Microsoft Technology Licensing, LLC

Geoffrey John Elliott

Myron C Thomas

Richard William Saunders

Madhuvan Gupta

John D Vert

Tammy Savage

Melora Zaner

Eun-Kyung Chung

Heather Ferguson

Kathleen Patricia Mulcahy

Asta Jane Roseway

Brian J Guarraci

Aarthi Natarajan

Edward H Wayt

Jonathan N Sposato

Joe Walkush

A system and method for controlling media through a user interface integrated within a taskbar is described. This system and method enable a user to control media while a user interface of another application remains in perspective. Further, this system includes a taskbar media player, which can play media and enable a user to control the play of that media from within a taskbar.

Taskbar media player

A novel technique automatically stores synchronized group history related to an online group interaction and enables individual group members to later view and access the group history. In an embodiment of the invention, the group history is accessible by group members independently of group interactions at any later time. According to various embodiments of the invention, the group history may be presented in an overview form or a detailed form. With respect to the detailed form, the group history may be presented graphically, such as in an icon timeline or collage, textually, such as in list form, or in any combination of presentation formats. In a further embodiment of the invention, the synchronized group history is writable by group members in addition to being automatically maintained.

Shared online experience history capture and provision system and method

Ordered list management is described. An item's position within an ordered list is represented by a path value. A globally unique identifier (GUID) is appended to the path value to enable simultaneous or near-simultaneous modifications to the ordered list without conflict. Furthermore, an ordered list-specific seed value may be prepended to each item's path value to ensure clustering of ordered list items when two or more ordered lists are merged.

Ordered list management

A novel technique enables participants of an online group interaction to capture and encapsulate an ongoing activity at a particular moment in time. During the online group interaction, a user activates an icon, and is enabled to select properties of the saved memory, such as icon color/image for the saved material, what parts of the shared experience to save, etc. For example, the user may want to save all or some of the conversation, music played, scores for a game played, and the pictures viewed during the session, as well as any other portion desired. The saved material may represent a snapshot of the activity at save time, or may comprise a sequence of events up to the point that the material was saved. While saving the selected material, the application displays an animation such as an origami-type animation of a box folding up from a flat sheet.

Shared online experience encapsulation system and method

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Seattle, WA, United States of America

Geoffrey John Elliott