Patent Application
20060139709
The present invention relates to digital data files. More specifically, the present invention relates to digital photograph files and the organization thereof.
Digital photography has made a tremendous impact in both professional and consumer image capture. The impact is so great that most consumers now prefer to use a digital camera to capture images of family events, holiday affairs, vacations, etc. Of the most significant reasons for consumer migration to the digital domain for photography is (i) the easy of use; (ii) reusable memory; (iii) no need for costly un-reusable film; and (iv) immediate gratification in terms of viewing the resultant photographs on screen on a personal computer, and the easy of creating prints with now available reasonably prices image/photo printers. Further, the resultant photographs can be easily shared with others by sending them via e-mail or posting them on an Internet server. To make picture taking even more convenient, and part of one's life, camera functionality has even been integrated into many other commonly used consumer devices, such as wireless/cellular telephones, personal digital assistants (“PDA”), etc.
As a result of the above recited advantages and conveniences, consumers generally shot hundreds more pictures than were common when shooting solely in the analog domain. With the increased number of resultant photographs, each being a file and stored on a hard drive (whether internal or external) to a personal computer, a problem exists in the organization of these countless photographs.
Currently, a consumer can spend numerous hours organizing digital photograph files using standard directory structures found with most operating systems. A consumer may even find a software application that creates a proprietary index to assist in digital photograph sorting, but only if the photographs were imported (from the camera to the computer) through such software application. However, such index is not portable to other applications, and serves the consumer no use when outside of the index creating software application. Further, such a proprietary index generally ties each digital photograph file to the date it was uploaded to the computer, not the actual image capture date. Hence, if you took pictures spanning three (3) calendar days and uploaded all digital photograph files to the computer on a fourth calendar day, index creating digital photograph file importing applications would associate pictures of all three days with one day, which would be the “upload day”.
What is needed is an application and operating-system independent system and method which provides for the automatic accurate sorting of digital photograph files.
An object of the present invention is to provide for the automatic accurate sorting of digital photograph files without dependence on a particular application or operating-system. A further object of the present invention is to provide a system which allows consumers to specify events, and view and/or print digital photograph files which fit the event date criteria.
In order to achieve these objectives, as well as others which will become apparent in the disclosure below, the present invention provides a metadata file associated with each digital photograph file, where the metadata file contains date and time datum of the image captured in the associated digital photograph file.
In an exemplary embodiment of the present invention, when digital photographs are capture by a digital camera, the actual date and time for the image capture is encapsulate in a metadata file associated with the digital photograph file (“DPF”). When uploaded to the computer for storage on non-volatile storage, e.g., hard drive, the metadata is transferred along with the DPF. Thereafter, an inventive system of the present invention allows consumers to specify events, and view and/or print DPFs which fit the event date criteria by querying the metadata associated with each DPF.
Thus, the present method provides for the automatic accurate sorting of digital photograph files, without dependence on a particular application or operating-system, by use of its inventive metadata file. Further, the present system allows consumers to specify events, and view and/or print DPFs which fit the event date criteria by querying the metadata associated with each DPF.
For a complete understanding of the present invention and the advantages thereof, reference is now made to the following description taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings in which like reference numbers indicate like features, components and method steps, and wherein:
Referring to
In short, digital camera 102 is used by an end user to capture images which result in DPFs. These DPFs are conventionally uploaded to a PC 104 for storage and later retrieval for viewing on screen; printing; or transfer to others via e-mail over the Internet 108 or via Internet website posting, by means for broadband gateway 106. The above illustrated conventional system 100 does not provide any means for an application and operating system independent method for the automatic accurate sorting of DPFs.
Referring to
When digital camera 102 is interconnected to PC 104 for upload, the metadata files, e.g., “.met” files, are uploaded with their associated DPFs, in step 206. Application software in PC 104 may then use the metadata to automatically sort the uploaded DPFs by date and even by date and time using the metadata, in step 208. Most significantly, DPFs and their associated inventive metadata files allow for sorting of DPFs by any software application by using date and time datum, independent of which software application was used to import the DPFs in the first instance, and independent of any operating system or file structure of PC 104.
Referring to
Referring to
Thus, the present method provides for the automatic accurate sorting of digital photograph files without dependence on a particular application or operating-system. Further, the present invention provides a system and method which allows consumers to specify events, and view and/or print DPFs which fit the event date criteria by querying the metadata associated with each DPF.
Although the invention has been described herein by reference to an exemplary embodiment thereof, it will be understood that such embodiment is susceptible of modification and variation without departing from the inventive concepts disclosed. For example, the metadata files need not use the extension “.met”, but rather can use any extension or file name, so long as an association can by made with the correct corresponding DPF. All such modifications and variations, therefore, are intended to be encompassed within the spirit and scope of the appended claims.
