	US 7,590,941 B2
	Communication and collaboration system using rich media environments
Susie J. Wee, Palo Alto, Calif. (US); Henry Harlyn Baker, Los Altos, Calif. (US); Nina T. Bhatti, Mountain View, Calif. (US); Michele Covell, Palo Alto, Calif. (US); and Michael Harville, Palo Alto, Calif. (US)
Assigned to Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P., Houston, Tex. (US)
Filed on Oct. 09, 2003, as Appl. No. 10/682,542.
Prior Publication US 2005/0081160 A1, Apr. 14, 2005
Int. Cl. G06F 3/00 (2006.01); G06F 3/14 (2006.01)

U.S. Cl. 715—753 [715/717; 715/755; 715/863; 348/143; 348/155; 348/159; 725/10; 725/12; 704/231; 382/190]

45 Claims

1. A system for communication, comprising:

first set of sensing and rendering components arranged to cover physical movements of multiple individuals present in a first environment;

second set of sensing and rendering components arranged to cover physical movements of multiple individuals present in a second environment;

interest thread detector that uses the first and second set of sensing and rendering components to detect multiple communication interactions each involving a respective subset of the individuals present in the first and second environments and that maintains an interest thread for each communication interaction;

communication provider that captures a set of media data from the sensing components and that combines the captured media data in response to the respective activities indicated by physical movements of each subset of the individuals and that communicates the combined media data to the rendering components, wherein the communication provider includes a user manager configured to maintain a set of user profiles for the respective individuals, the user profiles including permission profiles having thread permissions and user permissions configured to enable an individual to keep their actions and presence from being detected by the interest thread detector.