4835 results about "Collaboration" patented technology

A method of facilitating communications and collaboration of a group of plural remote participants comprises steps of receiving information over an information communications network from a first group participant; pushing, over the network to at least one other group participant, an access via an access channel; and allowing the other group participant to access at least some of the received information via said access channel in response to selective activation of the access channel by the other group participant.

A head mounted device provides an immersive virtual or augmented reality experience for viewing data and enabling collaboration among multiple users. Rendering images in a virtual or augmented reality system may include capturing an image and spatial data with a body mounted camera and sensor array, receiving an input indicating a first anchor surface, calculating parameters with respect to the body mounted camera and displaying a virtual object such that the virtual object appears anchored to the selected first anchor surface. Further operations may include receiving a second input indicating a second anchor surface within the captured image that is different from the first anchor surface, calculating parameters with respect to the second anchor surface and displaying the virtual object such that the virtual object appears anchored to the selected second anchor surface and moved from the first anchor surface.

The methods and systems described herein relate to online methods of collaboration in community environments. The methods and systems are related to an online apparel modeling system that allows users to have three-dimensional models of their physical profile created. Users may purchase various goods and / or services and collaborate with other users in the online environment.

A system and method for supporting Product Lifecycle Management over a distributed service network topology that connects a hierarchy of functional domains, each domain having a service ontology and one or more service composition schemas defined by the service ontology. Each service composition schema models a business process in its domain. Descriptions of services provided to each domain are published to a service repository by providers of the services, in conformity with one of the service composition schemas. There is a business process proxy provided by the service provider for each service description, which encapsulates for public access the internal processes of the service provider. The invention makes use of an event messaging protocol that enables service collaboration and ad-hoc workflow composition. Each business process is implemented by an ad-hoc workflow comprised of one or more tasks connected by one or more business rules. For each business process there is a business flow manager that dynamically composes ad-hoc workflow prior to execution and dynamically modifies the ad-hoc workflow as the business process executes. The business flow manager uses backward-chain inferencing and then forward-chain inferencing to generate the ad-hoc workflows, based on user identification of a target task. The business flow manager is able to stop execution of the workflow and regenerate a workflow for remaining tasks in response to events received over the network from service providers, and is also able to detect conflicts in the workflows at composition time and at execution time.

A distributed agent community is able to dynamically interact with alternative sofware technologies that manage distributed objects. The leveraging of capabilities of distributed object systems greatly expands the flexibility and capabilites of the distributed agent community. Through access to distributed object systems, the distributed agent community can draw on the capabilites of all the objects managed by the distributed object systems. The access to distributed systems by the distributed agent community allows for collaboration and intelligent planning that the distributed object systems do not themsleves provide.

Systems and methods consistent with the present invention enable explicit and multilateral trust across a community of federated servers via a network. A trusted third party establishes a framework of policies and procedures governing a federation. Organizations joining the federation submit to an audit process of internal policies and procedures to ensure compliance with the policies and procedures of the federation. Upon successful completion of an audit, an organization may receive a digital certificate containing the digital public key of the organization and indicating approval of the trusted third party. The organization may then use the associated digital private key for signing security assertions associated with a request for resources from another federation service provider. The service provider may trust the assertion from the organization based on trust placed in trusted third party by the service provider and the trust placed in the organization by the trusted third party.

A system and method for managing electronic communications more effectively utilizes electronic communications. The method assigns a prioritization score and category to each electronic communication so that a user can more effectively manage the communications. The user interacts with a graphical user interface to effectively manage electronic communications. The system arranges and displays the electronic communications according to prioritization scores and categories, and includes interactive modules to override a system assigned prioritization scores and assign any score or category the user selects. The method also measures productivity of users as a function of at least three different metrics, a decision-making metric; a communication metric; and a processing metric, and takes into account prioritization scores and the amount of time it takes users to effectively utilize the electronic communications. The method also generates reports of the productivity of individual users, and the productivity of relationships between multiple users of electronic communications.

A system for electronic file collaboration among multiple users is implemented using command messages transmitted on dedicated network channels established between conference participants in a peer-to-peer architecture with total autonomy from a central server. The system employs owner-in-control methodology to allow direct transmission of copies of documents among participants by permission, and to prevent storage of copies of documents used in a conference by participants. Mark-ups, additions, and other actions occurring on a conference document can only be saved by the document owner. An advanced viewer engine is provided for reading, displaying and manipulating electronic data in texts, tables, vectors and 3D model formats, as well as common raster images. A proxy module allows data transmitted through IPFW routers or firewall devices with sufficient authentications and security measures.

Effective real-time collaboration across remote sites in which any type of data can be shared in a common work space in a consistent manner is made possible by an annotation layer having multiple distinct modes of operation during a collaborative session with two or more people sharing the same work space. One mode is a discussion mode in which one or more users simply share a common view of the shared data and manipulate the view independent of the shared data. During the discussion mode, all user input is handled by the annotation layer which interprets user inputs to move common cursors, create, move or delete markings and text which, since the annotation layer is transparent, appear over the application. Another mode is an edit mode in which one or more users actually edit the shared data. The applications and the data are synchronized among all clients to display the same view. Manipulating the view includes moving a common cursor and placing markings on the common view using text and / or drawing tools.

A medical system that allows a mentor to teach a pupil how to use a robotically controlled medical instrument. The system may include a first handle that can be controlled by a mentor to move the medical instrument. The system may further have a second handle that can be moved by a pupil to control the same instrument. Deviations between movement of the handles by the mentor and the pupil can be provided as force feedback to the pupil and mentor handles. The force feedback pushes the pupil's hand to correspond with the mentor's handle movement. The force feedback will also push the mentor's hand to provide information to the mentor on pupil's movements. The mentor is thus able to guide the pupil's hands through force feedback of the pupil handles to teach the pupil how to use the system.

Methods and devices are provided for detecting and / or preventing cheating in online gaming. Some implementations provide gaming information in formats that are difficult for a bot to interpret, but which are preferably easy for humans to interpret. Some implementations of the invention involve the tracking and analysis of players' gaming activities. Some implementations of the invention provide a multi-tier approach to data analysis. Some analyses may be performed, for example, by a centralized computing device such as a server, whereas other analyses may be performed by a host device. In some implementations, “challenge and response” measures will be employed. Some implementations of the invention involve detection and prevention of collaboration between players.

In general, in one aspect, the invention provides a modular application collaborator for providing inter-operability between applications including a plurality of connectors for communicating with a like plurality of applications and an interchange server. The interchange server includes an application collaboration module and service module. The service module transfers messages between connectors and the application collaboration module. The application collaboration defines the inter-operability between two or more applications. The interchange server service module includes a transaction service and an error service. Transactions are executed in the application collaboration module and the transaction service records each action and a compensating action for undoing an associated action. An error service monitors for errors in the interchange server, and, upon detection of an error, stops the execution of a transaction and initiates the execution of any required compensating actions to undo the interrupted transaction. The compensating transactions may be executed at the connectors and are not required to be overseen by the interchange server.

A document management system / method allowing coordinated synchronized modifications and secure, scalable, multi-level, and controlled access to Data Content and / or Documents (DCDS) over a computer network between multiple Content Owners and / or Reviewers (CORS) is disclosed. The system / method is configured to allow any number of CORS to share DCDS using a Content Collaboration Platform (CCP) while retaining complete DCDS integrity / retrieval control using a hierarchical Access Rights and Control List (ARCL) to prevent CORS from uncoordinated DCDS modification and prohibiting local maintenance of DCDS copies after the expiration of a CORS Data Access Session (DAS). Upon termination of a CORS DAS, the system synchronizes modifications to the DCDS and coordinates control information among various CORS to ensure proper return of the DCDS back to its original CORS owner and associated CORS storage location.

A methods, systems, device, network, platform and apparatus for enabling user to post structured updated status and / or requests based on inputting & selecting pre-created or updated or collaboratively updated generalized or standardized parts of structured updated status and / or requests including types of activities, actions, events, transactions, purposes, user actions, named entities, nodes, items, objects, fields, rules, syntax, locations, keywords, categories, date(s) & time(s) and enabling 115 sever(s) to receive, store, process structured updated status and / or requests and / or user data and / or automatically monitor track, record, store & process user's activities, actions, events, transactions, interactions, senses, behavior, communications, collaborations, sharing, participations, workflows, tasks & requirements and / or enabling to search, match, determine, select & present prospective, suggested, candidate, matched, relevant & contextual connections or connectable user(s) and dynamically presented or suggested or associated or attached links including link(s) of application(s), service(s), object(s), interface(s) & multimedia type(s) of content(s) to user(s) or entity / entities of network(s) and enable user(s) or entity / entities of network(s) to dynamically establishing connections and / or dynamically conducting one or more activities, actions, events, transactions including e-commerce transactions & deals, interactions, communications, collaborations, sharing, searching, presentations, participations, workflows & tasks with one or more selected user(s) or entity / entities of network(s) from presented prospective, suggested, candidate, matched, relevant & contextual connections or connectable user(s) based on provided or associated or presented or suggested one or more or group(s) of links of application(s), service(s), object(s), interface(s) & multimedia type(s) of content(s).

The various embodiments include systems and methods for rendering images in a virtual or augmented reality system that may include capturing scene images of a scene in a vicinity of a first and a second projector, capturing spatial data with a sensor array in the vicinity of the first and second projectors, analyzing captured scene images to recognize body parts, and projecting images from each of the first and the second projectors with a shape and orientation determined based on the recognized body parts. Additional rendering operations may include tracking movements of the recognized body parts, applying a detection algorithm to the tracked movements to detect a predetermined gesture, applying a command corresponding to the detected predetermined gesture, and updating the projected images in response to the applied command.

A collaboration architecture supports virtual meetings, including web conferencing and collaboration. Presence information is aggregated from different types of communication services to provide a generic representation of presence. In one implementation, collaboration lifecycle management is provided to manage meetings over the lifecycle of a project. Audio options include voice over internet protocol (VoIP) and conventional PTSN phone networks, which are supported in one implementation by an audio conferencing server.

A collaboration services suite is adapted to support a plurality of integrated telecommunications services accessed by geographically dispersed team members using a virtual team environment (VTE) client that generates a graphical user interface (GUI) for each of the respective team members. Communications sessions are automatically set up by the collaboration services suite in response to request messages generated by the VTE client when a team member initiates a communications session request using the GUI. Team members require no knowledge of another team member's communications device address in order to initiate a communications session. The collaboration services suite includes a VTE server that communicates with the VTE clients, a presence engine that collects and maintains a status of communications devices specified in a current profile of the team member; and, a call server for handling setup and control of a voice component of each communications session completed.

Collaboration space object model provides for a Place consisting of rooms. A room is made up of pages. Folders are used to organize pages. Members belong to rooms, and are those users authorized to access them. Place type controls the creation of a place, including how many rooms it has, for example. Room type controls the appearance and content of rooms. A form manages the display of data notes. A form can contain fields for containing data and employ scripts to process and compute data. A page is the basic vehicle for content. Content is created using an or importing content from an external source. A member is also a data note, and each place contains its own member directory. A place is created and managed from a client browser in on-line mode and in offline mode with respect to a replicated copy of the space. Room security is independently managed, and security and aesthetics characteristics of subrooms selectively inherited. Room navigation and workflow processing is provided, as are forms creation and uploading from browser to server.

Methods and Systems for Global Online Brands Social Networks (BSN) Platform and Framework are disclosed for managing Users' Profiles, brands group lists, Brand user Friends, User created Brand Networks and related Members, Publications, Applications, Services and Communications and Collaborations among users. Further, it also manages brand owners' brand networks and members, and brand experts to enable and facilitate users for branded products and services related sales or e-commerce, marketing, promotion and support services, alternative products and services brands lists. BSN also provides Social Customers Relationship Management (SCRM) and Multi Brand Customers Services Life Cycle (MCSLC) Framework to facilitate brand owners and customers.

A multi-user medical robotic system for collaboration or training in minimally invasive surgical procedures includes first and second master input devices, a first slave robotic mechanism, and at least one processor configured to generate a first slave command for the first slave robotic mechanism by switchably using one or both of a first command indicative of manipulation of the first master input device by a first user and a second command indicative of manipulation of the second master input device by a second user. To facilitate the collaboration or training, both first and second users communicate with each other through an audio system and see the minimally invasive surgery site on first and second displays respectively viewable by the first and second users.

Systems and methods for virtual world simulations of the real-world or emulate real-life or real-life activities in virtual world or real life simulator or generating a virtual world based on real environment: host, at a server, a virtual world geography or environment that correspondences the real world geography or environment as a result, as the user continuously moves about or navigates in a range of coordinates in the real world, the user also continuously moves about in a range of coordinates in the real world map or virtual world; generate and access, by the server, a first avatar or representation, that is associated with a first user or entity in the virtual world; monitor, track and store, by the server, plurality types of data associated with user's real life or real life activities, actions, transactions, participated or participating events, current or past locations, checked-in places, participations, expressions, reactions, relations, connections, status, behaviours, sharing, communications, collaborations, interactions with various types of entities in the real world; receive, by the server, first data associated with a mobile device of the first user related to the first activity from the first geo-location co-ordinates or place; determine, by the server, one or more real world activities of the first user based on the first data; generate, record, simulate and update, by the server, virtual world based on said stored data, wherein updating a first avatar, that is associated with the first user or entity, in the virtual world; causing, by the server, a first avatar associated with the first user or entity, to engage in one or more virtual activities in the virtual world, that are at least one of the same as or sufficiently similar to or substantially similar to the determined one or more real world activities, by generating, recording, simulating, updating and displaying, by a simulation engine, simulation or a graphic user interface that presents a user a simulation of said real-life activities; and display in the virtual world, by the server, said real world activity or interacted entity or location or place or GPS co-ordinates related or associated or one or more types of user generated or provided or shared or identified contextual one or more types of contents, media, data and metadata from one or more sources including server, providers, contacts of user and users of network and external sources, databases, servers, networks, devices, websites and applications, wherein virtual world geography correspondences the real world geography. In an embodiment receiving from a user, a privacy settings, instructing to limit viewing of or sharing of said generated simulation of user's real world life or user's real world life activities to selected one or more contacts, followers, all or one or more criteria or filters specific users of network or make it as private.

This disclosure relates to systems and methods for managing documents and other electronic works. Certain embodiments relate to enabling secure, governed, and / or audited collaboration and / or document management over cloud storage platforms (e.g., third-party cloud storage platforms). Further embodiments relate to providing key and rights management as well as collaboration services in conjunction with cloud storage services.

A scalable and reliable collaborative software application that provides an information hub that serves as a single portal to using applications in an aggregated, collaborative manner, thereby eliminating the need for constant transmission / reception of information to achieve collaboration, is presented. The present invention creates a portal for all entities, and enables access, storage, sharing, and response to related information from anywhere at anytime on any access unit in a collaborative and collective methodology. The present invention also provides object-based security and object-based threaded discussion sessions for all objects generated by the various applications.

A conventional operating system folder or directory based file system is implemented with, or enhanced to provide, attributes of shared collaborative workspaces. In particular, the conventional file system is connected to either a server based or a distributed collaboration system and the user interface of the operating system file system is augmented to allow it to control aspects of the collaboration system. Each folder or directory can be synchronized and treated as a “workspace” that can be viewed and shared with other users or groups of users. Folder can also be provided with “awareness” information that indicates collaborators that are present and those that are sharing the workspace.

An active collaboration technology in an open architectural framework that delivers information and decision support tools in a timely, contextual and role sensitive manner to present a collaborative dynamic decision making capability to a community of role players within a supply chain process. Such a comprehensive collaborative dynamic decision making capability is made possible through the integration of the business process, the organization of role players and relevant business applications.

A multi-party online collaboration system that optimizes both the participation of the collaborators and the universality of membership is described. The system satisfies the two requirements for networked collaboration by providing shareable objects and a means of notifying the collaborators whenever the state of the shared objects has changed. For an open network (i.e., the Internet), the preferred embodiment uses two open standards mechanisms: URL-addressable networks for the accessible shareable objects, and asynchronous messaging for notification of changes to the objects that do not occur in real-time. The preferred embodiment employs these two open standards systems to ensure universal access, and obviates the need for the collaborators to install / maintain proprietary client systems. The preferred embodiment monitors the state of the objects, and automatically dispatches notification messages, along with addresses (e.g., URLs) to those URL-addressable objects, to only those collaborators who responded to the previous notification. Because the system automatically handles the asynchronous messaging notifications and because these messages are dispatched only to those participants who are actively keeping current with the latest changes, the preferred embodiment precludes the generally chatty nature of asynchronous messaging systems. Whenever a collaborator does decide to use a notification link to visit the URL-addressable network site, he or she is further presented with a message describing an interface to all of the shared objects.

A user annotates a shared document with text, sound, images, video, an e-mail message, graphics, screen snapshots, web site snapshots to share with others. The document and its annotations are stored in a digital object repository to which other users have access. Within the closed collaboration system, only users who are authenticated may upload digital objects, annotate digital objects and view objects and their annotations. The user sends a message to other users to invite them to view the object and its annotations and to add their own annotations. An annotated object generates an alert for all of the invited users. A remote authentication gateway authenticates users and has a repository for user metadata. Digital object repositories are separate from the authentication gateway, thus providing for disintermediation of the user metadata from the digital object data. The collaboration system may be hosted by a third party on a server computer available over the Internet that displays a web site. A user is not required to have collaboration system software on his or her computer and may annotate any image on the web site for later viewing by other users of the web site.

Systems and methods consistent with various disclosed embodiments provide for collaborating information over a computer network. In one embodiment, a system is disclosed for collaborating information over a network. The system may include a storage device and one or more processors. The processor(s) may maintain documents in the storage device and publish content links to the documents in a workspace rendered by a collaboration platform. The processor(s) may provide content to the collaboration platform in response to a content link selection by a reviewer and receive the reviewer's changes, with the collaboration platform temporarily storing the document in a virtual memory for rendering to the reviewer and deleting it after the communication session ends. The processor(s) may synchronize the changes bi-directionally from the workspace with the original document through a collaboration document, such that the original document remains unaltered, and by re-publishing an updated content link to the workspace.

A method for enabling collaboration between individuals to design, construct and maintain a building. The method comprises providing a network based computer system including at least one server and multiple clients. The multiple clients allow respective individuals to interact with the server. The server includes a machine-readable storage, which is encoded with software for execution by a CPU for allowing individuals at the respective clients to create, execute and manage projects associated with at least one of a design phase, construction phase and maintenance phase of the building. Each project comprises one or more events that are related to time. The method also comprises storing in the machine-readable storage events as they occur during execution of each project to create a building project database spanning at least the design phase and the construction phase and optionally the maintenance phase of the building.