 |
Description  |
|
|
Cross-reference to copending, coassigned U.S. patent application Ser. No.
127993, entitled "Representation of Collaborative Multi-User Activities
Relative to Shared Structured Data Objects in a Networked Workstation
Environment" and incorporated herein by reference.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
This invention relates to collaboration between users, each of whom has a
display and an input device for viewing and operating on shared data.
A wide variety of techniques are known for enabling more than one user to
access shared data. In some techniques, shared data can only be displayed
to one user at a time, while in others, shared data can be displayed to a
number of users at the same time.
The display of shared data can take various forms. A common technique is to
present the shared data at a legible scale in a display region, such as a
window. In order to clear display area, however, it may be useful to
provide a smaller representation of the shared data such as an icon when
the user is not engaged in activities relating to the shared data.
G. Foster, Collaborative Systems and Multi-user Interfaces, Ph. D. Thesis,
University of California, Computer Science Division, Report No. CSD/UCB
86/326, 1986, defines a multi-user interface as a human-machine interface
coordinated for several users sharing information at the same time, at
page 35. At page 36, Foster discusses the use in multi-user applications
of compressed versions of windows in which general activity is discernible
but details are suppressed, and suggests this as an approach to the screen
space problem. FIG. 4.1 shows a shared window that is seen on the display
of each participant in a session using Cognoter, a program that provides a
multi-user interface and a structured meeting process. FIG. 4.3 shows how
a number of windows may appear during a Cognoter session, with some
windows overlapping others. Tables 4.1, 4.2 and 4.3 show a "Scrunch"
operation that shrinks a display window. At page 87, Foster discusses busy
signals, illustrated in FIG. 4.9, that signal potential conflict between
users by greying-out items being edited, moved or grouped by other users.
The ViewPoint ("VP") software system available from Xerox Corporation for
its workstations includes file drawers, described in "Filing," VP Series
Reference Library, Version 1.0, Xerox Corporation, 1985, pp 1-60. As
described at pages 3-7 and 20-21, a file drawer is a container for filing
documents created on a workstation; when an icon on the workstation
display is moved or copied to a file drawer icon, the corresponding
information, referred to as an object, is stored on a file server, and can
be shared by many users, in accordance with access rights, illustrated at
pages 40-43. A file drawer is represented by a relatively small icon with
a design suggesting a drawer and with a name appearing within the design.
By a sequence of keyboard and mouse signals, the user can select the icon
and request an open operation, in which case a window appears showing the
file drawer contents, as described and shown at pages 9-10 and 32-34.
Unless covered by a window, the file drawer icon remains visible in shadow
form while its window is open. The user can subsequently close the file
drawer window, in which case it disappears and the icon resumes its
original appearance. The ViewPoint system also includes reference icons,
described at pages 11-15, 22-25 and 49-60, which can also be used to
access shared data.
Interleaf Technical Publishing Software Reference Manual, Release 3.0 Vol.
1, 1986, pp. 15-1 through 15-18 and 16-1 through 16-19 describes features
of Technical Publishing Software (TPS) that can be used similarly to the
ViewPoint system's reference icons. Desktop links, described beginning at
page 15-12, can be used to share files throughout a network, enabling a
user to link to objects on other users' desktops, as further described at
pages 15-17 and 15-18. In addition, every desktop has access to objects in
the System cabinet through links. Link permissions and ownership are
described beginning at page 15-13, and the Document Locked stickup is
described beginning at page 15-15. This stickup, shown in FIG. 15-9,
includes a message with information about the lock on a document, as would
occur if the document were already open, either through a link or at
another workstation using the same desktop. The use of links in a book, a
special directory that creates a relationship among documents it contains,
is described beginning at page 16-18.
Techniques are also known for providing information to users of shared data
about the activities of other users. Sarin, S. K. and Greif, I., "Software
for Interactive On-Line Conferences," Proceedings ACM-SIGOA Conference on
Office Information Systems, Toronto, Canada, June 25-27, 1984, describe a
real-time conferencing system, RTCAL, in which a number of conference
participants can each see a shared bitmap in a screen region, as shown in
FIG. 3-2. Each user has a pointing device such as a mouse, and when a
bitmap-server that supports the shared bitmap receives input indicating
pointing activity by one of the participants, that participant's cursor is
updated on every participant's bitmap, as described in Section 3 at pages
15 and 18.
Sarin, S. K., Interactive On-Line Conferences, PhD thesis, M.I.T.
Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, May 1984, also
describes RTCAL, at pages 201-206. Elsewhere, at pages 47-57, Sarin
describes JEDI, a real-time joint document editing system that includes a
status window showing who is in a conference and other useful information
about participants, as described at pages 48 and 52 in relation to the
shared space shown in FIG. 2-4 and at page 57 in relation to a participant
leaving a conference. Sarin discusses status information more generally at
pages 75-78, pointing out ways in which a participant can know what other
participants are doing and looking at. On page 78, Sarin points out that
not all status information may fit on a participant's screen at once, and
suggests allocating a small amount of screen space to a main summary, with
more detailed information available when needed by a "pop-up" viewport;
Sarin also suggests special notification of significant changes in
conference status, accompanied by an attention-getting mechanism such as a
bell ringing or flashing part of the screen where the notification
appears. Pages 206-213 describe MBlink, in which each user can see the
positions of each workstation's mouse. Pages 214-227 describe XMBlink, a
design that extends this feature. Sarin, S. K. and Greif, I.,
"Computer-Based Real-Time Conferencing Systems" Computer, October 1985,
pp. 33-45, describe at page 34 a number of other systems providing
information about activities of other users. FIG. 1 shows a summary window
that provides further information about other participants in a conference
and an events window that displays important changes in status, such as
when a participant is leaving or joining or the passing of control, as
described at page 36.
Greif, I., Seliger, R. and Weihl, W., "Atomic Data Abstractions in a
Distributed Collaborative Editing System," Proceedings of the ACM
Symposium on Principles of Programming Languages, St. Petersburg, Florida,
January 1986, pp. 160-172, describe a distributed collaborative editing
system called "CES." The functionality and design of CES are described at
pages 164-165, including the sharing of documents among multiple authors.
While a "tickle" lock is held, small actions made by the owner are
committed after certain editing commands and remain visible when the lock
is released. Screen of all readers of text that is being modified are
updated at regular intervals as each small action commits.
Foster, G., CoLab, Tools for Computer-Based Cooperation, University of
California, Computer Science Division, Berkeley, California, Report No.
UCB/CSD 84/215, 1984, describes the use of RemoteMice, personalized images
of mouse cursors active on remote machines, at page 13. The relaxation of
WYSIWIS ("What You See Is What I See"), discussed at page 8, permits
differences between the views of a display object seen by different users,
which could be implemented by associating windows of different sizes or
screen positions or by providing visible remote cursors only on demand.
Stefik, M., Bobrow, D. G., Mittal, S. and Conway, L., "Knowledge
Programming in Loops: Report on an Experimental Course," The AI Magazine,
Fall 1983, pp. 3-13, describe Truckin', a workstation board game in which
each player has an iconic truck, as shown and described in relation to
FIG. 5. Each player can have a separate workstation. Gauges described at
pages 6-9 indicate the fuel, weight, and volume of each player's truck,
and that can be observed by other players. Stefic, M. J., Bobrow, D. G.
and Kahn, K. M., "Integrating Access-Oriented Programming into a
Multiparadigm Environment," IEEE Software, January 1986, pp 10-18 also
describe gauges at pages 14-15 and Truckin' at pages 16-17.
Davids et al., U.S. Pat. No. US-A 4,525,779, describe a conversational
video system capable of providing interactive conversational video data
communications between pairs of users and that enables multiple
conversations to be carried out by a given user in real-time, as shown and
described in relation to FIGS. 1-2. The display at a keystation can be
divided into a plurality of areas that can include first and second
conversation areas or a first conversation area and an area for retrieved
data, as shown and described in relation to FIG. 11 and FIGS. 10A-10F.
Another feature is an incoming calls area of the display containing brief
details of incoming calls and their interest messages, and the user may
accept one of the incoming calls shown in order to have it displayed in
one of the conversation areas. A user can list others from whom he is not
prepared to accept calls using a CALL INHIBIT function or can specify a
list of others to whom a call is directed using a CALL LIST function, as
shown and described in relation to FIGS. 14-43.
Leblang, D. B. and Chase, R. P., Jr., "Computer-Aided Software Engineering
in a Distributed Workstation Environment," in Henderson, P., (Ed.),
Proceedings of the ACM SIGSOFT/SIGPLAN Software Engineering Symposium on
Practical Software Development Environments, Pittsburgh, Penn., April
23-24, 1984, describe DSEE, a software development environment. As
described and shown in the fifth and sixth pages, each of a group of users
sees the items completed by other users immediately, as a reference to the
completed item.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The present invention provides techniques by which a small-scale
representation can be used to present information about activities of
other users. The present invention further provides techniques by which a
small-scale representation can be used to present quantitative information
about changes made by other users.
One aspect of the invention is based on the recognition of a basic problem
in a collaborative system, i.e. a real-time computer-based cooperative
environment. A user can often benefit from knowing the state of activities
of other users even when not engaged in activities with those other users.
For example, a user may need information about activities of another user
affecting shared data because such activities make that user's local copy
of the shared data inconsistent with the other user's copy. In a
collaborative system that permits concurrent access to shared data by more
than one user, a user may wish to join a group engaged in activity related
to shared data even when the shared data is not affected. For example, a
user may wish to rejoin a group viewing shared data when the group has
reached a certain stage in its work or when another user joins the group.
Or if the system allows more than one subgroup, a user in one subgroup may
need information about the progress of another subgroup. In all these
cases, it is inconvenient if the user needing information about activities
of other users must view the same data as those other users at full scale
and monitor any changes being made, because that data will occupy screen
area that could other wise be used for other activities.
This aspect of the invention is further based on the recognition that this
problem can be solved by displaying to the user a small-scale
representation that includes information about the activities of other
users relating to shared data. Because the representation is small-scale,
it does not interfere with the user's view of other objects on the
display. And the user can learn the current state of activity from the
small-scale representation, making it unnecessary to view the shared data
at full scale until a desired state of activity is reached. Then, the user
can begin viewing the shared data at full scale by selecting the
small-scale representation and requesting an appropriate operation.
A variety of techniques can be used to indicate the activities of other
users. When they change data, the small-scale representation could include
a flickering indicator, for example. If the shared data is presented to
each user as a display object or within a workspace such as a window, each
small-scale representation could include, in shrunken form, the current
version of that display object or workspace, with systematic distortions
to enable a user to recognize it and with updating to indicate changes.
The small-scale representation could include an indication of which users
are currently viewing the full scale representation and which users are
only viewing the small-scale representation. The small-scale
representation could include an indicator of the type of activity in
progress.
Another aspect of the invention is based on the recognition that a user
viewing a small-scale representation is likely to make decisions based on
how much change other users have made in the shared data or on how rapidly
other users are making changes. When other users have made extensive
changes, the user may wish to view the data with the changes or may wish
to update a local copy of the shared data. When other users begin making
changes very rapidly, the user may wish to view the contents to understand
why the changes are necessary. The need for such information can be solved
by including in the shrunken representation an indicator of a quantitative
measure of change that is updated as changes occur. The quantitative
measure could indicate the cumulative amount of change or the current rate
of change.
These and other objects, features and advantages will be more fully
understood from the following description, together with the attached
drawings and claims.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram showing shrunken representations in
accordance with the invention.
FIG. 2 is a flow chart showing general steps in providing the shrunken
representations of FIG. 1.
FIGS. 3A and 3B are schematic diagrams showing examples of shrunken
representations in accordance with the invention.
FIG. 4 is a flow chart showing steps for providing activity indication in
the shrunken representations of FIGS. 3A and 3B.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION
A. General Features
General features of the invention can be understood from FIGS. 1 and 2.
FIG. 1 shows two workstations of system 10, illustrating display of
shrunken representations with indications of activities of other users.
FIG. 2 shows steps in providing such indications.
System 10 includes network 12, to which a number of workstations, including
workstations 20 and 30, are connected. System 10 is a collaborative
system, meaning that it enables users at different workstations to work
together in real-time. As discussed in more detail below, the
collaborative functions of system 10 could be centralized in a single main
CPU, could be distributed among processors at the workstations, or could
be provided in any combination of centralization and distribution.
Similarly, network 12 could take any appropriate configuration capable of
providing the necessary communications to support collaboration.
System 10 includes display-based user interfaces, with each workstation
including a display device and a user input device; workstations 20 and 30
illustratively include respective CRT screens 22 and 32 and keyboards 24
and 34, each with a mouse. System 10 includes an object-based display
system that controls each display device, whether a CRT or other device.
Copending, coassigned U.S. patent application Ser. No. 127,997, entitled
"Multiple Shared Virtual Workspaces" and incorporated herein by reference,
sets forth a conceptual framework for describing features in relation to
the display system. In addition to the framework set forth there, the
present invention involves the notion of a representation of shared data.
The term "shared data" is used herein to refer to any body of data that is
accessible to more than one user through the display system. A
representation of shared data is any way of displaying the shared data,
whether as a simple display object, as the contents of the entire display
screen, or as the contents of any workspace, whether the workspace is
thought of as a room, a window, a blackboard, a sketchpad, a spreadsheet,
a card or any other type of entity for presenting data within an area of a
display. A representation may be at full scale, occupying a substantial
part of the display area, in which case the details of the shared data
will ordinarily be visible to a viewer, albeit in some mapped form such as
a sequence of characters or a bitmapped graphical object; a body of shared
data may be amenable to many different full-scale representations, as when
a document can be displayed page-by-page. A representation may also be at
a small scale, occupying a small part of the display area, in which case
the details of the shared data may not be visible. A small-scale
representation could be a small portion of the full-scale representation
of the same shared data, showing the details of a small area; it could be
a shrunken version of the full-scale representation, showing some general
features of the full-scale representation but omitting the details; a
small-scale representation could also be an icon or other small display
object that shows virtually none of the features of the full-scale
representation other than an identifier such as a name.
Due to the limits of human perception and the typical display size,
small-scale representations of data frequently have a fixed size of about
one square inch or less. The size of a small-scale representation is
typically large enough to have a characteristic shape and an identifier. A
small-scale representation may not itself enable the user to access the
corresponding data, but it may typically be selected as part of an
operation to obtain a full-scale representation of the corresponding data.
Full-scale representations, on the other hand, are often variable in size
and can range from a few square inches up to the full available display
area or even larger through techniques such as scrolling. A user is
typically able to select a display object within the full-scale
representation upon which an operation is to be performed, resulting in
access to the corresponding data. Many conventional graphical user
interfaces have readily identifiable full-scale and small-scale
representations of data, such as windows and icons.
FIG. 1 shows screen 22 displaying full-scale representation 26 and
small-scale representations 28, while screen 32 is displaying full-scale
representation 36 and small-scale representations 38. Small-scale
representations 28 and 38 each include four representations, with the
respective characters A, B, C and D within them. Each representation
corresponds to a respective body of shared data, and sharing of data
enables users at different workstations to work together in real time on
the same data. The bodies of shared data need not be mutually exclusive.
Full-scale representation 26 on screen 22 shows a first body of shared
data, corresponding to the small-scale representations that contain the
character A, while full-scale representation 36 on screen 32 shows a
second body of shared data, corresponding to the small-scale
representations that contain the character B. The user at workstation 20
thus has access to the first body of shared data, and in addition to
viewing that data at full scale may also be able to modify or otherwise
affect it. The user at workstation 30 similarly has access to the contents
of the second body of shared data.
FIG. 1 shows that the small-scale representations of the first and second
bodies of shared data at each workstation include indications of
activities relating to the respective shared data at other workstations.
The small-scale representation of the second body of shared data on screen
22 is shaded to indicate activity relating to that data at another
workstation, and the small-scale representation of the first body of
shared data on screen 32 is similarly shaded. Upon receiving the
indication of activity relating to the second body of shared data, the
user at workstation 20 may decide to view the full-scale representation of
that data during that activity. To do so, the user could invoke an
operation resulting in the full-scale representation, such as by selecting
the corresponding small-scale representation with the mouse and performing
keyboard operations to invoke an expand or open operation.
FIG. 2 shows general steps of a routine that provides these indications of
activity. The steps of FIG. 2 could be performed locally by a routine at
each workstation or could be performed centrally by one or more routines
that control the local workstations. The step in box 50 waits for a signal
notifying the routine that a change in the activities affecting one of the
bodies of shared data has occurred. When notification of a modification of
the activity state of shared data is received, in box 52, the routine
determines in box 54 whether that body of shared data is displayed in a
full-scale representation on the relevant workstation. If so, the
full-scale representation is updated as appropriate in box 56. But if not,
an appropriate activity indication is provided in the small-scale
representation of that shared data, in box 58. As a result, the
small-scale representation of a body of shared data will include an
appropriate activity indication at each workstation at which that body is
not displayed at full scale.
Indication of activities relating to shared data can be provided in many
ways. The shading of FIG. 1 is illustrative, but blinking, inversion, or
other techniques would be equally appropriate. Shading, blinking,
inversion or the like provide only binary information, indicating whether
or not activity relating to shared data is occurring. Additional
information about the type of activity may be helpful, such as whether the
activity affects the shared data, such as by editing, adding data or
making other modifications. The identity of the user performing an
activity relating to shared data may also be helpful. If the collaborative
system is the type in which a body of shared data can be concurrently
accessed from more than one workstation, additional information about the
size or membership of the group currently accessing a body of shared data
may similarly be helpful. We turn now to techniques for providing more
detailed information about activities at other workstations that affect a
body of shared data.
B. Quantitative Indications
One aspect of the invention is to provide a quantitative indication of the
extent of activity affecting a body of shared data. FIGS. 3A and 3B show
two small-scale representations that include, in addition to an indication
of activity relating to the corresponding shared data, a quantitative
indication of the extent of that activity. FIG. 4 shows steps in updating
these small-scale representations.
Small-scale representation 70, in FIG. 3A, includes a quantitative
indication of the extent of activity affecting a body of shared data
represented in shrunken form by character 72. The quantitative indication
appears in thermometer outline 74 in the form of shaded area 76. When
activity affecting the shared data begins to occur, shaded area 76 begins
to appear at bulb end 78 of thermometer outline 74. As more activity
affecting the shared data occurs, shaded area 76 expands, so that its rate
of expansion indicates the rate of activity. Its size in relation to
thermometer outline 74 indicates the extent of activity affecting the
shared data.
Small-scale representation 80, in FIG. 3B, includes another quantitative
indication of the extent of activity affecting a body of shared data
represented in shrunken form by character 82. The quantitative indication
appears in the form of inverted area 84. When activity affecting the
shared data begins to occur, inverted area 84 begins to appear at the
lower side of small-scale representation 80. As more activity affecting
the shared data occurs, inverted area 84 expands upward, its rate of
expansion indicating the rate of activity and its size in relation to
small-scale representation 80 indicating the extent of activity.
The steps in FIG. 4, all of which could be part of the step in box 58 of
FIG. 2, update a small-scale representation with a quantitative indication
of the type illustrated in FIGS. 3A and 3B to indicate the extent of
activities changing a body of shared data. The step in box 100 decodes the
notification of activity received in box 52, to determine the body of
shared data affected and the type of activity that occurred. The test in
box 102 then tests whether the type of activity is a change in the shared
data. If not, the small-scale representation of that body of shared data
is blinked in box 104, indicating that an activity relating to that shared
data occurred, but also indicating that the activity is not of a type that
changes the shared data.
If the result of the test in box 102 is that a change occurred, the step in
box 106 updates the contents of the small-scale representation of that
body of shared data, a step that will provide a visible indication of
activity only if the change is large enough in scale to produce a visible
update of the small-scale representation. The step in box 108 updates a
record of the cumulative changes affecting that body of shared data since
the last time it was represented at full scale on this workstation. This
record, which is cleared when the shared data is displayed at full scale,
provides the basis of the quantitative indication. It could be a record of
the number of changes that have occurred. If the notification of a change
indicates how much of the shared data is affected by the change, the
record could include data indicating how much of the shared data has been
changed. Based on this record, the quantitative change indication is
updated, in box 110, so that it indicates the extent of a | | |
