27,

wherein there are at least two separate teams, each of the two separate teams having its own members, and each of the at least two separate teams providing a separate one of an associated common display presentation to the respective members of the respective said separate team.

33. The method as in claim 32 further comprising:

providing selection of respective ones of the computing apparatus as members of a respective separate team of each of the at least two respective teams;

wherein each of the members of each of the separate teams has a respective said display apparatus; and

providing a respective combined display presentation at each of the local computing apparatus associated with each said respective said separate team for which the local computing apparatus is a member.

34. The method as in claim 27,

providing selection of the annotation data for the members of each said respective team as selected annotation data for that said respective team;

and

providing a combined display presentation to each of the respective members of that said respective team, responsive to the common base image data and to the selected annotation data for that said respective team.

35. The method as in claim 33,

wherein at least one computing apparatus is selected as a common user that is a respective said member of each said separate team for both of the two separate teams;

and

wherein the annotations associated with the common user are utilized to provide the display presentations to the respective members of each of the separate teams for both of the two separate teams.