Automated discovery, assignment, and submission of image metadata to a network-based photosharing service

Claim 2

An automated metadata discovery, assignment, and submission system, comprising: a photosharing service coupled to a network through a server, the server storing metadata fields; and at least one client computer capable of communicating with the server over the network, the client computer storing a plurality digital files and an automation application, wherein, when executed the automation application is functional for; establishing communication with the photosharing service, downloading the metadata fields, automatically analyzing the content of a first file and assigning one or metadata values to the downloaded metadata fields based on the analysis, automatically discovering any pre-existing metadata values associated with the file and using the metadata values to populate corresponding downloaded metadata fields, displaying both the pre-existing and automatically assigned metadata values to the user for viewing and editing, recording the metadata values assigned to the file for use with a next image, and uploading the file and the metadata values to the photosharing service for storage.

Claim 3

The system of claim 1 wherein the digital file comprises a digital image.

Claim 4

The system of claim 1 wherein the automation application allows the user to perform edits on the image prior to uploading.

Claim 5

The system of claim 1 wherein the automation application includes a graphical user interface (GUI) for displaying the metadata values to the user and for displaying forms by which the user may enter and edit metadata values.

Claim 6

The system of claim 4 wherein the GUI displays the metadata values in a manner that visually distinguishes various categories of metadata for the user.

Claim 7

The system of claim 1 wherein the automation application includes a plug- in interface.

Claim 8

The system of claim 6 wherein the automation application provides built-in support for a plurality of image file formats, and wherein file type plug-ins may be added for interacting with the automation application through the plug-in interface to enable the automation application to support new file formats.

Claim 9

The system of claim 7 wherein the automation application uses image recognition plug-ins to analyze the image.

Claim 10

The system of claim 1 wherein the automation application further includes a history repository for recording the metadata values assigned to the image.

Claim 13

The method of claim 10 wherein step (c) further includes the step of: allowing image type plug-ins to interface with the application through the plug-in interface to increase a number of image file types supported by the application.

Claim 14

The method of claim 10 further including the step of: allowing the user to edit the image depicted in image file from the application prior to uploading to the photosharing service.

Claim 15

The method of claim 12 further including the step of: providing rotation, color correction, and cropping as image editing functions.

Claim 16

The method of claim 10 wherein step (d) further includes the step of: (i) when displaying the downloaded metadata fields indicating to the user which ones of the metadata fields are automatically detected from the image file, and which ones of the metadata fields are to be manually entered by the user.

Claim 17

The method of claim 14 wherein step (d) further includes the step of: displaying different categories of metadata differently as a visual aid to the user.

Claim 18

The method of claim 10 wherein step (d) further includes the step of: (ii) indicating to the user which ones of the metadata fields are optional fields and which are required fields.

Claim 19

The method of claim 10 wherein step (f) further includes the step of: (i) recording the metadata values assigned to image file in a history repository.

Claim 20

The method of claim 17 wherein step (f) further includes the step of: (ii) providing the history repository as a plug-in.

Claim 21

The method of claim 10 wherein step (i) further includes the step of: (i) placing the images and metadata in a queue for uploading that is processed by the application in a background process.

Claim 22

A computer-readable medium containing program instructions for automatically discovering metadata for digital image files and for submitting the metadata and image files to a network-based photosharing service by an application running on a client computer, the program instructions for: (a) downloading to the client computer from the photosharing service a list of metadata fields to be populated for the image files; (b) selecting a first image file and parsing the image file to extract metadata values therein, and using the metadata values to populate a portion of the downloaded metadata fields; (c) providing the application with a plug-in interface by which multiple image recognition applications may be added to the application, and using at least one of the image recognition applications to automatically analyze the image file, associate the image file with a particular category based on the analysis, and to populate at least one of the downloaded metadata fields with a value indicating the assigned category; (d) displaying on the client computer a list of the downloaded metadata fields and the corresponding values that were automatically populated in instructions (b) and (c); (e) allowing a user to fill-in unpopulated metadata fields and to edit the automatically populated metadata fields; (f) recording the metadata values assigned to image file; (g) retrieving a next image file and using the values assigned to the previous image file to populate a portion of the metadata fields for the current image; (h) repeating instructions (b)-(g) or each image file to be uploaded to the photosharing service; and (i) uploading the image files and corresponding metadata to the photosharing service.

Claim 23

A computer-readable medium containing program instructions for automatically discovering metadata for digital image files and for submitting the metadata and image files to a network-based photosharing service by an application running on a client computer, the program instructions for: (a) downloading to the client computer from the photosharing service a list of metadata fields to be populated for the image files; (b) selecting a first image file and parsing the image file to extract metadata values therein, and using the metadata values to populate a portion of the downloaded metadata fields; (c) providing the application with a plug-in interface by which multiple image recognition applications may be added to the application, and using at least one of the image recognition applications to automatically analyze the image file, associate the image file with a particular category based on the analysis, and to populate at least one of the downloaded metadata fields with a value indicating the assigned category; (d) displaying on the client computer a list of the downloaded metadata fields and the corresponding values that were automatically populated in instructions (b) and (c); (e) allowing a user to fill-in unpopulated metadata fields and to edit the automatically populated metadata fields; (f) recording the metadata values assigned to image file; (g) retrieving a next image file and using the values assigned to the previous image file to populate a portion of the metadata fields for the current image; (h) repeating instructions (b)-(g) or each image file to be uploaded to the photosharing service; and (i) uploading the image files and corresponding metadata to the photosharing service.

Claim 24

The computer-readable medium of claim 20 wherein instruction (c) further includes the instruction of: allowing image type plug-ins to interface with the application through the plug-in interface to increase a number of image file types supported by the application.

Claim 25

The computer-readable medium of claim 20 further including the instruction of: allowing the user to edit the image depicted in image file from the application prior to uploading to the photosharing service.

Claim 26

The computer-readable medium of claim 22 further including the instruction of: providing rotation, color correction, and cropping as image editing functions.

Claim 27

The computer-readable medium of claim 20 wherein instruction (d) further includes the instruction of: (i) when displaying the downloaded metadata fields indicating to the user which ones of the metadata fields are automatically detected from the image file, and which ones of the metadata fields are to be manually entered by the user.

Claim 28

The computer-readable medium of claim 24 wherein instruction (d) further includes the instruction of: displaying different categories of metadata differently as a visual aid to the user.

Claim 29

The computer-readable medium of claim 20 wherein instruction (d) further includes the instruction of: (iii) indicating to the user which ones of the metadata fields are optional fields and which are required fields.

Claim 30

The computer-readable medium of claim 20 wherein instruction (f) further includes the instruction of: (i) recording the metadata values assigned to image file in a history repository.

Claim 31

The computer-readable medium of claim 27 wherein instruction (f) further includes the instruction of: (ii) providing the history repository as a plug-in.

Claim 32

The computer-readable medium of claim 20 wherein instruction (i) further includes the instruction of: (i) placing the images and metadata in a queue for uploading that is processed by the application in a background process.