System and method for group participation in a digital media presentation

• US 9,398,057 B2
• Filed: 06/04/2013
• Issued: 07/19/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 06/04/2013
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Dropbox, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Dropbox, Inc.
• Inventors: Varenhorst, Chris, Kluesing, Daniel
• Primary Examiner(s): SHINGLES, KRISTIE D
• Application Number:
  US13/910,041
• Publication Number:
  US 20140359011A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,141 Days
• Field of Search: 709/204, 709/225, 709/205
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/18 for broadcast or conference , e.g. multicast
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/1069 Session establishment or de-establishment
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/403 Arrangements for multi-party communication, e.g. for conferences data switching systems for conference H04L12/18; arrangements for connecting several subscribers to a common circuit, i.e. affording conference facilities H04M3/56; television conferencing systems H04N7/15
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/06 specially adapted for file transfer, e.g. file transfer protocol [FTP]

Abstract

System and method for group participation in a digital media presentation are provided that are capable of selecting digital media items for inclusion in the presentation from multiple participant'"'"'s accounts thereby creating a group presentation in which digital media items of each participant are included in the presentation. Selections of digital media items for inclusion in the presentation can be made directly at the direction of the participations or inferentially according to a selection algorithm. Selections can be made during the presentation thereby allowing a participant to join the presentation after it has started and contribute digital media items to the presentation while it is running.

Claims

1. A method for group participation in a digital media presentation, the method comprising:

at one or more server computing devices comprising one or more processors and memory storing instructions executed by the one or more processors to perform the method, performing operations of;

receiving a network request from a media presentation system to establish a media presentation session for a digital media presentation to be presented at the media presentation system; and

while the media presentation session is established, performing the operations of;

receiving a first network request from a personal computing device of a first user to participate in the digital media presentation;

receiving a second network request from a personal computing device of a second user that is not the first user, to participate in the digital media presentation;

selecting one or more first digital media items from a plurality of digital media items associated with an account of the first user, for inclusion in the digital media presentation;

wherein selecting the one or more first digital media items comprises inferentially selecting the one or more first digital media items based on inferential selection metadata associated with the one or more first digital media items;

selecting one or more second digital media items from a plurality of digital media items associated with an account of the second user, for inclusion in the digital media presentation;

sending, via the media presentation session, network location information for each of the selected one or more first digital media items to the media presentation system;

sending, via the media presentation session, network location information for each of the selected one or more second digital media items associated with the account of the second user to the media presentation system; and

wherein the media presentation system is not one of the personal computing devices of the first user or the second user.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the first network request and the second network request each comprise an identifier of the digital media presentation.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein selecting the one or more second digital media items is performed in response to receiving one or more network requests specifying the one or more second digital media items to be included in the digital media presentation.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein each of the one or more first digital media items is a digital photo;

wherein the inferential selection metadata comprises, for each of the one or more digital photos, a number of times the digital photo has been viewed; and

wherein selecting the one or more digital photos associated with the account of the first user comprises inferentially selecting the one or more digital photos based at least in part on the numbers of times the one or more digital photos have been viewed.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein each of the one or more first digital media items is a digital photo;

wherein the inferential selection metadata comprises, for each of the one or more digital photos, a set of one or more persons who appear in the photo; and

wherein selecting the one or more digital photos associated with the account of the first user comprises inferentially selecting the one or more digital photos based at least in part on the sets of one or more persons that appear in the one or more digital photos.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein each of the one or more first digital media items is a digital photo;

wherein the inferential selection metadata comprises, for each of the one or more digital photos, access control information governing access to the photo; and

wherein selecting the one or more digital photos associated with the account of the first user comprises inferentially selecting the one or more digital photos based at least in part on the access control information governing access to the one or more digital photos.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the network location information comprises a Uniform Resource Locator (URL).

8. The method of claim 1, wherein establishing the media presentation session includes determining a presentation identifier for the digital media presentation.

9. A system for group participation in a digital media presentation, the system comprising:

one or more servers communicatively coupled to a media presentation system and a plurality of clients, wherein the plurality of clients includes a personal computing device of a first user and a personal computing device of a second user that is not the first user, wherein the one or more servers comprises a presentation server module configured to;

receive a network request from the media presentation system to establish a media presentation session for a digital media presentation to be presented at the media presentation system; and

wherein the presentation server module is further configured to, while the media presentation session is established;

receive a first network request from the personal computing device of the first user to participate in the digital media presentation;

receive a second network request from the personal computing device of the second user to participate in the digital media presentation;

select one or more first digital media items from a plurality of digital media items associated with an account of the first user for inclusion in the digital media presentation;

wherein the presentation server module is further configured to inferentially select the one or more first digital media items based on inferential selection metadata associated with the one or more first digital media items;

select one or more second digital media items from a plurality of digital media items associated with an account of the second user for inclusion in the digital media presentation;

send, via the media presentation session, network location information for each of the selected one or more first digital media items to the media presentation system;

send, via the media presentation session, network location information for each of the selected one or more second digital media items associated with the account of the second user to the media presentation system; and

wherein the media presentation system is not one of the personal computing devices of the first user or the second user.

10. The system of claim 9, wherein the first network request and the second network request each comprise an identifier of the digital media presentation.

11. The system of claim 9, wherein the presentation server module is further configured to select the one or more second digital media items in response to receiving one or more network requests specifying the one or more second digital media items to be included in the digital media presentation.

12. The system of claim 9, wherein each of the one or more first digital media items is a digital photo;

wherein the inferential selection metadata comprises, for each of the one or more digital photos, a number of times the digital photo has been viewed; and

wherein the presentation server module is further configured to inferentially select the one or more digital photos associated with the account of the first user based at least in part on the numbers of times the one or more digital photos have been viewed.

13. The system of claim 9, wherein each of the one or more first digital media items is a digital photo;

wherein the inferential selection metadata comprises, for each of the one or more digital photos, a set of one or more persons who appear in the photo; and

wherein the presentation server module is further configured to inferentially select the one or more digital photos associated with the account of the first user based at least in part on the sets of one or more persons that appear in the one or more digital photos.

14. The system of claim 9, wherein each of the one or more first digital media items is a digital photo;

wherein the inferential selection metadata comprises, for each of the one or more digital photos, access control information governing access to the photo; and

wherein the presentation server module is further configured to inferentially select the one or more digital photos associated with the account of the first user based at least in part on the access control information governing access to the one or more digital photos.

15. The system of claim 9, wherein the network location information comprises a Uniform Resource Locator (URL).

16. The system of claim 9, wherein the presentation server module is further configured to determine a presentation identifier for the digital media presentation.