Abstract: An electronic multimedia document system provides temporal icons that provide indices into a recording of a meeting or presentation. The temporal icons index the times of occurrence of events and beginning times, ending times, and time spans of timestreams. The temporal icons provide complete playback control of the document through a gestural interface.

Abstract: Meeting support objects for supporting meeting objectives for use in a freeform graphics system. Meeting support objects are representations of dynamic information that is used to support various common activities performed in meetings, such as decision making, assigning action items, agenda tracking, etc. Meeting support objects are defined by a domain object class. The domain object class defines attributes, a set of action rules and layouts. The attributes describe the information or data associated with the meeting support object. Further, the underlying attribute values represented by the icon may change, based on predefined spatial parameters, as the result of user actions performed on the icon (e.g. via a gesture) or upon the occurrence of a system event. The set of action rules map user actions and system events to operations that may be performed on the meeting support object. The layouts define how meeting support object information is displayed as an icon.

Abstract: An enhanced information collage having a surface for detachable support of a plurality of collage components. The enhanced information collage comprises an identification unit, a location unit, and an information processing system. The identification unit is for determining informational content of at least some of the plurality of collage components. The location unit is for tracking position of at least some of the plurality of collage components. The information processing system is connected to the identification unit and the location unit for storing sate records of position and informational content of at least some of the plurality of collage components, with the information processing being updatable to reflect changes in position and information content of the at least some of the plurality of collage components.

Abstract: An electronic multimedia document system provides temporal icons that provide indices into a recording of a meeting or presentation. The temporal icons index the times of occurrence of events and beginning times, ending times, and time spans of timestreams. The temporal icons provide complete playback control of the document through a gestural interface.

Abstract: A computer controlled display system for defining flow regions. A flow region enables a user to view long lists of data items on the work surface of a graphical display system. In a flow region, a rectangular region typically the size of the viewable work surface area, is organized into columnar columns. The items in the long list are mapped to the columnar columns. As items are added to or deleted from the list, the items contained within the columnar columns may "flow" to other columns. In this organization the items in the top of the list are in the first column and the list is displayed in columnar fashion from left to right. Thus, all items in the list may be displayed in the viewable work surface area.

Abstract: A method and apparatus for organizing a workspace of a graphical input system that utilizes borders to define regions within the workspace. The present invention addresses the problem of determining the scope of structure operations. Structures, e.g. a list, table or other group of items having some fixed relationship by introducing the notion of a border dynamically created on such systems using available areas on the workspace. Some ambiguity may exist as to where a structure begins or ends. Further, such structure operations may cause a structure to overlay another structure. Borders are used to tessellate a work surface into non-overlapping regions. Typically, within each region is a structure. Deleting borders on a tessellated work surface may cause others borders to be deleted with the object being to maintain a completely tessellated work surface. Further, various border types, visually represented by different line types, are enabled which in turn provide for defining different types of regions.

Abstract: An apparatus and method for animating editing changes on a display device is provided. The invention is designed to operate preferably with a graphical editing system that permits both handwritten and typewritten data entry. Both the primary changes made by the user and the contextual changes resulting from the primary changes are animated at a visually apparent rate in multiple steps to permit a user and other viewers of the display device to understand the effects of an editing change on surrounding objects. The number of steps in which the changes are animated depends on the number of changes which must be made and the operation performed.

Abstract: A system for creating and manipulating groups of graphic objects using enclosures. A persistent graphic object, such as a closed loop is drawn around a set of graphic objects as an enclosure. When the enclosure is selected the enclosure and the set of graphic objects within are grouped. Besides moving graphic objects into and out of the enclosure, the contents of a group can then be modified by 1) graphically altering the enclosure loop to include or remove graphic objects, 2) fusing groups by moving one of them so that their enclosure loops overlap (i.e., they "fuse" into one), 3) fusing groups through gestures which "touch" enclosure loops of the groups to be fused or 4) splitting the group into multiple groups through a splitting gesture.

Abstract: A graphical editing system is provided which allows a user to draw number of commonly used gestures called primitive command gestures together in essentially one stroke. The primitive gestures are chosen to represent gestural syntax, analogous to a textual command syntax. The primitive gestures are concatenated. i.e., connected in a series of commands by a gestural operator called a break feature. Every input composite gesture is scanned to detect the break features. When found, the composite gesture is broken up into primitive gestures and each gesture is interpreted and executed in the order in which the individual gestures were drawn. The preferred break feature is sharp angle drawn between consecutive primitive gestures. In a composite gesture consisting of two primitive gestures, one being the selection gesture, the break feature is recognized as any departure from the selection gesture.

Abstract: In a computer controlled display system capable of supporting free form graphical input, techniques for maintaining the topology of a node-link structure when nodes are moved. When a node is moved, arbitrarily shaped links to other nodes will automatically be reshaped. The manner in which the link reshapes will depend on where a node is moved relative to the node to which it is linked. Various techniques for reshaping the node in order to retain the node-link structure topology are provided. A link may be reshaped by curve transformation or flipping the link shape about an axis. Curve transformation is a technique wherein the shape characteristics of a link are retained no matter where the node is moved. However, links that intersect, i.e. pass through, the nodes may arise from such reshaping.

Abstract: A system for controlling the playback of a recorded session. Timestream and event information for the session is captured by one or more recording devices. Playback of a session is performed under the control of a session access device. A session access device utilizes event information to create a user interface for controlling session replay. In the present invention, two windows are used in a coherent and synergistic fashion. A first window functions as a player for playing back a timestream for the electronic whiteboard is also used for controlling playback of the session. A second window functions as a playback controller utilizing a timeline metaphor. Various interactions in one window will cause a resulting change in the other window. For example, selecting a marking in the first window may cause all related events to be displayed on the timeline of the second window. This coherency enables a user to more clearly pinpoint points in the session that would contain information of interest.

Abstract: A method and apparatus for representing a group of graphic objects so as to maximize usage of a display area on a computer controlled graphics display system. The present invention provides a means for "collapsing" a group of graphic objects so that the group is represented by a container icon. The container icon occupies a smaller amount of display area than the group of objects. The group is recallable (i.e. expanded) by "tapping" on the container icon. Alternatively, the group may be located on a separate accessible area of the display space. The container icon is itself a graphical object and can be moved, copied or deleted. Any change of attributes, e.g. color, of the graphical object causes a corresponding change to the group of graphic objects.

Abstract: A system for the capture and playback of temporal data representing a collaborative activity such as a meeting. Such temporal data is captured by one or more capture devices (e.g. audio recordings or an electronic whiteboard). Temporal data is comprised of timestreams and events. Timestreams are sets of timestamped data which represent some recordable aspect of the meeting. Events are contained within a timestream that represent natural activities that occurred during the course of the session. Events are used to create indices which provide direct access to a point or span in time during the collaborative activity. Playback of a session is performed under the control of a session access device. Coupled to the session access device are a plurality of players for playing back timestreams. The session access device utilizes event information to create a user interface for controlling session replay. The user interface is comprised of a plurality of windows.

Abstract: A system for capturing and controlling access to concurrently recorded timestreams of a session. A session is of a collaborative activity such as a meeting. Timestreams of the session are captured by various recording devices. The timestreams are analyzed to create a set of events for each timestream. An event is subsequently used as an index for replaying the session. Playback of the timestreams is done in order to recall dialogs or other events that occurred during the meeting. The timestreams are played back contemporaneously. A timeline interface having the events mapped thereon is used to traverse through the different portions of the session.

Abstract: An interactive method and system to support and facilitate note-taking tasks in a variety of settings, primarily, though not exclusively, in real time. In one embodiment, the system user uses a stylus device and display to enter notes in the form of handwritten strokes that are stored and correlated with an address, such as a time provided by a system clock. Notes are collected in a data structure represented by a spatial region on the display called an address, or time, zone that is created when the user enters a gesture requesting an address from the system. All notes entered in a particular time zone region in the display area are stored in a portion of the data structure correlated with the time associated with that time zone region, and, while time zones are created in sequential time order, notes are may be entered in time zones in any sequence and still be correlated with that time zone.

Abstract: A user-interactive method for use in a processor-controlled machine provides a user with the capability to establish associations among image segments in a data structure that indicate visually-displayed but otherwise not recognized or interpreted information, for the purpose of retrieving the unrecognized data from the data structure without performing a recognition operation. A user selects and designates a visually recognizable, but computationally unrecognized, displayed image segment as a coherent display object, called a key object, to function as an indexing mechanism. The user then associates the key object with data objects, which may also be computationally unrecognized, that are stored in a target data structure. The key object can be used as an access mechanism to retrieve the target data without recognition of either the key object or the target data.

Abstract: A user-interactive method for use in a processor controlled machine provides a user with the capability to retrieve and manipulate associations previously established among image segments in a single or in multiple data structures, where the image segments are stored as image data and not as recognized or interpreted information. The use of certain designated image segments, called key objects, for association with one or more other stored image segments in effect imposes a user-defined categorization structure on the image segments with which key objects are associated, producing groups of image segments associated with respective key object. The categorized information for a particular key object is retrievable and displayable with the key object image, also without performing a recognition operation, providing an indexing mechanism into the image data.

Abstract: An interactive processor-controlled system for entering and storing user information about an event that is being concurrently recorded in real time correlates the user information to user-requested addresses, such as time values stored with the recorded signals. The system includes a recording device for producing signals indicating recorded event data that includes periodic addresses, each of which indicates a portion of the recorded signals. An address source, such as a clock, is connected for providing address values to both the processor and the recording device. Using a pen-based user interface in one embodiment of the system, the system user specifically requests an address value in order to correlate user information to the signals being concurrently recorded. In response to a request for an address, the system establishes a spatial region on the display, called a time zone, into which the system user may enter information, in the form of handwritten strokes, about the event.

Abstract: A graphical input and display system for creating and manipulating an abstract graphical image by decomposing it into abstract elemental objects and organizing the elemental objects into a set of perceptually coherent composite objects. The system includes an input device for entering the graphical image, such as a mouse or digitizer and electronic stylus, a display, and a function selection system for manipulating the graphical image. The system decomposes the graphical image entered onto the display into abstract elemental objects each consisting of one or more consecutive "on" pixels within the image. The system organizes the elemental objects into composite objects, which are abstract groups of elemental objects, such that each elemental object belongs to one or more composite objects and each composite object contains one or more elemental objects. The elemental and composite objects are linked in a lattice data structure stored in system memory.

Abstract: A computer-controlled graphics display system using object-based representations of the displayed objects, and cooperating with a user-operated motion-sensitive input device. A powerful user interface technique called "wiping" is described. This allows selection by the user of target objects to be acted on by accessing an applicator and sweeping the applicator over the display. Selected objects are determined by selection criteria including spatial intersection of the applicator sweep stroke with the displayed object, and time of object creation. The effect on the selected objects is on the entire object and is determined by an operator associated by the user with the applicator, such as object grouping, deletion, coloring, uncoloring, thickening, or object size relocation.