Reproducing state of source environment when image was screen captured on a different computing device using resource location, resource navigation and positional metadata embedded in image

• US 10,585,566 B2
• Filed: 01/12/2018
• Issued: 03/10/2020
• Est. Priority Date: 10/08/2014
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Stretchline Intellectual Properties Limited
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Bradley, Lisa M., O'Donovan, Brian, Quirk, Aaron J., Sun, Lin
• Primary Examiner(s): Nguyen, Thu Ha T
• Application Number:
  US15/870,611
• Publication Number:
  US 20180136808A1
• Time in Patent Office: 788 Days
• Field of Search: 709217, 709218, 709203
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0484 for the control of specific functions or operations, e.g. selecting or manipulating an object, an image or a displayed text element, setting a parameter value or selecting a range
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/1454 involving copying of the display data of a local workstation or window to a remote workstation or window so that an actual copy of the data is displayed simultaneously on two or more displays, e.g. teledisplay
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/10 Office automation; Time management
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 1/0007 Image acquisition
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/02 based on web technology, e.g. hypertext transfer protocol [HTTP]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/06 specially adapted for file transfer, e.g. file transfer protocol [FTP]
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 1/2125 Display of information relating to the still picture recording
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 1/32144 embedded in the image data, i.e. enclosed or integrated in the image, e.g. watermark, super-imposed logo or stamp
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 2201/3249 data relating to a linked page or object, e.g. hyperlink
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/02 Services making use of location information
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/12 Messaging; Mailboxes; Announcements

Abstract

A method, system and computer program product for facilitating access to a resource represented in an image at a later time. A screen capture of an image displayed on a computing device is implemented. Metadata, including the resource location, resource navigation and positional metadata, regarding the source data of the screen capture image is generated. The generated metadata is then embedded into the screen capture image. The screen capture image with the embedded metadata is then transmitted to a different user. By embedding the metadata into the screen capture image, the user receiving the screen capture image will be able to reproduce the state of the source environment when the image was captured using the embedded metadata thereby opening the resource represented in the image.

Claims

1. A method for facilitating access to a resource represented in an image at a later time, the method comprising:

implementing a screen capture of an image displayed on a first user'"'"'s computing device;

generating, by a processor, metadata regarding source data of said screen capture image representing a state of a source environment in which said screen capture is implemented, the metadata of a type selected from the group consisting of;

resource location metadata, resource navigation metadata, and positional metadata;

embedding said generated metadata into said screen capture image; and

transmitting said screen capture image with said embedded metadata to a second user'"'"'s computing device.

2. The method as recited in claim 1, wherein said resource location metadata comprises a uniform resource locator of a webpage.

3. The method as recited in claim 1, wherein said resource navigation metadata comprises an ordered vector of uniform resource locator requests.

4. The method as recited in claim 1, wherein said positional metadata comprises one or more of the following:

a scroll location, a device resolution, a width and a height of said screen capture image.

5. The method as recited as recited in claim 1, wherein said metadata is embedded in a preamble or a postamble in image data.

6. The method as recited in claim 1, wherein said metadata is embedded as steganographic data directly into pixels of said screen capture image.

7. The method as recited in claim 1 further comprising:

receiving said screen capture image with said embedded metadata by said second user'"'"'s computing device; and

extracting said embedded metadata from said screen capture image to identify one or more of the following;

resource location, resource navigation and positional data.

8. The method as recited in claim 7 further comprising:

storing one or more of the following;

said resource location, said resource navigation and said positional data.

9. The method as recited in claim 8 further comprising:

reproducing said state of said source environment when said image was screen captured using one or more of the following;

said stored resource location, said stored resource navigation and said stored positional data in response to a user of said second user'"'"'s computing device indicating to replicate said source environment.