The present invention relates generally to the field of content presentation, and more particularly to control of content presentation based on audience feedback.
An important aspect of the art of the presentation is to keep the presentation relevant. This is typically accomplished by adjusting the content and flow of a presentation to tailor it to the target audience. In order to tailor the presentation, information is gathered from the audience, typically post-presentation, usually in the form of solicited feedback from a survey or request for comments. Systems also exist to receive audience feedback during a presentation, such as a simple “raise your hand” response to a question from the presenter, or more sophisticated systems, such as electronic instant “polling” devices given to audience members. Useful information may also be obtained from observing the audience during a presentation, for example, for behavioral signs indicating level of interest, and from ad hoc audience communications, such as audience questions during the presentations and audience comments to the presenter after the presentation. In response to the gathered information, future presentations can be adjusted to better address the perceived audience interest in various aspects of the presentation. If the presenter is adept, adjustments to the presentation can be made on-the-fly, for example, by verbally expounding on certain perceived areas of audience interest, or “fast-forwarding” through portions of the presentation perceived to be of low audience interest.
Embodiments of the present invention disclose a method, computer program product, and system for selecting presentation content. Presentation content is displayed to an audience, the presentation content includes a plurality of content elements. One or more feedback inputs are received from the audience, each feedback input is associated with one of the content elements. A computer determines an alternative presentation content based on the received feedback inputs, and the alternative presentation content is displayed.
As will be appreciated by one skilled in the art, aspects of the present invention may be embodied as a system, method or computer program product. Accordingly, aspects of the present invention may take the form of an entirely hardware embodiment, an entirely software embodiment (including firmware, resident software, micro-code, etc.) or an embodiment combining software and hardware aspects that may all generally be referred to herein as a “circuit,” “module” or “system.” Furthermore, aspects of the present invention may take the form of a computer program product embodied in one or more computer-readable medium(s) having computer readable program code/instructions embodied thereon.
Any combination of computer-readable media may be utilized. Computer-readable media may be a computer-readable signal medium or a computer-readable storage medium. A computer-readable storage medium may be, for example, but not limited to, an electronic, magnetic, optical, electromagnetic, infrared, or semiconductor system, apparatus, or device, or any suitable combination of the foregoing. More specific examples (a non-exhaustive list) of a computer-readable storage medium would include the following: an electrical connection having one or more wires, a portable computer diskette, a hard disk, a random access memory (RAM), a read-only memory (ROM), an erasable programmable read-only memory (EPROM or Flash memory), an optical fiber, a portable compact disc read-only memory (CD-ROM), an optical storage device, a magnetic storage device, or any suitable combination of the foregoing. In the context of this document, a computer-readable storage medium may be any tangible medium that can contain, or store a program for use by or in connection with an instruction execution system, apparatus, or device.
A computer-readable signal medium may include a propagated data signal with computer-readable program code embodied therein, for example, in baseband or as part of a carrier wave. Such a propagated signal may take any of a variety of forms, including, but not limited to, electro-magnetic, optical, or any suitable combination thereof. A computer-readable signal medium may be any computer-readable medium that is not a computer-readable storage medium and that can communicate, propagate, or transport a program for use by or in connection with an instruction execution system, apparatus, or device.
Program code embodied on a computer-readable medium may be transmitted using any appropriate medium, including but not limited to wireless, wireline, optical fiber cable, RF, etc., or any suitable combination of the foregoing.
Computer program code for carrying out operations for aspects of the present invention may be written in any combination of one or more programming languages, including an object oriented programming language such as Java, Smalltalk, C++ or the like and conventional procedural programming languages, such as the “C” programming language or similar programming languages. The program code may execute entirely on a user's computer, partly on the user's computer, as a stand-alone software package, partly on the user's computer and partly on a remote computer, or entirely on the remote computer or server. In the latter scenario, the remote computer may be connected to the user's computer through any type of network, including a local area network (LAN) or a wide area network (WAN), or the connection may be made to an external computer (for example, through the Internet using an Internet Service Provider).
Aspects of the present invention are described below with reference to flowchart illustrations and/or block diagrams of methods, apparatus (systems) and computer program products according to embodiments of the invention. It will be understood that each block of the flowchart illustrations and/or block diagrams, and combinations of blocks in the flowchart illustrations and/or block diagrams, can be implemented by computer program instructions. These computer program instructions may be provided to a processor of a general purpose computer, special purpose computer, or other programmable data processing apparatus to produce a machine, such that the instructions, which execute via the processor of the computer or other programmable data processing apparatus, create means for implementing the functions/acts specified in the flowchart and/or block diagram block or blocks.
These computer program instructions may also be stored in a computer-readable medium that can direct a computer, other programmable data processing apparatus, or other devices to function in a particular manner, such that the instructions stored in the computer-readable medium produce an article of manufacture including instructions which implement the function/act specified in the flowchart and/or block diagram block or blocks.
The computer program instructions may also be loaded onto a computer, other programmable data processing apparatus, or other devices to cause a series of operational steps to be performed on the computer, other programmable apparatus or other devices to produce a computer-implemented process such that the instructions which execute on the computer or other programmable apparatus provide processes for implementing the functions/acts specified in the flowchart and/or block diagram block or blocks.
Embodiments of the present invention generally describe a presentation control system in which audience members provide feedback during a presentation to a presentation program on a computing device via audience feedback devices. The feedback is on a content element level, which includes presentation elements, such as a slide bullets, and control elements, such as slide-level feedback buttons, and can include, for example, an indication that the audience member would like the presenter to go into more depth on a particular point, or to skip over a particular point. If enough specific feedback is received, the presentation program can offer the presenter one or more alternative slide arrangements for the remainder of the presentation. If the presenter chooses one of the alternative presentations, the presentation program will display the new presentation to the audience.
The present invention will now be described in detail with reference to the Figures.
Feedback devices 108 represent devices accessible by audience members viewing a presentation, for example, on projection screen 104, that allow the audience members to provide feedback to presentation program 110 (described below). In a preferred embodiment, a feedback device 108 is a computing device that displays a presentation, and allows for user selection of a content element, such as a slide bullet. In a first exemplary embodiment, a feedback device 108 is a PC-style computing device, for example, a netbook, notebook, or laptop computer. In this embodiment, user selection of a content element can be accomplished, for example, by “clicking” or “right-clicking” on the portion of the presentation with a mouse device, or with a keypad device. In a second exemplary embodiment, a feedback device 108 is a tablet-style computing device, for example, the iPad® by Apple, Inc., having a touch screen user interface. In this embodiment, user selection of a content element can be accomplished, for example, by touching the screen at the location that the content element is displayed. In general, feedback devices 108 can be any device capable of allowing an audience member to provide feedback on a content element, in accordance with embodiments of the invention.
In certain embodiments, user selection of a content element causes display of a feedback menu, by which the audience member will register his/her feedback. In other embodiments, the selection of a content element causes feedback to be registered. For example, selection of a content element always indicates that the audience member would like additional presentation material related to the selected content element.
In various embodiments of the present invention, computing device 106, which is described in more detail below with respect to
In a preferred embodiment, computing device 106 includes presentation program 110, which further includes presentation control module 112, feedback analysis module 114, and presentation store 116. Presentation store 116 stores the presentation content of one or more presentations. In an exemplary embodiment, presentation content is one or more slides, for example, slide 200, and a presentation is an arrangement of one or more slides. For example, popular slide-based presentation formats include PowerPoint® by Microsoft Corporation, and Impress, part of the OpenOffice™ software suite by The Apache Software Foundation. In preferred embodiments, one or more slides are associated with a presentation, but are not included in the presentation. For example, the associated slides may contain content that can optionally be included in the presentation. The optional content can be, for example, additional explanatory presentation material, or additional material not included in the presentation. While the exemplary embodiment describes presentation content as slides, other forms of presentation content can be used. For example, the presentation content can include embedded or linked video or video segments, animation, sound files, or slide presentations with highly animated transitions within and between slides. In general, any presentation content may be used that satisfies requirements of embodiments of the invention.
Feedback analysis module 114 operates to receive and process feedback from feedback devices 108. In a preferred embodiment, feedback analysis module 114 identifies, categorizes, and tabulates audience member feedback inputs, and determines if an alternative presentation content is indicated. For example, in response to the display of slide 200 to an audience on projection screen 104, one or more audience members may select slide bullet 204 via their feedback devices 108, and in response to the display of menu 400, select the “Describe More” option. Indications of these feedback menu selection choices are transmitted to feedback analysis module 114. Feedback analysis module 114 then determines, for example, if the number of “Describe More” feedback inputs related to slide bullet 204 are above a threshold value, and if so, determines an alternative presentation content for the remainder of the presentation. As mentioned above, in certain embodiments, feedback can be in the form of natural language input, for example, comments entered by keyboard or keypad input via feedback devices 108. In these embodiments, for example, the feedback analysis module 114 would process the natural language input and appropriately categorize the feedback such that it can be used in the determination of whether and which alternative presentation content is indicated. In general, feedback analysis module 114 can determine whether an alternative presentation content is indicated, and what the alternative presentation content should be, based on logical and arithmetical combinations and comparisons of audience feedback inputs from a current presentation content, such as a slide currently being displayed, feedback inputs from previously displayed presentation content in the current presentation, and feedback inputs from previous presentations of the same content.
Table 1 shows a rule-based example of several alternative presentation contents that may be applied to a presentation by feedback analysis module 114 in response to audience feedback inputs for slide 1 of a presentation, received via feedback devices 108. For example, if audience feedback received by feedback analysis module 114 indicates that the audience wants more description for presentation element 1, indicated in the table as “+E1”, optional slides 101, 102, and 103, residing in presentation store 116, can be inserted after slide 2, indicated in the table as “A2”. Similarly, if audience feedback indicates that the audience wants less description for presentation element 2, indicated in the table as “−E2”, slides 3 and 4 can be removed from the presentation, indicated in the table as “−3, −4”.
Presentation control module 112 operates to cause the display of a presentation, for example, on projection screen 104, and on feedback devices 108. Presentation control module 112 can also operate to change the presentation content of the remainder of a presentation, such as adding or removing slides, and change the order of the presentation content, based on control information provided by feedback analysis module 114. Presentation control module 112 also operates to display to the presenter 102 indications of alternative presentation contents, and a mechanism by which the presenter can select an alternative presentation content.
With respect to the embodiment of
The feedback inputs are then compared against threshold values to determine if alternative presentation content is indicated (step 602). As mentioned above, feedback analysis module 114 can determine whether an alternative presentation content is indicated, and what the alternative presentation content should be, based on logical and arithmetical combinations and comparisons of audience feedback inputs from a current presentation content, such as a slide currently being displayed, feedback inputs from previous presentation content in the current presentation, and feedback inputs from previous presentations of the same content.
If the feedback inputs for one or more presentation elements or slides are not above a threshold value (decision step 602, “No” branch), then feedback analysis module 114 continues to tally the received feedback inputs (step 600). If the feedback inputs for one or more presentation elements or slides are above a threshold value (decision step 602, “Yes” branch), then an alternative presentation content is determined (step 604). In an exemplary embodiment, the alternative presentation content is determined from a rules-based analysis, which can use, for example, a set of rules such as shown in Table 1.
After alternative presentation contents are determined (step 604), selectable alternative presentation content control elements are displayed on a display of computing device 106 such that presenter 102 may select one of the alternative presentation contents (step 606). If an alternative presentation content is selected (decision step 608, “Yes” branch), then the current presentation is modified to reflect the alternative presentation content, and presentation control module 112 causes the new content to be displayed to the audience on, for example, projection screen 104 (step 610). If an alternative presentation content is not selected (decision step 608, “No” branch), then feedback analysis module 114 continues to tally the received feedback inputs (step 600).
Computing device 106 can include one or more processors 702, one or more computer-readable RAMs 704, one or more computer-readable ROMs 706, one or more tangible storage devices 708, device drivers 712, read/write drive or interface 714, network adapter or interface 716, all interconnected over a communications fabric 718. Communications fabric 718 can be implemented with any architecture designed for passing data and/or control information between processors (such as microprocessors, communications and network processors, etc.), system memory, peripheral devices, and any other hardware components within a system.
One or more operating systems 710, and presentation program 110, are stored on one or more of the computer-readable tangible storage devices 708 for execution by one or more of the processors 702 via one or more of the respective RAMs 704 (which typically include cache memory). In the illustrated embodiment, each of the computer-readable tangible storage devices 708 can be a magnetic disk storage device of an internal hard drive, CD-ROM, DVD, memory stick, magnetic tape, magnetic disk, optical disk, a semiconductor storage device such as RAM, ROM, EPROM, flash memory or any other computer-readable tangible storage device that can store a computer program and digital information.
Computing device 106 can also include a R/W drive or interface 714 to read from and write to one or more portable computer-readable tangible storage devices 726. Presentation program 110 on computing device 106 can be stored on one or more of the portable computer-readable tangible storage devices 726, read via the respective R/W drive or interface 714 and loaded into the respective computer-readable tangible storage device 708.
Computing device 106 can also include a network adapter or interface 716, such as a TCP/IP adapter card or wireless communication adapter (such as a 4G wireless communication adapter using OFDMA technology). Presentation program 110 on computing device 106 can be downloaded to the computing device from an external computer or external storage device via a network (for example, the Internet, a local area network or other, wide area network or wireless network) and network adapter or interface 716. From the network adapter or interface 716, the programs are loaded into the computer-readable tangible storage device 708. The network may comprise copper wires, optical fibers, wireless transmission, routers, firewalls, switches, gateway computers and/or edge servers.
Computing device 106 can also include a display screen 720, a keyboard or keypad 722, and a computer mouse or touchpad 724. Device drivers 712 interface to display screen 720 for imaging, to keyboard or keypad 722, to computer mouse or touchpad 724, and/or to display screen 720 for pressure sensing of alphanumeric character entry and user selections. The device drivers 712, R/W drive or interface 714 and network adapter or interface 716 can comprise hardware and software (stored in computer-readable tangible storage device 708 and/or ROM 706).
The programs described herein are identified based upon the application for which they are implemented in a specific embodiment of the invention. However, it should be appreciated that any particular program nomenclature herein is used merely for convenience, and thus the invention should not be limited to use solely in any specific application identified and/or implied by such nomenclature.
Based on the foregoing, a computer system, method and program product have been disclosed for a presentation control system. However, numerous modifications and substitutions can be made without deviating from the scope of the present invention. Therefore, the present invention has been disclosed by way of example and not limitation.
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Number | Date | Country | |
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20140165087 A1 | Jun 2014 | US |