Virtual Canvas for Real-Time Multi-Location Collaboration
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Solution Overview
Problem
Current collaboration technologies over multiple locations are limited by the need for a single presenter, inefficiencies in real-time data synchronization, and inability to handle live video feeds effectively, especially in cloud-based solutions.
Innovation Solution
Establishing a virtual canvas for peer-to-peer connections between computers, allowing for simultaneous editing and streaming of file-based and live source objects, with metadata management for live sources, enabling real-time collaboration and efficient data transfer.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Adaptability or versatility
If cloud-based collaboration tools are used to host sessions and store documents, then multiple users can access and edit documents simultaneously, but real-time synchronization efficiency deteriorates due to periodic communication delays and bandwidth consumption
Solution Approach 1:
The system segments the collaboration session into multiple independent communication channels: peer-to-peer data streaming for real-time content sharing, separate metadata synchronization for coordinate alignment, and selective file transfer for document exchanges. This segmentation allows parallel processing of different data types, reducing overall synchronization delay while maintaining multi-user access capability.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent introduces a virtual canvas as an intermediary coordinate system that mediates between multiple users' local displays and the shared content. The virtual canvas translates and synchronizes position, size, and orientation metadata across all peer computers in real-time, enabling seamless multi-user collaboration without requiring periodic full-state synchronizations to a central cloud server.
2Speed
If the entire screen is streamed to remote computers at refresh rate, then real-time visual collaboration is achieved, but bandwidth requirements increase significantly
Solution Approach 1:
The system extracts only the essential metadata elements (position, size, orientation, visibility state) from the complete screen content and transmits these compact data structures between peers. The actual visual content is shared through selective file transfers or screen region streaming only when necessary, dramatically reducing the quantity of transmitted data while maintaining real-time visual collaboration through efficient metadata updates.
3Adaptability or versatility
If cloud servers convert and store all slides in usable formats, then document accessibility is improved, but processing time and server resources increase
Solution Approach 1:
The system performs preliminary format validation and compatibility checking during the file sharing initiation phase, before actual content transfer. The virtual canvas pre-configures the receiving peer's display parameters and coordinate systems based on the source file metadata, so that when files are transferred peer-to-peer, they are already optimized for immediate display without requiring time-consuming server-side conversion processes.
Data Source
AI summary
Collaboration between a first computer associated with a first display at a first location and a second computer associated with a second display at a second location, includes establishing a connection between the first and second computers, starting a virtual canvas on the first computer, sending the virtual canvas from the first computer to the second computer, sending a file-based object between a host computer and a non-host computer so that the file-based object is located on the same location on the canvas for the first and second computers, streaming a live source object between a host computer running the live source object and a non-host computer by creating a live source window for the live source object within the virtual canvas on the host computer, sending the metadata information for the live source window to the non-host computer and streaming the live source object to the live source window.