Method and system for facilitating collaboration sessions

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10353664-B2
Application number	US-201715633966-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jun 27, 2017
Priority date	Mar 7, 2014
Publication date	Jul 16, 2019
Grant date	Jul 16, 2019

Abstract

A method and system for facilitating a collaboration session among a plurality of conferees, each conferee using a distinct interface device that includes a distinct display screen, the interface devices including at least a first interface device including a first display screen used by a first conferee, the method comprising the steps of presenting a first session interface on the first display screen, presenting a second session interface on the second display screen, and during a conference content sharing session while content is being shared among conferees in at least the first and second sharing windows, identifying other display screens that may be used to present shared content, presenting screen selection options for other display screens via the first session interface, receiving a selection via the first session interface of at least one of the presented screen selection options and in response to the received selection, associating the display screen that is associated with the selected screen selection option with the first and second session interfaces for accessing session content during the on-going session.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method of facilitating a collaboration session among a plurality of conferees, each conferee using a distinct interface device that includes a distinct display screen, the interface devices including at least a first interface device including a first display screen used by a first conferee, the method comprising the steps of:
presenting a first session interface on the first display screen, the first session interface including a first session queue and a first sharing window, wherein a first conferee using the first session interface can open any document in the session queue in the sharing windows of each of the interfaces;
presenting a second session interface on the second display screen, the second session interface including a second session queue and a second sharing window, wherein a second conferee using the second session interface can open any document in the session queue in the sharing windows of each of the interfaces; and
during a conference content sharing session while content is being shared among conferees in at least the first and second sharing windows:

(i) identifying other display screens that may be used to present shared content;
(ii) presenting screen selection options for at least a subset of the identified other display screens to at least the first conferee via the first session interface for selection;
(iii) receiving a selection via the first session interface of at least one of the presented screen selection options; and
(iv) in response to the received selection, associating the display screen that is associated with the selected screen selection option with the first and second session interfaces for accessing session content during the on-going session.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein the identified other display screens include at least a subset of display screens that are proximate the first conferee.

3. The method of claim 2 wherein the step of identifying other display screens includes identifying the location of the first conferee within a space and identifying display screens in the general area of the first conferee.

4. The method of claim 3 further including presenting a distinct identifier on each of the subset of display screens that are proximate the first conferee, the step of presenting screen selection options including presenting a separate screen selection option on the first session interface for each of the distinct identifiers presented on the subset of proximate display screens.

5. The method of claim 4 wherein, while shared content is shared on at least one of the other display screens in the subset, the shared content continues to be shared in the first content sharing window on the first session interface.

6. The method of claim 3 wherein the first conferee can select more than one of the other display screens for replicating content from the first content sharing window and wherein, upon selecting more than one of the other display screens, shared content is replicated on each of the selected other display screens.

7. The method of claim 1 further including the steps of, during the conference content sharing session:
(i) presenting screen selection options for at least a subset of the identified other display screens to at least the second conferee via the second session interface for selection;
(ii) receiving a selection via the second session interface of at least one of the presented screen selection options; and
(iii) in response to the received selection via the second session interface, associating the display screen that is associated with the selected screen selection option with the first and second session interfaces for accessing session content during the on-going session.

8. The method of claim 1 wherein at least one of the identified other display screens includes a display screen that is pre-associated with the first conferee.

9. The method of claim 8 wherein, upon selection of the at least one display screen that is pre-associated with the first conferee, the method includes presenting shared content on the selected display screen and removing the shared content from the first interface device display screen.

10. The method of claim 1 wherein the identified other display screens include at least a subset of other display screens that are located proximate the second conferee.

11. The method of claim 10 further including the steps of identifying the location of the second conferee within a space and identifying display screens in the general area of the second conferee.

12. The method of claim 1 wherein the identified other display screens include at least a subset of other display screens that are located proximate the second conferee and at least a subset of the other display screens that are located proximate the first conferee.

13. The method of claim 1 wherein, in response to the received selection, shared content from the first sharing window is replicated on the display screen associated with the selected screen selection option.

14. The method of claim 1 wherein the first and second session interfaces further include first and second private windows, respectively, the method further including enabling the first conferee to access session content in the first private window without sharing the content with other conferees and enabling the second conferee to access session content in the second private window without sharing the content with other conferees.

15. The method of claim 1 further including the step of, presenting at least one side bar window on the first session interface wherein content shared among the first conferee and at least one other conferee but not all conferees is presented in the at least one side bar window while other content is shared in the sharing windows among all conferees participating in an on-going session.

16. A method of facilitating a collaboration session among a plurality of conferees, each conferee using a distinct interface device that includes a distinct display screen, the interface devices including at least first and second interface devices including first and second display screens used by a first conferee, the method comprising the steps of:
presenting a first session interface on the first display screen, the first session interface including a first session queue and a first sharing window; and
during a conference content sharing session while content is being shared among conferees:

(i) identifying other display screens that may be used to present shared content, the other display screens including at least the second display screen and at least one additional display screen that is proximate the first conferee;
(ii) presenting screen selection options for the identified other display screens to at least the first conferee via the first session interface for selection;
(iii) receiving at least one selection via the first session interface of at least one of the presented screen selection options; and
(iv) in response to the received selection, associating the display screen that is associated with the selected screen selection option with the on-going session for accessing session content.

17. The method of claim 16 wherein the step of identifying at least one additional display screen includes identifying the location of the first conferee within a space and identifying display screens in the general area of the first conferee.

18. The method of claim 16 further including the steps of, in response to the received selection, replicating the content in the first shared window on

Assignees

• Steelcase Inc

Inventors

• Poel Robert
• Sculley Darrin

Classifications

• H04L12/1827

  Network arrangements for conference optimisation or adaptation · CPC title

• H04N7/152

  Multipoint control units therefor · CPC title

• G06F3/1454 Primary

  involving copying of the display data of a local workstation or window to a remote workstation or window so that an actual copy of the data is displayed simultaneously on two or more displays, e.g. teledisplay · CPC title

• H04M7/0027

  Collaboration services where a computer is used for data transfer and the telephone is used for telephonic communication · CPC title

• H04N7/15

  Conference systems · CPC title