SYSTEM FOR INCORPORATING INFORMATION ABOUT A SOURCE AND USAGE OF A MEDIA ASSET INTO THE ASSET ITSELF

• US 20070198563A1
• Filed: 04/10/2007
• Published: 08/23/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 08/12/2003
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Meta Platforms, Inc. (f/k/a Facebook, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: AOL Inc. (Apollo Global Management, Inc.)
• Inventors: Apparao, Vidur, Bandhauer, John, Waterson, Christopher
• Granted Patent: US 7,747,603 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/21 Design, administration or maintenance of databases
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/27 Replication, distribution or synchronisation of data between databases or within a distributed database system; Distributed database system architectures therefor
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/284 Relational databases
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/48 Retrieval characterised by using metadata, e.g. metadata not derived from the content or metadata generated manually
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99945 Object-oriented database structure processing
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99948 Application of database or data structure, e.g. distributed, multimedia, or image

Abstract

An enhanced metadata structure and associated process is provided which captures and stores metadata gathered about the source and usage of a media asset or file. The source and usage metadata is integrated, such as by encoding within the enhanced media file, as the media asset is transferred and used. The integrated metadata accumulates, as a trail of source information and usage information in the enhanced media asset, and can be extracted upon arrival at a target computer system.

Claims

1. A process for integrating usage information into a media asset, comprising the steps of:

providing a media asset at a first source node of a plurality of nodes;

sequentially transferring the media asset from the first source node to at least one recipient node of the plurality of nodes, each of the recipient nodes having a respective user associated therewith;

tracking usage associated with the respective users at any of the source node and recipient nodes where usage occurs, wherein the usage comprises any of a processing of the media asset, a modification of the media asset, and an addition of information to the media asset; and

cumulatively integrating usage information within the media asset at any of the source node and at each of the recipient nodes where usage occurs that act as subsequent source nodes to transfer the media asset to at least one subsequent recipient node.

2. The process of claim 1, further comprising the step of:

extracting the cumulatively integrated usage information at any of the nodes.

3. The process of claim 1, wherein the usage information is encoded within the media asset.

4. The process of claim 1, wherein at least one of the nodes comprises a terminal, and wherein the usage information is selectably accessible at any of the terminals.

5. The process of claim 1, wherein at least one of the nodes comprises any of a computer, a portable computer, a portable digital assistant, a wired device and a wireless device.

6. The process of claim 1, wherein the media asset is provided by a source device.

7. The process of claim 6, wherein the source device comprises any of a computer, a digital camera, a digital video camera, and a digital scanner.

8. The process of claim 1, further comprising the step of:

adding transfer information to the metadata corresponding to the transfer of the media asset between any of the nodes.

9. The process of claim 8, wherein the transfer information comprises any of a transfer date, a transfer time, and a transfer type.

10. The process of claim 1, wherein the media asset comprises any of image content, video content, text content, sound content, page layout content, pixel-based content vector-based content, animation content, data content and multimedia content.

11. A media asset embodied on a computer-readable storage medium, the media asset distributable from a first source node to at least one recipient node having a respective user associated therewith, comprising:

a media asset located at the first source node; and

usage information associated with the respective users cumulatively integrated within the media asset at any of the source node and at each of the recipient nodes where usage occurs that act as subsequent source nodes, wherein the usage information associated with the respective users comprises any of a processing of the media asset, a modification of the media asset, and an addition of information to the media asset.

12. The enhanced media asset of claim 11, wherein the usage information is extractable at any of the nodes.

13. The enhanced media asset of claim 11, wherein the usage information is encoded within the media asset.

14. The enhanced media asset of claim 11, wherein the usage information is selectably accessible at any of the nodes.

15. The enhanced media asset of claim 11, wherein at least one of the nodes comprises any of a computer, a portable computer, a portable digital assistant, a wired device and a wireless device.

16. The enhanced media asset of claim 11, wherein the media asset is provided by a source device.

17. The enhanced media asset of claim 16, wherein the source device comprises any of a computer, a camera, a digital video camera, and a scanner.

18. The enhanced media asset of claim 11, further comprising:

means for adding transfer information to the metadata corresponding to the transfer of the media asset between any of the nodes.

19. The enhanced media asset of claim 18, wherein the transfer information comprises any of a transfer date, a transfer time, and a transfer type.

20. The enhanced media asset of claim 11, wherein the media asset comprises any of image content, video content, text content, sound content, page layout content, pixel-based content vector-based content, animation content, data content and multimedia content.

21. A system for integrating usage information into a media asset that is transferred from a first source node to at least one recipient node of a plurality of nodes, each of the recipient nodes having a respective user associated therewith, the system comprising:

means for tracking usage associated with the respective users at any of the source node and recipient nodes where usage occurs, wherein the usage comprises any of a processing of the media asset, a modification of the media asset, and an addition of information to the media asset; and

means for cumulatively integrating usage information within the media asset at any of the source node and at each of the recipient nodes where usage occurs that act as subsequent source nodes to transfer the media asset to at least one subsequent recipient node.

22. The system of claim 21, further comprising:

means for extracting the cumulatively integrated usage information at any of the nodes.

23. The system of claim 21, wherein the usage information is encoded within the media asset.

24. The system of claim 21, wherein at least one of the nodes comprises a terminal, and wherein the usage information is selectably accessible at any of the terminals.

25. The system of claim 21, wherein at least one of the nodes comprises any of a computer, a portable computer, a portable digital assistant, a wired device and a wireless device.

26. The system of claim 21, wherein the media asset is provided by a source device.

27. The system of claim 26, wherein the source device comprises any of a computer, a digital camera, a digital video camera, and a digital scanner.

28. The system of claim 21, further comprising:

means for adding transfer information to the metadata corresponding to the transfer of the media asset between any of the nodes.

29. The system of claim 28, wherein the transfer information comprises any of a transfer date, a transfer time, and a transfer type.

30. The system of claim 21, wherein the media asset comprises any of image content, video content, text content, sound content, page layout content, pixel-based content vector-based content, animation content, data content and multimedia content.