Portable presentation system and methods for use therewith

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9430181-B2
Application number	US-201313968941-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Aug 16, 2013
Priority date	Apr 1, 2004
Publication date	Aug 30, 2016
Grant date	Aug 30, 2016

Abstract

A method and assembly for use with a display configuration including a master sub-space and a plurality of slave sub-spaces, the assembly for controlling an information sharing session, the assembly comprising a processor linked to the display configuration and programmed to perform the steps of obtaining identification information from information sources usable to generate images on the sub-spaces during a session, presenting an interface via the master sub-space, the interface including a master workspace area for presenting images via the master sub-space and a tool area including source icons and panel icons associated with session images wherein each of the source and panel icons is selectable to create images within the master workspace area.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. An assembly for use with a display configuration including a master presentation sub-space and a plurality of slave presentation sub-spaces, the assembly for controlling an information sharing session, the assembly comprising:
a processor linked to the display configuration and programmed to perform the steps of:
obtaining identification information from information sources usable to generate images on the presentation sub-spaces during a session;
presenting an interface via the master presentation sub-space, the interface including:
a master workspace area for presenting images via the master presentation sub-space; and
a tool area including a separate source icon for each of the information sources usable to generate images on the presentation sub-spaces during a session, each source icon selectable via the interface to present information from an associated source as an image in the master workspace area, the tool area further including a separate panel icon corresponding to each of a plurality of session images generated during a session, the session images including at least images moved from the master workspace area to one of the slave presentation sub-spaces at some time during a session, wherein, when a panel icon is selected, an instance of the session image associated with the panel icon is presented in the master workspace area.

2. The assembly of claim 1 wherein the interface enables movement of an image presented via the master workspace area to any one of the slave presentation sub-spaces.

3. The assembly of claim 2 wherein the panel icons associated with the images currently presented via the slave presentation sub-spaces are visually distinguished from other panel icons in the tool area.

4. The assembly of claim 3 wherein a separate visual token is associated with each of the slave presentation sub-spaces, the panel icons associated with images presented in the slave presentation sub-spaces visually distinguished by spatially associating a separate one of the visual tokens with each of the panel icons associated with an image presented in the slave presentation sub-space.

5. The assembly of claim 4 wherein each of the tokens can be moved about within the panel section to associate the token with any one of the panel icons, the processor further programmed to cause images associated with the panel icons that are associated with the tokens to be presented via the slave presentation sub-spaces associated with the tokens.

6. The assembly of claim 1 wherein the panel icons can be used to change the images presented via the slave presentation sub-spaces.

7. The assembly of claim 6 wherein panel icons can be moved within the tool area to change which session images are presented via which slave presentation sub-spaces.

8. The assembly of claim 7 wherein a panel icon can be selected and dragged within the tool area to another location within the tool area to change which session images are presented via which slave presentation sub-spaces.

9. The assembly of claim 1 wherein the tool area includes a slave representation area field that is visually distinguished from other portions of the tool area, the panel icons associated with images currently presented via the slave presentation sub-paces visually distinguished from other panel icons by being located within the slave representation area field.

10. The assembly of claim 1 wherein the session images also include images created in the master workspace area that are stored by selecting a store icon.

11. The assembly of claim 1 wherein a first of the sources is a computer running an application program to generate display screen output and wherein, when the first of the sources is selected, the image presented on the master presentation sub-space is the output of a computer application program and the application program alters the master presentation sub-space image substantially in real time.

12. The assembly of claim 11 wherein the interface enables freezing of the output of an application program to generate an instantaneous image of the application program output within the master workspace area.

13. The assembly of claim 12 wherein the interface enables annotation of an image in the master workspace area and storage of the annotated image as a session image.

14. The assembly of claim 12 wherein the interface enables control of the application program via interaction with the master presentation sub-space image.

15. The assembly of claim 12 wherein the processor is further programmed to, when an image of an application program is moved from the master presentation sub-space to one of the slave presentation sub-spaces, cause the application program to drive the one of the slave presentation sub-spaces.

16. The assembly of claim 1 wherein the display configuration includes at least one flat panel electronic display.

17. The assembly of claim 1 wherein the display configuration includes a plurality of flat panel electronic displays.

18. The assembly of claim 1 wherein each of the panel icons includes a thumbnail image of an associated session image and wherein each of the source icons includes an identifier usable to distinguish each source from other sources.

19. An assembly for use with a display configuration including a master presentation sub-space and a plurality of slave presentation sub-spaces, the assembly for controlling an information sharing session, the assembly comprising:
a processor linked to the display configuration and programmed to perform the steps of:
obtaining identification information from a plurality of information sources wherein each source is linkable to the processor to provide information usable to generate images on the presentation sub-spaces during a session, at least a first of the information sources including a computer running an application program to generate images corresponding to application program output;
presenting a master interface via the master presentation sub-space, the interface including:
a master workspace area for generating session images;
a tool bar area including panel icons for each of a plurality of session images generated during a session and a separate source icon for each of the information sources usable to generate images on the presentation sub-spaces during a session;
the processor further programmed to perform the steps of:
upon selection of one of the panel icons, presenting an image associated with the selected panel icon within the master workspace area; and
upon selection of one of the source icons, presenting images generated via information from the source associated with the selected source icon within the master workspace area.

20. The assembly of claim 19 wherein the interface enables movement of an image presented via the master workspace area to any one of the slave presentation sub-spaces.

21. The assembly of claim 20 wherein the panel icons associated with the images currently presented via the slave presentation sub-spaces are visually distinguished from other panel icons in the tool bar area.

22. The assembly of claim 21 wherein the tool bar area includes a slave representation area field that is visually distinguished from other portions of the tool bar area, the panel icons associated with images currently presented via the slave presentation sub-spaces visually distinguished from other panel icons by being located within the slave representation area field.

23. The ass

Assignees

• Steelcase Inc

Inventors

• Dunn Michael H
• Hutchinson Ian G
• Hildebrandt Peter W

Classifications

• H04N9/3197

  using light modulating optical valves · CPC title

• H04L12/1831

  Tracking arrangements for later retrieval, e.g. recording contents, participants activities or behavior, network status · CPC title

• G06F3/04845

  for image manipulation, e.g. dragging, rotation, expansion or change of colour · CPC title

• H04L12/1813

  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 title

• G06F3/0486

  Drag-and-drop · CPC title