DIGITAL OBJECT INFORMATION VIA CATEGORY-BASED HISTOGRAMS

• US 20080240560A1
• Filed: 03/26/2007
• Published: 10/02/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 03/26/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Monument Peak Ventures, LLC (Dominion Harbor Enterprises, LLC)
• Original Assignee: Eastman Kodak Company
• Inventors: Wood, Mark D., Hibino, Stacie L.
• Granted Patent: US 8,019,155 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 382/168
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/2477 Temporal data queries
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/26 Visual data mining; Browsing structured data
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/58 Retrieval characterised by using metadata, e.g. metadata not derived from the content or metadata generated manually

Abstract

Embodiments of the present invention relate to an effective method of representing a set of digital objects across at least two category-based dimensions for facilitating efficient access to such objects. These digital objects are typically media objects such as digital image files, digital video clips, digital audio objects, such as “MP3” files, or other digital documents that can be collected by a user and distributed over a variety of storage media and storage locations.

Claims

1. A method for providing information pertaining to digital objects stored by one or more computer-accessible memories, the method implemented at least in part by a computer and comprising the steps of:

receiving information defining a first category;

receiving information identifying at least two instances of the first category;

receiving information defining subdivisions of the first category;

identifying groups of the digital objects, each group being associated with one of the instances of the first category one of the subdivisions; and

displaying a histogram for each instance of the first category, each histogram having a first axis corresponding to its instance of the first category and a second axis corresponding to the subdivisions, wherein each histogram includes representations of the groups of digital objects corresponding to its instance of the first category, each representation corresponding to a group and a subdivision.

2. A method for providing information pertaining to digital objects stored by one or more computer-accessible memories, the method implemented at least in part by a computer and comprising the steps of:

receiving information defining a time period;

receiving information identifying at least two instances of the time period;

receiving information defining subdivisions of the time period;

identifying groups of the digital objects, each group being associated with one of the instances of the time period and one of the subdivisions; and

displaying a histogram for each instance of the time period, each histogram having a first axis corresponding to its instance of the time period and a second axis corresponding to the subdivisions, wherein each histogram includes representations of the groups of digital objects corresponding to its instance of the time period, each representation corresponding to a group and a subdivision.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the time period is a year, and the instances of the time period are particular years.

4. The method of claim 2, wherein the time period is a year, the instances of the time period are particular years, and the subdivisions are months.

5. The method of claim 2, wherein each of the subdivisions is associated with an event.

6. The method of claim 2, wherein each of the subdivisions is associated with a subject identifiable in a digital object'"'"'s content.

7. A method for providing information pertaining to digital objects stored by one or more computer-accessible memories, the method implemented at least in part by a computer and comprising the steps of:

displaying a sequence of histograms, said histograms showing different time period instances, said histograms each subdividing a respective said time period instance into a plurality of subdivisions, said subdivisions each having a representation of a number of digital objects associated with the respective said subdivision;

during said displaying step, accepting a first user input designating one or more of said subdivisions of one of said histograms to provide designated subdivisions;

responsive to said user input, modifying said displaying to graphically emphasize said designated subdivisions and corresponding subdivisions of one or more others of said sequence of histograms; and

providing an output based on the digital objects associated with the emphasized subdivisions.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein each of the subdivisions is associated with a temporal portion of its corresponding time period instance.

9. The method of claim 7, wherein each of the subdivisions is associated with an equal or substantially equal portion of its corresponding time period instance.

10. The method of claim 7, wherein at least one of the subdivisions is associated with a larger or smaller portion of its corresponding time period instance than another subdivision.

11. The method of claim 7, wherein all of the subdivisions in a histogram account for the entire time period instance represented by the corresponding histogram.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein the time period instances are years and the subdivisions are months.

13. The method of claim 7, wherein all of the subdivisions in a histogram do not account for the entire time period instance represented by the corresponding histogram.

14. The method of claim 7, wherein each of the subdivisions is associated with an event.

15. The method of claim 14, wherein at least one of the events is a holiday or birthday.

16. The method of claim 7, wherein each of the subdivisions is associated with a subject identifiable in a digital object'"'"'s content.

17. The method of claim 16, wherein at least one of the identifiable subjects is associated with a person.

18. The method of claim 16, wherein at least one of the identifiable subjects is associated with a place.

19. The method of claim 16, wherein at least one of the identifiable subjects is associated with a physical object.

20. The method of claim 7, wherein the histograms show successive time period instances.

21. The method of claim 7, wherein said modifying step graphically emphasizes corresponding subdivisions of all of said histograms.

22. The method of claim 7, wherein a first axis of each histogram pertains to a time period instance and a second axis of each histogram pertains to the subdivisions.

23. The method of claim 7, wherein the representations are bars or lines whose heights or high points indicates a number of digital objects.

24. The method of claim 22, wherein the first axes and the second axes of the histograms have equal or substantially equal length.

25. The method of claim 22, wherein the representations are bars or lines whose height indicates the number of digital objects, and wherein the heights of the bars or lines extend in a direction perpendicular to the second axis.

26. The method of claim 22, wherein the first axis of each histogram has a length determined at least by a maximum number of digital objects associated with any one of the histogram'"'"'s subdivisions.

27. The method of claim 22, wherein the representations are bars or lines whose height indicates the number of digital objects, and wherein the heights of the bars or lines extend in a direction parallel to the second axis.

28. The method of claim 22, wherein the second axis of each histogram has a length determined at least by a maximum number of digital objects associated with any one of the histogram'"'"'s subdivisions.

29. The method of claim 7, wherein the representations comprise two characteristics, one of which indicates the number of digital objects in a set of digital objects associated with the respective subdivision, and the other of which indicates the number of digital objects in a subset of the set of digital objects associated with the respective subdivision.

30. The method of claim 29, wherein the subset of the set of digital objects is only those digital objects in the set of digital objects meeting one or more user-defined query parameters.