Patent US 6,072,463

A conference communication system that includes multiple user terminals, each of which includes a display screen with a common working area, provides each user with a pointer icon that can be moved across all the display screens with a pointing device, provides the display screen of each user with a representation of all the conference participants, and, for each user, displays a line connecting each pointer icon of the other conference participants to the displayed representation of the user controlling the icon. Each user controls a pointer icon with a display mouse device having buttons, and the pointer icon and line connecting a user with the user's pointer icon is only displayed on the screens of the other conference participants if the user has pressed and held down a button of the user's mouse device. In this way, each user has control of a pointer icon and each pointer icon is readily associated with the user controlling it, while the number of objects displayed in the work area is kept to a minimum.