Method and Apparatus for Recording Associations with Logs

• US 20080243751A1
• Filed: 03/28/2007
• Published: 10/02/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 03/28/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Ricoh Company Limited
• Original Assignee: Ricoh Company Limited
• Inventors: Savitzky, Stephen R., Piersol, Kurt, Boliek, Martin, Rhodes, Bradley, Ridout, Kevin, Gormish, Michael, Nudd, Geoffrey H.
• Granted Patent: US 8,996,483 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 707/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/93 Document management systems

Abstract

Method and apparatus for recording associations with logs are described. In one embodiment, the method comprises obtaining a first media identifier corresponding to a first media; accessing a log that contains one or more entries that associate two or more media identifiers with each other; and determining that the first media is related to a second media based on the log indicating that a second media identifier is associated with, but different from, the first media identifier.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

obtaining a first media identifier corresponding to a first media;

accessing a log that contains one or more entries that associate two or more media identifiers with each other; and

determining that the first media is related to a second media based on the log indicating that a second media identifier is associated with, but different from, the first media identifier.

2. The method defined in claim 1 wherein obtaining the first media identifier comprises receiving the first media identifier.

3. The method defined in claim 1 wherein obtaining the first media identifier comprises receiving the first media and computing the first media identifier using the first media.

4. The method defined in claim 1 wherein determining the first media is related to the second media comprises:

accessing a log entry in the log that contains the first media identifier;

obtaining type information from the log entry;

determining whether the log entry contains related media identifiers based on the type information; and

obtaining the second media identifier from the log entry if the type information indicates that the log entry contains related media identifiers based on the type information.

5. The method defined in claim 1 wherein the first media and the second media are different versions of media, and an entry in the log indicates that the first and second media identifiers correspond to different versions of the media.

6. The method defined in claim 1 wherein the first media and the second media are different frames of a video, and an entry in the log indicates that the first and second media identifiers are different subsets of the same media.

7. The method defined by claim 6 wherein the first and second media are frames of a video.

8. The method defined in claim 1 further comprising determining the first media is derived from the second media based on determining that the first media is related to a second media.

9. The method defined in claim 1 wherein the receiving the first media identifier comprises receiving a search request containing the first media identifier.

10. The method defined in claim 1 wherein the first media identifier is a cryptographic hash value.

11. The method defined in claim 10 wherein the first media identifier is a result of applying a hashing function to the first media.

12. The method defined in claim 11 wherein the hashing function is one of a group consisting of the SHA1 cryptographic hash algorithm, the SHA256 cryptographic hash algorithm, and the MD5 hashing algorithm.

13. The method defined in claim 1 wherein the first media is a document and the first media identifier is a document identifier.

14. An article of manufacture having one or more computer-readable storage media storing instructions which, when executed by a system, cause the system to perform a method for authenticating an interaction comprising:

obtaining a first media identifier corresponding to a first media;

accessing a log that contains one or more entries that associate two or more media identifiers with each other; and

determining that the first media is related to a second media based on the log indicating that a second media identifier is associated with, but different from, the first media identifier.

15. A method comprising:

obtaining time information from both a first log entry of a first log and a second log entry of a second log, wherein the first log entry includes a first media identifier corresponding to first media and the second log entry includes a second media identifier corresponding to second media; and

determining that the first media is related to the second media based on the time information of the first and second log entries being related.

16. The method defined in claim 15 wherein the time information of the first and second log entries are related when the time information of the first and second log entries are within a predetermined time threshold of each other.

17. The method defined in claim 16 wherein the time information are related if the first and second log entries indicate that their time information is the same.

18. The method defined in claim 15 further comprising:

accessing a first log to obtain the first log entry and the second log to obtain the second log entry.

19. The method defined in claim 15 wherein determining that the first media is related to the second media comprises determining the first media and the second media are different versions of a media.

20. The method defined in claim 15 wherein determining that the first media is related to the second media comprises determining the first media and the second media are different frames of a video.

21. The method defined in claim 15 wherein determining that the first media is related to the second media comprises determining the first media is derived from the second media.

22. An article of manufacture having one or more computer-readable storage media storing instructions which, when executed by a system, cause the system to perform a method for authenticating an interaction comprising:

obtaining time information from both a first log entry of a first log and a second log entry of a second log, wherein the first log entry includes a first media identifier corresponding to first media and the second log entry includes a second media identifier corresponding to second media; and

determining that the first media is related to the second media based on the time information of the first and second log entries being related.

23. A method comprising:

associating multiple media identifiers with different versions of media; and

storing the multiple media identifiers in an entry in a log.

24. A method comprising:

capturing user inputs with respect to an application being used on a computer system; and

recording information in a verifiable log that is entangled with at least one other log.

25. The method defined in claim 24 wherein capturing user inputs comprises one of a group consisting of:

recording a hash of a screen shot, recording an email message that is viewed, recording which rows, columns, and tabs are viewed, recording a document that was open in the application, recording a file that is downloaded, and recording an application that is for writing.

26. A method comprising:

receiving media;

generating a media identifier corresponding to the media;

searching a verifiable log of a device for the media identifier as part of an audit operation to determine if the device had access to the media.