Transmission bandwidth and memory requirements reduction in a portable image capture device by eliminating duplicate image transmissions

• US 7,287,088 B1
• Filed: 10/06/2000
• Issued: 10/23/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 10/06/2000
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: DigiMedia Tech, LLC (IP Investments Group LLC)
• Original Assignee: FotoMedia Technologies LLC (Scenera Research LLC)
• Inventors: Anderson, Eric C.
• Primary Examiner(s): Coulter; Kenneth R.
• Application Number:
  US09/680,612
• Time in Patent Office: 2,573 Days
• Field of Search: 709/232, 709/230, 709/235, 710/62
• US Class Current: 709/235
• 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 bandwidth requirements of a portable image capture device, the image capture device including means for establishing a communications 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 for storage;

marking the image as sent in the image capture device;

in response to a user request to perform an action on a selected image from the portable image capture device, determining if the selected image is marked; and

if the selected image is marked, uploading the image identifier to the server, wherein the server performs the action on the image identified by the image identifier, thereby eliminating the need to retransmit the image.

2. The method of claim 1 further including reducing storage requirements of the image capture device by:

deleting the image from the image capture device.

3. The method of claim 1 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.

4. The method of claim 3 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.

5. The method of claim 4 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.

6. A system for reducing storage and bandwidth requirements, comprising:

an online photo-sharing service for receiving digital images over a network; and

an image capture device for capturing digital images, the image capture device including,

means for establishing a network connection;

means for assigning an image identifier to each of the digital images;

means for transmitting the digital images and the respective image identifiers from the image capture device to the server for storage;

means for marking the digital image as sent;

means responsive to a user request to perform an action from the image capture device on a selected image for determining if the selected image is marked; and

means responsive to the selected image being marked for uploading the selected image'"'"'s image identifier and the action to the server, thereby eliminating the need to retransmit the image.

7. The system of claim 6 wherein each of the digital images are stored in the image capture device as an image file, each of the image files including image data, reduced resolution image data, and metadata tags.

8. The system of claim 7 wherein each of the transmitted digital images are replaced with reduced image files on the image capture device by deleting the image data from the image file.

9. The system of claim 8 wherein the images files further include an audio clip, the audio clip also being deleted when generating the reduced image files.

10. The system of claim 9 wherein when the reduced image files are generated, the image capture unit determines whether a maximum number of images files are present, and if the maximum number of images has been reached, then the oldest images are deleted to further increase storage capacity.

11. The system of claim 6 wherein once the server receives the image identifier and the action, the server applies the action to the digital image identified by the image identifier.

12. The system of claim 11 wherein the server uses the image identifier to index and store the digital image.

13. The system of claim 12 wherein if the action requires retrieving the stored image, the server uses the image identifier sent with the action to retrieve the stored image.

14. A method for reducing transmission bandwidth requirements of a portable image capture device, the image capture device including means for establishing a communications connection on a network, the method comprising:

a first time captured images are uploaded to a server, assigning by the server a respective image identifier to each of the captured images, wherein each of the images is stored in an image file, each of the image files having a particular size;

receiving from the server the image identifiers assigned for each of the captured images and action information including at least one action that can be applied by the server to the uploaded images;

presenting an action control associated with the action based on the action information; and

in response to detecting a selection of the action control for applying the action to at least one of the uploaded images, transmitting the action and the image identifier assigned to the at least one uploaded image, rather than the image itself, from the portable image capture device to the server, thereby eliminating the need to retransmit the image and reducing transmission bandwidth.

15. The method of claim 14 further including:

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

16. The method of claim 15 wherein reducing the size of each of the image files further includes:

deleting at least a portion of each of the image files.

17. The method of claim 16 further including storing each of the captured images in an image file that includes a high resolution image, a reduced resolution image, and audio, wherein reducing the size of each of the image files further includes:

replacing the high resolution image with the reduced resolution image.

18. The method of claim 17 wherein reducing the size of each of the image files further includes:

deleting the audio if audio has been recorded for the image.

19. The method of claim 18 wherein reducing the size of each of the image files further includes:

if the audio has been deleted, then marking an “

audio present”

tag in the reduced image.

20. The method of claim 14 wherein assigning by the server a respective image identifier to each of the captured images further includes:

uploading the image identifiers with the captured images.

21. The method of claim 14 further including:

replacing each of the uploaded images with an alias that includes the image identifier assigned to the uploaded image.

22. A method for reducing storage and transmission bandwidth requirements of a portable image capture device, the image capture device including means for establishing a communications 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 the image identifiers to the image capture device for association with the corresponding uploaded image;

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 only includes the image identifier assigned to the at least one uploaded image and the requested action, thereby eliminating the need to retransmit the image and reducing transmission bandwidth.

23. The method of claim 22 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.

24. The method of claim 23 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.

25. The method of claim 24 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.

26. The method of claim 25 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.

27. The method of claim 26 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.

28. The method of claim 27 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.

29. The method of claim 22 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.

30. The method of claim 29 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.

31. The method of claim 29 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.

32. The method of claim 22 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.