Networked appliance for recording, storing and serving digital images

• US 6,571,271 B1
• Filed: 05/03/1999
• Issued: 05/27/2003
• Est. Priority Date: 05/03/1999
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Ricoh Company Limited
• Original Assignee: Ricoh Company Limited
• Inventors: Savitzky, Stephen, Wolff, Gregory, Roth, Rithy K.
• Primary Examiner(s): Le, N.
• Assistant Examiner(s): Benson, Walter
• Application Number:
  US09/304,545
• Time in Patent Office: 1,485 Days
• Field of Search: 345/346, 345/357, 345/501, 396/639, 455/566, 707/10, 709/200, 709/201, 709/203, 709/232, 709/226, 710/62
• US Class Current: 709/200
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/58 Retrieval characterised by using metadata, e.g. metadata not derived from the content or metadata generated manually
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/06 Buying, selling or leasing transactions
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 1/00132 in a digital photofinishing system, i.e. a system where digital photographic images undergo typical photofinishing processing, e.g. printing ordering
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 1/00137 Transmission
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 1/00148 Storage information retrieval G06F16/00
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 1/00172 directly from a still digital camera or from a storage medium mounted in a still digital camera H04N1/0018 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 1/00175 from a still image storage medium H04N1/00172, H04N1/0018 take precedence
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 1/00244 with a server, e.g. an internet server fax-servers or the like for store and forward H04N1/324
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 2201/0084 Digital still camera
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 2201/3205 of identification information, e.g. name or ID code H04N2201/3209 takes precedence

Abstract

An image server is captures images from a digital camera. When the image storage device is removed from the camera and placed into a port of the image server, the image server automatically detects the image storage device and downloads the images stored thereon, adding various data elements, such as a camera ID, data of capture, and the like. Once the image is stored in the image server, the image server generates an HTML page that references the new image, or adds a new reference to an existing HTML page. The HTML pages are made available to web browsers that are able to access the image server and the images are thus presented, with optional captions and titles. The images can be stored on the image server and be searched by text (i.e., from the captions or titles) or by image features.

Claims

1. A networked appliance for managing digital images captured by a digital image capturing device, the captured digital images being stored on a memory device, the network appliance comprising:

an image storage, which is external to the digital image capturing device, wherein the image storage stores digital images and active documents referencing the digital images, wherein each active document contains at least one behavior applicable to at least one of the digital images, wherein a behavior of an active document specifies document processing;

an image handler for automatically detecting and reading images from the memory device when the memory device is available for reading, the image handler being coupled to the image storage to store read images thereon and being configured to automatically generate the active documents, including behaviors, as needed to present the read images;

an image server, coupled to the image storage, for serving HTML pages with images referenced thereon upon receipt of requests by image clients, wherein the HTML pages are generated by processing the active documents, including processing at least one behavior, using an active documents processor operated by the image server; and

a network, for interconnecting the image server and image clients for transmission of the requests, the HTML pages and the images.

2. The apparatus of claim 1, further comprising a transfer means for transferring images from a local storage associated with the image storage to a public server accessible to the image server.

3. A networked appliance for managing digital images comprising:

a digital camera for capturing images into digital images;

an image storage, which is external to the digital camera, wherein the image storage receives the captured digital images from the digital camera, wherein the image storage electronically stores the digital images, wherein stored digital images can optionally be grouped into digital image rolls;

an image handler for automatically detecting and reading images from an input device when the input device is available for reading, the image handler being coupled to the image storage to store read images thereon and being configured to automatically generate active documents, wherein each active document contains at least one behavior applicable to at least one of the digital images, as needed to present the read images, wherein a behavior of an active document specifies document processing, wherein an automatically generated HTML page associated with a digital image includes an image capture date, a unique camera identifier and a unique image identifier;

an image server, coupled to the image storage, for serving HTML pages with images referenced thereon upon receipt of requests by image clients, wherein the HTML pages are generated by processing the active documents, including processing at least one behavior, using an active documents processor operated by the image server; and

a network, for interconnecting the image server and image clients for transmission of the requests, the HTML pages and the images.

4. The apparatus of claim 3, wherein the image storage comprises:

an image storage structure comprising either an XML page or a directory structure created when images are copied to image storage; and

means for creating HTML pages on the fly in response to a request to store an image.

5. An image server system for storing, managing and distributing images captured by a digital camera, the captured images being stored in a memory device, the image server system comprising:

image storage, external to the digital camera, for storing the digital images and active documents referencing the digital images, wherein each active document contains at least one behavior applicable to at least one of the digital images, wherein a behavior of an active document specifies document processing;

an image handler, which automatically detects the presence of the memory device when the memory device is placed in a communication interface by a user,

wherein without further input from the user, the image handler automatically reads the digital images from the memory device, and stores read images on the image storage, wherein the image handler is configured to automatically generate the active documents, as needed to present the read images; and

an image server, coupled to the image storage, for serving web pages with images referenced thereon upon receipt of requests by image clients, wherein the web pages are generated by processing the active documents.