Portable presentation system and methods for use therewith

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9858033-B2
Application number	US-201615078494-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Mar 23, 2016
Priority date	Feb 9, 2006
Publication date	Jan 2, 2018
Grant date	Jan 2, 2018

Abstract

A collaboration system comprising a first large display screen supported within the conference space and a processor linked to the large display screen and providing an interface thereon that includes a presentation space for presenting session content and a device icon section, the device icon section including a separate attendee icon for each attendee linked to the session via a portable computing device, wherein any one of the portable computing devices is useable to control content presented in the presentation space, the processor programmed to perform the steps of receiving a command to alter the content in the presentation space from any one of the portable computing devices, in response to receiving the command, altering the content in the presentation space and visually distinguishing the attendee icon associated with the portable computing device most recently used to change the content in the presentation space, wherein the portable computing devices are used in an egalitarian fashion.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A collaboration system for sharing digital content among a plurality of session attendees, the collaboration system comprising:
a first interface device including a first processor and at least a first display screen, the first processor providing a first interface via the at least a first display screen that includes a first presentation space, a first presentation space and a first device section, the first panel icon section including thumbnail representations of images associated with a current session, the first device section including a separate attendee icon corresponding to each of a plurality of computer interface devices linked to the session, each computer interface device used by at least one conference attendee, the first presentation space including space in which enlarged versions of the thumbnail representations may be presented for viewing;
a second interface device linked via a communication link to the first interface device, the second interface device including a second processor and at least a second display screen, the second processor providing a second interface via the second display screen that includes a second presentation space, a second panel icon section and a second device section, the second presentation space, second panel icon section and the second device section substantially replicating the first presentation space, the firs panel icon section and the first device section, respectively; and
wherein, either of the first and second interfaces is useable in an egalitarian fashion to select a plurality of thumbnail representations for simultaneous presentation during a session in an associated presentation space causing the processors to present enlarged representations of the selected plurality of thumbnail representations in each of the first and second presentation spaces.

2. The collaboration system of claim 1 wherein the at least a first display screen includes a single display screen and wherein the at least a second display screen includes a single display screen.

3. The collaboration system of claim 2 wherein the enlarged representations are presented on each of the first and second presentation spaces in non-overlapping positions.

4. The collaboration system of claim 3 wherein either of the first and second interfaces is useable in an egalitarian fashion to remove any of the enlarged representations from an associated presentation space which causes the processors to remove the enlarged representation from each of the first and second presentation spaces.

5. The collaboration system of claim 4 wherein at least one of the enlarged representations can be removed from an associated presentation space by dragging the enlarged representation into the panel icon section.

6. The collaboration system of claim 3 wherein each of the first and second interfaces presents at least first, second and third non-overlapping enlarged representations simultaneously.

7. The collaboration system of claim 2 wherein the first interface assembly is represented by a device icon in the device section on the second display screen and the second interface assembly is represented by a device icon in the device section on the first display screen.

8. The collaboration system of claim 7 wherein at least a subset of the device icons in the device sections are visually distinguished by icon specific colors and wherein the icon specific colors are identical between the first and second interface devices.

9. The collaboration system of claim 8 wherein each of the first and second interfaces further includes annotation tools for annotating enlarged representations in the presentation spaces and wherein either of the first and second interfaces can be used in an egalitarian fashion to annotate any of the enlarged representations in the presentation spaces.

10. The collaboration system of claim 9 wherein annotations applied to the enlarged representations are color coded to match the icon specific colors of the interface devices used to apply the annotations.

11. The collaboration system of claim 9 wherein, after annotations are made to one of the enlarged representations, when the enlarged representation is removed from the presentation space, the annotations are stored with the enlarged representation for subsequent access.

12. The collaboration system of claim 7 wherein at least a subset of the device icons shown in the device section on the large flat panel display are visually distinguished by device icon specific colors.

13. The collaboration system of claim 2 wherein at least one of the thumbnail representations may correspond to a current desktop image of one of the computer interface devices linked to the session and wherein the current desktop image from the computer interface device is presented via the presentation spaces presented by the first and second interfaces when the associated thumbnail representation is selected for presentation.

14. The collaboration system of claim 2 wherein a subset of the thumbnail representations correspond to images and another subset of the thumbnail representations correspond to desktop images associated with computer interface devices represented in the device section.

15. The collaboration system of claim 2 wherein the first display screen includes a large flat panel display screen arranged in a first conference space for viewing by local users.

16. The collaboration system of claim 2 wherein the second interface device includes a personal portable computing device.

17. The collaboration system of claim 16 wherein at least a subset of the enlarged representations are presented on the second display screen in overlapping positions.

18. The collaboration system of claim 2 wherein the first and second interface assemblies include first and second personal portable computing devices, respectively.

19. The collaboration system of claim 18 further including a third interface device that includes a large display screen supported in a first conference space for viewing by a plurality of attendees located in the conference space, the third interface device also including a third processor, the third processor providing a third interface on the large display screen that includes at least a third presentation space, content presented in the third presentation space substantially mirroring the content presented in the first presentation space.

20. The collaboration system of claim 19 wherein the third interface further includes a third device section including a separate attendee icon corresponding to each of a plurality of computer interface devices linked to the session.

21. The collaboration system of claim 19 wherein any one of the computer interface devices linked to the session is useable to control content within the presentation spaces and wherein the attendee icon associated with a computer interface device most recently used to control content within the presentation spaces is visually distinguished on each of the interfaces.

22. The collaboration system of claim 21 wherein the attendee icon associated with the computer interface device most recently used to control content within the presentation spaces is visually distinguished by highlighting the attendee icon.

23. The collaboration system of claim 19 wherein each of the first and second interface devices are used within the first conference space.

24. The collaboration system of claim 23 wherein each o

Assignees

• Steelcase Inc

Inventors

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

Classifications

• H04N9/3102

  using two-dimensional electronic spatial light modulators (micromechanical modulators as such G02B26/0833; liquid crystal modulators as such G02F1/13) · CPC title

• H04L65/4015

  where at least one of the additional parallel sessions is real time or time sensitive, e.g. white board sharing, collaboration or spawning of a subconference · CPC title

• G06F3/0486

  Drag-and-drop · CPC title

• G09G2370/04

  Exchange of auxiliary data, i.e. other than image data, between monitor and graphics controller · CPC title

• H04N7/15 Primary

  Conference systems · CPC title