Method and apparatus for organizing digital photographs

• US 9,110,927 B2
• Filed: 11/25/2008
• Issued: 08/18/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 11/25/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: R2 Solutions LLC (Acacia Research Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Yahoo! Inc. (Apollo Global Management, Inc.)
• Inventors: McAfee, Randolph Preston, Ravikumar, Shanmugasundaram
• Primary Examiner(s): Chen, Wenpeng
• Application Number:
  US12/277,689
• Publication Number:
  US 20100128987A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,457 Days
• Field of Search: 382/305, 382/224
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/51 Indexing; Data structures therefor; Storage structures
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/58 Retrieval characterised by using metadata, e.g. metadata not derived from the content or metadata generated manually

Abstract

A method and system for organizing digital photographs is disclosed. A plurality of digital photographs are obtained. Each digital photograph in the plurality is analyzed to obtain metadata related to the digital photograph and/or photograph content information related to the digital photograph. The metadata and/or the photograph content information is then analyzed. The plurality of digital photographs are automatically organized into clusters. Each cluster is associated with one or more predetermined cluster parameter. Each cluster parameter is associated with a metadata item. The digital photographs are then displayed (e.g., in a web page) on a computing device in accordance with the cluster parameter(s). One or more of the digital photographs are reorganized into a different cluster each time additional metadata related to the one or more digital photographs is received.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

analyzing, by a processor, each digital photograph in a plurality of digital photographs to obtain one or more items of metadata related to the each digital photograph;

analyzing each digital photograph to obtain photograph content information related to the each digital photograph, the analyzing of each digital photograph further comprising performing image recognition on the each digital photograph to obtain said photograph content information, the photograph content information comprising a particular person'"'"'s face;

analyzing, by the processor, the metadata items related to the each digital photograph;

automatically organizing, by the processor, the plurality of digital photographs into clusters,

each cluster associated with at least one cluster parameter and the photograph content information,

each cluster parameter related to a metadata item, the at least one cluster parameter comprising a maximum number of digital photographs for the corresponding cluster;

determining, by the processor, whether the corresponding cluster contains more digital photographs than the maximum number of digital photographs for the corresponding cluster;

when the corresponding cluster contains more digital photographs than the maximum number, dividing, by the processor, the corresponding cluster into two or more clusters having additional cluster parameters;

causing, by the processor, the digital photographs organized into the clusters to be displayed on a display of a computing device in accordance with the at least one cluster parameter;

after the organizing and causing to display steps, receiving, by the processor from a user operating the computing device, additional metadata items related to one or more of the plurality of digital photographs; and

reorganizing, by the processor, one or more of the digital photographs into a different cluster based on the additional metadata items.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein the analyzing each digital photograph in the plurality to obtain one or more items of metadata related to the each digital photograph further comprises analyzing each digital photograph in the plurality to obtain one or more of date, time that the digital photograph is stored on the processor, time taken, and event.

3. The method of claim 1 wherein the analyzing each digital photograph to obtain one or more items of metadata further comprises analyzing each digital photograph to obtain a location associated with the each digital photograph.

4. The method of claim 1 further comprising obtaining the plurality of digital photographs.

5. The method of claim 4 wherein the obtaining a plurality of digital photographs further comprises receiving the plurality of digital photographs from a digital camera.

6. The method of claim 1 further comprising receiving instructions to move a digital photograph from one cluster to another cluster.

7. The method of claim 1 further comprising receiving instructions to form a new cluster.

8. The method of claim 7 further comprising receiving instructions to organize a digital photograph into the new cluster.

9. The method of claim 1 further comprising receiving instructions to rearrange a cluster.

10. The method of claim 1 wherein the causing the digital photographs organized into the clusters to be displayed further comprises transmitting thumbnails of the digital photographs to the computing device.

11. A non-transitory computer readable storage medium storing computer program instructions capable of being executed by a computer processor, the computer program instructions defining the steps of:

analyzing each digital photograph in a plurality of digital photographs to obtain one or more items of metadata related to the each digital photograph;

analyzing each digital photograph to obtain photograph content information related to the each digital photograph, the analyzing of each digital photograph further comprising performing image recognition on the each digital photograph to obtain said photograph content information, the photograph content information comprising a particular person'"'"'s face;

analyzing the metadata items related to the each digital photograph;

automatically organizing the plurality of digital photographs into clusters,

each cluster associated with at least one cluster parameter and the photograph content information,

each cluster parameter related to a metadata item, the at least one cluster parameter comprising a maximum number of digital photographs for the corresponding cluster;

determining whether the corresponding cluster contains more digital photographs than the maximum number of digital photographs for the corresponding cluster;

when the corresponding cluster contains more digital photographs than the maximum number, dividing the corresponding cluster into two or more clusters having additional cluster parameters;

causing the digital photographs organized into the clusters to be displayed on a display of a computing device in accordance with the at least one cluster parameter;

after the organizing and causing to display steps, receiving, from a user operating the computing device, additional metadata items related to one or more of the plurality of digital photographs; and

reorganizing, by the processor, one or more of the digital photographs into a different cluster based on the additional metadata items.

12. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 11 wherein the computer program instructions defining the step of analyzing each digital photograph in the plurality to obtain one or more items of metadata related to the each digital photograph further comprises computer program instructions defining the step of analyzing each digital photograph in the plurality to obtain one or more of date, time that the digital photograph is stored on the computer processor, time taken, and event.

13. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 11 wherein the computer program instructions defining the step of analyzing each digital photograph to obtain one or more items of metadata further comprises computer program instructions defining the step of analyzing each digital photograph to obtain a location associated with the each digital photograph.

14. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 11 further comprising computer program instructions defining the step of obtaining the plurality of digital photographs.

15. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 11 further comprising computer program instructions defining the step of receiving instructions to move a digital photograph from one cluster to another cluster.

16. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 11 further comprising computer program instructions defining the step of receiving instructions to form a new cluster.

17. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 16 further comprising computer program instructions defining the step of receiving instructions to organize a digital photograph into the new cluster.

18. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 11 further comprising computer program instructions defining the step of receiving instructions to rearrange a cluster.