STORAGE AND DISTRIBUTION OF CONTENT FOR A USER DEVICE GROUP

• US 20120221639A1
• Filed: 02/24/2012
• Published: 08/30/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 03/23/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Color Labs Inc. (Apple Inc.)
• Inventors: Mallet, Vincent, Cheng, Jessica, Fiedel, Noah, Gillum, Eric William, Ramanarayanan, Ganesh, Woods, Nicholas James
• Granted Patent: US 8,438,233 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/204
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 15/17306 Intercommunication techniques
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/285 Clustering or classification
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/287 Visualization; Browsing
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9535 Search customisation based on user profiles and personalisation
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/955 using information identifiers, e.g. uniform resource locators [URL]
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 50/01 Social networking
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/1827 Network arrangements for conference optimisation or adaptation
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 2101/69 using geographic information, e.g. room number
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/04 Processing captured monitoring data, e.g. for logfile generation
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/045 for graphical visualisation of monitoring data
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/04 Real-time or near real-time messaging, e.g. instant messaging [IM]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/08 Annexed information, e.g. attachments
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/10 Multimedia information
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/214 using selective forwarding
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/222 using geographical location information, e.g. messages transmitted or received in proximity of a certain spot or area
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/403 Arrangements for multi-party communication, e.g. for conferences data switching systems for conference H04L12/18; arrangements for connecting several subscribers to a common circuit, i.e. affording conference facilities H04M3/56; television conferencing systems H04N7/15
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/06 specially adapted for file transfer, e.g. file transfer protocol [FTP]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/1095 Replication or mirroring of data, e.g. scheduling or transport for data synchronisation between network nodes
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/141 Setup of application sessions admission control or resource allocation in data switching networks H04L47/70
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/306 User profiles
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/52 : specially adapted for the location of the user terminal
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/55 : Push-based network services
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/02 : Services making use of location information
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/029 : Location-based management or tracking services
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/08 : User group management
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 64/00 : Locating users or terminals or network equipment for network management purposes, e.g. mobility management
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 8/186 : Processing of subscriber group data
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99935 : Query augmenting and refining, e.g. inexact access
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99954 : Version management

Abstract

Systems and methods for the storage and distribution of content for user device groups are presented. In one example, a device group including a plurality of user devices is defined based on logical relationships among the plurality of user devices. A group data structure corresponding to the device group is stored in a data storage device, the group data structure including a parent data structure. An item of content is received from a first user device of the device group and stored in the data storage device as a child data structure of the parent data structure. The item of content is transmitted to other user devices of the device group based on the item of content being stored in the group data structure.

Claims

1. A method, comprising:

defining a device group comprising a plurality of user devices based on logical relationships among the plurality of user devices;

storing in a data storage device a group data structure corresponding to the device group, the group data structure comprising a parent data structure;

receiving an item of content from a first user device of the device group;

storing in the data storage device the item of content as a child data structure of the parent data structure; and

transmitting the item of content to other user devices of the device group based on the item of content being stored in the group data structure.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising storing in the data storage device a group identifier for the device group as a child data structure of the parent data structure.

3. The method of claim 1, the item of content comprising one of a photograph captured at the first user device, an audio segment captured at the first user device, an video segment captured at the first user device, and an annotation entered by a user into the first user device.

4. The method of claim 3, the annotation comprising at least one of a text tag identifying an aspect of the item of content, a text comment regarding the item of content, a user rating of the item of content, and a like indication of the item of content.

5. The method of claim 3, the annotation referring to the device group, the annotation comprising a text comment and an invitation to join another device group.

6. The method of claim 1, the child data structure comprising metadata corresponding to the item of content, the metadata comprising data received with the item of content from the first user device.

7. The method of claim 6, further comprising transmitting the metadata to the other user devices of the device group in conjunction with the item of content.

8. The method of claim 6, further comprising identifying the device group for association with the first user device based on the metadata, the metadata indicating whether the first user device has contributed items of content to the device group, the first user device being more likely to be associated with the device group when the first user device has contributed items of content to the device group.

9. The method of claim 6, further comprising identifying the device group for association with the item of content based on the metadata.

10. The method of claim 6, the defining of the device group being based on the logical relationships among the plurality of user devices using at least in part the metadata.

11. The method of claim 6, the metadata comprising at least one of an identity of the first user device, a time of generation of the item of content, location information indicating a location of the first user device at the time of generation of the item of content, and environmental information indicating an environmental condition affecting the first user device at the time of generation of the item of content.

12. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

after storing the item of content, delaying the transmitting the item of content to at least one of the other user devices of the device group based on at least one of a number of the other user devices and available communication bandwidth.

13. A non-transitory computer-readable data storage medium comprising instructions that, when executed by at least one processor of a machine, cause the machine to perform operations comprising:

defining a device group comprising a plurality of user devices based on logical relationships among the plurality of user devices;

storing in a data storage device a group data structure corresponding to the device group, the group data structure comprising a parent data structure;

receiving an item of content from a first user device of the device group;

storing in the data storage device the item of content as a child data structure of the parent data structure; and

transmitting the item of content to other user devices of the device group based on the item of content being stored in the group data structure.

14. A server system comprising:

a group ranker module to define a device group comprising a plurality of user devices based on logical relationships among the plurality of user devices;

a content queue module to store in a data storage device a group data structure corresponding to the device group, the group data structure comprising a parent data structure; and

an interface module in receive an item of content from a first user device of the device group;

the content queue module to store in the data storage device the item of content as a child data structure of the parent data structure; and

the interface module to transmit the item of content to other user devices of the device group based on the item of content being stored in the group data structure.

15. The server system of claim 14, the child data structure comprising metadata corresponding to the item of content, the metadata comprising data received with the item of content from the first user device.

16. The server system of claim 15, the interface module to transmit the metadata to the other user devices of the device group in conjunction with the item of content.

17. The server system of claim 15, the group ranker module to identify the device group for association with the first user device based on the metadata, the metadata indicating whether the first user device has contributed items of content to the device group, the first user device being more likely to be associated with the device group when the first user device has contributed items of content to the device group.

18. The server system of claim 15, the group ranker module to identify the device group for association with the item of content based on the metadata.

19. The server system of claim 15, the group ranker module to define the device group being based on the logical relationships among the plurality of user devices using at least in part the metadata.

20. The server system of claim 15, the metadata comprising at least one of an identity of the first user device, a time of generation of the iteni of content, location information indicating a location of the first user device at the time of generation of the item of content, and environmental information indicating an environmental condition affecting the first user device at the time of generation of the item of content.