Fern-Anzeige von Objekten und Cursorbewegungen in einem Konferenzsystem

摘要

An improved method and apparatus for remotely displaying cursor and tool operation in a conferencing system comprising display consoles with WIMP interfaces is disclosed. In a computer conferencing system including a first participant coupled to a second participant via a communication medium, a process and apparatus is disclosed for manipulating a remote cursor. This process comprises the steps of: 1) selecting a remote cursor tool using the first participants system, the remote cursor tool being a computer implemented function (eg draw) represented by an icon 616; 2) displaying the icon representing the remote cursor tool with a associated shadow 620 only on the first participants display and only while the tool is selected (but not yet activated); 3) activating the remote cursor tool by depressing mouse button 638; and 4) displaying the icon representing the remote cursor tool without a associated shadow on both the first and the second participants display only while the tool is active, the icon being displayed on a second display in a position corresponding to a position of the icon on a first display. The present invention also includes a process and an apparatus for implementing selected tool shadowing. This process comprises the steps of: 1) selecting a tool; 2) displaying the icon representing the tool with a associated shadow while the tool is selected (but not yet activated); 3) activating the tool to perform a function; and 3) re-displaying the icon representing the tool without an associated shadow only while the tool is active.