Steelcase Inc.

Polyvision Corporation

Green Street, Ltd.

Michael H Dunn

Peter W Hildebrandt

Ian G Hutchinson

Scott E Wilson

James D Watson

Louis Ashford

Neal A Hofmann

Brent W Anderson

Richard Meissner

Guy L Williams

Jake Mintz

Marie Cote

Mark A Zeh

Stephen J Brown

Stephen Lawrence Brown

James E Michalski

Edward E Orner

James L Michalski

Sudhakar S Lahade

A method and assembly for sharing information in a conference space, the assembly comprising a display configuration including presentation surface area juxtaposed within the conference space for viewing by an audience, the surface area including at least first and second adjacent presentation sub-spaces, a processor programmed to perform the steps of presenting an interface on the surface area useable to generate session images within at least one of the sub-spaces, the interface including a panel section in which a separate panel icon for each of the session images created during a session is presented, the interface further including a separate space on the surface area associated with each of the sub-spaces, the interface facilitating selection and dragging of panel icons to locations associated with the sub-spaces to control the images presented in each of the sub-spaces, wherein, when a panel icon is dragged to a space, an image currently associated with the sub-space is replaced at the sub-space.

Portable presentation system and methods for use therewith

A content sharing system for sharing content among attendees comprising a communication network, a first content sharing configuration including at least a first large common display screen having at least a first display surface, a first processor and a first interface, a second content sharing configuration including at least a second large common display screen having at least a second display surface, a second processor and a second interface, wherein the first and second processors are linked via the network and programmed to present substantially identical content on the at least a first display surface and the at least a second display surface as the first and second interfaces are used to alter content on the first and second display surfaces.

A system and method for content collaboration, the system comprising a first collaboration configuration including at least a first display having a first display surface, a second collaboration configuration including a least a second display having a second display surface, a processor maintaining a session dataset including a plurality of objects arranged in a relative juxtaposition with respect to each other, the processor presenting first and second different views of the session via the at the least first and second display surfaces, respectively, wherein at least some of the first view overlaps with some of the second view and indicating, via the at least a first display surface, content presented in the second view that is not presented in the first view.

A system and method for establishing a conference session between a plurality of presentation devices including at least first and second presentation devices, the method comprising the steps of creating a conference session involving the first presentation device and at least one other presentation device, the first presentation device comprising at least one first display device on which content to be shared is displayed, for at least the second presentation device that includes at least one second display device, upon successful joining to the conference session, automatically sharing content displayed on the first display device with the second presentation device for display on the second display device and displaying a representation on the first display device identifying the other presentation devices that are successfully joined to the conference session.

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.

A distributed digital content collaboration method and system, the method comprising the steps of storing collaboration session data for at least one collaboration session, the collaboration data including data objects displayable on display surfaces, identifying unused display surfaces associated a collaboration system, sending display identifiers to at least a subset of the unused display surfaces, wherein the display identifiers are presented on the display surfaces as display identification codes for associated surfaces, receiving user input via a user interface identifying at least one of the display identifiers associated with a first display surface, determining that the identified display identifier matches the display identifier sent to the first display surface and, in response to the determination, configuring the first display surface with the processor to facilitate content collaboration.

An assembly for sharing information in a conference space comprising a contiguous large presentation display assembly including a large contiguous presentation surface, a processor programmed to perform the steps of dividing the large surface into a plurality of adjacent presentation sub-spaces including at least one master sub-space and a plurality of slave sub-spaces and enabling an interface that allows images to be presented via the sub-spaces and that enables moving images among the different sub-spaces, wherein, upon an image being moved from the master sub-space to one of the slave sub-spaces, the master presentation sub-space is left blank to receive another image.

An assembly including a display configuration including presentation surface area juxtaposed within the conference space for viewing by an audience, the presentation surface area including at least first and second adjacent sub-spaces, a first processor linked to the display assembly and programmed to perform the steps of enabling a first interface that allows images to be presented via and moved among the sub-spaces by selecting images in the sub-spaces on the surface area and moving the images to different locations and a hand held device including a device display and a second processor programmed to present a second interface that presents instances of each image presented via the sub-spaces and enabling movement of the images among the different sub-spaces by moving representations of the images to locations on the device display, the second processor communicating wirelessly with the first processor to synchronize images.

A method and assembly for use with a display configuration including a master sub-space and a plurality of slave sub-spaces, the assembly for controlling an information sharing session, the assembly comprising a processor linked to the display configuration and programmed to perform the steps of obtaining identification information from information sources usable to generate images on the sub-spaces during a session, presenting an interface via the master sub-space, the interface including a master workspace area for presenting images via the master sub-space and a tool area including source icons and panel icons associated with session images wherein each of the source and panel icons is selectable to create images within the master workspace area.

An assembly for sharing information in a conference space, the assembly comprising a single large presentation display assembly including a single and contiguous large presentation surface juxtaposed within the conference space for viewing by an audience, a processor linked to the display assembly and programmed to perform the steps of presenting a master sub-space on the presentation surface wherein the master sub-space includes only a portion of the presentation surface, enabling an interface that allows movement of an image from the master sub-space to another location outside the master sub-space, wherein, upon movement of an image from the master presentation sub-space to another space outside the master presentation sub-space on the presentation surface, the processor creates a slave presentation space proximate the another location for presenting the image moved from the master presentation sub-space.

A device and method of connecting an interactive communication system to a processing device. The device is a cable system that includes first and second ends. The first end of the cable system has a leg connector, while the second end of the connector system has first and second arm connectors. The method implements the cable system to load or run software onto the processing device, and includes connecting the leg connector to an interactive communication system; connecting the first arm connector having a memory device to the processing device, wherein the memory device includes predetermined software; loading/running the software on the processing device; disconnecting the first arm connector having the memory device from the processing device; and connecting a second arm connector to the processing device.

Interactive communication system having an integrated key drive system

The present invention includes interactive communication systems that incorporate several beneficial embodiments including an interactive tray system, an electronic presentation messaging system, an interactive podium, and a key drive system. The interactive tray system enables a single, transferable interactive unit to be fastened to a communication medium, turning into a fully interactive medium. The electronic presentation messaging system enables the e-mailing of presentations and notes to and from components of the interactive communication system. The interactive podium increases conventional podium mobility, enabling both the presenter, and podium, to move and be moved about the room without attention to wired connections. The key drive system replaces the conventional Y-connector of the key drive technology by effectively integrating the key drive in the device, thus only having one connector, and eliminating the need to change connectors from the key drive, to the USB connector, upon software driver loading.

Growing community of inventors

Dunwoody, GA, United States of America

Michael H Dunn