Microsoft Technology Licensing, LLC

Kevin D Morrison

Jason Thomas Faulkner

Ruchir Astavans

Shiraz Jitendra Cupala

Eric Jonathan Hull

Amey Parandekar

Ewin Davis Kannuthottiyil

Casey Baker

Sonu Arora

Eric Randall Sexauer

Mansoor A Malik

Jose Alberto Rodriguez

Chad A Voss

Szymon Madejczyk

Marcelo Daniel Truffat

James Paul Kardos

Christopher Welsh

Timur Aleshin

Thaddeus Adam Scott

Archana Saseetharan

Siddharth Uppal

Yuri Dogandjiev

Julia Nancy Foran

Rajesh Rangarajan

Aaron William Linne

Rajiv Ramaiah

Beste Nazilli

Sagar Nagaraja Shastry

Alexander Tobias Powell

Manasi Sharma

Lei Yang

Blaine J Carpenter

Thomas S Bouchard

Edward Sean Lloyd Rintel

Lan Ye

Shivaram Prabhakar

Kenton O'Hara

Anthony Arnold Wieser

Michael Howard Hill

Timothy Michael Cleary

Robert Corish

Ekaterina Bassova

Matthew Benjamin Blank

Amit Gupta

Riley Frambes

Michael John Eckert

Santhosh Kumar Misro

Arney Parandekar

Julia Foran

Joshua George

Traditionally, meetings are widely utilized in business and personal communications, whether in-person and/or virtual. Organizing such meetings typically involves multiple exchanges of content and messages between users before, during, and after the meeting. In some cases, meetings may occur impromptu and may result in inefficient and unproductive collaboration. A collaboration object configured to enable users to dynamically collaborate before, during, and after a meeting is provided. In aspects, the collaboration object links content generated before, during, and after the meeting in a single location and provides functionality for concurrent multi-user interaction and synchronization of the content across applications. The collaboration object may be available from a variety of application platforms, enabling and persisting real-time editing and collaboration before, during and after the meeting.

Object for pre- to post-meeting collaboration

Updating user-specific instances of a second application for individual users of a group based on a data file for the second application being shared via a collaboration object that corresponds to the group within a first application. The instances of the second application present each individual user with their own custom user experience that is configured to provide access to specific content based on object permissions data. An application extension is executable, by the first application, to extend content editing functionalities of the second application into the collaboration object. Responsive to specific content being associated with the collaboration object via the application extension, each of the instances of the second application may be automatically updated to provide direct access to the specific content. Thus, each user within the group defined for collaboration object can access the data file via the collaboration object and their own instance of the second application.

Updating user-specific application instances based on collaborative object activity

Auto-generated object for impromptu collaboration

The techniques disclosed herein enable participants of a teleconference session to access the functionality of a number of task-related program modules while maintaining engagement with aspects of a teleconference session within a single user interface. For example, a session participant can access files, various chat discussions, various channels, calendars, emails, an operating system desktop, and other functionality of a computing device while viewing one or more video streams of a teleconference session within a unified graphical user interface. The session participant can maintain engagement with both audio and video capabilities while performing tasks, including but not limited to, selecting, viewing, and modifying content data. In some configurations, a specialized graphical user interface allows a user to view one or more video streams of the teleconference session in predetermined positions while also providing optimal access to tools for interacting with different types of content managed by a variety of modules.

Integrated multitasking interface for communication sessions

The disclosed techniques improve user engagement and promote efficient use of computing resources by providing dynamically controlled aspect ratios for communication session renderings based on a physical orientation of a device. In some configurations, a system can select a first aspect ratio for individual video streams of a communication session when a device is in a first orientation, e.g., a portrait orientation. In addition, the system can select a second aspect ratio for the individual video streams when the device is in a second orientation, e.g., a landscape orientation. In some configurations, the first aspect ratio can be greater than the second aspect ratio, or the aspect ratios can be selected based on a target aspect ratio, which can be adjusted over time. By dynamically selecting an aspect ratio for individual stream renderings, screen space of a device can be optimized while the device is held in various physical orientations.

Dynamically controlled aspect ratios for communication session video streams

The present disclosure provides a number of techniques for enhancing a user's experience when joining teleconference sessions with multiple devices. When a user attempts to join a teleconference session using the same user identity for multiple devices, a system differentiates the devices as a primary device and at least one companion device. The primary device has a first control set for controlling a teleconference session and the at least one companion device has a companion control set for sharing content. In some embodiments, the primary device also has one set of selected streams, e.g., a stage view, and the companion device has a subset of those streams or other streams based on an activity level. In addition, the present disclosure provides a number of techniques for enabling users to share content using the companion devices.

Companion devices for real-time collaboration in communication sessions

A representation of a calendar view is rendered on a user interface (UI), the calendar view indicative of one or more calendar days comprising a time span including a plurality of sequential time slots. A representation of a calendar event is rendered that is indicative of a scheduled meeting in at least one of the sequential time slots. The scheduled meeting is rendered without an icon or button operative to provide an interactive control to join the scheduled meeting. In response to determining that a scheduled meeting has started, the representation is updated by adding a status indication that is indicative of a current status of the scheduled meeting. The current status is provided without joining the scheduled meeting.

Live meeting information in a calendar view

A representation of a calendar view is rendered on a user interface (UI). The calendar view is indicative of one or more calendar days comprising a time span including a plurality of sequential time slots. A representation of a scheduled meeting is rendered in at least one of the sequential time slots. The scheduled meeting is rendered without an icon or button operative to provide an interactive control to join the scheduled meeting. In response to determining that the scheduled meeting has started, the representation of the scheduled meeting is converted to a live meeting object and the representation of the scheduled meeting is replaced with the converted live meeting object. The live meeting object renders a live video or audio output of the scheduled meeting.

Live meeting object in a calendar view

The present disclosure provides a number of techniques for enhancing a user's experience when joining teleconference sessions. When multiple users join a teleconference session using separate devices, a system identifies devices that are co-located. The co-located devices are identified by the use of a combination of data including, but not limited to social signals, audio signal and other location data. At least one device of the co-located devices, has a first control set for controlling a teleconference session and other devices of the co-located devices have a second control set for sharing content. The at least one device also has one set of streams and the other devices see a subset of those streams or other streams based on an activity level. In addition, the present disclosure provides a number of techniques for enabling users to use multiple devices to share content.

Enhanced techniques for joining communication sessions

Described herein is a system that enables a user to filter notable events, representations for which are presented on an interactive timeline associated with a teleconference session or a collaboration environment. The filtering can be implemented based on a type of a notable event and/or based on a specific notable event. The system is also configured to enable a user to search for instances of a type of event and instances of a specific notable event. The system is configured to provide results to the search request that list the teleconference sessions that include the located instances. The user can then select a teleconference session from the results to view an interactive timeline that includes representations of the located instances. Consequently, the system provides a tool that enables a user to efficiently and effectively locate events on an interactive timeline that are desirable (e.g., activity the user wants to view).

Interactive timeline that displays representations of notable events based on a filter or a search

Growing community of inventors

Arlington, MA, United States of America

Kevin D Morrison