Automatically processing digital assets of a digital camera

• US 20030156202A1
• Filed: 02/21/2002
• Published: 08/21/2003
• Est. Priority Date: 02/21/2002
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Snaptrack Incorporated (Qualcomm, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P. (HP Inc.)
• Inventors: van Zee, Pieter J.
• Granted Patent: US 7,917,466 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 348/222.1
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 1/2112 using still video cameras
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 2201/0067 Converting to still picture data
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 2201/0068 Converting from still picture data
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 2201/33342 of transmission mode

Abstract

Embodiments of the present invention provide methods, a digital camera system and a computer-readable medium for processing digital image assets of a digital camera. In one embodiment, a method includes the steps of automatically matching an asset scheme of the digital camera to a best available asset normalizer of a predetermined set of asset normalizers and processing assets of the digital camera into a standard structure in accordance with the best available asset normalizer.

Claims

1. A method for automatically processing digital image assets of a digital camera, comprising the steps of:

automatically identifying a scheme to use for processing a set of assets and metadata; and

processing the assets and metadata into a standard structure.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein automatically identifying the scheme comprises comparing the set of assets and metadata with a predetermined set of characterizations of assets and metadata to determine whether a match is present.

3. The method of claim 2 wherein automatically identifying the scheme includes, where no match is found, indicating to the user that no match was found.

4. The method of claim 2 wherein automatically identifying the scheme includes, where no match is found, applying a fallback scheme.

5. The method of claim 1 wherein processing the assets and metadata into a standard structure comprises asset normalization.

6. The method of claim 5 wherein asset normalization includes at least one of:

making explicit an identity and purpose of files, making explicit relationships between files, extracting data and metadata of files, where necessary converting formats of files, and attaching associated asset handlers to specific asset types.

7. The method of claim 5 wherein asset normalization provides a file output that contains references to files and metadata determined to be relevant to a set of inputs.

8. The method of claim 7 wherein the file output includes files discovered by interrogating a file system to discover additional relevant files based on an asset normalizer'"'"'s knowledge and heuristics.

9. The method of claim 1 wherein processing includes processing the standard structure into a user-friendly structure that is one of:

an audio-video presentation, still images, still images plus audio clips, video clips, and audio clips.

10. The method of claim 9 wherein processing includes processing the standard structure to provide for at least one of:

viewing and hearing the user-friendly structure in an exogenous device.

11. The method of claim 1 wherein automatically identifying a scheme to use for processing a set of assets and metadata includes using a framework having a set of available asset normalizers to identify a best available asset normalizer.

12. An asset normalizing method for processing digital image assets of a digital camera, comprising the steps of:

automatically matching an asset scheme of the digital camera to a best available asset normalizer of a predetermined set of asset normalizers; and

processing assets of the digital camera into a standard structure in accordance with the best available asset normalizer.

13. The method of claim 12 wherein automatically matching an asset scheme includes comparing the set of assets and metadata with a predetermined set of characterizations of assets and metadata to determine whether a match is present.

14. The method of claim 12 wherein automatically matching an asset scheme includes, where no match is found, indicating to the user that no match was found.

15. The method of claim 12 wherein automatically matching an asset scheme includes, where no match is found, applying a fallback asset normalizer.

16. The method of claim 12 wherein processing assets of the digital camera comprises asset normalization.

17. The method of claim 16 wherein asset normalization includes at least one of:

making explicit an identity and purpose of files, making explicit relationships between files, extracting data and metadata of files, where necessary converting formats of files, and attaching associated asset handlers to specific asset types.

18. The method of claim 16 wherein asset normalization provides a file output that contains references to files and metadata determined to be relevant to a set of inputs.

19. The method of claim 18 wherein the file output includes files discovered by interrogating a file system to discover additional relevant files based on an asset normalizer'"'"'s knowledge and heuristics.

20. The method of claim 12 wherein processing includes processing the standard structure into a user-friendly structure that is at least one of:

an audio-video presentation, still images, still images plus audio clips, video clips, and audio clips.

21. The method of claim 12 wherein processing includes providing for at least one of:

viewing and hearing assets selected by the asset normalizer in an exogenous device.

22. A digital camera system for processing digital image assets into a standard format, comprising:

a comparison component for automatically matching an asset scheme of the digital camera to a best available asset normalizer of a predetermined set of asset normalizers; and

an asset-processing component, coupled to the comparison component, for processing assets of the digital camera into a standard format in accordance with the best available asset normalizer.

23. The digital camera system of claim 22 wherein the comparison component includes comparing the set of assets and metadata with a predetermined set of characterizations of assets and metadata to determine whether a match is present.

24. The digital camera system of claim 22 wherein the comparison component includes information that includes at least one of:

a directory pattern, a file name pattern, and an image metadata pattern.

25. The digital camera system of claim 22 wherein a directory pattern is assembled by an ordered transversal to a depth of at least one directory beneath a predetermined location and concatenating directory names with or without separator characters or symbols.

26. The digital camera system of claim 22 wherein, when the comparison component fails to find a matching asset scheme, the comparison component indicates to the user that no match was found.

27. The digital camera system of claim 22 wherein, when the comparison component fails to find a matching asset scheme, the asset-processing component utilizes a fallback asset normalizer.

28. The digital camera system of claim 22 wherein the asset-processing component implements asset normalization.

29. The digital camera system of claim 28 wherein asset normalization includes at least one of:

making explicit an identity and purpose of files, making explicit relationships between files, extracting data and metadata of files, where necessary converting formats of files, and attaching associated asset handlers to specific asset types.

30. The digital camera system of claim 28 wherein asset normalization provides a file output that contains references to files and metadata determined to be relevant to a set of inputs.

31. The digital camera system of claim 30 wherein the file output includes files discovered by interrogating a file system to discover additional relevant files based on an asset normalizer'"'"'s knowledge and heuristics.

32. The digital camera system of claim 22 where processing includes processing the standard format into a user-friendly structure that is at least one of:

an audio-video presentation, still images, still images plus audio clips, video clips, and audio clips.

33. The digital camera system of claim 22 wherein processing includes processing the standard format and providing for at least one of:

viewing and hearing assets selected by the asset normalizer in an exogenous device.

34. The digital camera system of claim 22 wherein the comparison component assigns each comparison a score that represents a quality of a match.

35. The digital camera system of claim 34 wherein a highest score is the score that represents the quality of a best match.

36. A computer-readable medium containing instructions for processing digital image assets from a digital camera into a standard format by:

automatically matching an asset scheme of the digital camera to a best available asset normalizer of a predetermined set of asset normalizers; and

processing assets of the digital camera into a standard format in accordance with the best available asset normalizer.

37. The computer-readable medium of claim 36 wherein automatically matching an asset scheme of the digital camera to the best available asset normalizer of a predetermined set of asset normalizers includes comparing the set of assets and metadata with a predetermined set of characterizations of assets and metadata to determine whether a match is present.

38. The computer-readable medium of claim 36 wherein automatically matching an asset scheme of the digital camera to the best available asset normalizer of a predetermined set of asset normalizers includes using information that includes at least one of:

a directory pattern, a file name pattern, and an image metadata pattern.

39. The computer-readable medium of claim 38 wherein a directory pattern is assembled by an ordered transversal to a depth of at least one directory beneath a predetermined location and concatenating directory names with or without separator characters or symbols.

40. The computer-readable medium of claim 36 wherein, when a matching asset scheme fails to be found, the step of automatically matching the asset scheme includes indicating that no match was found.

41. The computer-readable medium of claim 36 wherein when a matching asset scheme fails to be found, the step of automatically matching the asset scheme includes, where no match is found, applying a fallback asset normalizer.

42. The computer-readable medium of claim 36 wherein processing assets includes implementing asset normalization.

43. The computer-readable medium of claim 42 wherein asset normalization includes at least one of:

making explicit an identity and purpose of files, making explicit relationships between files, extracting data and metadata of files, where necessary converting formats of files, and attaching associated asset handlers to specific asset types.

44. The computer-readable medium of claim 42 wherein asset normalization provides a file output that contains references to files and metadata determined to be relevant to a set of inputs.

45. The computer-readable medium of claim 44 wherein the file output includes references to files discovered by interrogating a file system to discover additional relevant files based on an asset normalizer'"'"'s knowledge and heuristics.

46. The computer-readable medium of claim 36 wherein processing assets of the digital camera into a standard format in accordance with the best available asset normalizer includes processing the standard format into a user-friendly structure that is at least one of:

an audio-video presentation, still images, still images plus audio clips, video clips, and audio clips.

47. The computer-readable medium of claim 36 wherein processing includes providing instructions for at least one of:

viewing and hearing assets selected by the asset normalizer in an exogenous device.

48. The computer-readable medium of claim 36 wherein automatically matching an asset scheme of the digital camera to a best available asset normalizer of a predetermined set of asset normalizers includes assigning each comparison a score that represents a quality of a match.

49. The computer-readable medium of claim 48 wherein a highest score is a score that represents the quality of a best match.