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

• US 9,298,943 B2
• Filed: 09/29/2014
• Issued: 03/29/2016
• 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 M
• Application Number:
  US14/500,229
• Publication Number:
  US 20150019549A1
• Time in Patent Office: 547 Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• 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 meradata of selected content.

Claims

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

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

an input mechanism on the electronic device, the input mechanism receiving user instructions through the user interface;

a plurality of content items accessible by the electronic device, one or more of the plurality of content items having metadata associated therewith, the plurality of content items comprising original content items and modified content items;

an overlay component that places a geolocation overlay indicator on each of the plurality of content items having associated geolocation metadata;

a content selection component that displays one or more of the plurality of content items on the display of the electronic device, and enables selection of one or more of the plurality of displayed content items;

the content selection component displays the geolocation overlay indicator with each content items having associated geolocation metadata;

a plurality of content sharing mechanisms on the electronic device, each of the plurality of content sharing mechanisms for at least one of receiving content items and sending content items over a network accessible by the electronic device;

a geotag profile accessible by the electronic device, the geotag profile including profile instructions regarding geolocation metadata control and being directed to at least one of the plurality of content sharing mechanisms;

a sharing selection component for selecting a selected content item of the plurality of content items, and for selecting a selected content sharing mechanism of the plurality of content sharing mechanisms, the selected content item having selected content metadata associated therewith;

a metadata modification component for modifying metadata associated with the plurality of content items including modifying the selected content metadata before sharing the selected content items, the metadata modification component selecting the geotag profile based on the selected content item and the selected content sharing mechanism, and modifying geolocation metadata of the selected content metadata in accordance with the profile instructions of the geotag profile when the geotag profile is selected;

a sharing component for sharing a sharing version of the selected content item with a sharing version of the selected content metadata over a network accessible by the electronic device through the selected content sharing mechanism;

wherein metadata associated with the original content items has not been modified by the metadata modification component and metadata associated with the modified content items has been modified by the metadata modification component, and

wherein when the metadata modification component modifies selected content metadata before sharing a selected content item and the geotag profile is selected, the metadata modification component modifies the selected content metadata associated with the selected content item in accordance with the profile instructions of the geotag profile to generate the sharing version of the selected content metadata, and the metadata modification component does not modify the selected content metadata associated with the selected content item.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein when the geotag profile is selected, the sharing version of the selected content metadata shared by the sharing component includes geolocation metadata of the selected content metadata modified in accordance with the profile instructions of the geotag profile;

and

when the geotag profile is not selected, the sharing version of the selected content metadata shared by the sharing component includes geolocation metadata of the selected content metadata not modified in accordance with the profile instructions of the geotag profile.

3. The system of claim 1,

wherein when the metadata modification component modifies metadata associated with a particular content item, the metadata modification component generates an electronic copy of the particular content item, and associates the modified metadata with the electronic copy of the particular content item.

4. The system of claim 1, wherein when the geotag profile is selected, the metadata modification component generates the sharing version of the selected content metadata in accordance with the profile instructions of the geotag profile by removing the geolocation metadata of the selected content metadata.

5. The system of claim 1, further comprising:

a marking component for marking the modified content items with a watermark; and

wherein the content selection component displays the watermark to identify the modified content items.

6. The system of claim 1, wherein the sharing selection component uses the content selection component for selecting the selected content item of the plurality of content items.

7. The system of claim 1, further comprising an add content component for adding additional content items to the plurality of content items accessible by the electronic device.

8. The system of claim 1, wherein the plurality of content items and the metadata associated with the plurality of content items are stored in memory of the electronic device.

9. The system of claim 8, further comprising a plurality of profiles stored in memory of the electronic device, the geotag profile being one of the plurality of profiles.

10. The system of claim 1, further comprising a plurality of profiles stored in memory of the electronic device, the geotag profile being one of the plurality of profiles.

11. The system of claim 1, wherein when the selected content sharing mechanism is electronic mail,

the metadata modification component generates the sharing version of the selected content metadata from the selected content metadata, and when the geotag profile is selected and the selected content metadata includes geolocation information the metadata modification component removes the geolocation information from the sharing version of the selected content metadata;

and

the sharing component generates an electronic mail message with the sharing version of the selected content item and the sharing version of the selected content metadata for electronic mailing over a network.

12. The system of claim 11, further comprising a plurality of profiles, the geotag profile being one of the plurality of profiles;

wherein the selected content sharing mechanism further comprises a recipient for the electronic mail message;

the metadata modification component automatically selects one or more relevant profiles directed to electronic mail to the recipient and modifies the sharing version of the selected content metadata in accordance with the profile instructions of the one or more relevant profiles; and

the sharing component generates the electronic mail message for sending to the recipient.

13. The system of claim 1, wherein when the selected content sharing mechanism is a website,

the metadata modification component generates the sharing version of the selected content metadata from the selected content metadata, and when the geotag profile is selected and the selected content metadata includes geolocation information the metadata modification component removes the geolocation information from the sharing version of the selected content metadata;

and

the sharing component prepares the sharing version of the selected content item and the sharing version of the selected content metadata for uploading to the website over a network.

14. The system of claim 1, wherein when the selected content sharing mechanism is a text message,

the metadata modification component generates the sharing version of the selected content metadata from the selected content metadata, and when the geotag profile is selected and the selected content metadata includes geolocation information the metadata modification component removes the geolocation information from the sharing version of the selected content metadata;

and

the sharing component prepares the sharing version of the selected content item and the sharing version of the selected content metadata for sending in a text message over a network.

15. The system of claim 14, further comprising a plurality of profiles, the geotag profile being one of the plurality of profiles;

wherein the selected content sharing mechanism further comprises a recipient for the text message;

the metadata modification component automatically selects one or more relevant profiles directed to text messages to the recipient and modifies the sharing version of the selected content metadata in accordance with the profile instructions of the one or more relevant profiles; and

the sharing component generates the text message for sending to the recipient.

16. The system of claim 10, wherein the metadata modification component selects one or more relevant profiles based on a user-selected destination for sending the selected content item and modifies the sharing version of the selected content metadata in accordance with the profile instructions of the one or more relevant profiles.

17. The system of claim 10, wherein the metadata modification component selects one or more relevant profiles based on a type of content for the selected content item and modifies the sharing version of the selected content metadata in accordance with the profile instructions of the one or more relevant profiles.

18. The system of claim 1, wherein the plurality of content items comprises digital content accessible by the electronic device.

19. The system of claim 1, wherein the plurality of content items comprises at least one of photos and videos accessible by the electronic device.

20. The system of claim 1, wherein the plurality of content items comprises textual content accessible by the electronic device.

21. The system of claim 10, wherein at least one of the plurality of profiles includes copyright data, and the metadata modification component selects relevant profiles;

wherein when one or more of the relevant profiles includes copyright data, the modified metadata generated by the metadata modification component includes the copyright data from the one or more of the relevant profiles.

22. The system of claim 10, wherein one of the plurality of profiles is a customized profile including a custom location, and the metadata modification component selects one or more relevant profiles;

wherein when the one or more relevant profiles includes the customized profile, the metadata modification component overwrites any geolocation metadata in the selected content metadata with the custom location when generating the sharing version of the selected content metadata.

23. The system of claim 1, further comprising a camera having a lens, the camera configured to take a picture or a video using the lens to generate a new content item accessible by the electronic device, the electronic device generating metadata for the new content item and associating the generated metadata with the new content item.