Transmission Bandwidth And Memory Requirements Reduction In A Portable Image Capture Device

• US 20090292543A1
• Filed: 08/04/2009
• Published: 11/26/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 10/06/2000
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: DigiMedia Tech, LLC (IP Investments Group LLC)
• Original Assignee: KDL Scan Designs LLC (Intellectual Ventures LLC)
• Inventors: Anderson, Eric C.
• Granted Patent: US 8,073,965 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 704/500
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/565 Conversion or adaptation of application format or content adding application control or application functional data H04L67/561
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/5651 Reducing the amount or size of exchanged application data

Abstract

A system and method for reducing storage and transmission bandwidth requirements of a portable image capture device capable of establishing a communications connection on a network are disclosed. The method includes assigning an image identifier to captured images uploaded to a server on a network, wherein each of the images is stored in an image file having a particular size. The size of each of the image files corresponding to the uploaded images on the image capture device may then be reduced, thereby reducing storage requirements. In response to a user request to apply an action to one of the uploaded images, only the image identifier of the image and the requested action are transmitted to the server, thereby eliminating the need to retransmit the image and reducing transmission bandwidth requirements.

Claims

1. A method for reducing storage and transmission bandwidth requirements of a portable image capture device, the portable image capture device capable of establishing a communication connection on a network, the method comprising:

receiving captured images uploaded from the image capture device to a server on the network;

assigning an image identifier to the uploaded images by the server;

downloading action information to the image capture device including at least one action that can be applied by the server to the uploaded images; and

receiving a request from the portable image capture device to apply the action to at least one of the uploaded images, wherein the request includes the image identifier assigned to the at least one uploaded image and the requested action rather than the image itself, thereby eliminating the need to retransmit the image and reducing transmission bandwidth.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein downloading the image identifiers to the image capture device further includes:

sending the image identifiers to the image capture device to acknowledge receipt of the uploaded images.

3. The method of claim 2 wherein each of the images is stored in an image file, each of the image files having a particular size, the method further including:

after receiving the image identifiers on the image capture device, reducing the size of each of the image files uploaded to the server, and replacing each of the image files with its corresponding reduced size image file, thereby reducing storage requirements in the image capture device.

4. The method of claim 3 wherein reducing the size of each of the image files uploaded to the server further includes:

reducing the size of each file by deleting at least a portion of the image file.

5. The method of claim 4 wherein reducing the size of each of the image files uploaded to the server further includes:

reducing the size of each file by deleting audio from the image file.

6. The method of claim 5 wherein receiving a request from the portable image capture device to apply the action to at least one of the uploaded images further includes:

receiving a request from the user to listen to audio corresponding to the uploaded image;

using the uploaded image identifier to retrieve the audio corresponding to the uploaded image; and

downloading the retrieved audio to the image capture device for playing.

7. The method of claim 6 wherein using the uploaded image identifier to retrieve the audio corresponding to the uploaded image further includes:

encoding the audio into a higher compression format on the server to make the audio smaller for downloading and playing, but without a noticeable loss of quality.

8. The method of claim 1 wherein receiving a request from the portable image capture device to apply the action to at least one of the uploaded images further includes:

receiving a request to download a selected image;

using the image identifier to retrieve the selected image; and

downloading the selected image.

9. The method of claim 8 wherein receiving a request to download a selected image further includes:

receiving a password with the selected image; and

only retrieving the selecting image if the password is verified.

10. The method of claim 8 wherein receiving a request to download a selected image further includes:

receiving a signature key with the selected image; and

only retrieving the selecting image if the signature key is verified.

11. The method of claim 1 wherein receiving a request from the portable image capture device to apply the action to at least one of the uploaded images further includes:

receiving a request to delete a selected image; and

determining on the image capture device if the uploaded image on the image capture device should be deleted along with the selected image on the server.

12. A method for reducing storage and transmission bandwidth requirements of a portable image capture device, the portable image capture device capable of establishing a communication connection on a network, the method comprising:

assigning an image identifier to a captured image;

transmitting the image and the image identifier from the image capture device to a server on the network;

receiving a selection of an action to be performed on the image, the action associated with action information; and

in response to receiving the selection of the action, transmitting a request from the portable image capture device to the server, wherein the request includes the action information and the image identifier assigned to the at least one uploaded image rather than the image itself, wherein the server is configured to perform the action on the image identified by the image identifier, thereby eliminating the need to retransmit the image.

13. The method of claim 12 further including reducing storage requirements of the image capture device by:

deleting the image from the image capture device.

14. The method of claim 12 further including reducing storage requirements of the image capture device by:

replacing the image with a reduced image on the image capture device, the reduced image having a size substantially less than the size of the image.

15. The method of claim 14 further including storing the image in an image file that includes a high resolution image, a reduced resolution image, and audio, wherein replacing the image with a reduced image on the image capture device further includes:

deleting the high resolution image and the audio if audio has been recorded for the image.

16. The method of claim 15 wherein replacing the image with a reduced image on the image capture device further includes:

if the audio has been deleted, then marking an “

audio present”

tag in the reduced image.