AI-powered RAW file management

Abstract

A system and method for managing RAW files is disclosed. A plurality of image files associated with one or more RAW files including respective metadata are evaluated. A set of one or more image files is grouped based on a match of the respective metadata. Asset files corresponding to the RAW files and the grouped image files are generated. The asset files are retrieved upon request from a user device. At least one image file is selected from the grouped set, and a representation of the selected image file is generated for rendering.

Description

[Technical field]

[0001] CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS This application claims the benefit of priority to U.S. Provisional Application No. 63 / 285,809, filed December 3, 2021, the disclosure of which is incorporated herein by reference.

[0002] 1. Field of disclosure FIELD OF THE DISCLOSURE This disclosure relates generally to digital file management and, more particularly, to automated management of image files. [Background technology]

[0003] 2. Description of Related Technology Amateur and professional photographers may take hundreds, if not thousands, of photographs in a single photography project. Currently available camera and storage media technology allows photographers to capture multiple exposures, angles, and a variety of other compositional variables during a shoot. Currently available hardware (e.g., desktop, laptop, and mobile computing devices) and software can be used to store, organize, and edit photographs from one or more photography sessions.

[0004] Photos from digital cameras may be saved as RAW image files, which are unedited and uncompressed data files that contain the full set of captured details associated with the photo. RAW image files may include formats such as .RAW, .DNG, .RAF, .TIF, and other similar formats, and are often very large in resolution and file size. Compressed image files (e.g., .jpeg or .png files) may be rendered on the display of most computing devices using standard image viewing software (e.g., associated with a web browser), but such standard image viewing software is not compatible with RAW image files, which require special software to render them for viewing. The inability to render RAW image files can complicate or make the process of organizing and managing RAW image files difficult, and may be made worse when there are many RAW image files to manage and many different software applications to perform different functions on RAW image files. Thus, managing RAW image files can be a time-consuming and piecemeal process.

[0005] Additionally, users may create multiple versions of any single RAW image file to evaluate different edit combinations, which may exponentially increase the number of images and files associated with a photography project. The different versions may further be stored using different photo editing applications or services and presented to clients or buyers using different photo storage and secure access services. Thus, different files of different versions may be scattered across different services and storage locations. For example, a photographer may upload images to one or more digital storage and file sharing services that allow buyers to review the photos online, request additional edits or changes to the photos, and select prints for purchase. In such cases, the photographer must search for and retrieve the associated RAW image file or its edited versions for further editing or printing, and must also upload the final edited image to the file sharing service for storage, access, and display by the user in a viewable format. Maintaining the integrity of version associations throughout can be very cumbersome and time-consuming for users.

[0006] Therefore, there is a need in the art to provide improved systems and methods for automated RAW file management. [Brief description of the drawings]

[0007] [Figure 1] FIG. 1 illustrates an exemplary network environment.

[0008] [Diagram 2] 4 is a flowchart illustrating an exemplary method for associating digital files.

[0009] [Diagram 3] 11 is an exemplary screenshot of a display generated by the administration interface.

[0010] [Figure 4] 11 is an exemplary screenshot of a display generated by the administration interface.

[0011] [Diagram 5] 1 is an exemplary screenshot of an asset organization view of the management interface. DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

[0012] A system and method for automatically associating digital files is disclosed. A file association service may receive various raw image files, rendered image files, and associated sidecar files in various digital file formats. The file association service may extract metadata from each digital file and link or associate one or more digital files with different digital files based on the extracted metadata. Digital files for which similarity in metadata is detected may be associated by an asset file. A user may manually associate files when metadata from one or more files do not match. The asset file may include common metadata for each included digital file and a link to each of the raw files, rendered files, or sidecar files. The asset files, raw files, rendered files, and sidecar files are stored in a database of the file association service, and each file is further accessed by a user via a user device.

[0013] FIG. 1 illustrates an exemplary network environment in which a system for automatic association of digital files may be implemented. A RAW image file (hereinafter, "RAW file") 140 may be generated and stored by a RAW file source device 110, such as a digital camera or a smartphone. The RAW file source device 110 may include various sensors 120 capable of generating metadata for the RAW file 140 during image capture, including geographic location, date and time, make and model of the RAW image device, and imaging parameters (e.g., focal length, aperture, exposure time, ISO, etc.) known by the RAW image device used during capture. The RAW file 140 and the captured metadata may be transmitted to a user device 130, such as a desktop or laptop computer, tablet, or mobile device. In some embodiments, the user device 130 may function as the RAW file source device 110, such as a smartphone capable of capturing a RAW file.

[0014] The user devices 130 may include multiple different types of computing devices. For example, the user devices 130 may include any number of different mobile devices, laptops, and desktops. In another example, the user devices 130 may be implemented in the cloud. Such user devices 130 may also be configured to access data from other storage media, such as, but not limited to, memory cards or disk drives, as may be appropriate for downloaded data or sensor captured data. Such devices 130 may include standard hardware computing components, such as, but not limited to, network and media interfaces, non-transitory computer readable storage (memory), and processors for executing instructions that may be stored in the memory. The user devices 130 may include various hardware sensors for detecting user interactions, such as cameras, microphones, haptic feedback input mechanisms, and the like. The hardware sensors in the user devices may be used to capture user responses and feedback, such as gestures, speech, touch, and the like. These user devices 130 may also run using a variety of different operating systems, such as iOS and Android. User device 130 may also execute a variety of applications and computing languages, such as C++, Java Script, etc. User device may include one or more devices associated with a user or a user device capable of displaying on one or more screens.

[0015] The RAW file 140 stored on the user device 130 may be digitally processed by software such as Adobe® Lightroom or Capture One, which generates a rendered file 150, such as a .jpeg or .png file. The RAW file editing software may generate a sidecar file 160 during editing of the RAW file 140 or during compression and storage of the rendered file 150 (e.g., an .xmp file from Adobe Lightroom or a .cof file from Capture One). The sidecar file 160 may contain a history of the editing process of the RAW file, may be further edited by the user, and may be used to generate multiple rendered files 150. The RAW file 140, the rendered file 150, and the sidecar file 160 may be stored separately on the user device 130 and accessed separately.

[0016] The user device 130 may transmit the RAW file 140, the rendered file 150, and the sidecar file 160 to the file association service 170 via the communication transceiver 132 over a communication network, such as a wide area network (WAN) or an Internet connection. The file association service 170 may receive the file transfers through a variety of manual and automated methods initiated by the user device 130. Each file received by the file association service 170 may be stored in a database 171 of the file association service 170. The file association service 170 may include the database 171 and a processor 172. The processor 172 may execute instructions stored in the database 171 to associate the RAW file 140, the rendered file 150, and the sidecar file 160 previously received and stored in the database 171. The file associations may be stored in the database 171 as asset files 174. The capture metadata from the RAW file source device 110, the file metadata of each associated file, and the metadata of the combined asset file 174 may be maintained as separate sections of metadata and stored in the asset file 174. The file association service 170 may extract capture metadata and file metadata from the transferred files, such as the file name, capture date, time, and imaging parameters captured by the RAW file source device (e.g., focal length, aperture, exposure time, ISO, etc.). The extracted metadata and links to each RAW file 140, the rendered file 150, and the sidecar file 160 may be included in the metadata of the asset file 174. The processor 172 may further execute instructions to generate a preview file 175 for the RAW file 140. The preview file, such as a compressed .jpg version of the RAW file 140, may be stored in the database 171 as part of the asset file 174.

[0017] The management interface 180 may communicate with the database 171 of the file association service 170 via an application programming interface (API) 173 based on requests from the user device 130. The API 173 may act as an intermediary that allows one or more services of one or more software applications to communicate in a standardized request-response format. The API 173 may require security authorization to accept or send data to the service or software application, such as an access key that must be encoded and passed within each request. The API 173 may reject requests that do not include security authorization. An encoded request from a connected service or application may include a payload that includes security authorization and instructions for the API to execute the request, such as to retrieve data from the database 171, store new data in the database 171, or trigger instructions executed by the processor 172 to perform other functions of the file association service 170. The management interface 180 may receive user input via a graphical user interface (GUI) 181 displayed on the display 131 of the user device 130 and execute one or more commands that trigger encoded requests sent to the file association service 170 via the API 173. The GUI 181 of the management interface 180 may include commands to perform various functions related to the RAW files 140, the rendered files 150, the sidecar files 160, the preview files 175, and the asset files 174, such as generating a gallery of files, searching for files, overwriting or updating file associations, and displaying a screen of transferred files.

[0018] In addition to requests from management interface 180, API 173 of file association service 170 may be configured to accept requests encoded by third-party applications 190. Although illustrated as a separate entity in FIG. 1, third-party applications 190 may be software installed on a computer-readable storage medium of user device 130 or accessed from an application cloud server via user device 130. In some embodiments, third-party applications 190 may automatically send requests to API 173 through various workflows configured by a user, such as automatically uploading sidecar files 160 from an editing application.

[0019] 2 is a flow chart illustrating an exemplary method for associating digital files. The steps identified in FIG. 2 are exemplary and may include various alternatives, equivalents, or derivations, and are not limited to the order of execution thereof. The steps of the process of FIG. 2, and any alternative similar processes, may be embodied in hardware or software, including a computer-readable storage medium that includes instructions executable by a processor or the like in a computing device. The exemplary process illustrated in FIG. 2 may be performed repeatedly during use of the file association service 170.

[0020] At step 210, the file association service 170 may receive one or more digital files from the user device 130. The user device 130 may transfer the files to the file association service 170 through a variety of manual and automated methods.

[0021] In one embodiment, a user can manually select a file and initiate a transfer of the file from the user device 130 to the file association service 170. The user may select one or more files from storage on the user device 130 and transfer the RAW file 140, the rendered file 150, the sidecar file 160, or any combination thereof. In another embodiment, the user device 130 may be configured to automatically transfer the file to the file association service 170, such as automatically transferring the RAW file 140 generated upon creation. Files received at the file association service 170 may be stored in a database 171 of the file association service 170.

[0022] In some embodiments, a user may initiate file transfers from different user devices 130 at different times. For example, a user may upload rendered files 150 (e.g., JPG) to a database 171 over the Internet and then transmit RAW files 140 via one or more storage or data transfer devices. Similarly, one set of files may be transferred from a digital camera at the time of creation, and another set of files may be transferred separately at a later time from a laptop. In this manner, files associated with the same shoot may be moved at different times using different devices.

[0023] In step 220, the file association service 170 may associate different types of files. The file association service 170 may associate the RAW file 140 with the rendered file 150 and the sidecar file 160 using metadata contained in each file stored in the database 171. The metadata of the RAW file 140, the rendered file 150, and the sidecar file 160 may include standard metadata fields such as filenames, or customized metadata fields (e.g., tags embedded in the files by the user), and capture metadata such as focal length, aperture, exposure time, and ISO. The file association service 170 may compare metadata fields of one or more files and associate files with content that matches predefined metadata fields. The file association service 170 may associate files received at different times and from different user devices 130 each time a new file is received. For example, a RAW file 140 and a .jpg rendered file 150 may be received from a digital camera and associated together based on matching filenames in the metadata. A sidecar file 160 may then be uploaded from the laptop, and the file association service may associate the sidecar file 160 with the RAW file 140 and the rendered file 150 based on matching filename metadata.

[0024] In some embodiments, the file association service 170 may associate files using image recognition techniques. The image recognition techniques may compare the raw files 140, the rendered files 150, and the sidecar files 160 through various AI and ML algorithms. The image recognition techniques may include one or more techniques for identifying common patterns and features among multiple files, such as breaking down data into numerical values ​​that may be analyzed to identify similar repeating pixel color values ​​among the files. The image recognition techniques may associate files identified as having at least one pattern or feature of data in common. The file association service 170 may track the results of the image recognition association based on user input to confirm or reject the images associated as output of the image recognition. The file association service 170 may retrain and adjust the image recognition output based on confirmed and rejected images to improve the success rate of file association.

[0025] A user may also manually update file associations created by file association service 170. A user may overwrite associations previously created by an automated process, such as file associations created based on common metadata or image recognition. A user may add or remove files from the file associations of asset files 174 regardless of matching metadata or image recognition.

[0026] In step 230, the file association service 170 may generate a preview of the RAW file. The RAW file 140 transferred to the file association service 170 in step 210 may be stored in the database 171 in a file format that cannot be displayed in a web browser, such as .raw, .raf, .rw2, .dng, .dcr, .iiq, .tif, .bmp, .x3f, and various other similar RAW file formats. The file association service 170 may automatically convert the RAW file 140 to a compressed file format for display in a web browser, such as .jpeg, .png, .gif, .svg, .webp, or other similar formats, and may save the generated file as a preview file 175. The preview file 175 may be saved as a new file on the database 171, separate from the RAW file 140, and may be automatically associated with the asset file 174 of the RAW file 140.

[0027] At step 240, file association service 170 may receive a request for asset files 174. The request for asset files 174 may be initiated via user device 130 performing functions of management interface 180. The request may include a user selection for asset files 174, which may include multiple files, namely, RAW files 140, rendered files 150, and sidecar files 160. The request from management interface 180 may be processed by file association service 170 to retrieve the requested files from database 171.

[0028] In one embodiment, user input to the user device 130 may request to create a gallery of files via the management interface 180 for display on the website. The management interface 180 may display one or more asset files 174 for inclusion in the gallery of files based on a selection made by the user. The management interface 180 may include commands to filter which file formats are included in the gallery, such as selecting file formats such as .jpeg, .png, or .webp files. For example, the user may select to display only files of type .jpeg for the gallery. The management interface 180 may include .jpeg rendered files but exclude other types of files included in the asset file 174, such as .png rendered files associated with the same asset file 174, from the gallery. The management interface 180 may also send a request to the file association service 170 to generate a preview file 175 in .jpeg format for an asset file 174 that includes a RAW file 140 (which does not include an associated rendered file 150).

[0029] In another embodiment, user input to the user device 130 may execute a search function of the management interface 180 to filter and locate the asset files 174. The search function may display a search query including a text box. The user may enter search terms related to various search criteria to locate the asset files 174 into the text box via the user device 130. The search criteria may include metadata from the asset files 174, the RAW files 140, the rendered files 150, or the sidecar files 160, such as file names, dates, positioning, time, imaging parameters, or custom tags. The search terms may further include search criteria for image recognition using artificial intelligence (AI) or machine learning (ML) techniques, such as terms related to the content of the displayed image that may not be present in the metadata. Thus, based on such metadata, a learning model for image recognition and characterization may be developed. Such learning models may be further updated based on feedback from the user, such that subsequent images are more likely to be recognized and characterized according to the updated learning models. Thus, image recognition may improve over time as user feedback continues to update the learning models. The learning models may also be used to improve image search capabilities and provide suggested filters and / or search criteria to the user device 130. Such suggestions may be presented by displaying toggles for enabling or disabling certain categories (e.g., toggles for location-based criteria, toggles for image recognition-based search). Learning models may also be developed and refined for a particular user's file management workflow. Such learning models may be used to predict subsequent steps and their parameters (e.g., transfer to and launch of a photo editing application, upload to a photo sharing application), and such predictions may be used to automatically filter, launch, and / or automate certain workflow steps.

[0030] In step 250, the management interface 180 may cause the requested file to be displayed on the display 131 of the user device 130. The display 131 may include the requested asset file 174, the RAW file 140, the rendered file 150, the sidecar file 160, associated metadata for the asset file 174, or any combination thereof, based on the type of request. For example, a user may request to display a particular .jpeg rendered file 150 associated with the RAW file 140 and the sidecar file 160. The management interface 180 may generate a display of the .jpeg rendered file 150 on the user device 130, and may exclude a display of the RAW file 140 or the sidecar file 160. In another example, a user may request to display the entire asset file 174, including the RAW file 140, the rendered file 150, and the sidecar file 160. The management interface 180 may generate a display including the RAW files 140, the rendered files 150, and the sidecar files 160, as well as metadata for the asset files 174, such as file names, image parameters, and creation dates.

[0031] FIG. 3 is an exemplary screenshot of a display of the management interface displaying information about RAW files and metadata. A user can access RAW files 140 from the management interface 180 to view a display 300 of the associated RAW file 140. The display 300 of the associated RAW file 140 may include a preview file 175 and information about metadata 310 of the RAW file 140, such as camera information and capture parameters. The file association service 170 may automatically generate a preview file 175 of a received RAW file 140 without receiving other files associated with the RAW file 140. The management interface 180 may generate commands 320 for adding, editing, and displaying additional metadata of the RAW file 140, such as adding tags, captions, notes, or comments. Metadata added or edited by a user may be saved as part of the asset file 174 of the RAW file 140 and stored in the database 171 of the file association service 170.

[0032] 4 is an example screenshot of a display generated by a management interface displaying associated files of an asset file on a file association service. The file association service 170 may automatically generate an asset file 174 that includes the associated files based on matching metadata in one or more received files, such as the same file name 410. A user can access the asset file 174 from the management interface 180 and view a display 400 displaying the asset file 174, which includes various asset file metadata and file details associated with the asset file 174.

[0033] The details displayed for the asset file 174 and associated files may include a display of a rendered version of the RAW file 140 rendered by the file association service 170, such as a preview file 175, or a display of a rendered version rendered by a user in editing software, such as a rendered file 150 generated from a sidecar file 160. Additionally, the details displayed may include the associated respective file names 410, file types, file sizes, and last modified dates. In the displayed embodiment, the RAW file 140, the rendered file 150, and the sidecar file 160 have been uploaded and automatically associated with the asset file 174 by the file association service 170 based on the respective file metadata, including the matching file names 410. The associated file details display 420 may include interactive links to access each associated file, such as the RAW file display of FIG. 3.

[0034] The display 400 of an asset file 174 may also include user-editable fields for adding or editing asset metadata 430, such as adding a title or caption. In some embodiments, the asset metadata 430 may be saved and stored in the asset file database 171 without updating the metadata of each associated file. For example, a user may add or edit a title to an asset file's metadata 430, while the filename and title metadata of each associated RAW file, rendered file, and sidecar file may remain unchanged.

[0035] In another embodiment, a user may add asset metadata 430 that is automatically propagated by file association service 170 to the metadata of each associated file. File association service 170 may automatically propagate changes to asset metadata to associated file metadata based on various automated workflow triggers and user preference settings of file association service 170. Alternatively, a user may manually initiate metadata propagation through the functionality of management interface 180. For example, a user may add a custom metadata tag field to asset metadata 430, such as "client" for storing a client name. In configuring the custom tag field "client", a user may specify a user preference for automatically propagating changes to the custom metadata tag field to each associated file, which may be stored in database 171. A user may add text, such as "client:John Smith", to the "client" tag of asset metadata 430 of asset file 174. File association service 170 may automatically propagate the same field and text to each associated file based on selected user preferences stored in database 171. Further automatic workflow triggers and user preference settings are described in further detail in FIG.

[0036] 5 is an example screenshot of an asset organization view of the management interface of the file association service. The asset organization view 500 may include various features related to simultaneously viewing and interacting with multiple asset files 174. Viewing and interacting with multiple asset files 174 simultaneously may include features such as asset assembly 510, user preference settings 520, asset display tables 530, and various other features.

[0037] The asset assembly 510 may include functionality for organizing one or more asset files 174 into user-specified groups. The asset files 174 may be grouped in a variety of ways defined by the user, such as by capture event or by category of subject matter photographed. The asset assembly 510 may include filters for including or excluding asset files 174 to display for browsing during assembly of a gallery. The asset files 174 may be filtered by metadata, file type, asset files 174 with or without associated files, and various other similar filters. For example, a user may specify that only files with "dog" metadata are to be displayed. In another example, a user may specify that all files with "dog" metadata are to be excluded from display. The asset assembly 510 may operate in conjunction with an asset display table 530 and may display images selected by the user for inclusion in a group.

[0038] User preference settings 520 may include functionality for preferred user actions, such as setting automatic workflow triggers that may be configured by the user to perform tasks automatically on a recurring basis based on the completion of an action by the user or by the file association service 170.

[0039] For example, automated workflow triggers may be configured by a user to track the history of changes to asset files 174. Changes to asset files 174 may include tracking of user actions such as adding or removing files from file service 170, updating file metadata, manually creating file associations, overwriting existing files, and various similar actions. The tracking history of changes to asset files 174 may include tracking of changes made automatically by file association service 170 in addition to user-initiated changes. The tracking history of changes to asset files 174 may be displayed in the details of each asset file or as a log of all user actions for a given period of time.

[0040] In another example, the automated workflow triggers may be configured by a user to enable secure or authorized access to asset files 174. Secure or authorized access to asset files 174 may be enabled in various configurations to restrict public access to files, such as restricting access to all newly created files, restricting access to types of files (e.g., disabling viewing of asset files 174 that contain only RAW files 140), creating private uniform resource locators (URLs), or requiring a password to access galleries or files. Secure or authorized access may be configured uniformly for all of a user's files or may be used in any combination for various subsections of a user's files.

[0041] In another example, an automatic workflow trigger may be configured by a user to automatically retrieve files from the user device 130 or other storage location, such as a cloud server. The automatic workflow trigger may include configuration to specify the type of file, the location of the file (e.g., a specified folder on the user device 130), and how often to automatically check for and retrieve new files. Based on the configuration, the file association service 170 may periodically check and retrieve files stored in the database 171. The automatic retrieval of files may include the file association server 170 communicating with the user device 130 or the cloud server via the API 173.

[0042] In yet another example, an automatic workflow trigger may be configured by a user to launch a third party application 190 from the management interface 180. The automatic workflow trigger may include a configuration for selecting the third party application 190 from a list of connected third party applications with which the file association service 170 has previously communicated via the API 173. The automatic workflow trigger may further include a condition for launching the selected third party application 190, such as launching a storage application when a new file is created on the file association service, or launching an image editing application for a RAW file 140 that the user has selected for editing from the management interface 180.

[0043] The asset display table 530 may include functionality for visually sorting and selecting asset files 174. The asset display table 530 may be used in combination with the asset assembly 510 and user preference settings 520, such as when selecting images to create a gallery or when selecting images to launch in an editing application.

[0044] The asset display table 530 may display abbreviated or reduced versions of various images, metadata, and other information stored in each asset file 174. The asset display table 530 may include a thumbnail image 531, a file name 532, and a RAW file extension 533 of the asset file 174. The thumbnail image 531 of the asset file 174 may include a miniature or cropped version of a preview file 175 included in the asset file 174. The management interface 180 may prefer to display the preview file 175 of the RAW image 140 of the asset file 174 as the thumbnail image 531 instead of displaying a subsequent version or edit of the RAW file 140, such as the rendered file 150, included in the asset file 174. In some embodiments, the asset file 174 may not include the RAW file 140, and the management interface may display the rendered file 150. Filename 532 may include the filename of RAW file 140 or any other file (e.g., rendered file 150 or sidecar file 160) if there is no RAW file 140 in asset file 174. RAW file extension 533 may display the extension file type of RAW file 140 included in a particular asset file, or may not display the extension file type if there is no RAW file 140 in asset file 174. Thumbnail images of asset file 531, filename 532, and RAW file extension 533 may be used as simplified information about asset file 174 to assist a user in identifying and selecting a file to perform additional functions.

[0045] The asset display table 530 may further include interactable features to display additional information without accessing the details of the individual asset files. For example, an overlay such as a hover 534 may be displayed upon initial user interaction with a displayed asset file 174 in the asset display table 530, such as when the user moves a mouse cursor over the name or icon of the asset file 174 or taps once on the name or icon of the asset file 174 on a touch-enabled mobile display. In addition to the file name 532, the hover 534 may include extended metadata information about the asset file 174, such as a list of associated files contained in the asset file 174.

[0046] Additionally, the asset display table 530 may include an asset directory 535 that includes a file tree consisting of a hierarchy of folders and asset files 174 to assist a user in sorting, browsing, and searching for files. The folders in the hierarchy may be created manually by a user or automatically by the file association service 170 under certain conditions. For example, the file association service may generate and display a folder containing asset files assembled into a gallery.

[0047] The above detailed description of the technology has been presented for purposes of illustration and description. It is not intended to be exhaustive or to limit the technology to the precise form disclosed. Many modifications and variations are possible in light of the above teachings. The described aspects of the disclosure were selected to adequately explain the principles of the technology, its practical application, and to enable those skilled in the art to utilize the technology, with various modifications suited to the particular use contemplated. It is intended that the scope of the technology be defined by the claims.

Claims

1. A method for managing RAW files, comprising: evaluating a plurality of image files associated with one or more RAW files, each of the plurality of image files including respective metadata; grouping a set of one or more of the image files, the set of image files being grouped based on their respective metadata matching the same RAW file; generating an asset file that associates one or more derived files with the RAW file, the derived files including one or more file formats different from the RAW file; obtaining the asset file in response to a request from a user device, the request including custom asset metadata associated with the asset file; automatically transmitting the custom asset metadata to the respective metadata of the grouped image files; selecting at least one image file from the set of grouped image files; generating a display of the selected image file for rendering by an interface of the user device based on one or more of the derived files; A method comprising the above steps.

2. The method according to claim 1, wherein the step of evaluating the plurality of image files includes comparing the plurality of image files using image recognition technology.

3. The method according to claim 2, wherein using the image recognition technology includes identifying common patterns and features of the plurality of image files.

4. The method according to claim 1, further comprising formatting one or more of the image files in the set of grouped image files on a browser.

5. The method according to claim 1, wherein the step of selecting the at least one image file includes filtering based on the file type.

6. The method according to claim 1, wherein the step of selecting the at least one image file includes receiving one or more search queries from the user device.

7. The method according to claim 6, wherein the one or more search queries include terms related to the content of one or more image files within the set of grouped image files.

8. The method according to claim 1, wherein the step of selecting the at least one image file includes providing one or more proposed search criteria to the user device.

9. The method according to claim 1, further comprising improving the selection of the at least one image file using one or more feedbacks from the user device.

10. The method according to claim 1, further comprising predicting subsequent steps based on the selected image files within the set of grouped image files.

11. The method according to claim 1, wherein the derived file includes one or more rendered files, and the rendered file is a compressed image file generated from the RAW file.

12. The method according to claim 1, wherein the derived file includes one or more sidecar files, and the sidecar file includes a history of the editing process of the RAW file.

13. The method according to claim 1, including the step of generating a preview file generated from the RAW file, and the preview file is included in the generated display of the selected image file.

14. A system for managing RAW files, a memory, a processor that executes instructions stored in the memory, and execution of the instructions by the processor includes evaluating a plurality of image files associated with one or more RAW files, each of the plurality of image files including respective metadata, grouping a set of one or more of the image files, the set of image files being grouped based on the respective metadata matching the same RAW file, generating an asset file associating one or more derived files with the RAW file, the derived file including one or more file formats different from the RAW file, Obtaining the asset file in response to a request from a user device, wherein the request includes custom asset metadata associated with the asset file; Automatically transmitting the custom asset metadata to respective metadata of the grouped image files; Selecting at least one image file from the set of grouped image files; Generating a display of the selected image file for rendering by an interface of the user device based on one or more of the derived files; A system comprising the above.

15. The system according to claim 14, wherein the plurality of image files are evaluated by comparing the plurality of image files using image recognition technology.

16. The system according to claim 15, wherein the image recognition technology identifies common patterns and features of the plurality of image files.

17. The system according to claim 14, wherein the execution of instructions by the processor further includes formatting one or more image files among the set of grouped image files on a browser.

18. The system according to claim 14, wherein the at least one image file is selected by filtering based on file type.

19. The system according to claim 14, wherein the at least one image file is selected by receiving one or more search queries from the user device.

20. The system according to claim 19, wherein the one or more search queries include terms related to the content of one or more image files within the set of grouped image files.

21. The system according to claim 14, wherein the at least one image file is selected by providing one or more proposed search criteria to the user device.

22. The system according to claim 14, wherein the execution of instructions by the processor further includes improving the selection of the at least one image file using one or more feedbacks from the user device.

23. A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium having embodied thereon a program executable by a processor for executing a method of managing RAW files, the method comprising: evaluating a plurality of image files associated with one or more RAW files, each of the plurality of image files including respective metadata; grouping a set of one or more of the image files, the set of image files being grouped based on respective metadata matching the same RAW file; generating an asset file associating one or more derived files with the RAW file, the derived files including one or more file formats different from the RAW file; obtaining the asset file in response to a request from a user device, the request including custom asset metadata associated with the asset file; automatically transmitting the custom asset metadata to the respective metadata of the grouped image files; selecting at least one image file from the set of grouped image files; generating a display of the selected image file for rendering by an interface of the user device based on one or more of the derived files; A storage medium including the above steps.

Images