Digital media resource messaging

• US 7,886,010 B1
• Filed: 02/28/2005
• Issued: 02/08/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 08/21/2001
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Amazon Technologies, Inc. (Amazon.com, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Amazon Technologies, Inc. (Amazon.com, Inc.)
• Inventors: Shankar, Krishnan V.
• Primary Examiner(s): NGUYEN, THANH T
• Application Number:
  US11/069,902
• Time in Patent Office: 2,171 Days
• Field of Search: 709/204, 709/223, 709/206, 428/626, 715/771, 348/211.2
• US Class Current: 709/206
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/01 Input arrangements or combined input and output arrangements for interaction between user and computer G06F3/16 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G11B 27/322 used signal is digitally coded
• CPC Class Codes: Y10T 428/12569 Synthetic resin

Abstract

A digital media resource messaging system provides a convenient digital media resource viewing, managing, organizing, and editing platform that facilitates enhanced resource exchange by storing and forwarding digital media resources via a server between multiple resource-sharing partners designated by the user. In one embodiment, the digital media resource messaging system includes services to view, manage, organize, edit, and exchange digital images and video sequences.

Claims

1. A method for a server computing device to facilitate exchange of digital images between other computing devices, the method comprising:

under control of the server computing device,

receiving information from a user of a first remote computing device that identifies one or more other users of other remote computing devices, the identified one or more other users each being selected by the user as a resource-sharing partner of the user;

receiving one or more indications from the first remote computing device that identify one or more digital images stored at the first remote computing device to be shared with the identified one or more other users;

after a connection with the first remote computing device is established, automatically facilitating exchange of digital images between the user and other users by receiving from the first remote computing device the identified digital images to be provided to the identified other users and by transparently sending to the first remote computing device one or more other digital images previously identified by one or more other users to be shared with the user of the first remote computing device, the sending of the one or more other digital images initiating displaying of the one or more other digital images by the first remote computing device;

storing the identified digital images received from the first remote computing device; and

transparently sending the identified digital images received from the first remote computing device to at least some of the identified other users, the identified other users including multiple users.

2. The method of claim 1 further comprising exchanging one or more types of digital media resources other than digital images between the user and the other users by receiving from the first remote computing device one or more digital media resources of the one or more types to be provided to identified other users and by transparently sending from the server device to the first remote computing device one or more other digital media resources of the one or more types that were previously identified by one or more other users to be shared with the user of the first remote computing device.

3. The method of claim 1 wherein the one or more other digital images include multiple other digital images, and wherein the displaying of the other digital images by the first remote computing device includes interchangeably displaying the multiple other digital images as digital wallpaper on the first remote computing device.

4. The method of claim 1 wherein the one or more other digital images include multiple other digital images, and wherein the displaying of the other digital images by the first remote computing device includes sequentially displaying the multiple other digital images on the first remote computing device for a predetermined amount of time.

5. The method of claim 1 wherein the automatic facilitating of the exchange of digital images between the user and the other users includes receiving from the first remote computing device a user name of the user of the first remote computing device for use in identifying the one or more other digital images previously identified to be shared with the user of the first remote computing device.

6. The method of claim 1 wherein the storing of the identified digital images to be provided to the identified other users includes temporarily storing the identified digital images to enable subsequent delivery to remote computing devices associated with the identified other users.

7. The method of claim 1 wherein each of the identified other users to whom the identified digital images are to be provided have designated the user of the first remote computing device as a resource-sharing partner.

8. The method of claim 1 wherein the user of the first remote computing device and the identified other users are part of a community of numerous users who interact with the server device.

9. The method of claim 1 further comprising, after the transparent sending of the identified digital images to each of the identified other users, deleting the stored digital images.

10. The method of claim 1 further comprising deleting the stored digital images after a predetermined period of time has expired despite at least one of the multiple users having not received at least one of the stored digital images.

11. The method of claim 1 wherein the sending of the one or more other digital images by the server device to the first remote computing device occurs at a time when a computing device of one of the one or more other users who previously identified those digital images to be shared with the user of the first remote computing device is not connected to the server device.

12. The method of claim 1 further comprising, under control of the first remote computing device, receiving the transparently sent one or more other digital images in the background for the first remote computing device while the user of the first remote computing device performs other tasks on the first remote computing device.

13. The method of claim 1 further comprising, under control of the first remote computing device, receiving the transparently sent one or more other digital images automatically and without explicit approval of the user of the first remote computing device.

14. The method of claim 1 further comprising, after the sending of the one or more other digital images previously identified by the one or more other users, receiving from the first remote computing device a rating for one of the sent one or more other digital images that was previously identified by one of the one or more other users, and providing an indication of the rating to at least the one other user.

15. The method of claim 1 further comprising, after the sending of the identified digital images to the at least some identified other users, receiving feedback from each of one or more of the at least some identified other users regarding the sent digital images.

16. The method of claim 15 wherein the received feedback is based on combining ratings received from multiple of the at least some identified other users for one of the sent digital images.

17. The method of claim 1 wherein the method further comprises, under control of the first remote computing device, automatically displaying at least one of the sent other digital images as a screen saver on the first remote computing device.

18. The method of claim 1 wherein the first remote computing device is a palmtop computer.

19. The method of claim 1 wherein the first remote computing device is a PDA.

20. The method of claim 1 wherein the first remote computing device is a portable device.

21. The method of claim 1 further comprising, under control of the first remote computing device, and after receiving the sent one or more other digital images previously identified by the one or more other users, performing editing of at least some of those received digital images in response to instructions from the user of the first remote computing device.

22. The method of claim 21 wherein the editing of the images includes augmenting those images.

23. The method of claim 1 further comprising, under control of the first remote computing device, and after receiving the sent one or more other digital images previously identified by the one or more other users, performing organizing of at least some of those received digital images in response to instructions from the user of the first remote computing device.

24. The method of claim 23 wherein the organizing of the images includes consolidating those images with other images received from a user who provided those images.

25. The method of claim 1 further comprising providing messaging capabilities to enable the user of the first remote computing device to communicate with one or more other users.

26. The method of claim 25 further comprising, after the sending of one of the identified digital images to one of the identified other users, using the messaging capabilities to enable communications between the user of the first remote computing device and the one other user while the one identified digital image is displayed on the first remote computing device.

27. The method of claim 26 further comprising, under control of the first remote computing device, communicating with the one other user by sending one or more messages to the one other user and by receiving one or more other messages from the one other user, and wherein the one identified digital image is further displayed to the one other user on an associated computing device of the one other user during the communicating.

28. The method of claim 26 wherein the communications between the user of the first remote computing device and the one other user includes exchanged text messages.

29. The method of claim 26 wherein the communications between the user of the first remote computing device and the one other user includes exchanged messages with audio content.

30. The method of claim 26 wherein the communications between the user of the first remote computing device and the one other user includes exchanged messages with video content.

31. The method of claim 26 wherein the communications between the user of the first remote computing device and the one other user includes exchanged information from participating in a chat session.

32. The method of claim 1 further comprising, after the sending of the one or more other digital images previously identified by one or more other users, and under control of the first remote computing device, communicating with at least one of the other users while at least one of the other digital images is displayed to the user of the first remote computing device and to the at least one other users.

33. A server computing device, comprising:

a memory; and

a plurality of stored instructions that when executed in the memory cause the server computing device to automatically facilitate exchange of digital media resources between a first remote computing device of a first user and one or more other remote computing devices by, after a connection with the first remote computing device is established;

receiving one or more indications that identify one or more other users of the other remote computing devices as resource-sharing partners of the first user;

receiving from the first remote computing device one or more digital media resources local to the first remote computing device that are identified to be shared with the one or more identified users;

transparently sending from the server to the first remote computing device one or more other digital media resources identified by one or more users to be shared with the first user, the sending of the one or more other digital media resources initiating displaying of at least one of the one or more other digital media resources by the first remote computing device;

storing the one or more digital media resources received from the first remote computing device; and

transparently sending the one or more digital media resources received from the first remote computing device to at least some of the one or more identified users, the one or more identified users including multiple users.

34. The computing device of claim 33 further comprising a processor for executing the plurality of stored instructions, and wherein the first remote computing device includes a display device on which the at least one other digital media resources are displayed.

35. The computing device of claim 34 further comprising a storage device for storing the received one or more digital media resources to enable the sending of the one or more digital media resources to the at least some identified users.

36. The computing device of claim 34 further comprising a storage device for storing the other digital media resources before the sending of the one or more other digital media resources to the first remote computing device.

37. The computing device of claim 33 wherein the one or more digital media resources and the one or more other digital media resources are digital images.

38. A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium that stores instructions that when executed cause a server computing device to facilitate exchange of digital images between other computing devices, by performing a method comprising:

receiving one or more indications that identify one or more digital images stored locally to a first remote computing device and that identify one or more other remote computing devices having users with which to share the identified digital images, the users of the identified other remote computing devices being selected as resource-sharing partners;

facilitating exchange of digital images by automatically receiving the identified digital images from the first remote computing device to be shared with the identified other remote computing devices and by automatically sending to the first remote computing device one or more other digital images identified to be shared with the first remote computing device that are provided by one or more remote computing devices, the sending of the one or more other digital images initiating displaying of at least one of the one or more other digital images by the first remote computing device;

storing the identified digital images received from the first remote computing device; and

transparently sending the identified digital images received from the first remote computing device to at least some of the identified other remote computing devices, the identified other remote computing devices including multiple other remote computing devices.

39. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 38 wherein the other remote computing devices are identified based on received indications of the resource-sharing partner users who are associated with those remote computing devices.

40. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 38 wherein the computer-readable medium is a memory of the computing device.