Computer graphics processing and selective visual display system – Display driving control circuitry – Controlling the condition of display elements
Reexamination Certificate
2000-03-09
2004-05-04
Kincaid, Kristine (Department: 2174)
Computer graphics processing and selective visual display system
Display driving control circuitry
Controlling the condition of display elements
C345S215000, C345S215000, C345S215000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06731308
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to computer-implemented methods and systems for providing reciprocal information to two or more users of a set of interconnected computers regarding each other's selected activities. More particularly, the present invention provides visual cues to inform a user of another user's intention to initiate a contact or to end such a contact.
In the physical world, people employ a wide array of verbal and non-verbal cues to inform each other of their intentions to initiate a contact, e.g., start a conversation, or to terminate a contact, e.g., end a conversation. Further, in the physical world a person can assess another person's visual cues (e.g., facial expressions) or conditions (e.g., whether the person is engaged in a telephone conversation) to decide whether it is a proper time to initiate a contact with the other person. The availability of such reciprocal cues in the physical world allows a person to smoothly negotiate various interactions with other people.
People who work in close proximity of each other (such as the same building or site) employ reciprocal awareness of each other's activities to gauge whether to initiate a contact with a co-worker. For instance, a person working in an office may detect a co-worker approaching the office from a hallway and may be able to predict that the co-worker intends to initiate a conversation. Further, the person may be able to predict, based on prior familiarity with the co-worker and/or visual cues, the kind of conversation the co-worker intends to initiate. During the co-worker's approach, the person can react in various ways to indicate to the co-worker whether she is available for interaction. For example the person can turn her head toward the doorway to acknowledge the co-worker's approach, thereby inviting a conversation. Alternatively, the person can intensify her focus on her current task, to dissuade the co-worker from interrupting her.
Likewise, the co-worker can choose a course of conduct based on visual cues that he receives from the person that he intends to contact. For example, if the person is engaged in a telephone conversation, or if the person has a visitor in her office, the co-worker may decide that it is not an opportune time to make the contact. Further, such reciprocal awareness between the parties allows them to negotiate access and control privacy. For instance, a person can provide a signal (such as closing the office door) to a co-worker who is standing outside her office and monitoring her activity to indicate that she is aware of the co-worker's presence, and wishes the co-worker to leave. Additionally, a person who is aware of being monitored by a co-worker can control the information that the co-worker receives.
A similar process occurs when two parties intend to terminate an interaction. In particular, parties tend to give each other mutually shared non-verbal indications of an intent to end a conversation. For example, as a conversation begins to wind down, one of the parties may glance at her watch, take steps toward a doorway, or provide other cues of her intention to terminate the conversation. Further, after the termination of the conversation, one or both of the parties can restart the conversation, for example to convey a last-minute thought without much effort.
Among distributed participants (i.e., remotely situated) in a conversation, however, there is no reciprocal awareness of any participant's non-verbal cues of an intent to start and/or end an interaction. Thus, such distributed participants need to develop explicit, formal mechanisms for initiating and/or ending a contact. For example, before engaging in a telephone conversation, the phone must first ring to provide an explicit indication of one party's intent to initiate a contact, and the receiving party must explicitly answer the phone. In addition, there is generally some explicit exchange of identities (e.g. “Hi, this is Bob”). Similarly, the parties typically exchange an explicit “goodbye” before hanging up the phone, thereby terminating the telephone conversation.
Similarly, the interactions among distributed users of an interconnected set of computers can lack visual cues regarding each participant's intention to begin and/or to end an interaction. For example, in current instant messenger (IM) systems, an initiating user can initiate an IM contact with a receiver by popping up a window on the receiver's computer. The receiver, however, has no awareness that a contact from the initiating user is imminent, and reciprocally, the initiating user has no knowledge of whether the receiver is attending to the IM. For example, the initiator does not know whether a lack of response from the receiver is because the receiver is in the process of composing an answer or because the receiver is ignoring the IM.
Similarly, ending a contact in current IM systems tends to be awkward and can result in a premature disconnection of the communication link between the parties. For example, in some IM systems, one user can close an IM window to end a conversation without the other user knowing that the IM window has been closed. Thus, IM conversations in such systems require an explicit exchange of farewells before termination
A number of systems that attempt to address the shortcomings of IM systems are known. For example, one system provides each computer of a set of users with a digital camera. A user of the system obtains periodic snap-shots of the offices of selected participants from the digital cameras. Thus, the user has a matrix of snap-shots composed of the images from the offices of the selected participants. This matrix of snap-shots allows the user to decide whether to initiate a contact with another participant. Such a system, however, has privacy issues, and further such a system requires that each participant have a digital camera and ancillary equipment.
Another system, known as “Gallery”, is described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,793,365. Gallery provides each user with iconic pictures of other users. Each iconic picture can represent three different states: a first indicating that the user is actively working on the computer, a second indicating that the computer keyboard has been idle more than a few minutes, and a third indicating that the person is engaged in a computer-mediated communication, such as a desk-top video conference. Gallery provides only three distinguishable states of each user to the other users. Further, Gallery requires that three distinct iconic images of each user be created and stored.
A research project known as “Peepholes”, which is described in a paper entitled “Low Cost Awareness of One's Community”, published in ACM SIGCHI '96 Proceedings of Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (1996), offers a similar functionality to that offered by Gallery. “Peepholes” provides line drawings of each user rather than an iconic image. Further, Peepholes provides more than three states for indicating the activity of a user. One disadvantage of Peepholes is that the representations of the users occupy a large portion of a user's computer screen which is traditionally viewed as valuable real estate that users are reluctant to give up. In addition, Peepholes uses a name label to associate a line drawing with that user, further aggravating the crowding of the user's computer screen.
Some researchers have suggested employing physical objects to which sensors are attached to be interfaced with computers of distributed users to provide mutual awareness among the users. For example, one research approach employs a first doll to represent a user and a second doll to represent a co-worker of the user. The user may turn the first doll representing herself toward the second doll representing the co-worker to indicate her intention to contact the co-worker. The user's computer detects the juxtaposition of the dolls and sends a signal to the co-worker's computer to inform the co-worker of th
Begole James M. A.
Bhalodia Janak R.
Mordecai Nicole Y.
Tang John C.
Van Kleek Max G.
Kincaid Kristine
Lahive & Cockfield LLP
Nguyen Nhon
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