Controlling Access to Digital Images Based on Device Proximity

• US 20080294774A1
• Filed: 05/23/2007
• Published: 11/27/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 05/23/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Garbow, Zachary Adam, Fowler, David Keith
• Granted Patent: US 8,914,897 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/225
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/35 communicating wirelessly
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/6218 to a system of files or objects, e.g. local or distributed file system or database
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2221/2111 Location-sensitive, e.g. geographical location, GPS
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2221/2129 Authenticate client device independently of the user
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2221/2141 Access rights, e.g. capability lists, access control lists, access tables, access matrices
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/101 Access control lists [ACL]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/52 specially adapted for the location of the user terminal
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/2743 Video hosting of uploaded data from client
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/41407 embedded in a portable device, e.g. video client on a mobile phone, PDA, laptop constructional details of equipment or arrangements specially adapted for portable computer application G06F1/1626; arrangements specially adapted for mobile receivers in broadcast systems H04H20/57
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4223 Cameras H04N23/00 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/43637 involving a wireless protocol, e.g. Bluetooth, RF or wireless LAN [IEEE 802.11] arrangements for wireless networking or broadcasting of information in indoor or near-field type systems H04B10/114
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4524 involving the geographical location of the client retrieval from the Internet by querying based on geographical locations G06F16/9537; systems specially adapted for using geographical information in broadcast systems H04H60/70; protocols in which the network application is adapted for the location of the user terminal in communication control or processing H04L67/52; services making use of the location of users or terminals in wireless networks H04W4/02; locating users or terminals in wireless networks H04W64/00
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4627 Rights management associated to the content security in data switching network management H04L41/28; security management or policies for network security H04L63/20; access security in wireless networks H04W12/08
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/173 with two-way working, e.g. subscriber sending a programme selection signal
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/02 Services making use of location information
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 48/04 based on user or terminal location or mobility data, e.g. moving direction, speed
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 64/006 with additional information processing, e.g. for direction or speed determination

Abstract

Embodiments of the invention provide techniques for controlling access to digital images based physical and temporal proximity to the image capture event. In one embodiment, an imaging device capturing a digital image broadcasts an invitation to wireless devices in the surrounding area. The wireless devices respond with an acceptance, including the email address (or some other network address) of the device owner. The digital image is made available at a network location with restricted access. Access to the image is controlled with an access list based on the acceptances received by the imaging device.

Claims

1. A method of generating an access list for controlling access to an image, comprising:

in response to capturing the image on an image capture device, sending a wireless invitation signal from the image capture device;

receiving, by the image capture device, at least one response signal from at least one responding device indicating that the respective responding device received the wireless invitation signal, wherein the respective response signals includes respective identifiers corresponding to the respective responding device; and

generating, by the image capture device, an access list corresponding to the image, wherein the access list is composed according to the respective identifiers contained in the respective response signals received by the image capture device, thereby limiting users permitted to access the image to those associated with the respective responding devices.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising controlling access to the image based on the access list.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the image is stored in a network location, and wherein access to the image is provided by a web application.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the invitation signal is a Bluetooth signal, thereby being detectable only by responding devices in a transmission vicinity of the image capture device.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the identifier is an email address of an owner of the responding device.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein the identifier is used to generate an email notification to the owner of the responding device, wherein the email notification includes the location of the image.

7. The method of claim 1, further comprising transferring the image and the access list to an image sharing server.

8. The method of claim 1, further comprising transferring the image and the access list to an image sharing server configured to send electronic notifications addresses associated with each identifier on the access list.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein generating the access list comprises including a respective identifier on the access list only if the respective responding device is contained on a predefined list of approved devices accessible to the image capture device.

28. The method of claim 1, wherein the access list is stored as metadata embedded in the image.

29. The method of claim 1, further comprising, based on the access list, controlling access to resources of the computing device other than the image.

10. A computer readable storage medium containing a program, which, when executed, performs an operation, comprising:

in response to capturing the image on an image capture device, sending a wireless invitation signal from the image capture device;

receiving, by the image capture device, at least one response signal from at least one responding device indicating that the respective responding device received the wireless invitation signal, wherein the respective response signals includes respective identifiers corresponding to the respective responding device; and

generating, by the image capture device, an access list corresponding to the image, wherein the access list is composed according to the respective identifiers contained in the respective response signals received by the image capture device, thereby limiting users permitted to access the image to those associated with the respective responding devices.

11. The computer readable storage medium of claim 10, further comprising controlling access to the image based on the access list.

12. The computer readable storage medium of claim 11, wherein the image is stored in a network location, and wherein access to the image is provided by a web application.

13. The computer readable storage medium of claim 10, wherein the invitation signal is a Bluetooth signal, thereby being detectable only by responding devices in a transmission vicinity of the image capture device.

14. The computer readable storage medium of claim 10, wherein the identifier is an email address of an owner of the responding device.

15. The computer readable storage medium of claim 10, wherein the identifier is used to generate an email notification to the owner of the responding device, wherein the email notification includes the location of the image.

16. The computer readable storage medium of claim 10, further comprising transferring the image and the access to an image sharing server.

17. The computer readable storage medium of claim 10, further comprising transferring the image and the access list to an image sharing server configured to send electronic notifications addresses associated with each identifier on the access list.

18. The computer readable storage medium of claim 10, wherein generating the access list comprises including a respective identifier on the access list only if the respective responding device is contained on a predefined list of approved devices accessible to the image capture device.

30. The computer readable storage medium of claim 10, wherein the access list is stored as metadata embedded in the image.

31. The computer readable storage medium of claim 10, further comprising, based on the access list, controlling access to resources of the computing device other than the image.

19. A system, comprising:

an image capture device comprising circuitry configured to;

in response to capturing an image, send a wireless invitation signal;

receive at least one response signal from at least one responding device indicating that the respective responding device received the wireless invitation signal, wherein the respective response signals includes respective identifiers corresponding to the respective responding device;

generate an access list corresponding to the image, wherein the access list is composed according to the respective identifiers contained in the respective response signals received by the image capture device, thereby limiting users permitted to access the image to those associated with the respective responding devices;

provide the access list to a computing device configured to control access to the image based on the access list.

20. The system of claim 19, wherein the image is stored in a network location, and wherein access to the image is provided by a web application.

22. The system of claim 19, wherein the invitation signal is a Bluetooth signal, thereby being detectable only by responding devices in a transmission vicinity of the image capture device.

23. The system of claim 19, wherein the identifier is an email address of an owner of the responding device.

24. The system of claim 19, wherein the identifier is used to generate an email notification to the owner of the responding device, wherein the email notification includes the location of the image.

25. The system of claim 19, wherein the computing device is an image sharing server configured to receive the image from the image capture device.

26. The system of claim 19, wherein the computing device is an image sharing server configured to receive the image and the access list from the image capture device, and further configured to send electronic notifications addresses associated with each identifier on the access list.

27. The system of claim 19, wherein generating the access list comprises including a respective identifier on the access list only if the respective responding device is contained on a predefined list of approved devices accessible to the image capture device.

32. The system of claim 19, wherein the access list is stored as metadata embedded in the image.

33. The system of claim 19, wherein the access list configures the computing device to give the users access to resources of the computing device other than the image.