Patent ID: 8751921

Claim:
A method for presenting a hierarchical representation of a plurality of recorded annotations, comprising: logically organizing a first annotation and a second annotation into a first annotation branch based upon determining that the first annotation and the second annotation were created within a threshold physical distance of one another, the first annotation positioned relative to the second annotation within the first annotation branch based upon a spatial proximity between the first annotation and the second annotation on a display within which the first annotation and the second annotation were created; logically organizing a third annotation and a fourth annotation into a second annotation branch; and presenting, on an ambient display, the first annotation branch and the second annotation branch within a hierarchical representation comprising a hierarchical timeline such that the second annotation branch branches off of the first annotation branch based upon a determination that at least one of: the third annotation comments textually on at least one of the first annotation or the second annotation; or the fourth annotation comments textually on at least one of the first annotation or the second annotation, at least one of the first annotation branch or the second annotation branch presented at a particular location within the hierarchical representation based upon predetermined criteria comprising at least one of a spatial density of annotations or a zoom state, where responsive to placement of a timeline marker on a first location on the ambient display associated with a first time, at least one of one or more annotations or one or more objects corresponding to the first time are displayed, at least one of the first annotation, the second annotation, the third annotation or the fourth annotation comprising at least one of electronic ink, audio, text, or video.