Digital image browser

• US 20060224993A1
• Filed: 03/31/2005
• Published: 10/05/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 03/31/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Wong, Curtis G., Drucker, Steven M., Baudisch, Patrick M., Huynh, David F.
• Granted Patent: US 7,725,837 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 715/800
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/54 Browsing; Visualisation therefor

Abstract

The present subject matter describes a browser for efficiently presenting and browsing a large digital photograph collection. The browser includes a graphical interface—referred to as a time quilt—that combines a wrappable timeline with a space filling layout. Thumbnails representing individual images or clusters of images are laid out chronologically in columns, from top to bottom. When the bottom of a column is reached, a new column is started to the right of the existing column(s). Semantic zooming is used wherein zooming in on a thumbnail image that represents a cluster renders thumbnails of images in the cluster when the thumbnails of the images can be rendered in a legible size. Tiered zooming is also described, which is semantic zooming on multiple levels—representative thumbnails give way to clusters of representative thumbnails that each represent an image or a cluster of images.

Claims

9. A method, comprising:

identifying multiple images in a collection of digital images;

creating thumbnail images to represent the multiple images, a thumbnail image further comprising a reduced rendering of at least one image represented by the thumbnail image; and

displaying the thumbnail images in a zoomable plane according to a timeline such that when a display margin in encountered in a first display area, the rendering process is continued in a second, subsequent display area; and

wherein the first display area and the second display area are viewable contemporaneously.

1. One or more computer-readable media containing executable instructions that, when executed, implement the following steps:

identifying multiple digital images in a collection of digital images;

for each of the multiple digital images, identifying a date associated with the digital image;

displaying thumbnail images associated with the digital images in wrappable columns according to the dates.

2. The one or more computer-readable media as recited in claim 1, wherein at least one of the thumbnail images further comprise reduced renditions of digital images.

3. The one or more computer-readable media as recited in claim 1, wherein at least one of the thumbnail images further comprises a reduced rendition of a representative image selected from a cluster of images represented by the representative image.

4. The one or more computer-readable media as recited in claim 3, further comprising automatically selecting the representative image from the cluster of images.

5. The one or more computer-readable media as recited in claim 3, further comprising receiving a user selection of the representative image from the cluster of images.

6. The one or more computer-readable media as recited in claim 3, further comprising:

receiving a command to zoom in on a thumbnail image of a representative image; and

if a threshold zooming level is reached, rendering the thumbnail images in the cluster in place of the thumbnail image of the representative image.

7. The one or more computer-readable media as recited in claim 3, further comprising:

receiving a command to zoom out from a view of thumbnail images of a cluster of images; and

if a threshold zooming level is reached, rendering a thumbnail image of a representative image of the cluster of images in place of the view of thumbnail images of the cluster of images.

8. The one or more computer-readable media as recited in claim 1, further comprising rendering one or more time boundaries at particular divisions between dates associated with the thumbnail images, each time boundary indicating a characteristic of the dates associated with the thumbnail images.

10. The method as recited in claim 9, wherein at least one of the thumbnail images is a representative thumbnail image that represents a cluster of images in the collection of images, the representative thumbnail image further comprising a reduced rendition of an image selected from the cluster of images.

11. The method as recited in claim 10, further comprising automatically selecting the representative thumbnail image from the cluster of images.

12. The method as recited in claim 10, further comprising receiving a manual selection identifying the representative thumbnail image from the cluster of images.

13. The method as recited in claim 12, further comprising associating a primary image indicator with a thumbnail image that, when displayed with the thumbnail image, indicates that the thumbnail image is a representative thumbnail image.

14. The method as recited in claim 9, further comprising:

displaying thumbnail images of individual images in the collection when a zoom level meets or exceeds a threshold zooming level; and

replacing a cluster of thumbnail images with a representative thumbnail image when the zoom level falls below the threshold zooming level.

15. The method as recited in claim 9, further comprising displaying one or more time boundaries that demarcate temporal relationships between thumbnail images so that a temporal property of an image is ascertainable from a location of the image in relation to one or more time boundaries.

16. One or more computer-readable media containing executable instructions that, when executed, implement the following steps:

identifying multiple photographs in a photograph collection;

creating thumbnail images from the multiple photographs;

displaying the thumbnail images according to a time associated therewith on a display having a first margin and an opposite second margin such that a first set of thumbnail images is displayed from a first margin to a second margin, and a second, subsequent set of thumbnail images is displayed from the first margin and adjacent to the first set of thumbnail images so that the first set of thumbnail images and the second set of thumbnail images is viewable simultaneously.

17. The one or more computer-readable media as recited in claim 16, wherein a size of a representative thumbnail image corresponds to a number of photographs represented by the representative thumbnail image.

19. The one or more computer-readable media as recited in claim 15, wherein:

the first margin further comprises a top margin;

the second margin further comprises a bottom margin;

the first set of thumbnail images is displayed in a first column; and

the second set of thumbnail images is displayed in a second column.

20. The one or more computer-readable media as recited in claim 15, further comprising displaying one or more time boundaries that demarcate temporal relationships between thumbnail images.

16-1. The one or more computer-readable media as recited in claim 15, wherein at least one of the displayed thumbnail images further comprises a representative thumbnail image that is displayed in place of multiple individual thumbnail images when a zooming level reaches a predefined zooming level threshold.

18. The one or more computer-readable media further comprising associating a primary image indicator that, when displayed with a thumbnail image, indicates whether or not the thumbnail image is a representative thumbnail image.