Extemporaneous awareness of rich presence information for group members in a virtual space

摘要

Extemporaneous awareness of rich presence information among members of a peer group connected to a communication network is described. As members of the peer group log onto the network, identification information is examined to determine membership in any defined groups. For each group member found, rich presence information, which includes at least the visual context information identifying the activity that the group member is currently displaying on his or her device, and navigational information providing a virtual path to that activity, is extemporaneously broadcast to each other online member of the peer group unsolicited by these group members. This rich presence information is then used to display what every other member is doing on each member's device. By selecting the display corresponding to a particular activity, the selecting member may join that virtual space with the other corresponding member via the navigational information.

主权项

1. A method comprising:
receiving, at a computing device on a communication network, rich presence information from each of a plurality of devices coupled to the communication network, the rich presence information comprising, for respective ones of the plurality of devices, visual context information depicting operational elements, user interactions with content currently displayed on a display of the device, and navigational information representing a session address for a virtual location of the operational elements and the user interactions; displaying thumbnail images associated with the plurality of devices, each thumbnail image comprising visual context information for one of the plurality of devices; receiving a selection of a thumbnail image comprising visual context information depicting a session comprising use of an application at a selected device; and using the navigational information to establish a sharing session between the computing device and the selected device, the sharing session comprising electronic collaboration using the application to display and interact with a same instance of the content at the virtual location, wherein user interactions by either a user of the computing device and a user of the selected device are displayed on both devices in the sharing session.