METHOD FOR MANAGING PRIVACY OF DIGITAL IMAGES

• US 20140337993A1
• Filed: 07/25/2014
• Published: 11/13/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 05/28/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Intellectual Ventures Fund 83 LLC (Intellectual Ventures LLC)
• Original Assignee: Intellectual Ventures Fund 83 LLC (Intellectual Ventures LLC)
• Inventors: Winters, Dustin L.
• Granted Patent: US 9,552,483 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 726/26
• 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 21/60 Protecting data
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/6209 to a single file or object, e.g. in a secure envelope, encrypted and accessed using a key, or with access control rules appended to the object itself
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/101 Access control lists [ACL]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/107 wherein the security policies are location-dependent, e.g. entities privileges depend on current location or allowing specific operations only from locally connected terminals
• 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 1/00137 Transmission
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 1/00156 with a group of selected individuals or correspondents
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 1/00159 for sharing images without access restriction, e.g. publishing images
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 1/00172 directly from a still digital camera or from a storage medium mounted in a still digital camera H04N1/0018 takes precedence
• 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 1/00323 with a measuring, monitoring or signaling apparatus, e.g. for transmitting measured information to a central location
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 1/00925 Inhibiting an operation
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 1/32101 Display, printing, storage or transmission of additional information, e.g. ID code, date and time or title
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/42202 environmental sensors, e.g. for detecting temperature, luminosity, pressure, earthquakes
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4223 Cameras H04N23/00 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4524 involving the geographical location of the client retrieval from the Internet by querying based on geographical locations G06F16/9537; systems specially adapted for using geographical information in broadcast systems H04H60/70; protocols in which the network application is adapted for the location of the user terminal in communication control or processing H04L67/52; services making use of the location of users or terminals in wireless networks H04W4/02; locating users or terminals in wireless networks H04W64/00
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/485 End-user interface for client configuration
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/84 Generation or processing of descriptive data, e.g. content descriptors systems specially adapted for using meta-information in broadcast systems H04H60/73
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 2201/0084 Digital still camera
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 2201/3253 : Position information, e.g. geographical position at time of capture, GPS data
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 2201/3274 : Storage or retrieval of prestored additional information
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 2201/3278 : Transmission
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 9/8233 : the additional signal being a character code signal
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/021 : Services related to particular areas, e.g. point of interest [POI] services, venue services or geofences

Abstract

A captured digital image is stored in memory together with metadata derived from a location signal only if the location metadata is determined not to be within one or more predefined exclusion zones. A GPS receiver module can be implemented to obtain the location signal.

Claims

1. A method for displaying digital images with location information comprising:

receiving, by a processor, a digital image file;

receiving, by the processor, geographic location metadata for the digital image file;

receiving, by the processor, a geographic exclusion zone associated with a first user;

receiving, by the processor, a list of users with access rights to the geographic exclusion zone, wherein the list of users comprises at least one user;

determining, by the processor, that the geographic location metadata for the digital image file is within the geographic exclusion zone;

determining, by the processor, that a second user is included in the list of users with access rights to the geographic exclusion zone; and

transmitting, by the processor, the digital image file and the geographic location metadata to a device associated with the second user.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

determining, by the processor, that a third user is not included in the list of users with access rights to the geographic exclusion zone; and

determining, by the processor and in response to determining that the third user is not included in the list, not to transmit the geographic location metadata to a device associated with the third user.

3. The method of claim 2, further comprising removing, by the processor, the geographic location metadata from the digital image file.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein an association between the device associated with the second user and the second user is based on the second user being logged into a social media service on the device.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the at least one geographic exclusion zone has a circular shape, and further wherein the determining that the geographic location metadata of the digital image file is within the geographic exclusion zone comprises calculating a great arc distance using a Haversine formula.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the at least one geographic exclusion zone has a polygonal shape, and further wherein the determining that the geographic location metadata of the digital image file is within the geographic exclusion zone comprises calculating a line starting from the geographic location metadata and determining how many sides of the at least one geographic exclusion zone is crossed using a Jordan curve theorem.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the at least one geographic exclusion zone has a rectangular shape, and further wherein the determining that the geographic location metadata of the digital image file is within the geographic exclusion zone comprises:

determining whether a longitude of the geographic location metadata of the digital file is between a longitude of a first coordinate and a second coordinate of the geographic exclusion zone, wherein;

the first coordinate and the second coordinate are both different corners of the at least one geographic exclusion zone,

the first coordinate is at a corner of two sides of the at least one geographic exclusion zone where the two sides intersect with each other, and

the two sides do not intersect with the second coordinate; and

determining whether a latitude of the geographic location metadata of the digital file is between a latitude of the first coordinate and the second coordinate of the geographic exclusion zone.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the determining that the geographic location metadata of the digital image file is within the geographic exclusion zone comprises determining that the geographic location metadata of the digital image file defines a location that is within an area defined by the geographic exclusion zone.

9. The method of claim 1, further comprising receiving, by the processor, a user defined geographic exclusion zone.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein the user defined geographic exclusion zone is defined by a region defined on a digital display of a geographic map.

11. The method of claim 1, further comprising receiving, by the processor, a user defined list of users with access rights to the at least one geographic exclusion zone.

12. The method of claim 1, further comprising receiving, by the processor, a request to include the second user in the list of users with access rights to the geographic exclusion zone.

13. The method of claim 1, wherein the list of users with access rights to the at least one geographic exclusion zone comprises a group of users, wherein the group of users is a predefined group of users that can be granted a particular access right together.

14. A non-transitory computer readable medium having instructions stored thereon that, upon execution by a computing device, cause the computing device to perform operations comprising:

receiving a digital image file;

receiving geographic location metadata for the digital image file;

receiving a geographic exclusion zone associated with a first user;

receiving by the processor, a list of users with access rights to the geographic exclusion zone, wherein the list of users comprises at least one user;

determining, by the processor, that the geographic location metadata for the digital image file is within the geographic exclusion zone;

determining that a second user is included in the list of users with access rights to the geographic exclusion zone; and

transmitting the digital image file and the geographic location metadata to a device associated with the second user.

15. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 14, further comprising receiving a request to include the second user in the list of users with access rights to the geographic exclusion zone.

16. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 14, further comprising:

determining that a third user is not included in the list of users with access rights to the geographic exclusion zone; and

determining, in response to determining that the third user is not included in the list, not to transmit the geographic location metadata to a device associated with the third user.

17. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 14, further comprising determining whether the geographic location metadata of the digital image file is within the geographic exclusion zone.

18. A device for displaying digital images with location information comprising:

a memory; and

a processor coupled to the memory, wherein the processor is configured to;

receive a digital image file;

receive geographic location metadata for the digital image file;

receive a geographic exclusion zone associated with a first user;

receive a list of users with access rights to the geographic exclusion zone, wherein the list of users comprises at least one user;

determine that the geographic location metadata for the digital image file is within the geographic exclusion zone;

determine that a second user is included in the list of users with access rights to the geographic exclusion zone;

transmit the digital image file and the geographic location metadata to a device associated with the second user.

19. The device of claim 18, wherein the processor is further configured to receive a request to include the second user in the list of users with access rights to the geographic exclusion zone.

20. The device of claim 18, wherein the processor is further configured to determine whether the geographic location metadata of the digital image file is within the geographic exclusion zone.