Organizing network-stored content items into shared groups

• US 10,331,757 B2
• Filed: 01/17/2018
• Issued: 06/25/2019
• Est. Priority Date: 10/29/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Dropbox, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Dropbox, Inc.
• Inventors: Houston, Drew, Beckmann, Chris
• Primary Examiner(s): Mofiz, Apu M
• Assistant Examiner(s): Agharahimi, Farhad
• Application Number:
  US15/873,055
• Publication Number:
  US 20180143987A1
• Time in Patent Office: 524 Days
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/958 Organisation or management of web site content, e.g. publishing, maintaining pages or automatic linking

Abstract

Systems, methods, and computer-readable storage media for adding users to groups of content items organized into events based on a common attribute. An example system configured to practice the method can receive, from a client device, content items uploaded to a synced online content management system, wherein the content items are associated with an account of a first user. The system can cluster at least some of the content items as an event, wherein the event is associated with a common attribute, and identify a second user satisfying a minimum similarity threshold for the event based on the common attribute. The system can provide a suggestion to share the event with the second user. Upon receiving a confirmation of the suggestion, the system can make content items clustered in the event available to the second user.

Claims

1. A system comprising:

a processor;

a computer-readable storage medium having stored therein processor-executable instructions for causing the processor to;

determine a common attribute for a plurality of content items;

cluster the plurality of content items having the common attribute, as an event content collection;

exclude a subset of the plurality of content items from the event content collection;

determine a second common attribute for the excluded subset of the plurality of content items;

reassign the excluded subset of the plurality of content items to a new cluster having the second common attribute; and

share the event content collection with a user account that satisfies a minimum similarity threshold for an event based on the common attribute of the event content collection.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the computer-readable storage medium further contains instructions for causing the processor to:

provide a suggestion to share the event content collection to a first user account, in association with a content item import operation for importing one or more content items from a client device to a synced online content management system.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein the computer-readable storage medium further contains instructions for causing the processor to:

determine a probable label for the event content collection based on an analysis of content items clustered in the event content collection; and

include the probable label when the event content collection is shared.

4. The system of claim 1, wherein the computer-readable storage medium further contains instructions for causing the processor to:

determine a plurality of probable labels for the event content collection based on an analysis of the plurality of content items clustered in the event content collection;

present the plurality of probable labels to a first user account and a second user account;

receive selections of the probable labels from the first user account and the second user account; and

based on the selections, assign one of the probable labels to the event content collection.

5. The system of claim 1, wherein the computer-readable storage medium further contains instructions for causing the processor to:

present to the user account a list of content items associated with the event content collection;

receive an indication of additional content items from a second user account; and

include the additional content items in the event content collection.

6. The system of claim 1, wherein the computer-readable storage medium further contains instructions for causing the processor to:

receive additional content items from a first user account;

identify that the additional content items are within a threshold similarity to the event content collection;

cluster the additional content items into the event content collection; and

notify a second user account of the additional content items.

7. The system of claim 6, wherein the computer-readable storage medium further contains instructions for causing the processor to:

mark the event content collection as closed to adding more content items after elapsing of a predetermined amount of time since a last content item was added to the event.

8. The system of claim 1, wherein the computer-readable storage medium further contains instructions for causing the processor to:

join a second user account to the event content collection when the user account accepts a suggestion to share the event content collection;

after joining the second user account to the event content collection, scan the second user account for content from the second user account to contribute to the event content collection;

identify one or more content items from the second user account to contribute to the event content collection, the one or more content items having the common attribute; and

add the one or more content items from the second user account to the event content collection.

9. A computer-implemented method comprising:

determining a common attribute for content items;

clustering, by a processor, the content items having the common attribute to yield an event content collection;

excluding, by a processor, a subset of the content items from the event content collection;

determining a second common attribute for the excluded subset of the plurality of content items;

reassigning, by a processor, the excluded subset of the content items to a new cluster having the second common attribute;

identifying, by a processor, a user account satisfying a minimum similarity threshold for an event based on the common attribute of the event content collection; and

sharing, by a processor, the event content collection with the user account.

10. The method of claim 9, further comprising:

providing, by a processor, a suggestion to share the event content collection to a second user account upon approval by the user account.

11. The method of claim 9, further comprising:

determining, by a processor, a probable label for the event content collection based on an analysis of the content items clustered in the event content collection and on the common attribute; and

including, by a processor, the probable label when transmitting a confirmation approving sharing the event content collection.

12. The method of claim 9, further comprising:

determining, by a processor, a plurality of probable labels for the event content collection based on an analysis of content items clustered in the event content collection and on the common attribute;

presenting, by a processor, the plurality of probable labels to a second user account;

receiving, by a processor, from the second user account a selection of one of the probable labels; and

including, by a processor, the probable label when transmitting a confirmation approving sharing the event content collection.

13. The method of claim 9, further comprising:

presenting, by a processor, to a second user account a list of content items associated with the second user account that are within the minimum similarity threshold;

receiving, by a processor, from the second user account a selection from the list of content items; and

contributing, by a processor, content items to the event content collection based on the selection.

14. The method of claim 9, further comprising:

processing, by a processor, additional content items in a second user account that are generated after transmitting a confirmation approving sharing the event content collection;

identifying, by a processor, that the additional content items are within a threshold similarity to the event content collection; and

contributing, by a processor, the additional content items to the event content collection.

15. The method of claim 14, further comprising:

after a threshold amount of time has passed since a last image was added to the event content collection, marking the event content collection as closed to adding more images.

16. The method of claim 9, further comprising:

joining a second user account to the event content collection when the user account accepts a suggestion to share the event content collection;

after joining the second user account to the event content collection, scanning the second user account for content items from the second user account to contribute to the event content collection;

identifying one or more content items from the second user account to contribute to the event content collection, the one or more content items having the common attribute; and

adding the one or more content items from the second user account to the event content collection.

17. A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium having stored therein processor-executable instructions for causing a processor to:

determine a common attribute for a plurality of images;

cluster the plurality of images having the common attribute as an event;

identify a user account satisfying a minimum similarity threshold for the event based on the common attribute of the event;

exclude a subset of images from the event;

determine a second common attribute for the excluded subset of images;

reassign the excluded subset of the images to a new cluster having the second common attribute; and

share the event with the user account.

18. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 17, wherein the computer-readable storage medium further contains instructions for causing a processor to:

provide a suggestion to share the event to the user account in association with an image import operation.

19. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 17, wherein the computer-readable storage medium further contains instructions for causing a processor to:

determine a probable label for the event based on an analysis of images clustered in the event; and

include the probable label with a suggestion to share the event.

20. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 17, wherein the computer-readable storage medium further contains instructions for causing the processor to:

determine a plurality of probable labels for the event based on an analysis of images clustered in the event;

present the plurality of probable labels to user account and a second user account;

receive selections from the user account and the second user account from the probable labels; and

assigning at least one of the selected probable labels to the event.