System and method for controlling and organizing metadata associated with on-line content

• US 8,849,819 B2
• Filed: 05/25/2012
• Issued: 09/30/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 08/05/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Deacon Johnson
• Original Assignee: Deacon Johnson
• Inventors: Johnson, Deacon
• Primary Examiner(s): Syed, Farhan
• Application Number:
  US13/481,188
• Publication Number:
  US 20130036363A1
• Time in Patent Office: 858 Days
• US Class Current: 707/732
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/954 Navigation, e.g. using categorised browsing
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/1062 Editing
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/1066 Hiding content
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/16 Program or content traceability, e.g. by watermarking
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/60 Protecting data
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/6218 to a system of files or objects, e.g. local or distributed file system or database
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/6245 Protecting personal data, e.g. for financial or medical purposes
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/048 Interaction techniques based on graphical user interfaces [GUI]
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0482 Interaction with lists of selectable items, e.g. menus
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0484 for the control of specific functions or operations, e.g. selecting or manipulating an object, an image or a displayed text element, setting a parameter value or selecting a range
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/197 Version control for software G06F8/71
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/306 User profiles
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/025 using location based information parameters

Abstract

A system and method are disclosed for controlling metadata associated with content on an electronic device that includes displaying interface screens for user entry of metadata control instructions, accepting user instructions, modifying metadata of applicable content, and associating the modified metadata with the applicable content. The system can export and/or store the applicable content along with modified metadata. The system can automatically modify metadata according to one or more profiles. Relevant profiles can be determined based on the export mechanism, destination or type of content. The system can add watermarks to indicate metadata modification. The system can display metadata for user modification. The content can include photos, videos or other content. The system can display metadata and geolocation indicators for each content item that indicate whether that item has associated metadata and geolocation information. The user can selectively modify metadata of selected content.

Claims

1. A system for controlling metadata associated with content on an electronic device as directed by a user of the electronic device, the system comprising:

a user interface comprising screens displayed on a screen of the electronic device;

an input mechanism stored on the electronic device, the input mechanism receiving user instructions through the user interface displayed on the screen of the electronic device;

a sharing component for selecting applicable content for export from the electronic device, for selecting a selected content sharing mechanism of a plurality of content sharing mechanisms and for sharing the applicable content through the selected content sharing mechanism;

a plurality of profiles stored in memory of the electronic device, each profile including profile instructions regarding metadata control and being directed to at least one of the plurality of content sharing mechanisms;

a metadata modification component for automatically selecting one or more relevant profiles of the plurality of profiles based on the selected content sharing mechanism, the relevant profiles being directed to the selected content sharing mechanism, and modifying metadata associated with the applicable content in accordance with the profile instructions of the relevant profiles for the selected content sharing mechanism, the applicable content and the metadata associated with the applicable content being stored in the memory of the electronic device;

a marking component for marking the applicable content to indicate that the metadata associated with the applicable content has been modified; and

a content selection component displaying a plurality of content items on the screen of the electronic device, the content items including original content and modified content, the content selection component displaying a mark identifying the modified content of the plurality of content items, the metadata associated with the modified content having already been modified by the metadata modification component;

wherein the input mechanism receives user selection of the applicable content by sensing user selection of one or more content items of the plurality of content items; and

wherein the sharing component shares the applicable content and the metadata associated with the applicable content through the selected content sharing mechanism after processing by the metadata modification component.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein original content and modified content is stored in the memory of the electronic device, metadata associated with the original content not having been modified by the metadata modification component and metadata associated with the modified content having been modified by the metadata modification component, and

wherein when the metadata modification component generates the applicable content from selected original content, the metadata modification component makes an electronic copy of the selected original content, associates the modified metadata with the electronic copy, and does not modify the metadata associated with the original content, the electronic copy being the applicable content.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein when the selected content sharing mechanism is electronic mail, the sharing component prepares the applicable content and the modified metadata for electronic mailing over a network.

4. The system of claim 1, wherein when the selected content sharing mechanism is a website, the sharing component prepares the applicable content and the modified metadata for uploading to a website over a network.

5. The system of claim 1, wherein when the selected content sharing mechanism is a text message, the sharing component prepares the applicable content and the modified metadata for text messaging over a network.

6. The system of claim 1, wherein the marking component adds a watermark to the applicable content.

7. The system of claim 1, wherein the metadata modification component determines the relevant profiles based on a user-selected destination for exporting the applicable content.

8. The system of claim 1, wherein the metadata modification component determines the relevant profiles based on a type of content for the applicable content.

9. The system of claim 1, wherein when no relevant profiles are found the metadata modification component notifies the user that no relevant profiles were found for modification of the metadata of the applicable content, and enables the user to manually modify the metadata of the applicable content before providing the applicable content to the sharing component.

10. The system of claim 1, wherein the content items include photos stored on the electronic device.

11. The system of claim 1, wherein the content items include videos stored on the electronic device.

12. The system of claim 1, wherein the content selection component displays a metadata indicator for each content item of the plurality of content items, the metadata indicator indicating whether that content item has associated metadata information.

13. The system of claim 1, wherein the content selection component displays a geolocation indicator for each content item of the plurality of content items, the geolocation indicator indicating whether that content item has associated metadata information that includes geolocation information.

14. The system of claim 1, further comprising:

a metadata display component displaying metadata information associated with the applicable content on the screen of the electronic device.

15. The system of claim 14, wherein the metadata modification component enables user editing of displayed metadata information associated with the applicable content, and associates the edited metadata information with the applicable content.

16. The system of claim 14,

wherein the user interface includes a map with a pin indicating a desired location;

and

the metadata modification component modifies the metadata location information of the applicable content to be the desired location.

17. The system of claim 1, wherein the user interface includes an include author selection field and an author entry field;

the input mechanism receives an include author selection from the include author selection field, and an author entry from the author entry field; and

the metadata modification component;

deletes the author information from the metadata of the applicable content when the include author selection is not selected,

overwrites the author information in the metadata of the applicable content with the author entry when the include author selection is selected and the author entry is not blank, and

does not modify the author information in the metadata associated with the applicable content when the include author selection is selected and the author entry is blank.

18. The system of claim 1, wherein the user interface includes a watermark selection field, the marking component adding a watermark to the applicable content when the watermark selection field is selected and the associated metadata of the applicable content is modified, and the marking component not adding a watermark to the applicable content when the watermark selection field is not selected.

19. The system of claim 1, wherein the user interface includes a filename field;

and the metadata modification component changes the filename in the metadata of the applicable content to include the entry in the filename field when the filename field has an entry, and does not change the filename in the metadata of the applicable content when the filename field has no entry.

20. The system of claim 1, wherein the user interface includes a remove date/time selection;

and the metadata modification component removes the date/time information from the metadata of the applicable content when the remove date/time selection is selected, and does not modify the date/time information in the metadata of the applicable content when the remove date/time selection is not selected.

21. The system of claim 1, wherein the user interface includes a remove location selection;

and the metadata modification component removes the location information from the metadata of the applicable content when the remove location selection is selected, and does not modify the location information in the metadata of the applicable content when the remove location selection is not selected.

22. The system of claim 1, wherein the user interface includes a remove all selection;

and the metadata modification component removes all of the identifying information from the metadata of the applicable content when the remove all selection is selected, and does not remove all of the identifying information from the metadata of the applicable content when the remove all selection is not selected.

23. A system for controlling metadata associated with content as directed by a user of an electronic device, the system comprising:

a user interface comprising screens displayed on a screen of the electronic device;

an input mechanism stored on the electronic device, the input mechanism receiving user instructions through the user interface displayed on the screen of the electronic device;

a content selection component for displaying a plurality of content items on the screen of the electronic device and for receiving user selection of applicable content for distribution over a network, the applicable content being selected from the plurality of content items, the plurality of content items including at least one of original content items and modified content items, each of the original and modified content items having metadata associated therewith;

a sharing component for selecting a selected content sharing mechanism of a plurality of content sharing mechanisms and for sharing the applicable content through the selected content sharing mechanism;

a plurality of profiles stored in memory of the electronic device, each profile including profile instructions regarding metadata control and being directed to at least one of the plurality of content sharing mechanisms;

a metadata modification component for automatically selecting one or more relevant profiles of the plurality of profiles based on the selected content sharing mechanism, the relevant profiles being directed to the selected content sharing mechanism, and the metadata modification component modifying the metadata associated with the applicable content in accordance with the profile instructions of the relevant profiles;

a marking component for marking the modified content items to indicate that the metadata associated with the modified content items has been modified, the metadata associated with the original content items not having been modified by the metadata modification component and the metadata associated with the modified content items having been modified by the metadata modification component;

the content selection component displaying a mark associated with the modified content items of the plurality of content items as identified by the marking component; and

wherein the sharing component shares the applicable content and the metadata associated with the applicable content through the selected content sharing mechanism after processing by the metadata modification component.

24. The system of claim 23, wherein when the metadata modification component generates the applicable content from a selected original content item, the metadata modification component makes an electronic copy of the selected original content item, associates the modified metadata with the electronic copy, and does not modify the metadata associated with the original content item, the electronic copy being the applicable content.

25. The system of claim 23, wherein the content selection component displays a watermark identifying the modified content items marked by the marking component.

26. The system of claim 23, wherein the plurality of content items include at least one of photos and videos.

27. The system of claim 23, wherein when the selected content sharing mechanism is a selected Internet site, the metadata modification component automatically selects any relevant profiles of the plurality of profiles for the selected Internet site and modifies the metadata associated with the applicable content in accordance with the profile instructions of the relevant profiles for the selected Internet site, and the sharing component sends the applicable content and the metadata associated with the applicable content to the selected Internet site after processing by the metadata modification component.

28. The system of claim 23, wherein when the selected content sharing mechanism is a selected type of electronic message, the metadata modification component automatically selects any relevant profiles of the plurality of profiles for the selected type of electronic message and modifies the metadata associated with the applicable content in accordance with the profile instructions of the relevant profiles for the selected type of electronic message, and the sharing component sends the applicable content and the metadata associated with the applicable content in an electronic message of the selected type of electronic message after processing by the metadata modification component.