Last week the US Patent & Trademark Office published a patent application from Microsoft that reveals that they'll be bringing live annotation capabilities to Skype over time. This is a feature that many enterprise users, legal professionals and students have wanted for some time. The new invention will also eventually extend to presenters who want to make changes to a slide in realtime. Microsoft hints that a laser pointer feature could one day be integrated into future Windows smartphones to accommodate this feature.
Microsoft's Patent Background
As people become increasingly mobile, businesses and families are becoming increasingly geographically distributed. As a result, people in different geographic locations have an increasing desire to collaborate and exchange information in a live, dynamic and interactive manner without having to spend the time, money and effort associated with traveling to a common geographic location. One of Microsoft's latest inventions is to add
Video conferencing is a popular technique which provides for the live exchange of both video and audio information between two or more people who are situated remotely from one another and are linked by a data communication network. Video conferencing thus allows the people to collaborate and exchange information in a live manner.
Microsoft Invents Live Annotation for Skype
Microsoft's invention relates to mobile video conferencing techniques that will generally advance their Skype application by allowing users to make live annotations that could be exchanged with the one(s) your Skyping with.
According to Microsoft, "Whenever the local user makes a first digital annotation on the received live video, the first digital annotation is displayed on top of the received live video, and the first digital annotation is transmitted over the network to the remote mobile device. Whenever the remote user makes a second digital annotation on the selected live video, the second digital annotation is received over the network from the remote mobile device, the received second digital annotation is resized as necessary to fit within the inset sector, and the resized received second digital annotation is displayed on top of the resized selected live video as noted below in Microsoft's patent figure.
Microsoft's patent FIG. 1 is a diagram illustrating an exemplary embodiment, in simplified form, of an architectural framework for implementing the mobile video conferencing technique embodiments of this invention; FIG. 2 is a diagram illustrating one embodiment, in simplified form, of a video sharing feature and a collaborative digital annotation feature of the conferencing technique; FIG. 3 is a diagram illustrating an exemplary embodiment, in simplified form, of a view sharing feature of the conferencing technique.
Specifically referring to patent FIG. 2 above, we see that the remote user #204 on the right is collaboratively communicating with recipient #200 on the left. The users are able to use a digital pen to make notes in the smaller lower picture-in-Picture (PIP) live window. The notes made there are sent live over the net. On the receiving end, what was sent to them now fills the larger part of the display for easy viewing as noted above.
Video Snapshot Feature
Microsoft also describes another feature called the video snapshot feature which generally allows both the local and remote users to view a common live video snapshot on their entire local and remote display screens and collaboratively digitally annotate this live video snapshot.
More particularly, in an exemplary embodiment of the video snapshot feature the local user can take a snapshot of the live video they have chosen to send to the remote user. Whenever the local user takes such a snapshot, the local mobile device will display the snapshot on the entire local display screen, and will also transmit the snapshot over the network to the remote mobile device. Upon receiving the snapshot over the network from the local mobile device, the remote mobile device will display the snapshot on the entire remote display screen. Accordingly, both the local and remote users will be viewing the same snapshot on their respective entire display screens and the users can collaboratively digitally annotate this snapshot as follows.
This can be used between friends, colleagues or industry personnel that rely on this kind of quick collaboration of a snapshot. One that comes to mind would be the insurance industry. An insurance agent taking pictures of an accident could quickly share the photo with annotation with their home office experts who can quickly examine the evidence for analysis.
Skype has a video about Victoria Beckham's fashion business where she admits to always being on skype to collaborate and communicate with her designers. Being able to annotate live to make changes to a design of a dress or accessory would be ideal, but isn't available today natively from Skype.
Applicable to Various Applications
Microsoft further notes that the application sharing feature generally allows a given user to share a desired application with the other user and collaboratively digitally annotate this application. Any type of application can be shared, examples of which include a web browser application, an interactive map application, and a photo gallery application, amongst many others. I'm sure that it will eventually mean and app in their Office Suite as well.
Laser Pointing Feature
One last point worth noting is that Microsoft indicates in their filing that this could also one day also work with a Windows smartphone equipped with a laser point for presentations. You'll be able to make live annotations to a slide in presentation.
Microsoft notes that "A given mobile device can optionally include a laser pointer. Various implementations of the laser pointer device are possible. By way of example but not limitation, the laser pointer device can be either integrated into the rear video capture device, or separately mounted on the rear of the mobile device."
Of course this won't be limited to smartphones. Microsoft lists other hardware that their new annotation application for Skype may apply to in the future, as follows: personal computers (PCs), server computers, handheld computing devices, laptop or mobile computers, communications devices such as cell phones and personal digital assistants (PDAs), multiprocessor systems, microprocessor-based systems, set top boxes, programmable consumer electronics, network PCs, minicomputers, mainframe computers, and audio or video media players.
Microsoft's patent application was originally filed in Q3 2012 and published last week by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. Considering that this is a patent application, the timing of such a product to market is unknown at this time. Below is a flowchart for the new annotation feature.
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