Method and system for managing image files in a hierarchical storage mangement system

• US 20050165796A1
• Filed: 01/15/2004
• Published: 07/28/2005
• Est. Priority Date: 01/15/2004
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Intel Corporation
• Original Assignee: Xerox Corporation (Xerox Holdings Corp.)
• Inventors: Moore, John A.
• Granted Patent: US 7,836,021 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/51 Indexing; Data structures therefor; Storage structures
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/913 Multimedia

Abstract

A system evaluates file metadata for files maintained in the secondary storage of a host system to determine whether one or more image files are to be downgraded. The image files selected for downgrading are reduced in size by one or more downgrading operations. The resulting file is stored in secondary storage so an image file remains in secondary storage that does not require the memory space of the previous image file. The downgrade operations may include lossless compression, lossy compression, bit depth reduction, resolution reduction, color palette, binary imaging, or a combination of a plurality of downgrade operations.

Claims

1. A method for managing image files in a host system comprising:

identifying an image file stored in secondary storage for a host system; and

downgrading the identified image file.

2. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

storing the downgraded file in secondary storage; and

storing the identified image file in tertiary storage.

3. The method of claim 1, the downgrading further comprising:

performing a lossless compression on the identified image file.

4. The method of claim 1, the downgrading further comprising:

performing a lossy compression on the identified image file.

5. The method of claim 1, the downgrading further comprising:

reducing the resolution of the identified image file.

6. The method of claim 1, the downgrading further comprising:

reducing the bit size of the pixels in the identified image file.

7. The method of claim 1, the downgrading further comprising:

converting a color image from one color format to another color format that requires less data to represent color in the identified image file.

8. The method of claim 7, the downgrading further comprising:

converting a color image to a color palette version of the color image.

9. The method of claim 1, the downgrading further comprising:

combining a plurality of downgrade operations to reduce the size of the identified image file.

10. The method of claim 1, the downgrading further comprising:

retrieving a full resolution version of the identified image file from tertiary storage; and

performing a downgrade operation on the full resolution version of the identified image file.

11. The method of claim 1, the image file identification including:

comparing file metadata to a downgrade threshold.

12. The method of claim 11, the comparison including:

comparing file metadata to a file frequency threshold.

13. The method of claim 11, the comparison including:

comparing file metadata to a last access time threshold.

14. The method of claim 11, the comparison including:

comparing file metadata to a classification threshold.

15. A system for managing image files in a host system comprising:

a file selector for identifying an image file stored in secondary storage for a host system; and

a file reducer for downgrading the identified image file.

16. The system of claim 15 further comprising:

a file controller for storing the downgraded file in secondary storage and for storing the identified image file in tertiary storage.

17. The system of claim 15 wherein the file reducer includes a compressor for compressing the identified image file.

18. The system of claim 15 wherein the file reducer includes a color reducer for converting a color image from one color format to another color format that uses less data to represent color.

19. The system of claim 15 wherein the file reducer includes an image resolution reducer for reducing the resolution of the identified image file.

20. The system of claim 15 wherein the file reducer includes a bit depth reducer for reducing pixel bit size for pixels in the identified image file.