System and method for exchanging images

Abstract

A system and method for providing a peer-to-peer photo-sharing environment. The system includes: manual and automatic photo annotation at the client; periodic client-server synchronization; an index of client photos on a central server or a photo database that is resident on the central server, which is updated by the client-server synchronization function; end-user search functionality to search the centralized index or photo database; and transmission of the relevant photos to the client via an on-line image cache. In one embodiment, one client's new photos are automatically displayed on another client's computer (e.g., via screen saver or another mechanism).

Description

BACKGROUND OF INVENTION [0001] 1. Technical Field [0002] The invention is related to a system and method of providing an image-sharing environment. [0003] 2. Background Art [0004] Digital Photo and Video technology promises to enhance our use of photographs and video by making them easy to store, access, and share. (Henceforth, all further references to “photos” or “photographs” should be considered shorthand for “photos and videos.”) Recent advances in media management and story telling have helped to deliver on this promise, but much work still remains. [0005] The current model of photo sharing is through the use of online photo sharing websites. To share photographs on these websites, the user uploads copies of their photos to the hosting server, and their friends and family can view them by downloading them to their own computer or by viewing them while still resident on the server. [0006] The current model of photo sharing is undesirable for several reasons. For example, the us...

AI Technical Summary

Benefits of technology

The present invention provides a system and method for sharing photos and other images online. The system allows users to easily share their images with a small group of people or the entire world. It overcomes the limitations of traditional server-client photo-sharing systems by providing a peer-to-peer photo-sharing environment. The system includes a central server, clients, and an online image cache. The system also allows for automatic photo annotation and provides a way for users to control access to their photos. The invention also includes a periodic client-server synchronization function and a way for users to extract various parameters from images. Overall, the system and method provide a more efficient and effective way to share photos and other images online.

Problems solved by technology

The current model of photo sharing is undesirable for several reasons.

Uploading them to a server is a slow and tedious additional step.

In addition, many computer users that might like to share photographs are not computer savvy enough to upload them to the server.

This problem is compounded by the fact that printers and displays are supporting higher and higher resolution images (and hence much greater sized files), so that each user has a larger number of higher resolution images that they want to share, yet less storage allotment is available for each user to share these photos.

As the quality of digital images improves, and greater resolutions and file sizes result, this problem is sure to worsen.

The server model introduces a whole new level of management headache.

Another issue related to photo sites that allow sharing of photographs on the Internet is that photos are normally thought of as being extremely personal items.

People are often hesitant to load their personal pictures up to a large server database, accessible to the entire world.

Another problem associated with the management of photos is related to their indexing, search and retrieval.

Consumer research has found that the organization and retrieval of photos and other digital images is a great source of frustration to many users of photo-sharing sites.

The disadvantage with using this keyword scheme for image data retrieval is that it usually means that keywords and textual annotations must be manually entered for each image file.

This is very time-consuming and labor-intensive.

The obvious problem with this P2P approach is that the two peers might not have their machines on at the same time.

At first this seems like a useless feature for a photo database.

Images