Image transfer and archival system

• US 7,565,441 B2
• Filed: 07/23/2001
• Issued: 07/21/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 07/23/2001
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Amy H. Muntz, Philip B. Romanik
• Original Assignee: Amy H. Muntz, Philip B. Romanik
• Inventors: Muntz, Amy H., Romanik, Philip B.
• Primary Examiner(s): Etienne; Ario
• Assistant Examiner(s): GOLD, AVI M
• Application Number:
  US09/911,090
• Publication Number:
  US 20030018802A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,920 Days
• Field of Search: 709/203, 709/219, 709/234, 382/232
• US Class Current: 709/234
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/06 specially adapted for file transfer, e.g. file transfer protocol [FTP]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/55 Push-based network services
• 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
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/62 Establishing a time schedule for servicing the requests
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/329 in the application layer [OSI layer 7]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 9/40 Network security protocols
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 1/32122 in a separate device, e.g. in a memory or on a display separate from image data
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 2201/3226 of identification information or the like, e.g. ID code, index, title, part of an image, reduced-size image
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 2201/3235 Checking or certification of the authentication information, e.g. by comparison with data stored independently
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 2201/3274 Storage or retrieval of prestored additional information
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 2201/3278 Transmission

Abstract

A system for preparing and transmitting all desired images from one or more image-producing clients to a server for archiving or later analysis, validation, or reporting purposes. Images are queued on the client while they await transmission to the server and can also be reduced in size, if necessary, to reduce storage space or network transmission time. Once the images reside on the server, they can be added to an image database or used for further processing.

Claims

1. A system for transmitting digital image signals from a client device to a server device, comprising:

means for establishing a connection between one or more client devices and server device;

means for optionally making a copy of an image to free up system resources on said client device;

means for measuring the availability of local client resources including available processor time and means for maintaining historical information and trends of client resources;

means for measuring the status and performance of the network connecting the client device and server device, and means for maintaining historical information and trends of the network;

means for transferring the image to a client queue wherein said availability means and said status means determine the image cannot be transmitted immediately to the server device;

means for increasing the size of said client queue if the client queue becomes full due to the accumulation of images in the queue;

means to dynamically reduce the size of the image in the client queue wherein said availability means and said status means are used to estimate the level of reduction necessary such that the reduced image can be transmitted from the client device to the server device before the client queue becomes full;

means for transferring the image from the client queue on the client device to the server device as a digital signal such that a permanent copy of the image is not maintained on the client device wherein said reduction means has reduced the size of the image sufficiently to prevent the client queue from becoming full;

means for persisting the image from said transfer means on the server device until it is processed or saved whereas the image may be of reduced resolution or quality.

2. A system according to claim 1, wherein the means for increasing the size of the client queue includes an upper limit to prevent the queue from growing beyond a specified size.

3. A system according to claim 1, wherein the means for transferring the signal from the client to the server can include encrypting the information on the client prior to transmission and decrypting the data once it is received by the server.

4. A system according to claim 1, wherein the means for transferring the image signal from the client to the server can comprise:

means for transmitting image data from one or more clients to a gateway server, such that the clients consider the gateway server to be a server;

means for buffering the image data on the gateway server;

means for transmitting image data from the gateway server to the server, such that the server considers the gateway server to be a client.

5. A system according to claim 1, wherein the means for reducing the size of an image comprises:

means for selecting one or more reduction methods to reduce the image size from a plurality of lossless or lossy compression methods;

means for reducing the current image, or reducing any image in the queue when the queue becomes full;

means for periodically reducing the size of the images in the queue, using reduction methods when processor resources are available.

6. A system according to claim 5, wherein the means for selecting one of more reduction methods comprises:

means for estimating the reduction in image size possible for a specific reduction method;

means for estimating the cost of this reduction where the cost includes the resources required for reduction as well as the time to reduce the image;

means for performing the reduction if the cost is allowable and the reduction is considered meaningful;

means for evaluating other reduction methods if the desired amount of reduction has not been achieved.

7. A system according to claim 6, wherein the means for determining if the cost is allowable comprises:

means for checking the current system resources to see if sufficient resources and time are available to reduce the image;

means for checking historical system resources and trends to estimate future resource availability;

means for checking the current network parameters such as available bandwidth and throughput;

means for checking historical network conditions and trends to estimate future network conditions.

8. A system according to claim 1, wherein the means for transferring the image signal from the client device to the server device comprises:

means for storing the received image in a server queue or on a networked file system;

means for increasing the size of the server queue if the server queue becomes full due to the accumulation of images in the queue;

means for dynamically reducing the size of images in the server queue to either conserve storage space in the server queue or to reduce storage requirements in the image database.

9. A system according to claim 8, wherein the means for-increasing the size of the server queue includes an upper limit to prevent the queue from growing beyond a specified size.

10. A system according to claim 8, wherein the means for reducing the size of an image comprises:

means for selecting one or more reduction methods to reduce the image size from a plurality of lossless or lossy compression methods;

means for reducing the current image, or reducing any image in the queue when the queue nears or becomes full;

means for periodically reducing the size of the images in the queue, using lossless compression methods when processor resources are available.

11. A system according to claim 10, wherein the means for selecting one of more reduction methods comprises:

means for estimating the reduction in image size possible for a specific reduction method;

means for estimating the cost of this reduction where the cost includes the resources required for reduction as well as the time to reduce the image;

means for performing the reduction if the cost is allowable and the reduction is considered meaningful;

means for evaluating other reduction methods if the desired amount of reduction has not been achieved.

12. A method for transmitting volatile real-time digital image signals from a client device to a server device, comprising:

transferring a volatile image to a client queue if the image cannot be transmitted immediately to the server device;

increasing the size of the client queue if the client queue becomes full due to the accumulation of images in the queue;

dynamically reducing the size of the image in said client queue such that the estimated level of reduction is determined by examining the available processor time on the client device as well as examining the available network bandwidth between the client device and server device wherein the reduced image can be transmitted from the client device to the server device before the client queue becomes full;

transferring the volatile image from the client queue on the client device to the server device as a digital signal such that a permanent copy of the image is not maintained on the client device wherein said image reduction has reduced the size of the image sufficiently to prevent the client queue from becoming full;

persisting the image from said transfer on the server device until it is processed or saved whereas the image may be of reduced resolution or quality.

13. A method according to claim 12, wherein the step of increasing the size of the client queue includes an upper limit to prevent the queue from growing beyond a specified size.

14. A method according to claim 12, wherein the step of preventing images from being discarded by reducing the size of said images comprises:

selecting one or more reduction methods to reduce the image size from a plurality of lossless or lossy compression methods;

reducing the current image, or reducing any image in the queue when the queue becomes full;

periodically reducing the size of the images in the queue, using reduction methods when processor resources are available.

15. A method according to claim 14, wherein the step of selecting one of more reduction methods comprises:

estimating the reduction in image size possible for a specific reduction method;

estimating the cost of this reduction where the cost includes the resources required for reduction as well as the time to reduce the image;

performing the reduction if the cost is allowable and the reduction is considered meaningful;

evaluating other reduction methods if the desired amount of reduction has not been achieved.

16. A method according to claim 15, wherein the step of determining if the cost is allowable comprises:

checking the current system resources to see if sufficient resources and time are available to reduce the image;

checking historical system resources and trends to estimate future resource availability;

checking the current network parameters such as available bandwidth and throughput;

checking historical network conditions and trends to estimate future network conditions.