Microsoft Technology Licensing, LLC

Mark Robert Swift

Jason Thomas Faulkner

Brandon V Taylor

Austin Seungmin Lee

Ryan S Menezes

Henry Yao-Tsu Chen

Shawn Crispin Wright

Ewin Davis Kannuthottiyil

Ruchir Astavans

Mark Ian Rubinstein

Thaddeus Adam Scott

Michael Brasket

Albert Robles

Michael Howard Hill

Bofan Hsu

Devi Brunsch

Xiaoyue Wang

Graham Plumb

The techniques disclosed herein provide a contextual toolset for use in canvases of collaboration applications. The techniques also provide smart hooks for pinning tools to specific locations on content opened in a canvas. The contextual toolset may include tools specific to an application opened in a canvas and/or tools for implementing the functionality of external applications. The smart hooks maintain linkages between an instance of tool usage and an object in a file or other content. The linkages maintain the tool in the same location relative to the object even if the object is moved. Instances of external applications opened in a canvas may be presented in a dedicated user interface region that passes data to and from the external application.

Extensible and adaptable toolsets for collaboration applications

In a device including a processor and a memory in communication with the processor is described, the memory includes executable instructions that, when executed by the processor, cause the processor to control the device to perform functions of: generating, based on a plurality of local 3D models, a global 3D model representing a portion of a real-world environment; determining a location of a 3D virtual object in the global 3D model; and generating augmentation data for rendering the 3D virtual object to be seen at a location of the real-world environment corresponding to the location of the 3D virtual object in the global 3D model.

Augmented reality

Disclosed techniques provide for the management of immersion levels and notifications of conference activities that are of interest to a user. In some embodiments, a system can monitor a conference session, that a user is not attending, on the user's behalf to determine when activity that is of interest to the user occurs during the conference session. The system can then send a notification to the user to inform her of the identified activity. In some embodiments, the notification may enable the user to control her immersion level with respect to the conference session. For example, the notification may include user interface element(s) that the user may select to observe or even join the conference session. In some embodiments, the notification may enable the user to directly share content with attendees of the conference session without having to observe or join the conference session.

Managing user immersion levels and notifications of conference activities

A user device comprises a network interface, a rendering module, and a scene modification module. The network interface is configured to receive a video signal from another device via a network. The rendering module is configured to control display apparatus of the user device to display a virtual element to a user of the user device, the virtual element comprising a video image derived from the video signal. The modification module is configured to generate rendering data for displaying a modified version of the virtual element at the other device. The modified version does not include said video image. The network interface is configured to transmit the rendering data to the other device via the network. Alternatively or in addition, the rendering data can be modified at the other device to the same end.

Communication system

An augmented reality (AR) system receives a plurality of local 3D models of a part of a real-world environment, each having been generated by a different AR device when located in the real-world environment. The local 3D models are combined to generate a global 3D model, at least part of which is transmitted to a device remote from the real-world environment. The global 3D model represents a greater portion of the real-environment than any of the local 3D models individually. The AR system receives rendering data from the remote device, and transmits it to an AR device when the AR device is located in the real-world environment. Alternatively, the rendering data may be transmitted from the remote device to the AR device via a network directly. The rendering data is for use in rendering a virtual object at the AR device in the real-world environment.

Techniques for presenting a message in a communication session are described. In at least some embodiments, a message is sent by a participant in a communication session. The message is presented in a graphical user interface (GUI) for the communication session and visually linked to a visual representation of the participant. According to one or more implementations, a number of messages that are presented in a GUI for a communication session is throttled.

Presenting a message in a communication session

Embodiments obtain a content item representing graphic content suitable for display as part of a shared media event, determine an activity metric for said content item, determine an activity metric for a participant of said shared media event, comparing the activity metric of the content item and the activity metric the participant, cause a display to render the graphic content associated with said content item, and render a representation of said participant. In at least some implementations, the relative displayed positions of said graphic content and said representation of the participant are based on the result of the comparison of the activity metric of the content item and the activity metric the participant.

Media communication

A user device has a display, a user interface and a network interface. The network interface receive a video data stream from another user interface. A user of the user device is able to pause the video stream. The paused image of the video stream and the video stream are both displayed on the display. The user is able to annotate the paused image.

Growing community of inventors

Mercer Island, WA, United States of America

Mark Robert Swift