Patent Issued for Systems and methods for remote huddle collaboration (USPTO 11270264): Massachusetts Mutual Life Insurance Company

2022 MAR 25 (NewsRx) -- By a News Reporter-Staff News Editor at Insurance Daily News -- Massachusetts Mutual Life Insurance Company (Springfield, Massachusetts, United States) has been issued patent number 11270264, according to news reporting originating out of Alexandria, Virginia, by NewsRx editors.

The patent’s inventors are Casale, Robert (Bristol, CT, US), O’Malley, Abigail (Brighton, MA, US), Teller, Kedzie (Brookline, MA, US).

This patent was filed on September 28, 2020 and was published online on March 8, 2022.

From the background information supplied by the inventors, news correspondents obtained the following quote: “Conventionally, team members working on one or more projects within a company may get together in a huddle or micromeeting on a regular basis to share information, discuss topics, evaluate performance, identify issues, and/or solve problems collaboratively. Since the introduction of the huddle, whiteboards have acted as the traditional tool for storing all information collected during an active huddle session. However, one drawback of the current huddle methodology is that it may not be possible for all participants in a meeting to be in the same physical location at the same time.

“Alternatives to overcome the challenge of gathering team members who may be at different locations for a huddle, may include the use of one or more collaboration tools such as conference phone calls, video conferences, Internet relay chat (IRC), email, and instant messaging, among others. Nevertheless, the whiteboard is still the most commonly used tool during huddles, because the aforementioned collaboration tools are generic ways to connect people and may not offer a consistent way to realize the benefits of the team huddle. As a result, all team members must be physically located in the same room in order to be fully engaged in the huddle session.

“Conventional approaches to meetings amongst remote users fail address all of the deficiencies of the conventional collaboration tools. A web meeting may allow a user to share a computer desktop with another user in a remote location. But the user must select which application should be presented on the computer desktop, so there is no ability to present a page that has information from multiple sub-applications that are dynamically updated. Further, the user cannot include annotations overlaid on the page that are simultaneously presented to the remote user and also stored with that particular page such that the particular page can be retrieved at a later date along with those annotations.

“Moreover, conventional extranets are capable of sharing information from a common source, but these extranets do not offer real-time collaboration through real-time updates and simultaneous displays to other users. Further, these conventional extranets do not utilize sub-applications that dynamically display data associated with users simultaneously accessing the extranet. Conventional computer solutions do not offer the desired collaboration, real-time updating, dynamic presentation of data, and linking of additional content to the displayed data.

“Therefore, there is a need for systems and methods which may enable remote huddle collaboration between team members of a given project that may overcome these and other drawbacks.”

Supplementing the background information on this patent, NewsRx reporters also obtained the inventors’ summary information for this patent: “The present disclosure describes systems and methods for remote huddle collaboration.

“According to an embodiment, a computer-implemented huddle collaboration system may include different components which may dynamically interact with each other through network connections. The huddle collaboration system may include one or more internal databases operatively coupled to a huddle management system, among other components. The huddle management system may include one or more authentication modules, one or more data processing modules, and one or more module managers, among other software modules. The huddle collaboration system may also include any suitable user interface through which users, such as huddle leaders and huddle participants, may interact with the huddle management system by means of a computing device. The computing device may be any computer type device that may receive, process, and/or transmit digital data including a bus which may enable the communication between components such as input/output devices, an interface, a memory, a storage device, and a central processing unit (CPU), among others.

“According to another embodiment, a computer-implemented method for remote huddle collaboration may allow users to perform actions for accessing the huddle collaboration system, entering the user’s credentials, entering the user’s huddle boards, selecting a huddle board, and entering the huddle board summary. If the user is joining a huddle board as a leader, then the method may also allow a leader to perform actions for selecting “start” a huddle session, entering the huddle board, conducting the huddle board by selecting one or more sub-applications to edit/view the content in the huddle board, ending the huddle session, and exiting the huddle collaboration system, among others. If the user is joining a huddle board as a participant, then the method may allow a participant to perform actions for selecting “join” a huddle session, entering a waiting state for the huddle session until the huddle is active or entering the huddle board if the huddle is already active, engaging in the huddle session, ending the huddle session, and exiting the huddle collaboration system, among others. If the user is not joining a huddle board but wants to edit/view the content in a huddle board, then the method may allow users to perform actions for selecting one or more sub-application to edit/view the content in the huddle board, and exiting the huddle collaboration system, among others.

“According to a further embodiment, a computer-implemented huddle summary user interface may enable one or more users to view/edit the content in one or more sub-applications in the huddle board, where the huddle leader may control the sub-applications that the huddle participants may access in the huddle and the viewing and/or editing rights they may have over the content in each of the sub-applications. The huddle summary may include sub-applications which may be standard for every user’s huddle and others which the user may decide should be shown, according to the user’s and/or project’s requirements. The huddle summary may also include a huddle-up menu which may enable users to join a huddle board in an active session and to access a sub-applications library that may allow users to add one or more sub-applications to the huddle board, among other features. When a user joins an active huddle, the huddle leader may start the huddle and then, conduct the huddle by viewing and/or editing the content in it, while simultaneously huddle participants engage in the huddle session by viewing and/or editing the content as needed. In an additional embodiment, a huddle member may join an active huddle session as a note taker, who may be responsible for taking notes of the information generated during an active huddle session.

“Systems and methods for remote huddle collaboration may enable huddle members to remotely connect to huddles in a consistent way, which may reinforce the company’s management system approach across multiple levels in the organization. In addition, the system may promote a clear alignment of goals and strategies while enhancing the productivity of the huddle and leveraging the human and information technology resources.”

The claims supplied by the inventors are:

“1. A server-implemented method comprising: displaying, by a server, a collaborative platform accessible to a plurality of users, the collaborative platform comprising a set of sub-applications each displaying data associated with one or more collaboration files; in response to identifying a collaboration file associated with a first user accessing the collaborative platform, displaying, by the server, on a first sub-application, data associated with the collaboration file; in response to determining that the collaboration file is also associated with a second user, identifying, by the server, a second sub-application associated with the collaboration file and accessed by the second user; instructing, by the server, execution of each of the first and second sub-applications, wherein each of the first and second sub-applications dynamically retrieves data records associated with the first and second users and further retrieves data associated with the collaboration files from a database; simultaneously presenting, by the server, a synchronized version of the first and the second sub-applications on the collaborative platform accessed by the first and second users, wherein each sub-application graphically represents the data retrieved; and upon receiving input data from the first user interacting with the first sub-application of the collaborative platform, presenting, by the server, the input data as an overlay on the second sub-application.

“2. The method of claim 1, wherein the server determines that the collaboration file is also associated with the second user in response to the second user accessing the collaborative platform.

“3. The method of claim 1, wherein the collaboration file corresponds to at least one of records that store information about the collaborative platform, each sub-application, any positions or roles of the first user and the second user, or information associated with how to graphically present the collaborative platform.

“4. The method of claim 1, wherein the input data corresponds to data inputted during a communication session between at least two users of the collaborative platform.

“5. The method of claim 1, wherein each sub-application comprises pre-defined content and has a standard layout, and wherein the pre-defined content is selected from a group consisting of morale field, recognition field, announcements field, company news field, and calendar field.

“6. The method of claim 1, wherein at least one sub-application corresponds to a fillable calendar application for the first user and the second user.

“7. A computer system: a database configured to store data associated with a collaborative platform, the data comprising at least one collaboration file; a server comprising a processor, in communication with the database, the server configured to: display the collaborative platform accessible to a plurality of users, the collaborative platform comprising a set of sub-applications each displaying data associated with one or more collaboration files; in response to identifying a collaboration file associated with a first user accessing the collaborative platform, display on a first sub-application, data associated with the collaboration file; in response to determining that the collaboration file is also associated with a second user, identify a second sub-application associated with the collaboration file and accessed by the second user; instruct execution of each of the first and second sub-applications, wherein each of the first and second sub-applications dynamically retrieves data records associated with the first and second users and further retrieves data associated with the collaboration files from the database; simultaneously present a synchronized version of the first and the second sub-applications on the collaborative platform accessed by the first and second users, wherein each sub-application graphically represents the data retrieved; and upon receiving input data from the first user interacting with the first sub-application of the collaborative platform, present the input data as an overlay on the second sub-application.

“8. The computer system of claim 7, wherein the server determines that the collaboration file is also associated with the second user in response to the second user accessing the collaborative platform.

“9. The computer system of claim 7, wherein the collaboration file corresponds to at least one of records that store information about the collaborative platform, each sub-application, any positions or roles of the first user and the second user, or information associated with how to graphically present the collaborative platform.

“10. The computer system of claim 7, wherein the input data corresponds to data inputted during a communication session between at least two users of the collaborative platform.

“11. The computer system of claim 7, wherein each sub-application comprises pre-defined content and has a standard layout, and wherein the pre-defined content is selected from a group consisting of morale field, recognition field, announcements field, company news field, and calendar field.

“12. The computer system of claim 7, wherein at least one sub-application corresponds to a fillable calendar application for the first user and the second user.

“13. The computer system of claim 7, wherein at least one sub-application displays a status of a project.

“14. A system comprising: a server comprising a processor and a non-transitory computer-readable medium containing instructions that when executed by the processor causes the processor to perform operations comprising: display a collaborative platform accessible to a plurality of users, the collaborative platform comprising a set of sub-applications each displaying data associated with one or more collaboration files; in response to identifying a collaboration file associated with a first user accessing the collaborative platform, display on a first sub-application, data associated with the collaboration file; in response to determining that the collaboration file is also associated with a second user, identify a second sub-application associated with the collaboration file and accessed by the second user; instruct execution of each of the first and second sub-applications, wherein each of the first and second sub-applications dynamically retrieves data records associated with the first and second users and further retrieves data associated with the collaboration files from a database; simultaneously present a synchronized version of the first and the second sub-applications on the collaborative platform accessed by the first and second users, wherein each sub-application graphically represents the data retrieved; and upon receiving input data from the first user interacting with the first sub-application of the collaborative platform, present the input data as an overlay on the second sub-application.

“15. The system of claim 14, wherein the server determines that the collaboration file is also associated with the second user in response to the second user accessing the collaborative platform.

“16. The system of claim 14, wherein the collaboration file corresponds to at least one of records that store information about the collaborative platform, each sub-application, any positions or roles of the first user and the second user, or information associated with how to graphically present the collaborative platform.

“17. The system of claim 14, wherein the input data corresponds to data inputted during a communication session between at least two users of the collaborative platform.

“18. The system of claim 14, wherein each sub-application comprises pre-defined content and has a standard layout, and wherein the pre-defined content is selected from a group consisting of morale field, recognition field, announcements field, company news field, and calendar field.

“19. The system of claim 14, wherein at least one sub-application corresponds to a fillable calendar application for the first user and the second user.

“20. The system of claim 14, wherein at least one sub-application displays a status of a project.”

For the URL and additional information on this patent, see: Casale, Robert. Systems and methods for remote huddle collaboration. U.S. Patent Number 11270264, filed September 28, 2020, and published online on March 8, 2022. Patent URL: http://patft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?Sect1=PTO1&Sect2=HITOFF&d=PALL&p=1&u=%2Fnetahtml%2FPTO%2Fsrchnum.htm&r=1&f=G&l=50&s1=11270264.PN.&OS=PN/11270264RS=PN/11270264

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