System and method for yearbook creation

• US 8,839,094 B2
• Filed: 06/17/2009
• Issued: 09/16/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 01/23/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Jostens Incorporated (Newell Brands Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Jostens Incorporated (Newell Brands Inc.)
• Inventors: Dailey, Andrea, Pearson, Andrew
• Primary Examiner(s): Hong, Stephen
• Assistant Examiner(s): TSUI, WILSON W
• Application Number:
  US12/486,661
• Publication Number:
  US 20100229085A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,917 Days
• Field of Search: 715/221, 715/224, 715/226, 715/243, 715/255, 715/272, 715/273, 715/277, 715/733, 715/741
• US Class Current: 715/243
• CPC Class Codes: B42P 2261/04 Producing books by printing sheets in following order, e.g. for ordering via the Internet
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/103 Formatting, i.e. changing of presentation of documents automatic justification G06F40/189; automatic line break hyphenation G06F40/191
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/166 Editing, e.g. inserting or deleting
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/186 Templates
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/06 Resources, workflows, human or project management; Enterprise or organisation planning; Enterprise or organisation modelling
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/10 Office automation; Time management
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 50/20 Education
• CPC Class Codes: G09B 19/00 Teaching not covered by other main groups of this subclass teaching or practice apparatus for gun-aiming or gun-laying F41G3/26

Abstract

A yearbook system is provided. The yearbook system provides a single, extensive resource to plan, create, educate about, sell, and distribute yearbooks. The system further provides an integrated yearbook system management and yearbook production system to enable the production of the yearbook to a printed output. A yearbook server hosts a client site and a client database. The client site is enables the school to plan, create, sell and distribute a yearbook. Further, they system may be used to create the yearbook online. A production server hosts a production database synchronizes with the yearbook server, providing images to the client for use in creating the yearbook, and accepting completed created pages submitted by the school from the yearbook server. The production server translates the created pages into the format to proceed through the regular preparation for production of the yearbook.

Claims

1. A yearbook system comprising:

a yearbook server in communication with a plurality of user portals over a network, the yearbook server having computer-implemented instructions stored thereon, the instructions comprising;

a user component through which a user may design and create a yearbook, the user component comprising;

an image library having a plurality of photos associated with names of subjects in the photos;

a create module where photos from the image library are used to populate pages of the yearbook; and

a coverage module configured to track the appearance of students in the yearbook, the coverage module including an alert module configured to receive an appearance input and send an alert when a subject in the yearbook appears less than the appearance input, the coverage module comprising;

a coverage page in communication with the create module and identifying which photos from the photo library are used to populate which pages;

an index in communication with the coverage page and the image library and identifying a list of appearances of each subject in the plurality of photos and the page of the yearbook where the subject appears;

a culling module that culls names from portrait pages of the yearbook to create a database of names against which coverage is checked; and

a monitoring module configured to monitor coverage of the database of names using the coverage page by comparing the names in the database to the subjects in the index and identifying the number of appearances of each of the names in the database; and

a production component through which the yearbook is converted to a printed output;

wherein the user component and the production component interact such that submissions are made to the production component via the user component.

2. The yearbook system of claim 1, wherein the user component includes tools for planning the yearbook, for creating the yearbook, for selling the yearbook, and for distributing the yearbook.

3. The yearbook system of claim 1, wherein the user component includes a visual representation of progress of the yearbook towards completion.

4. The yearbook system of claim 1, wherein the user component includes a virtual book for virtual viewing of yearbook pages completed, in progress, and not yet started.

5. The yearbook system of claim 1, wherein the user component includes a photo submission component for accepting photos submitted by community members.

6. The yearbook system of claim 1, wherein the user component comprises at least two access levels such that an advisor may access information at one level and staff may access information at another level.

7. The yearbook system of claim 1, wherein the user component may be used to plan and develop portrait pages and activity pages.

8. The yearbook system of claim 1, wherein the system is configured for interaction with a school, a school community, a sales force, customer support, and manufacturing.

9. The yearbook system of claim 1, wherein the user component enables a user to create the yearbook using a desk top publishing application.

10. The yearbook system of claim 1, wherein the user component enables a user to create the yearbook using an on-line creation tool.

11. The system of claim 1, wherein the instructions further comprise a purchase tracking component configured to track students that have not purchased a yearbook.

12. The system of claim 11, wherein the purchase tracking component tracks students that appear in the yearbook a number of times that is equal to or greater than a selected appearance value.

13. The system of claim 12, wherein the selected appearance value is equal to the appearance input.

14. The system of claim 12, wherein the purchase tracking component provides a notification to students that have not purchased a yearbook and that appear in the yearbook a number of times that is equal to or greater than the selected appearance value.

15. The system of claim 14, wherein the notification provides details relating to an appearance of the respective student in the yearbook.

16. The system of claim 15, wherein the details includes an image of the respective student in the yearbook.

17. A method for creating a yearbook comprising:

receiving, from a user, into an image library, and via a user portal in communication with a server over a network, a plurality of photos of a plurality of respective subjects for arrangement on a plurality of pages to create a yearbook, the image library containing the plurality of photos and associating names of the respective subjects with the respective photos in which they appear;

receiving, from a user and via a user portal in communication with a server over a network, input defining the location in the yearbook of each the plurality of photos, the input being supplied as the user creates a page of the yearbook by using a photo from the image library to populate the page;

creating a coverage page by determining which photos are on which pages based on the input and including an index based on the input and the names associated with the photos in the image library, the index showing a list of appearances of each subject in the plurality of photos and the page of the yearbook where the subject appears;

culling names of students from portrait pages and developing a database of names against which coverage is checked;

receiving an appearance input;

monitoring coverage of the database of names using the coverage page, by comparing the names in the database to the subjects in the index and identifying the number of appearances of each of the names in the database;

performing an alert when a name in the database has a number of appearances less than the appearance input.

18. The method of claim 17, further comprising, notifying a subject when the subject appears in the yearbook a number of times equal to or greater than the appearance input.