System and method for improved content delivery

• US 7,634,502 B2
• Filed: 01/24/2005
• Issued: 12/15/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 01/24/2005
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Nicolas C. Nierenberg, Paul Colton
• Original Assignee: Nicolas C. Nierenberg, Paul Colton
• Inventors: Peckham, David Harper, Colton, Paul, Nierenberg, Nicolas
• Primary Examiner(s): Wong; Leslie
• Application Number:
  US11/042,532
• Publication Number:
  US 20060167940A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,786 Days
• Field of Search: 707/101, 707/104.1, 382/166, 382/232
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G11B 20/00 Signal processing not specific to the method of recording or reproducing; Circuits therefor
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99945 Object-oriented database structure processing
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99948 Application of database or data structure, e.g. distributed, multimedia, or image

Abstract

A system and method for sharing content among a plurality of users, enables the transfer of electronic content items captured by any of a variety of electronic content devices. The content item can include multiple levels of encoding to facilitate efficient transfer across a communication medium. The content item can be decoded at a recipient device to allow playback, display or other utilization of the content item. Content-specific encoding can be applied to enhance the transportability of the content. A content sharing application can be provided to facilitate content transfer in a computing environment, and can be implemented so as to provide an e-mail like user interface.

Claims

1. A method for transmitting an electronic mail message with an original media content, the method comprising:

encoding the original media content at a sender'"'"'s computing device with a first level of encoding to compress the original media content to create a compressed media content, the original media content comprising at least two elements of a plurality of elements comprising digital photo, digital audio, digital text and digital video;

identifying the at least two elements of a plurality of elements comprising digital photo, digital audio, digital text and digital video;

encoding the compressed media content with a plurality of content specific encoding specific to the identified at least of two of the plurality of elements comprising digital photo, digital audio, digital text and digital video to further compress the compressed media content to create a content-specific compressed media content;

transferring the content-specific compressed media content from the sender'"'"'s computing device across a communication medium, the communication medium selected from the group of Internet, an intranet network and a extranet network;

receiving the content-specific compressed media content across the communication medium at a recipient'"'"'s computing device;

decoding the content-specific compressed media content at the recipient'"'"'s computing device with a content-specific decoding to recreate the compressed media content; and

decoding the compressed media content with a first level decoding to generate the original media content for opening at the recipient'"'"'s computing device.

2. A method for transmitting an electronic mail message with an original media content, the method comprising:

encoding the original media content at a sender'"'"'s computing device with a first level of encoding to compress the original media content to create a compressed media content, the original media content comprising at least two elements of a plurality of elements comprising digital photo, digital audio, digital text and digital video;

identifying the at least two elements of a plurality of elements comprising digital photo, digital audio, digital text and digital video;

encoding the compressed media content with a plurality of content specific encoding specific to the identified at least of two of the plurality of elements comprising digital photo, digital audio, digital text and digital video to further compress the compressed media content to create a content-specific compressed media content;

transferring the content-specific compressed media content from the sender'"'"'s computing device to a server;

transferring an email message from the server across a communication medium to an email server, the communication medium selected from the group of Internet, an intranet network and a extranet network;

transferring the email message from the email server to a recipient'"'"'s computing device, the email message informing a recipient that a transfer of the content-specific compressed media content is forthcoming from the server;

transferring the content-specific compressed media content from the server across the communication medium to the recipient'"'"'s computing device;

decoding the content-specific compressed media content at the recipient'"'"'s computing device with a content-specific decoding to recreate the compressed media content; and

decoding the compressed media content with a first level decoding to generate the original media content for opening at the recipient'"'"'s computing device.

3. The method according to claim 2 wherein transferring the content-specific compressed media content from the server across the communication medium to the recipient'"'"'s computing device comprises pulling the content-specific compressed media content from the server.