Patent Publication Number: US-10768791-B2

Title: Read activity of chat rooms

Description:
CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS 
     This application is a Continuation of U.S. patent Ser. No. 15/083,340 entitled READ ACTIVITY OF CHAT ROOMS, filed on Mar. 29, 2016, the contents of which are expressly incorporated herein by reference in its entirety. 
    
    
     TECHNICAL FIELD 
     The present disclosure generally relates to read activity of chat rooms. 
     BACKGROUND 
     The term chat room, or chatroom, is primarily used to describe any form of synchronous conferencing, occasionally even asynchronous conferencing. The term can thus mean any technology ranging from real-time online chat and online interaction to fully immersive graphical social environments. The primary use of a chat room is to share information via text with a group of other users. The users in a particular chat room are generally connected via a shared interest or other similar connection. New technology has enabled the use of file sharing and webcam to be included in some programs. 
    
    
     
       BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 
       The present disclosure will be understood and appreciated more fully from the following detailed description, taken in conjunction with the drawings in which: 
         FIGS. 1-4  are views of a user interface screen, at various time periods, constructed and operative in accordance with an embodiment of the present disclosure; 
         FIG. 5  is a view of a user interface screen constructed and operative in accordance with an alternative embodiment of the present disclosure; 
         FIG. 6  is a view of the user interface screen of  FIG. 1  showing more information about which members have read a message; and 
         FIG. 7  is partly pictorial, partly block diagram view of a chat room client device constructed and operative in accordance with an embodiment of the present disclosure. 
     
    
    
     DESCRIPTION OF EXAMPLE EMBODIMENTS 
     Overview 
     There is provided in accordance with an embodiment of the present disclosure, a method including receiving data including chat room data from a chat room server, receiving input data from at least one input device, preparing a user interface screen for output to a display device, the user interface screen including a chat room list including a plurality of chat room panels, each one chat room panel of the plurality of chat room panels including information about a different chat room from a plurality of chat rooms and a chat room icon of the different chat room, wherein a first chat room panel of the plurality of chat room panels includes an indication of how many chat room members of a first chat room from the plurality of chat rooms have read a first message posted in the first chat room. 
     There is also provided in accordance with another embodiment of the present disclosure, a chat room server system including a graphics processing unit to prepare a user interface screen for output to a display device, the user interface screen including a chat room list including a plurality of chat room panels, each one chat room panel of the plurality of chat room panels including information about a different chat room from a plurality of chat rooms, a chat room icon of the different chat room, and a title of the different chat room, wherein a first chat room panel of the plurality of chat room panels includes an indication of how many chat room members of a first chat room from the plurality of chat rooms have read a first message posted in the first chat room, and a central processing unit to receive input data, interpret the input data to include selecting entry to, and posting the first message in, the first chat room. 
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION 
       FIGS. 1-4  are views of a user interface screen  10 , at various time periods, constructed and operative in accordance with an embodiment of the present disclosure. Reference is now made to  FIG. 1 , which shows a user interface screen  10  run by a collaboration application on a mobile phone  12 . The user interface screen  10  includes a chat room list  14 . The chat room list  14  includes a plurality of chat room panels  16 , individually labelled  16 ( 1 )- 16 ( 3 ). Each chat room panel  16  includes information about a different chat room from a plurality of chat rooms. The chat rooms may include one-to-one and group conversations. Each chat room panel  16  may include a chat room icon  18  of the chat room associated with that chat room panel  16 , and a title  20  of the chat room associated with that chat room panel  16 . Each chat room panel  16  may also include at least part of a most recent message  22  (individually labelled  22 ( 1 )- 22 ( 3 )) posted in the chat room associated with that chat room panel  16 , and a member identification  26  of who posted the most recent message  22  to that chat room. The chat room icon  18  (individually labelled  18 ( 1 )- 18 ( 3 )) of a chat room panel  16  may include one or more avatars of members of the chat room associated with that chat room panel  16  and optionally list the number of members in that chat room. Only three chat room panels  16  are shown in the chat room list  14 . It will be appreciated that any suitable number of chat room panels  16  may be included in the chat room list  14  depending on the size of the screen, icons and fonts, by way of example only. 
     A chat room panel  16 ( 1 ) of the chat room panels  16  includes an indication  24 , which may include a graphic representation, of how many chat room members of the chat room (“March Demo”) associated with the chat room panel  16 ( 1 ) have read the most recent message  22 ( 1 ) posted in the chat room associated with the chat room panel  16 ( 1 ) by a user (“You”) of the mobile phone  12 . The graphic representation shown in  FIG. 1  extends around the chat room icon  18 ( 1 ) of the chat room panel  16 ( 1 ) as a function of how many chat room members of that chat room have read the most recent message  22 ( 1 ) posted in that chat room by the user of the mobile phone  12 . The graphic representation may extend as an arc around the chat room icon  18 ( 1 ). An angular size of the arc is a function of how many chat room members of the chat room have read the most recent message  22 ( 1 ) posted in that chat room. The arc may form an annular ring when 100% of the chat room members of the chat room have read the most recent message  22 ( 1 ) posted in that chat room. In  FIG. 1 , the arc extends half way around the chat room icon  18  of the chat room panel  16 ( 1 ) indicating that 50% of the members of the chat room have read the most recent message  22 ( 1 ). The arc may be any suitable color and/or shading and/or pattern. The indication may additionally or alternatively include numerals to show how many members have read a posted message. Alternatively, the graphical representation may be implemented in any suitable form, for example, but not limited to, a bar indicator which indicates a fraction, percentage or number of how many members have read a posted message. Alternatively or additionally, the indication  24  may include a numeric representation of how many people have read the message, e.g., “5”, “5” reads, or “5/8” to indicate that 5 members out of a chat room membership of 8 have read a posted message. 
     A chat room panel  16 ( 2 ) of the chat room panels  16  does not include an indication of how many members have read the most recent message  22 ( 2 ) posted to the chat room “Sales meeting” as the most recent message  22 ( 2 ) was posted by someone other than the user of the mobile phone  12 . In the example of  FIG. 1 , “John” posted the most recent message  22 ( 2 ). It will be appreciated that the user interface screen  10  may be implemented to show a “read” indicator for all most recently posted messages of each chat room, even those not posted by the user of the mobile phone  12 . 
     A chat room panel  16 ( 3 ) of the chat room panels  16  includes an indication  28  (e.g., a circle thinner than the thickness of the indication  24 ) around the chat room icon  18 ( 3 ) of the chat room panel  16 ( 3 ). The indication  28  indicates that none of the members of the chat room associated with the chat room panel  16 ( 3 ) have read the most recent message  22 ( 3 ) posted in that chat room (“PM customer feedback”) by the user (“You”) of the mobile phone  12 . 
     The indications  24 ,  28  enable the user of the mobile phone  12  to see how many chat room members of the respective chat rooms have read the most recent messages  22  posted to the various chat rooms at the chat room list  14  level without having to enter each chat room separately. This may be particularly useful for a manager wanting to see if the most recent message  22  has been seen by those who report to the manager. This increases the efficiency and speed of a system running the user interface screen  10 , as the users do not need to enter each chat room separately in order to see how many chat room members of the respective chat rooms have read the most recent messages  22  posted to the various chat rooms. The increase in efficiency may be generated whether the user interface screen  10  is generated in a client device or in a cloud server, by way of example only. There may be an additional bandwidth saving as data for each chat room may not need to be downloaded to a client device unless the user selects to enter a chat room so by enabling the user of the mobile phone  12  to see how many chat room members of the respective chat rooms have read the most recent messages  22  posted to the various chat rooms at the chat room list  14  level, the need for downloading certain chat room data may be reduced. 
     Reference is now made to  FIG. 2 . At a later time, than the time of  FIG. 1 , 25% of the members of the “PM customer feedback” chat room have read the most recent message  22 ( 3 ) posted by the user of the mobile phone  12 . This is indicated by the indication  28  now extending 25% (a 90 degree arc) around the chat room icon  18 ( 3 ). 
     Reference is now made to  FIG. 3 . At a still later time, 100% of the members of the “PM customer feedback” chat room have read the most recent message  22 ( 3 ) posted by the user of the mobile phone  12 . This is indicated by the indication  28  now extending 100% (a 360 degree arc) around the chat room icon  18 ( 3 ). 
     Reference is now made to  FIG. 4 .  FIG. 4  shows that the most recent message  22 ( 3 ) was posted by Simone and not by the user of the mobile phone  12 . Therefore, the indication  28  ( FIG. 3 ) has now been removed from the user interface screen  10 . As mentioned above, it will be appreciated that the user interface screen  10  may be implemented to show a “read” indicator for all most recently posted messages, even those not posted by the user of the mobile phone  12 . In such a case, the indication  28  for other members besides the user of the mobile phone  12  may be shown using a different color and/or shading and/or pattern, than is used for the user of the mobile phone  12 , by way of example only. 
     Reference is now made to  FIG. 5 , which is a view of a user interface screen  30  constructed and operative in accordance with an alternative embodiment of the present disclosure. The user interface screen  30  is substantially the same as the user interface screen  10  ( FIGS. 1-4 ) except that the user interface screen  30  includes a plurality of toggle buttons  32  (“ALL” and “YOU”) to toggle between showing: (a) the most recent message  22  posted in each chat room independent of who posted the most recent message  22  by selecting the “ALL” toggle button  32 ; and (b) the most recent message  22  posted by one user (e.g. the user who is using the user interface screen  10 , i.e., the user interface screen  30  shows the most recent messages posted by “You”) for all of the chat rooms where the one user, e.g., “You”, has posted a message by selecting the “YOU” toggle button  32 . In some embodiments the “one user” may be selected to be any one of the members of the chat rooms. 
     In the example of  FIG. 5  the user interface screen  30  is showing most recent messages  22 ( 1 ),  22 ( 3 ) posted by “You” except for in the chat room panel  16 ( 2 ) where “You” has not posted any message to date. The indications  24 ,  28  are shown in  FIG. 5  only for the chat room panels  16 ( 1 ) and  16 ( 3 ) where the user “You” has posted messages in the past. The indications  24 ,  28  show the “read” status of the latest messages posted by “You” even if someone else has already posted a more recent message, for example, in the case of the chat room of chat room panel  16 ( 3 ), Simone posted the most recent message  22 ( 3 ) ( FIG. 4 ) after “You”. However, as the “You” toggle button  32  has been selected in  FIG. 5 , most recent message  22 ( 3 ) posted by “You” is shown along with the reading indication  28  for the most recent message  22 ( 3 ) posted by “You”. It will be appreciated that the toggle buttons  32  may be replaced by a single toggle button which provides the same functionality as the toggle buttons  32 . 
     Reference is now made to  FIG. 6 , which is a view of the user interface screen  10  of  FIG. 1  showing more information  34  about which members of the chat room of the chat room panel  16 ( 1 ) have read the most recent message  22 ( 1 ) ( FIG. 4 ) and which members of the chat room have not read the most recent message  22 ( 1 ). The additional information  34  may be selected by the user hovering over the chat room icon  18 ( 1 ) or by any other suitable user selection. If the information  34  is selected by hovering etc., the user interface screen  10  is updated to further include a representation  36 , e.g., an avatar, of each of the members of the chat room of the chat room panel  16 ( 1 ) and an indication  38  of which of the members of that chat room have read the most recent message  22 ( 1 ). The indication  38  may include disposing a shape around the representation  36  (e.g., the avatar) of each of the members of that chat room that have read the most recent message  22 ( 1 ). The shape is typically a circular shape disposed around the chat room panel  16 ( 1 ) and may be colored and/or shaded. Using the same color and/or shading and/or pattern for the indications  38  and the indication  24  may help reinforce the notion that the chosen color and/or shade means that the most recent message  22 ( 1 ) has been read. The representations  36  without the indication  38  belong to the members of the chat room who have not yet read the most recent message  22 ( 1 ). It will be appreciated that the indications  38  may be replaced by other methods of indication, for example, but not limited to, using check marks and/or making the representations  36  of the members who have read the most recent message  22 ( 1 ) larger than the representations  36  of the members who have not read the most recent message  22 ( 1 ). 
     Chat room members may be encouraged to participate in the chat rooms by a form of ‘gamification’ by ordering the representations  36  of the members in the information  34  by engagement as will be described in more detail below. The representations  36  of the members may be ordered according to which members of the chat room of the chat room panel  16 ( 1 ) have read the most recent message  22 ( 1 ) ( FIG. 4 ) and which of the members of that chat room have not read the most recent message  22 ( 1 ). Additionally, the representations  36  of the members of the chat room of the chat room panel  16 ( 1 ) may be ordered, at a second sort level, according to an engagement of each of the members in that chat room. The engagement may be measured by number of messages posted and/or messages read in that chat room or all chat rooms, by way of example only. Alternatively, the representations  36  of the members may be ordered according to an engagement of each of the members in the chat room and not by whether the most recent message  22 ( 1 ) has been read or not. 
     In  FIG. 6 , the representation  36  closest to the chat room icon  18 ( 1 ) belongs to a member who has read the post and is also the most engaged in this chat room. The representation  36  which is fifth from the chat room icon  18 ( 1 ) belongs to a member who has not read the most recent message  22 ( 1 ) but is the most engaged member of those who have not read the most recent message  22 ( 1 ) ( FIG. 4 ). The representation  36  which is eighth from the chat room icon  18 ( 1 ) belongs to a member who has not read the most recent message  22 ( 1 ) and is the least engaged member of those who have not read the most recent message  22 ( 1 ). 
     Reference is now made to  FIG. 7 , which is partly pictorial, partly block diagram view of a chat room client system  40  constructed and operative in accordance with an embodiment of the present disclosure. The chat room client system  40  includes a central processing unit (CPU)  42 , a memory  44 , a graphics processing unit (GPU)  46 , a data bus  48 , a network input/output interface  50 , a graphics output sub-system  52  and a user input interface  54 . The chat room client system  40  may be implemented in any suitable processing device, for example, but not limited to, a smart phone, a tablet device, a laptop computer or a desk top computer. 
     The network input/output interface  50  is operative to receive, from a chat room server  56 , data including chat room data (e.g., chat room lists, chat room titles, chat room messages, chat room icons, member icons/avatars) and data indicating how many chat room members of one or more chat rooms have read a message (e.g., a latest posted message) posted in the relevant chat room. The network input/output interface  50  may be a wired and/or wireless network interface. 
     The user input interface  54  is operative to receive input data from at least one input device, for example, but not limited to, a keyboard  58 , a mouse  60  and/or a touchscreen. The input data may indicate a screen position (e.g., a screen position of a cursor or a finger or a stylus) and/or a mouse click or an equivalent selection command and/or keyboard input, by way of example only. When the chat room client device  40  is implemented in a smart phone the user input interface  54  may receive the input data from a touchscreen of the smart phone. 
     The GPU  46  is operative to prepare the user interface screen  10  ( FIG. 1-4, 6 ),  30  ( FIG. 5 ) for output to a display device  62 . The GPU  46 , apart from utilizing the data received from the chat room server  56  in preparing the user interface screen  10 ,  30 , typically customizes the user interface screen  10 ,  30  according to specifications of the display device  62 . The graphics output sub-system  52  is operative to output the user interface screen  10 ,  30  to the display device  62 . The display device  62  may be implemented as a stand-alone monitor as shown in  FIG. 7 , as a display integrated into the chat room client system  40  typically incorporating a touchscreen (for example, when the chat room client device  40  is implemented in a smart phone), or as a projector and screen arrangement, by way of example only. The GPU  46  may be implemented in the CPU  42 . 
     The CPU  42  is operative to receive the input data from the user input interface  54  and interpret the input data, for example, based on a screen position (e.g., a screen position of a cursor or a finger or a stylus), to include selecting entry to, and/or posting a message to, the chat room associated with the screen position. The CPU  42  may also pre-process received chat room data for forwarding to the GPU  46 . The network input/output interface  50  is operative to send messages posted by the user of the chat room client system  40  to the chat room server  56 . The memory  44  is operative to store data used by the CPU  42  and the GPU  46  and other elements of the chat room client system  40 , as necessary. The data bus  48  is operative to connect the various elements of the chat room client system  40  for data connection purposes. 
     The CPU  42  is operative to calculate a proximity of a screen position (e.g., a position of a cursor or a finger or a stylus) with the chat room icon  18 ( 1 ) ( FIG. 6 ) of the chat room panel  16 ( 1 ) ( FIG. 6 ) and based on the proximity, to interpret the input data to include selecting more information  34  ( FIG. 6 ) about the indication  38  of how many chat room members of the chat room associated with the chat room panel  16 ( 1 ) have read the most recent message  22 ( 1 ) ( FIG. 1 ) posted in that chat room. The GPU  46  is operative to prepare the user interface screen  10  ( FIG. 6 ) to further include the representation  36  of each of the members of that chat room and an indication of which of the members of that chat room have read the most recent message  22 ( 1 ) by disposing a shape around the representation  36 , e.g., avatar, of each of the members of that chat room that have read the most recent message  22 ( 1 ) or using any suitable indication. 
     In accordance with an alternative embodiment, the user interface screen  10 ,  30  may be initially prepared by the chat room server  56 . The chat room server  56  may comprise a CPU which may be operative to receive the user input from the user input interface  54  of the chat room client system  40 . The chat room server  56  may also include a GPU to prepare the user interface screen  10 ,  30  based on the chat room data and transmit the user interface screen  10 ,  30  to the chat room client system  40 . The user interface screen  10  may then be formatted by the GPU  46  of the chat room client system  40  according to the specifications of the display device  62 . 
     In practice, some or all of these functions may be combined in a single physical component or, alternatively, implemented using multiple physical components. These physical components may comprise hard-wired or programmable devices, or a combination of the two. In some embodiments, at least some of the functions of the processing circuitry may be carried out by a programmable processor under the control of suitable software. This software may be downloaded to a device in electronic form, over a network, for example. Alternatively or additionally, the software may be stored in tangible, non-transitory computer-readable storage media, such as optical, magnetic, or electronic memory. 
     It is appreciated that software components may, if desired, be implemented in ROM (read only memory) form. The software components may, generally, be implemented in hardware, if desired, using conventional techniques. It is further appreciated that the software components may be instantiated, for example: as a computer program product or on a tangible medium. In some cases, it may be possible to instantiate the software components as a signal interpretable by an appropriate computer, although such an instantiation may be excluded in certain embodiments of the present disclosure. 
     It will be appreciated that various features of the disclosure which are, for clarity, described in the contexts of separate embodiments may also be provided in combination in a single embodiment. Conversely, various features of the disclosure which are, for brevity, described in the context of a single embodiment may also be provided separately or in any suitable sub-combination. 
     It will be appreciated by persons skilled in the art that the present disclosure is not limited by what has been particularly shown and described hereinabove. Rather the scope of the disclosure is defined by the appended claims and equivalents thereof.