Granted Patent B1

US 12,657,380 · App. 18/397,414 · Granted Jun 16, 2026

Inventor: Richard Dean Legatski (Castle Rock, CO)

Assignee: Zoom Communications, Inc.

G06F40/197G06F3/0482G06F40/169G06T11/60G06T2200/24

Abstract

Claims (62)

1 . A method, comprising:

modifying a virtual whiteboard responsive to editing commands, each editing command resulting in a respective state of the virtual whiteboard;

storing at least some of the respective states as whiteboard snapshots;

receiving a command to display one of the whiteboard snapshots;

updating, based on the command, a user interface associated with the virtual whiteboard according to the one of the whiteboard snapshots;

receiving an edit command of a graphical element; and

in response to the edit command, performing a snapshot consistency check to determine whether the edit command affects downstream whiteboard snapshots.

2 . The method of claim 1 , wherein storing the at least some of the respective states as the whiteboard snapshots comprises:

storing, in response to a first snapshot capture command, a first whiteboard snapshot corresponding to a first state; and

storing, in response to a second snapshot capture command received after the first snapshot capture command, a second whiteboard snapshot corresponding to a second state, wherein the second whiteboard snapshot stores differences from the first state to the second state.

3 . The method of claim 1 , further comprising:

updating the user interface based on a first whiteboard snapshot that is upstream from a second whiteboard snapshot;

receiving an edit command of a graphical element displayed in the user interface;

determining whether the graphical element is modified in the second whiteboard snapshot; and

in response to determining that the graphical element is modified in the second whiteboard snapshot, providing a notification indicating that the graphical element is modified in the second whiteboard snapshot.

4 . The method of claim 1 , further comprising:

receiving a request to delete a graphical element from a first whiteboard snapshot of the whiteboard snapshots; and

moving the graphical element to a second whiteboard snapshot that is downstream from the first whiteboard snapshot.

5 . The method of claim 1 , further comprising:

associating a media annotation with the one of the whiteboard snapshots.

6 . The method of claim 1 , further comprising:

associating a textual annotation with the one of the whiteboard snapshots.

7 . The method of claim 1 , further comprising:

associating a name with the one of the whiteboard snapshots.

8 . The method of claim 1 , further comprising:

in response to determining that the edit command affects the downstream whiteboard snapshots, applying the edit command to at least one of the downstream whiteboard snapshots; and

updating the at least one of the downstream whiteboard snapshots to reflect the edit command.

9 . A system, comprising:

one or more memories; and

one or more processors, the one or more processors configured to execute instructions stored in the one or more memories to:

modify a virtual whiteboard responsive to editing commands, each editing command resulting in a respective state of the virtual whiteboard;

store at least some of the respective states as whiteboard snapshots;

receive a command to display one of the whiteboard snapshots;

update, based on the command, a user interface associated with the virtual whiteboard according to the one of the whiteboard snapshots;

receive an edit command of a graphical element; and

in response to the edit command, perform a snapshot consistency check to determine whether the edit command affects downstream whiteboard snapshots.

10 . The system of claim 9 , wherein the one or more processors is further configured to execute instructions stored in the one or more memories to:

associate an audio annotation with the one of the whiteboard snapshots.

11 . The system of claim 9 , wherein the one or more processors is further configured to execute instructions stored in the one or more memories to:

associate an audio-visual annotation with the one of the whiteboard snapshots.

12 . The system of claim 9 , wherein the one or more processors is further configured to execute instructions stored in the one or more memories to:

display a list corresponding to the whiteboard snapshots in the user interface, wherein the command to display the one of the whiteboard snapshots is received in response to a selection from the list.

13 . The system of claim 9 , wherein the user interface associated with the virtual whiteboard includes navigation tools configured to sequentially update the user interface based on the whiteboard snapshots.

14 . The system of claim 9 , wherein the one or more processors is further configured to execute instructions stored in the one or more memories to:

sequentially update the user interface based on the whiteboard snapshots in response to a play command.

15 . Non-transitory computer readable media storing instructions operable to cause one or more processors to perform operations comprising:

modifying a virtual whiteboard responsive to editing commands, each editing command resulting in a respective state of the virtual whiteboard;

storing at least some of the respective states as whiteboard snapshots;

receiving a command to display one of the whiteboard snapshots;

updating, based on the command, a user interface associated with the virtual whiteboard according to the one of the whiteboard snapshots;

receiving an edit command of a graphical element; and

in response to the edit command, performing a snapshot consistency check to determine whether the edit command affects downstream whiteboard snapshots.

16 . The non-transitory computer readable media of claim 15 , wherein modifying the virtual whiteboard comprises:

adding, moving, resizing, or deleting graphical elements in response to the editing commands.

17 . The non-transitory computer readable media of claim 15 , wherein the operations further comprise:

playing a media annotation associated with the one of the whiteboard snapshots in response to receiving the command.

18 . The non-transitory computer readable media of claim 15 , wherein the operations further comprise:

displaying a textual annotation associated with the one of the whiteboard snapshots in response to receiving the command.

19 . The non-transitory computer readable media of claim 15 , wherein the operations further comprise:

displaying a list of the whiteboard snapshots.

20 . The non-transitory computer readable media of claim 15 , wherein the operations further comprise:

sequentially displaying the whiteboard snapshots in response to a play command, wherein each of the whiteboard snapshots is displayed for predefined display duration.

Assignments (1)

References Cited (31)