TAGGING DIGITAL IMAGES

• US 20140122459A1
• Filed: 10/15/2013
• Published: 05/01/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 11/15/2000
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Mark Frederick Frigon
• Original Assignee: Angel Technologies, LLC
• Inventors: Frigon, Mark Frederick
• Granted Patent: US 9,959,291 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 707/722
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/58 Retrieval characterised by using metadata, e.g. metadata not derived from the content or metadata generated manually
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/583 using metadata automatically derived from the content
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0482 Interaction with lists of selectable items, e.g. menus

Abstract

A system, computer program, and method for storing and sharing images such as photographs via a communications network (16) and for permitting the identification of objects within the images. The invention allows the identification of objects such as persons within the photos without requiring the person submitting the photos to type in identification information for each and every photo in a photo album. The invention also allows users to automatically share their photos with others and to automatically search for photos and/or certain people in photos.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

identifying users of a network;

identifying images accessible to said network;

receiving from a first user the identifications of which users of said network appear in an image accessible to said network;

displaying said identifications to a second user of said network, whereby users can share information about which said users of said network existing in said images accessible to said network.

2. The method of claim 1 further comprising receiving from a second user the identifications of which users of said network appear in the same said image from which identifications were received from a first user, whereby a plurality of users can collaboratively identify which users of said network appear in the same image accessible to said network.

3. The method of claim 1 further comprising responsive to receiving said identifications, sending a notification to a user who has been identified in said image accessible to said network.

4. The method of claim 1 where said image is part of a series of images comprising a digital video.

5. The method of claim 1 further comprising a means for a user identified in said image to view said identification.

6. The method of claim 5 further comprising also receiving from said user identified in said image the identifications of which users of said network appear in the same image from accessible to said network.

7. The method of claim 6 whereby said identifications received from said identified user differs from the identifications submitted by the user who identified said identified users.

8. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

providing a means for users to select from a list which users of said network appear in an image accessible to said network;

providing a means for users to deselect from a list which users of said network appear in an image accessible to said network.

9. The method of claim 8 wherein the means for users to select or deselect from a list of which user of said network appear in an image comprises at least one of a radio button, a checkbox, or a select element in a user interface.

10. The method of claim 1 further comprising providing a means for users of said network to request more information about said users identified in said image, wherein said request for more information may comprise at least one of a query for other images accessible to said network that said user identified in said region has been identified in or a query for personal details of said user identified or a link to said identified user'"'"'s homepage.

11. The method of claim 1 wherein further comprising:

receiving information comprising the region in said image that said users of said network appears;

displaying that said users appear in said region.

12. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

receiving a from a user of said network a query for images that a user of said network has been identified in;

displaying a list of images that said user of said network has been identified in.

13. The method of claim 12 whereby a querying user is submitting a query for images of oneself.

14. The method of claim 13 further comprising enabling the querying user to further select or deselect users that appear in an image returned by said query.

15. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

receiving a from a user of said network a query for images that a plurality of user of said network have been identified in;

displaying a list of images that said users of said network have been identified in.

16. The method of claim 15 wherein said list comprises images that any user in said plurality of users has been identified in.

17. The method of claim 15 wherein said list comprises images that every user in said plurality of users have been identified in.

18. The method of claim 8 further comprising

receiving from a user a plurality of other users to be associated with;

presenting a subset of said list of list users of said network filtered based on said associations.

19. A computer program comprising:

a means for identifying users on a network;

a means for identifying images accessible to said network;

a means for receiving from a plurality of users tags of which users of said network exist in the same image;

a means for storing a many-to-many relationship between users of said network and the images available to said network that said users appear in, whereby any user may be in a one or more images and any image may have a one or more users appear in it.

20. The computer program of claim 19 further comprising:

a means for sending notifications to users of said network;

a means for sending said notification to a user of said network when said user has been tagged in an image;

a means to receive tags of which users exists in said image from said user who has been tagged in an image.