Digital media management apparatus and methods
First Claim
1. A method for graphically constructing a database query, comprising:
- receiving a collection of objects, wherein each object in the collection is associated with metadata that describes one or more attributes of the object;
generating a visual representation of a distribution of objects in the collection as a function of at least a portion of the descriptive metadata associated with the objects; and
receiving user input defining a selection in the visual representation of the distribution of objects to construct a database query.
2 Assignments
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Accused Products
Abstract
Methods and apparatus for managing, finding and displaying objects such as digital images. Objects are tagged (“associated”) with descriptive textual and numeric data (“metadata”), and stored in a relational database from which they can be selected, sorted, and found. Tags can be defined by name, tag type, and associated attributes. Objects can be tagged by dropping a tag onto the object, or relating a database record for the tag to a database record for the object. Tagged objects can be searched for and displayed according to the degree to which their metadata matches the search criteria. Visual cues can indicate whether displayed objects match all, some but not all, or none of the search criteria. Database object distributions can be displayed as histograms or scatter plots, including timelines, calendars or maps. Object distributions can be used to search for objects or to limit search results for a previous search.
502 Citations
38 Claims
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1. A method for graphically constructing a database query, comprising:
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receiving a collection of objects, wherein each object in the collection is associated with metadata that describes one or more attributes of the object;
generating a visual representation of a distribution of objects in the collection as a function of at least a portion of the descriptive metadata associated with the objects; and
receiving user input defining a selection in the visual representation of the distribution of objects to construct a database query. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11)
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12. A method for displaying a collection of objects, comprising:
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using one or more search tags to query a database for objects having metadata that matches the metadata associated with the one or more search tags; and
displaying a visual representation of a distribution of the objects responsive to the search tag query as a function of at least a portion of the metadata. - View Dependent Claims (13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19)
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20. A computer program product for graphically constructing a database query, the computer program product comprising instructions operable to cause a programmable processor to:
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receive a collection of objects, wherein each object in the collection is associated with metadata that describes one or more attributes of the object;
generate a visual representation of a distribution of objects in the collection as a function of at least a portion of the descriptive metadata associated with the objects; and
receive user input defining a selection in the visual representation of the distribution of objects to construct a database query. - View Dependent Claims (21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30)
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31. A computer program product for displaying a collection of objects, the computer program product comprising instructions operable to cause a programmable processor to:
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use one or more search tags to query a database for objects having metadata that matches the metadata associated with the one or more search tags; and
display a visual representation of a distribution of the objects responsive to the search tag query as a function of at least a portion of the metadata. - View Dependent Claims (32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38)
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Specification