New patent: "System and method for a virtual conference interactive timeline"

A virtual conferencing system is described which implements an interactive timeline. For example, one embodiment of the virtual conferencing system comprises: a plurality of clients, each of the clients comprising state management logic to maintain a current state of a virtual conference; a virtual conferencing service to establish audio and/or video connections between the plurality of clients during the virtual conference, the virtual conferencing service further including a state synchronization service communicatively coupled to the state management logic on each client to ensure that the current state of the virtual conference is consistent on each client; a virtual conferencing graphical user interface (GUI) to be rendered on the plurality of clients, the virtual conferencing GUI configured, via signals sent from the state synchronization service, to display a video stream of one or more current speakers during the virtual conference; and an interactive timeline to be rendered on at least one of the plurality of clients, the interactive timeline comprising a plurality of graphical elements representing different segments of the virtual conference, wherein selection of a first graphical element corresponding to a first segment causes the client on which the interactive timeline is displayed to transmit one or more commands to the virtual conferencing service to cause the virtual conferencing service to implement one or more operations associated with the segment, the one or more operations including modification of the virtual conferencing GUI on the clients in accordance with requirements of the segment.