Patent Application
20090077129
This invention generally relates to digital image processing and more particularly relates to selective access to metadata that is associated with digital content records such as digital still images, digital videos, and digital audio files.
The widespread acceptance and use of the internet and related network tools have provided opportunities for a growing number of applications that enable sharing of various types of digital data content. One type of application that has been particularly popular is the on-line storage and sharing of digital images and digital video and audio content, obtained largely from digital cameras and related devices. As the growth of digital imaging continues to escalate, there is increasingly more consumer interest in making at least some captured images and image-related content available for distribution to various types of recipient sites over the internet or other network.
Metadata, as the term is used in the data processing arts, is “data about data”. For a data record, such as a digital data image, digital audio record, digital video or animation record, or other similar type of data structure, metadata is data that encodes one or more fields of descriptive information about the context, condition, quality, and other characteristics of the data. One familiar model for metadata is provided by a library catalog, for example. For each book on the library shelves, detailed information is maintained about the book, including author, publisher, date of publication, number of pages, location, and similar information. This stored information is considered metadata. More generally, for a digital content record, metadata can include document data about data elements or attributes, (name, size, data type, etc), data about records or data structures (length, fields, columns, etc), data about data (where it is located, how it is associated, ownership, etc.). Metadata may include descriptive information about the context, quality and condition, or characteristics of the data.
One aspect of digital image storage that makes it possible to selectively share digital images is the association of metadata with stored image content. For example, images currently obtained from a digital camera often have accompanying metadata that describes date, time, and location of image capture, conditions under which the image was obtained, and photographer identification, and can even have various data about the image content itself. Standard information data fields or “tags” that can accompany an image are defined, for example, in the Digital Still Camera Image File Format Standard, also termed the EXchangeable Image File or EXIF Standard, v.2.1, from the Japan Electronic Industry Development Association (JEIDA) CP-3451. Using metadata allows an image collection or database to be quickly searched and permits its contents to be readily classified in various ways.
Metadata can be particularly useful for image processing, indexing, print rendering, and many other purposes, however, the owner of an image or other type of digital content record may not want the image metadata to be shared with all receivers because of privacy, security, and other considerations.
To date, there have been some attempts to address the problem of metadata security for images and other types of digital content records. For example, computer programs can extract and erase metadata from a digital file. One example of such software is “Out-Of-Sight” software provided by Soft Wise Corporation, Lexington, N.Y., U.S.A. This type of software permits a user to identify a document, such as a text document generated using popular word processing and presentation software, and selectively or automatically excise all metadata within the document so that the document can be transmitted without risk of unintentionally sharing metadata. Further, many image processing programs and algorithms will automatically destroy metadata when they modify images as a part of the image manipulation process. Other conventional solutions can be used to simply strip all metadata from an image before allowing image content to be viewed or transmitted. However, this rather drastic solution permanently removes the metadata, thereby preventing useful metadata from being provided along with digital image content. Commonly assigned U.S. Patent Application No. 2004/0123131 entitled “Image Data Processing System and Method” by Zacks et al. provides a method for specifying access to particular metadata fields by assigning a profile to each potential receiver of the metadata for an image. Any particular receiver may be denied access to information in one or more fields.
Still other conventional solutions include providing encryption for metadata. However, although this can provide some level of protection, decryption can require a separate processing step that is undesirable for users. Further, decryption keys can be lost or compromised. Various types of metadata strippers have also been used for removing encoded steganographic information.
The metadata that corresponds to an image or other digital content record can have value to those who share the digital content record with the owner. Stripping of whole metadata fields from the file may enhance security in some ways, but can prevent potentially useful metadata from being accessible for one or more images. It can be appreciated that there is a need in the art for solutions that restrict access to some fields of highly specific information without completely masking this information from a recipient.
The above-described problem is addressed and a technical solution is achieved in the art by systems and methods for modifying metadata associated with a digital content records, according to various embodiments of the present invention.
In an embodiment of the present invention, a digital content record to be provided to a particular recipient is identified. The digital content record is associated with an account and has metadata associated therewith. In addition, a recipient list associated with the account is identified. The recipient list identifies one of three or more metadata detail levels associated with each of a plurality of potential recipients. In this regard, a particular metadata detail level is determined based at least upon a comparison of the particular recipient and the recipient list. The metadata associated with the digital content record may be adjusted in accordance with the particular metadata detail level. Accordingly, embodiments of the present invention, such as this one, allow the amount of detail of the metadata to be adjusted on a recipient-by-recipient basis.
For example, in one embodiment, the adjusting step adjusts a resolution of information represented by the metadata, the resolution being determined by the particular metadata detail level. The information may include a specific location of capture of the digital content record, and the adjusting step may include moving the specific location to a regional location.
In order to allow even greater control as to the amount of metadata detail provided to recipients, some embodiments of the present invention determine the particular detail level based at least upon (a) the comparison of the particular recipient and the recipient list and (b) an analysis of content associated with the digital content record. For example, the digital content record may be an image record, and the analysis of content may include determining whether particular faces, such as particular children's faces are represented by the image record. For another example, the analysis of content may include determining whether the digital content record was captured at a home location associated with the account. For yet another example, the analysis of content comprises determining privacy attributes associated with where the digital content record is stored.
In addition to the embodiments described above, further embodiments will become apparent by reference to the drawings and by study of the following detailed description.
The present invention will be more readily understood from the detailed description of exemplary embodiments presented below considered in conjunction with the attached drawings, of which:
It is to be understood that the attached drawings are for purposes of illustrating the concepts of the invention and may not be to scale.
While metadata can be particularly useful for image processing, indexing, print rendering, and many other purposes, the owner of an image or other type of digital content record may not want the image metadata to be shared with all receivers because of privacy, security, and other considerations. For example, there may be third parties to whom it might not be prudent to allow full access to metadata that is associated with a particular image. For instance, various fields of information in the EXIF format can store precise Global Positioning System (GPS) coordinates corresponding to the image that has been captured, as well as date and time data. As a privacy concern, it may not be desirable to allow access to exact Global Positioning System (GPS) coordinates data and to date/time information with all images in a digital image collection. In addition, identifying information that is specific to individuals in a set of images may be data that an image owner prefers to keep private.
Unlike conventional schemes, embodiments of the present invention adjusts the relative detail, or resolution, of information provided by metadata. For example, where original metadata may specify an exact location of capture for a digital content record, embodiments of the present invention may replace the exact location with a regional location, such as the nearest town center.
Various embodiments of the present invention pertain to the organization and distribution of digital content records, such as digital still images, digital videos, digital audio files, document files, and other types of digital data records that may be collected and stored by a user. The description that follows uses the digital image as one example of a digital content record, for the purpose of describing various embodiments of the present invention.
Embodiments of the present description are directed to elements forming part of, or cooperating more directly with, apparatuses. It is to be understood that elements not specifically shown or described may take various forms well known to those skilled in the art. In this regard,
The term “computer” is intended to be a synonym for or include any data processing device, such as a central processing unit (“CPU”), a desktop computer, a laptop computer, a mainframe computer, a personal digital assistant, a Blackberry™, a digital camera, or any other device for processing data, managing data, or handling data, whether implemented with electrical, magnetic, optical, biological components, or otherwise. In this regard, the phrase “computer system” may be used herein as a synonym for “data processing system.”
The computer-accessible memory system 10 includes one or more computer-accessible memories configured to store the image collection or other information needed to execute the processes of the various embodiments of the present invention described herein, including the example process of
The phrase “computer-accessible memory” is intended to include any computer-accessible data storage device, whether volatile or nonvolatile, electronic, magnetic, optical, or otherwise, including but not limited to, floppy disks, hard disks, Compact Discs, DVDs, flash memories, ROMs, or RAMs.
The phrase “communicatively connected” is intended to include any type of connection, whether wired or wireless, between devices, computers, or programs in which data may be communicated. Further, the phrase “communicatively connected” is intended to include a connection between devices or programs within a single computer, a connection between devices or programs located in different computers, and a connection between devices not located in computers at all. In this regard, although the computer-accessible memory system 10 is shown separately from the computer system 12, one skilled in the art will appreciate that the computer-accessible memory system 10 may be stored completely or partially within the computer system 12.
The image collection stored in the computer-accessible memory system 10 can include multiple images 14 stored by a consumer who has membership, or an account, in a system such as the KODAK EasyShare™ Gallery, for example. In this regard, it can be said that images 14 in the image collection are associated with an account.
Image 14 is one type of “digital content record”, as this term is used in the present disclosure. Each image 14 can have associated metadata 18 about the image. Some of the metadata 18 has no personal content, but simply describes attributes of its corresponding image 14 or other digital content record. For example, some metadata can be thumbnail image data, information on resolution of the original image or on image data arrangement, number of samples per pixel, and similar information that can be considered as neutral with respect to personal content. This type of metadata 18 describes a high percentage of the fields of data for images stored in EXIF format, as was noted earlier in the background section. Other types of metadata 18 can have content of a more personal or private nature. Such metadata may include user-entered information about the image subject, such as names of people in the image, places, comments, and other personal data that is related in some way to the image subjects or other content or to the image context. Metadata 18 can be stored in a separate file or files that are associated or linked in some way with the image's content. Alternately, metadata 18 can be obtained from the account owner and used for organizing or categorizing images, stored in a database of some type. Metadata 18 could also be encoded directly into the image content, audio content, or other data in the digital content record. For example, steganography techniques, well known to those skilled in the image encoding arts, can be used to encode information within the image data itself, using otherwise unused or hidden bits in the image data structure.
At least portions of image collection 10 are intended to be shared via recipient computer systems 20 with one or more networked recipients, labeled Recipients A-D in
Metadata 18 that is associated with image 14 can include some information to which a user may not want to allow global access. For example, a user may be sensitive about providing GPS data for backyard images, name of subjects in the image for family photos, date and time data, and other detailed information related to image 14. In light of this sensitivity, an embodiment of the present invention allows the account owner of image 14 or other data content record to set up various levels of access to metadata 18 to different groups of recipients 20.
There are some types of metadata where different detail levels are possible. One of these is the date/time stamp information shown in the example of
Referring to
Continuing with the example of
Detail level 4, the lowest access level in
Once the three or more detail levels of detail listing 30 are determined, either using a system default or by explicit setup performed by the customer, access levels for individual recipients or groups of recipients can be assigned.
Any of a number of operator interface utilities can be used to set up detail levels for an individual image collection. In one embodiment, a user sets up recipient list 32 directly, explicitly assigning detail level access to one or more individuals or groups, following the basic model of
The logic flow diagram of
The adjusted metadata can be provided in a number of ways. In some embodiments, such as those in which the EXIF standard is used, adjusted metadata is provided in the image header data that is included with the image data. The adjusted metadata can also be displayed or provided in a separate file that is associated with the image.
Adjustment of the metadata that is provided with the digital content record can take any of a number of forms. In one embodiment, metadata may be converted to more general data. For example, referring to
It should be noted that although the examples shown in
There are a number of options for setting up recipient account access to various detail levels and for determining what type of information is provided at each detail level. In some embodiments, the account owner can configure detail level access and handling, such as for geographical, time-stamp, subject identification, and other metadata. In other embodiments, software associated with the digital content record storage and management system provides a predetermined set of detail levels for assignment to recipients by the account owner.
In some embodiments, the owner of the digital content record may exercise additional control over what resolution of metadata information is transmitted to recipients having particular detail levels. In particular, in addition to determining a recipient's detail level in order to determine the resolution of metadata information transmitted to the recipient, other metadata or non-metadata content associated with the digital content records at issue may be utilized. For example, an image that contains faces, particular faces, or voice audio content for one or more voices, as determined by an analysis of metadata or non-metadata content associated with the image, could have less information transmitted to recipients of a particular detail level than an image that does not contain such faces, etc. A more specific example is that if an image contains a particular child's face, no “name” information for that child may be transmitted to a recipient associated with a detail level of “2”. However, all other children's faces could have a first name for each child transmitted to the same recipient associated with the detail level of “2”.
Another example pertains to an image's location of image capture, where images taken at an account owner's home, as determined by an analysis of metadata content, might have less information transmitted to a group of recipients of the same detail level than images not taken at the account owner's home.
Further in this regard, the resolution of information transmitted to recipients of a same detail level may vary from image to image depending upon where the image is stored. For example, metadata information resolution may vary depending upon whether an image is stored in a “private album” verses a “public album”, or if an image is stored in a “shared” folder versus a non-shared folder.
Although one aspect of various embodiments of the method of the present invention relates to automated handling of recipient requests for a user account, there can also be some level of interaction when a request is received. A customer may, for example, want to screen recipient requests and determine how to handle requests from recipients who have not been specifically identified. As each recipient request is handled, the given detail level assignment for the recipient can then be stored in recipient list 32 (
The invention has been described in detail with particular reference to certain preferred embodiments thereof, but it will be understood that variations and modifications can be effected within the scope of the invention as described above, and as noted in the appended claims, by a person of ordinary skill in the art without departing from the scope of the invention. For example, although the preceding description concentrates on providing images and their associated metadata as digital content records (
