Electrical computers and digital processing systems: multicomput – Remote data accessing
Reexamination Certificate
1998-12-31
2003-06-10
Maung, Zarni (Department: 2154)
Electrical computers and digital processing systems: multicomput
Remote data accessing
C358S001150, C707S793000, C707S793000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06578072
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention is related to a network photograph service system which provides a digital photographic service, such as printing, on a network.
2. Description of the Related Art
As a form of digital photographic services, network photograph services have been known. In a network photograph service system, digital images owned by users are stored (registered) in a system of a service provider and printing orders or the like are received via a network such as the Internet.
In such a service, a register ID is issued to a user when the user asks a laboratory to register digital images upon developing a film, for example. The photographs recorded on the film are digitized by the laboratory or by a service center dedicated therefor. The digitized images are stored in a system of the service provider and disclosed on a network. The user can browse among his/her images having been registered, by accessing the system of the service provider via the network. At this time, image browsing is restricted by the register ID. In many cases, browsing is restricted in two steps, by a register ID and a password.
As has been described above, in a network photograph service, image browsing is restricted so that a person other than the owner of an image cannot see the image without permission. However, in the case of photographs taken during a trip with friends for example, the owner of the photographs may wish to let others browse among the images. In this case, in a conventional network photograph service, if the owner lets a person know the register ID or the password, the person can browse through the images.
However, if the register ID or the password is known by a friend of the owner for example, the friend can browse photographs of the owner's family trip if the family trip photographs and the photographs of a trip with the friend have been registered under the same ID and the password. In order to avoid this, the owner of the photographs needs to sort photographs according to a person to browse before registration of the photographs, and to obtain IDs and passwords different for each person to browse.
Many network photograph services which are currently available register images per film, and images belonging to each film are shown as one group upon browsing. Therefore, in order to obtain IDs different for each person or group to browse, images have to be recorded by changing films for each to browse. However, in the case where a film has some exposures left, it is general to continue photographing until the film is finished. In other words, it is not common practice to change films for each person or group to browse.
Furthermore, in the service where image registration is carried out per film, all photographs cannot be seen at once when 2 films of photographs have been taken at a trip, for example.
Moreover, some users may wish to allow different persons to browse the same photographs. For example, a user may wish to show photographs taken at a company trip to his/her colleagues, and also wish to show his/her parents only photographs that the user is in, out of the company trip photographs. In a conventional service where image registration is carried out at each time a film is read, images to be shown cannot be limited for different persons to browse.
Another method wherein registration is carried out not in blocks of images on each film but in any arbitrary unit is possible, although it is not carried out due to complex registration processing. In this method, photographs on 2 films can be registered and shown at one time, and registration of images classified by each person or group to browse is also possible.
However, image registration for each to browse means double registration of the same photographs with a system of a service provider when the same photographs are seen by a plurality of persons, such as the case in the above. In a conventional system, double registration doubles the cost due to memory space occupied by the images or the management fee therefor. Therefore, the service charge is doubled, which is not desirable for both the user and the service provider.
On the other hand, there is another method wherein photographs are shown in different web pages after being digitized at home or at a laboratory and classified for each person or group to browse. However, this kind of task is usually time-consuming and not all users can generate a web page.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
Therefore, demands have been growing for a system wherein images are disclosed on a network only to persons that a user allows to browse through the images, without a trouble during or after photographing of the images and without extra cost. Based on consideration of the above problems, an object of the present invention is to provide a network photograph service system which has a function to carry out such a service in the above, without a load on users and at low cost.
A network photograph service system of the present invention provides various kinds of services using an image disclosed on a network, and comprises:
image recording means for recording a plurality of images therein;
image selecting means for enabling a user of the service to select from images which the user can browse one or a plurality of images belonging to an image group by enabling the name of the image group having been pre-registered and the images recorded in the image recording means to be seen on the network;
image group managing means for managing the image group by recording a correspondence between the name of the image group and the image selected as an image belonging to the image group; and
grouped image disclosing means for enabling, based on the recorded correspondence, a user of the service to browse on the network only images belonging to an image group out of the images recorded in the image recording means when the name of the image group is specified by the user.
The “image recording means” means an image database which stores and manages images received from users. Each image is stored and managed as an image file in a large capacity hard disc or the like and the name of the image file is decided upon registration, according to a predetermined rule (for example, a register ID plus the date of image registration). Each image file is read from the hard disc upon necessity. The image recording means may not necessarily be a single recording medium. For example, the image recording means may include a plurality of hard discs. Alternatively, images can be assigned and stored in hard discs of a plurality of server computers in a distributive manner.
The “image selecting means” displays the names of available image groups and images having been stored on a screen of a personal computer of a user who accesses the system via the network, and enables the user to select an image by inputting a number or by clicking a mouse. The user selects an image group and images to be included therein, and presses an OK button, for example. In this manner, the user can define the image group. Alternatively, image groups to be chosen from may be displayed with check boxes under each image so that the image group to which each image belongs can be selected.
It is preferable for the images displayed by the image selecting means to be limited to the images registered by a user as in the case of a conventional network system. However, since the present invention is applicable to not only the images registered by a user but also images provided by service providers for example, the image selecting means does not necessarily have a function for restricting browsing.
The “name of the image group” in this invention means not only a name in characters but also any identifier for identifying an image group. For example, “group A”, “company trip”, “G
001
” can be listed as the names of image groups.
The “image group managing means” stores information obtained by the image selecting means, that is, a correspondence between an image group and images belonging to the image group. To st
Hara Makoto
Watanabe Michito
Yatabe Takashi
Fuji Photo Film Co. , Ltd.
Lin Wen-Tai
Maung Zarni
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