Real-time recommendation of album templates for online photosharing

• US 20070064121A1
• Filed: 08/11/2005
• Published: 03/22/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 08/11/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Qurio Holdings Incorporated
• Original Assignee: Qurio Holdings Incorporated
• Inventors: Greene, David, Issa, Alfredo
• Granted Patent: US 7,715,586 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 348/231.200
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/02 Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising
• CPC Class Codes: G11B 27/034 on discs G11B27/036, G11B27/038 take precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G11B 27/322 used signal is digitally coded
• 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 1/00164 at a remote location
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 1/00183 Photography assistance, e.g. displaying suggestions to the user
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 1/00196 Creation of a photo-montage, e.g. photoalbum H04N1/0019 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 1/00204 with a digital computer or a digital computer system, e.g. an internet server programmed control between transmitter and receiver or between image input and image output device H04N1/32561
• 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 1/34 for coin-freed systems ; Pay systems
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4668 for recommending content, e.g. movies
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4788 communicating with other users, e.g. chatting arrangements for providing for computer conferences, e.g. chat rooms, to substation in data switching networks H04L12/1813; distributed application using peer-to-peer [P2P] networks H04L67/104
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/8153 comprising still images, e.g. texture, background image
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 2201/3214 of a date
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 2201/3215 of a time or duration
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 2201/3253 Position information, e.g. geographical position at time of capture, GPS data
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 2201/3264 of sound signals
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 2201/3266 of text or character information, e.g. text accompanying an image H04N2201/3226 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 9/8205 involving the multiplexing of an additional signal and the colour video signal

Abstract

The present invention provides a system and method for recommending templates for electronic or online photo albums. In general, digital images are selected to form a photo album. The metadata associated with the digital images is analyzed to provide selection criteria. Using the selection criteria, one or more templates are selected from a template database as recommended templates. One of the recommended templates is selected and applied to the photo album.

Claims

1. A system for recommending templates for an electronic photo album comprising:

memory;

a control system associated with the memory and adapted to;

analyze metadata associated with digital images selected to be included in a photo album to determine selection criteria;

select at least one of a number of templates based on the selection criteria to provide at least one recommended template.

2. The system of claim 1 wherein the control system is further adapted to analyze the metadata by performing a statistical analysis of the metadata to determine the selection criteria.

3. The system of claim 2 wherein the selection criteria comprises a mean, mode, or median of a variable in the metadata, wherein the metadata includes a value of the variable for each of the digital images in the photo album.

4. The system of claim 1 wherein the selection criteria comprises dates upon which the digital images were captured.

5. The system of claim 1 wherein the selection criteria comprises times at which the digital images were captured.

6. The system of claim 1 wherein the selection criteria comprises a location at which the digital images were captured.

7. The system of claim 1 wherein the control system is further adapted to analyze the metadata by searching captions associated with the digital images stored in the metadata for predetermined keywords such that the search criteria comprises keyword search results.

8. The system of claim 1 wherein the control system comprises an inference engine adapted to analyze the metadata based on historical data.

9. The system of claim 1 wherein the control system is a central server coupled to a network and the metadata is provided from a first node to the central server via the network.

10. The system of claim 9 wherein the digital images are stored at the first node, and the first node obtains the metadata from the digital images and provides the metadata, rather than the digital images, to the central server.

11. The system of claim 9 wherein the control system is further adapted to provide a preview of the at least one recommended template to the first node via the network.

12. The system of claim 11 wherein one of the at least one recommended templates is selected and purchased as a desired template for the photo album and the control system is further adapted to receive authorization from a commerce server permitting the first node to obtain the desired template.

13. The system of claim 12 wherein the first node applies the desired template to the photo album.

14. The system of claim 13 wherein the first node is a peer node in a peer-to-peer photosharing network and the control system is further adapted to:

receive a request for the photo album via the network from a requesting party;

request the photo album from the first node via the network;

receive the photo album including template components of the desired template from the first node; and

provide the photo album including the template components to the requesting party.

15. The system of claim 1 wherein the at least one recommended template includes a plurality of template components selected from the group consisting of:

a background, captions, fonts, icons, clip art, and music.

16. The system of claim 1 wherein the digital images are stored in the memory associated with the control system, and the control system is further adapted to obtain the metadata from the digital images.

17. The system of claim 16 wherein the control system is a central server coupled to a network and the digital images are provided to the central server from a first node via the network.

18. A computer readable media comprising software for instructing a computer to:

select a plurality of digital images to be included in a photo album;

provide metadata associated with the digital images to a central server via a network;

receive a preview of at least one recommended template for the photo album from the central server via the network, wherein the central server selects the at least one recommended template from a number of templates based on an analysis of the metadata;

obtain a desired one of the at least one recommended template from the central server; and

apply the desired one of the at least one recommended template to the photo album.

19. The computer readable media of claim 18 wherein the software is further adapted to instruct the computer to provide the photo album including template components of the desired one of the at least one recommended template to the central server in response to a request for the photo album, wherein the central server operates as a proxy server in directing the request from a requesting node to the computer and directing the photo album and template components from the computer to the requesting party.

20. The computer readable media of claim 18 wherein the software is further adapted to instruct the computer to:

receive a request for the photo album from a requesting party via the network; and

provide the photo album including template components of the desired one of the at least one recommended template to the requesting party via the network in response to the request.

21. The computer readable media of claim 18 wherein the software is further adapted to instruct the computer to:

upload the photo album to the central server;

wherein the central server provides the photo album including template components of the desired one of the at least one recommended template to a requesting party via the network in response to a request for the photo album from the requesting party.

22. The computer readable media of claim 18 wherein the software is further adapted to instruct the computer to:

conduct a purchasing transaction to purchase the desired one of the at least one recommended template; and

obtain the desired one of the at least one recommended template once the purchasing transaction is complete.

23. A method of recommending templates for a photo album comprising:

analyzing metadata associated with digital images selected to be included in a photo album to provide selection criteria;

selecting at least one of a number of templates based on the selection criteria to provide at least one recommended template.