Automated screen saver with shared media

• US 8,812,582 B2
• Filed: 11/30/2006
• Issued: 08/19/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 11/30/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Red Hat, Inc. (International Business Machines Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Red Hat, Inc. (International Business Machines Corporation)
• Inventors: Pennington, Havoc, Clark, Bryan
• Primary Examiner(s): Nguyen, Phuoc
• Assistant Examiner(s): Belani, Kishin G
• Application Number:
  US11/564,994
• Publication Number:
  US 20080133649A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,819 Days
• Field of Search: 709/203
• US Class Current: 709/203
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/14 Digital output to display device ; Cooperation and interconnection of the display device with other functional units
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 2330/022 in absence of operation, e.g. no data being entered during a predetermined time
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 5/00 Control arrangements or circuits for visual indicators common to cathode-ray tube indicators and other visual indicators image data processing or generation, in general G06T
• 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 1/00156 with a group of selected individuals or correspondents
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 1/00159 for sharing images without access restriction, e.g. publishing images
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 1/00204 with a digital computer or a digital computer system, e.g. an internet server programmed control between transmitter and receiver or between image input and image output device H04N1/32561
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 2201/0039 Connection via a network

Abstract

Embodiments of the present invention provide users in a social network with a screen saver constructed by media shared by their contacts and groups in a social network. The present invention provides a shared photo album that displays images from a user'"'"'s own photo collection, and that of their social network automatically. For a user, the social network service queries its database to retrieve a list of photo sources. The sources of images may be online photo sharing services, other computers with photos on their local hard drives, and public peer-to-peer storage services. The images may be displayed to the user and optionally may be accompanied with information, such as the owner of the photo or descriptive phrases or comments about the photo. The social network service may be configured to continuously or periodically request photos to update the screen saver.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

providing, by a hardware processor, an overlay client on a first computing device, the overlay client to provide an interface between a service application on the first computing device and an online service;

identifying a set of content sources associated with a first user comprising a local storage device of the first computing device;

obtaining, via the overlay client, content from the set of content sources;

receiving, by the overlay client, a poll request associated with the content from a message server, wherein the poll request comprises an instruction to perform a client-side data scraping operation;

originating, by the hardware processor, a data request in response to the client-side data scraping operation;

causing, by the overlay client, the service application to submit the data request to the online service in view of the poll request; and

receiving a message associated with a second user from the online service in view of the data request, wherein the message corresponds to an activity of the online service, wherein the first user has previously engaged with the online service, and wherein the activity is of interest to the first user.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the local storage device is part of a peer-to-peer storage service.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the content is filtered in view of a relationship of the first user with the source of content.

4. The method of claim 1 further comprising sending the content to a second computing device associated with the second user.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein sending the content to the second computing device comprises:

retrieving the content from the set of content sources; and

distributing the content that was retrieved to the second user.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein sending the content to the second computing device comprises sending a command that instructs an application to retrieve the content from the source.

7. The method of claim 1, further comprising transmitting the data request to the online service in view of the client-side data scraping operation.

8. The method of claim 1 further comprising sharing the content to a second computing device.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein the content shared to the second computing device comprises a comment about the content.

10. The method of claim 8, wherein the content is a digital image, the method further comprising:

identifying digital images of a plurality of users; and

providing a shared photo album of a collection of digital images of the plurality of users, wherein each of the plurality of users has access to add a new digital image to the shared photo album.

11. The method of claim 8, wherein content from the source of content associated with the first user is filtered based on recent activity of the first user in a social network.

12. The method of claim 1, wherein the online service is associated with a social network, the method further comprising:

identifying a source of the content associated with the second user, wherein the set of content sources associated with the first user comprises the source of content associated with the second user; and

receiving, from via the overlay client, content from the source of content associated with the second user.

13. A computer comprising:

a storage device; and

hardware processor, operably;

provide an overlay client to a first user in an online social network, the overlay client to provide an interface between a service application on the computer and the online social network;

identify a set of content sources associated with the first user comprising the storage device

obtain via the overlay client, content from the set of content sources;

receive a poll request associated with the content from a message server, wherein the poll request comprises an instruction to perform a client-side data scraping operation;

originate a data request in response to the client-side data scraping operation;

cause the service application to submit the data request to the online social network in view of the poll request; and

receive a message associated with a second user from the online social network-that corresponds to an activity of the online social network, wherein the first user has previously engaged with the online social network, and wherein the activity is of interest to the first user.

14. The computer of claim 13, wherein the hardware processor is to display information that identifies the content in a display device.

15. The computer of claim 13, wherein the service application is to periodically request new content from the set of content sources.

16. A system comprising:

a database comprising information that identifies a first user of a social network system and a source of content available to the first user; and

an application executed by a hardware processor to perform operations comprising;

provide an overlay client to the first user, the overlay client to provide an interface between a service application and an online service;

identify a set of content sources associated with the first user comprising a storage device local to the first user;

obtain content from the set of content sources;

receive, by the overlay client, a poll request associated with the content from a message server wherein the poll request comprises an instruction to perform a client-side data scraping operation;

originate a data request in response to the client-side data scraping operation;

cause, by the overlay client, the service application to submit the data request to the online service in view of the poll request; and

receive, via the overlay client, a message associated with a second user from the online service in view of the data request, wherein the message corresponds to an activity of the online service, wherein the first user has previously engaged with the online service, and wherein the activity is of interest to the first user.

17. The system of claim 16, wherein the application is further to retrieve accompanying information about the content and provide the accompanying information to the first user for display with the content.

18. The system of claim 16, wherein the application is further to periodically identify updated content and distribute the updated content to the first user.