Creating and sharing digital photo albums

• US 20050243381A1
• Filed: 04/08/2005
• Published: 11/03/2005
• Est. Priority Date: 04/08/2004
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Canon Kabushiki Kaisha (Canon Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Canon Kabushiki Kaisha (Canon Inc.)
• Inventors: Powlett, David, Thomson, Richard, Hill, Gerard Anthony
• Granted Patent: US 7,843,581 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 358/453
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 1/00132 in a digital photofinishing system, i.e. a system where digital photographic images undergo typical photofinishing processing, e.g. printing ordering
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 1/0014 via e-mail
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 1/00148 Storage information retrieval G06F16/00
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 1/00164 at a remote location
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 1/00244 with a server, e.g. an internet server fax-servers or the like for store and forward H04N1/324
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 1/387 Composing, repositioning or otherwise geometrically modifying originals

Abstract

A system (1321) for accessing an image album comprising a plurality of source images over a network (1305) is disclosed. A representation of the image album is stored on a server (1301). The system (1321) comprises means (1304) for downloading, from the server (1301), the representation of the image album. The means (1304) accesses a reduced resolution version of a said one of the plurality of source images dependent upon the representation of the album, and retrieves, from a storage device (eg 1302) located remotely from the server (1301), the source image corresponding to the reduced resolution version.

Claims

1. A method of accessing, over a network, an image album comprising a plurality of source images, wherein a representation of the image album is stored on a server, the method comprising the steps of:

downloading, from the server, the representation of the image album;

accessing a reduced resolution version of a said one of the plurality of source images dependent upon the representation of the album; and

retrieving, from a storage device located remotely from the server, the source image corresponding to the reduced resolution version.

2. A method according to claim 1, wherein the representation of the album comprises at least;

a theme or a reference thereto for the album;

a page layout or a reference thereto for the album;

resolution information or a reference thereto for the source images; and

identifiers or references thereto for the source images.

3. A method according to claim 2, wherein the representation of the album is the album file and further comprises said reduced resolution version of the source image.

4. A method according to claim 1, wherein the reduced resolution version is stored on the server.

5. A method according to claim 1, wherein the reduced resolution version is stored on a remote storage device.

6. A method according to claim 2, wherein prior to the downloading step, the method comprises the further steps of:

assembling, in a visually displayed scratch pad, said plurality of source images from at least one image repository;

compiling the assembled source images from the scratch pad to form the image album; and

forming the representation of the image album.

7. A method according to claim 2, wherein prior to the downloading step, the method comprises the further steps of:

forming the representation of the image album;

uploading the representation of the image album to the server; and

sending, to at least one recipient machine, a link to the representation of the image album, said recipient machine thereby being able to access the representation of the image album on the server.

8. A method according to claim 1, wherein, in relation to a particular source image:

the particular source image is a high resolution image; and

the corresponding reduced resolution version is at least one of a low resolution image derived from the particular source image, and a medium resolution image derived from the particular source image.

9. A method according to claim 1, wherein, in relation to a particular source image:

the particular source image is a low resolution image; and

the corresponding reduced resolution image is the particular source image.

10. A method according to claim 6 wherein:

the compiled image album comprises high resolution source images; and

the high resolution images are stored on at least one of (a) the machine upon which the image album was compiled and (b) another machine, being a peer of the machine upon which the image album was compiled, said other machine being accessible over the network.

11. A method according to claim 10, wherein the recipient machine can access an image in the compiled album via at least one of the server, the machine upon which the album was compiled, and the other peer machine.

12. A method according to claim 6, wherein the image repository is one of stored locally on a machine upon which the album is created, and stored on a remote machine that is accessible over the network.

13. A method according to claim 12, wherein the assembling step comprises the steps of:

selecting a first image from the repository and placing, in accordance with a pre-defined scheme, the first image in a first designated position in the scratch pad; and

selecting a second image from the repository and placing, in accordance with the pre-defined scheme, the second image in a second designated position in the scratch pad;

wherein the relative positions of the assembled first and second images in the scratch pad conform to the pre-defined scheme.

14. A method according to claim 13, wherein between the assembling step and the compiling step, the method comprises the further step of:

reassembling the images in the scratch pad by at least one of rearranging the relative positions of the images in the scratch pad and deleting at least one of the images in the scratch pad.

15. A method according to claim 14, wherein the scratch pad is a linear image array.

16. A method according to claim 7, wherein:

the link supports mere viewing of the representation of the image album; and

the access is provided by sending the representation of the image album from the server to the recipient machine in web page format enabling the recipient machine to view the album using web browser software.

17. A method according to claim 7, wherein:

the link supports viewing and manipulation of the representation of the image album; and

the access is provided by sending the representation of the image album from the server to the recipient machine in a format enabling the recipient machine to view and manipulate the received representation of the image album using album creation and sharing software.

18. A method according to claim 16 wherein the web page format utilises one or more of HTML, CSS, JPG, GIF and Javascript.

19. A method according to claim 17 wherein the format utilises one or more of XML and JPG.

20. An apparatus for accessing, over a network, an image album comprising a plurality of source images, wherein a representation of the image album is stored on a server, the apparatus comprising:

means for downloading, from the server, the representation of the image album;

means for accessing a reduced resolution version of a said one of the plurality of source images dependent upon the representation of the album; and

means for retrieving, from a storage device located remotely from the server, the source image corresponding to the reduced resolution version.

21. A computer program product having a computer readable medium having a computer program recorded therein for directing a processor to effect a method of accessing, over a network, an image album comprising a plurality of source images, wherein a representation of the image album is stored on a server, the program comprising:

code for downloading, from the server, the representation of the image album;

code for accessing a reduced resolution version of a said one of the plurality of source images dependent upon the representation of the album; and

code for retrieving, from a storage device located remotely from the server, the source image corresponding to the reduced resolution version.