METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR ORGANIZING DIGITAL PHOTOGRAPHS

• US 20100128987A1
• Filed: 11/25/2008
• Published: 05/27/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 11/25/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: R2 Solutions LLC (Acacia Research Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Yahoo! Inc. (Apollo Global Management, Inc.)
• Inventors: Ravikumar, Shanmugasundaram, McAfee, Randolph Preston
• Granted Patent: US 9,110,927 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 382/190
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/51 Indexing; Data structures therefor; Storage structures
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/58 Retrieval characterised by using metadata, e.g. metadata not derived from the content or metadata generated manually

Abstract

A method and system for organizing digital photographs is disclosed. A plurality of digital photographs are obtained. Each digital photograph in the plurality is analyzed to obtain metadata related to the digital photograph and/or photograph content information related to the digital photograph. The metadata and/or the photograph content information is then analyzed. The plurality of digital photographs are automatically organized into clusters. Each cluster is associated with one or more predetermined cluster parameter. Each cluster parameter is associated with a metadata item. The digital photographs are then displayed (e.g., in a web page) on a computing device in accordance with the cluster parameter(s). One or more of the digital photographs are reorganized into a different cluster each time additional metadata related to the one or more digital photographs is received.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

analyzing, by one or more processors, each digital photograph in a plurality of digital photographs to obtain one or more items of metadata related to the each digital photograph;

analyzing the metadata items related to the each digital photograph;

automatically organizing, by said one or more processors, the plurality of digital photographs into clusters, p2 each cluster associated with one or more predetermined cluster parameter,

each predetermined cluster parameter related to a metadata item; and

causing the digital photographs organized into the clusters to be displayed on a display of a computing device in accordance with said one or more predetermined cluster parameter.

2. The method of claim 1 further comprising obtaining additional metadata items related to one or more of the plurality of digital photographs.

3. The method of claim 2 further comprising reorganizing, by said one or more processors, one or more of the digital photographs into a different cluster based on the additional metadata items.

4. The method of claim 1 wherein the analyzing each digital photograph in the plurality to obtain one or more items of metadata related to the each digital photograph further comprises analyzing each digital photograph in the plurality to obtain one or more of date, time that the digital photograph is stored on the one or more processors, time taken, and event.

5. The method of claim 1 further comprising analyzing each digital photograph to obtain photograph content information related to the each digital photograph.

6. The method of claim 5 wherein the analyzing each digital photograph further comprises performing image recognition on the each digital photograph to obtain said photograph content information.

7. The method of claim 1 wherein the analyzing each digital photograph to obtain one or more items of metadata further comprises analyzing each digital photograph to obtain a location associated with the each digital photograph.

8. The method of claim 1 further comprising obtaining the plurality of digital photographs.

9. The method of claim 8 wherein the obtaining a plurality of digital photographs further comprises receiving the plurality of digital photographs from a digital camera.

10. The method of claim 1 further comprising receiving instructions to move a digital photograph from one cluster to another cluster.

11. The method of claim 1 further comprising receiving instructions to form a new cluster.

12. The method of claim 11 further comprising receiving instructions to organize a digital photograph into the new cluster.

13. The method of claim 1 further comprising receiving instructions to rearrange a cluster.

14. The method of claim 1 wherein the causing the digital photographs organized into the clusters to be displayed further comprises transmitting thumbnails of the digital photographs to the computing device.

15. A computer readable medium storing computer program instructions capable of being executed by a computer processor, the computer program instructions defining the steps of:

analyzing each digital photograph in a plurality of digital photographs to obtain one or more items of metadata related to the each digital photograph;

analyzing the metadata items related to the each digital photograph;

automatically organizing the plurality of digital photographs into clusters,

each cluster associated with one or more predetermined cluster parameter,

each predetermined cluster parameter related to a metadata item; and

causing the digital photographs organized into the clusters to be displayed on a display of a computing device in accordance with said one or more predetermined cluster parameter.

16. The computer readable medium of claim 15 further comprising computer program instructions defining the step of obtaining additional metadata items related to one or more of the plurality of digital photographs.

17. The computer readable medium of claim 16 further comprising computer program instructions defining the step of reorganizing one or more of the digital photographs into a different cluster based on the additional metadata.

18. The computer readable medium of claim 15 wherein the computer program instructions defining the step of analyzing each digital photograph in the plurality to obtain one or more items of metadata related to the each digital photograph further comprises computer program instructions defining the step of analyzing each digital photograph in the plurality to obtain one or more of date, time that the digital photograph is stored on the computer processor, time taken, and event.

19. The computer readable medium of claim 15 further comprising computer program instructions defining the step of analyzing each digital photograph to obtain photograph content information related to the each digital photograph.

20. The computer readable medium of claim 16 wherein the computer program instructions defining the step of analyzing each digital photograph further comprises computer program instructions defining the step of performing image recognition on the each digital photograph to obtain said photograph content information.

21. The computer readable medium of claim 15 wherein the computer program instructions defining the step of analyzing each digital photograph to obtain one or more items of metadata further comprises computer program instructions defining the step of analyzing each digital photograph to obtain a location associated with the each digital photograph.

22. The computer readable medium of claim 15 further comprising computer program instructions defining the step of obtaining the plurality of digital photographs.

23. The computer readable medium of claim 15 further comprising computer program instructions defining the step of receiving instructions to move a digital photograph from one cluster to another cluster.

24. The computer readable medium of claim 15 further comprising computer program instructions defining the step of receiving instructions to form a new cluster.

25. The computer readable medium of claim 24 further comprising computer program instructions defining the step of receiving instructions to organize a digital photograph into the new cluster.

26. The computer readable medium of claim 15 further comprising computer program instructions defining the step of receiving instructions to rearrange a cluster.