Automatic multimode system for organizing and retrieving content data files

• US 20070185890A1
• Filed: 01/30/2006
• Published: 08/09/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 01/30/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Intellectual Ventures Assets 20 LLC (Intellectual Ventures LLC)
• Original Assignee: Eastman Kodak Company
• Inventors: Gross, Daniel, VanEpps, Jeffrey, Brosnahan, Holly
• Granted Patent: US 8,078,618 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/54 Browsing; Visualisation therefor
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/913 Multimedia

Abstract

A method for selecting a method for categorizing a collection of content data files from among a plurality of categorization methods, the method comprising the steps of identifying a collection of content data files, each content data file comprising image or audio data, determining a number of groups (G1) of content data files that will be generated when a first categorization method is applied to the collection of content data files; and designating a range of representations (R) that can be presented on the display, each representing a group of content data files. A first categorization method is selected when the number of groups G is within the range of representations (R); and a different categorization method is selected when the number of groups (G1) is not within range (R).

Claims

1. A method for selecting a method for categorizing a collection of content data files, the method comprising the steps of:

identifying a collection of content data files, each content data file comprising image, video, or audio data;

determining a number of groups (G1) of content data files that will be generated when a first categorization method is applied to the identified collection of content data files;

determining a range of representations (R) that can be presented on a display, each representation being associated with a group of content data files from the identified collection;

selecting the first categorization method when the number of groups (G1) is within the range of representations (R); and

selecting a different categorization method when the number of groups (G1) is not within range (R).

2. The method of claim 1, wherein at least one of said categorization methods is a method that groups the content data files into timestamp groups based on a timestamp associated with the content data files.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the step of selecting a different categorization method comprises:

determining a number of groups (G2) of content data files that will be generated when a second categorization method is applied to the identified collection of content data files;

selecting the second categorization method when the number of groups of content data files that will be generated by application of the second categorization method (G2) is within the range of representations (R); and

selecting a third categorization method when the number of groups (G2) of content data files that will be generated when the second categorization method is applied to the identified collection of content data files is not within the range of representations (R).

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the categorization methods are chosen from a plurality of categorization methods in a manner that applies categorization methods that can be completed more quickly before applying categorization methods that require more time to complete.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the categorization methods are selected from a plurality of categorization methods in a manner that applies user preferred categorization methods before applying other categorization methods.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein at least one of said categorization methods is a method that groups the content data files based on file locations of the content data files.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein the file location groups include content data files having a common file name portion.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein at least one of said categorization methods categorizes content data files into groups that include content data files that are located in a file having a common file modification date.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein at least one of said plurality of categorization methods is a method that groups the content data files into a global location groups based on global positioning data associated with the content data files.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein the global location group includes content data files having content that was captured within a predetermined distance from each other.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein at least one of said plurality of categorization methods is a method that groups the content data files into groups based on the image, audio, or video content of the content data files.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein said content group includes content data files that are grouped into groups of content data files that have had a common special effect applied thereto.

13. The method of claim 1, wherein at least one of said plurality of categorization methods is a method that groups the content data files according to the quality of the content therein.

14. The method of claim 13, wherein said quality groups includes groups of content data files that have image components with common ranges of color, focus, noise levels, signal-to-noise ratios, color characteristics, image artifacts, or contrast characteristics or content data files that have audio data with common ranges of noise levels, signal-to-noise ratios, channels of audio or characteristics of the sampling used for such audio signals.

15. The method of claim 1, further comprising the step of providing an organizational metaphor and organizing the representations for display relative to the organizational metaphor.

16. The method of claim 1, wherein each representation comprises an icon that is activatable to cause a second display to be presented containing links to individual ones of the content data files organized into the group of content data files that the representation is associated with.

17. The method of claim 1, wherein the step of identifying a collection of content data files, comprises the steps of entering a search request into an electronic search engine to cause the electronic search engine to generate the identified collection of content data files.

18. The method of claim 1, further comprising the steps of determining when the application of the first categorization method will generate group of content data files including more than 25 percent of the content data files in the identified collection and selecting a different content categorization method.

19. A method for operating a display device, the method comprising the steps of:

accessing a plurality of digital images;

determining how many groups of images would be formed from said plurality of images as a result of the application of each of said categorization methods;

determining a range of representations (R) that can be displayed on an imaging device each representation being associated with one said of groups of images; and

selecting a categorization method from said plurality of categorization methods that forms a number of groups (GX) of images from said plurality of images wherein the number of groups (GX) is within the range of representations (R).

20. The method of claim 19, further comprising the step of:

identifying more than one of the categorization methods that would cause a number of groups (GX) of images to be formed that is within the range of representations (R) and wherein the selecting step comprises selecting from among the identified categorization methods on the basis of at least one of a preprogrammed priority of methods, user preferences, an amount of time required to form groups using the identified categorization methods, or a predetermined preference as to the number of representations.

22. The method of claim 19, further comprising the steps of:

identifying more than one of the categorization methods that would cause a number of groups (GX) of images to be formed that is within the range of representations (R) and wherein the selecting step comprises selecting from among the identified categorization methods a categorization method that requires a user to take the minimum number of steps to access any of the grouped images.

23. A display device comprising:

a source of content data files each content data file including information that can be presented on a display;

a user input adapted to receive a user request for content data files; and

,

a controller that receives the user request for content data files and accesses a collection of content data files in response thereto, the controller further being operable to determine groups of the content data files generated using a plurality of different of content data file categorization methods;

wherein said controller selects one of the categorization methods from the plurality of different of categorization methods based upon whether application of that method will yield a number of groups of content data files that is within a determined range of representations of such groups.