Method and sytem for calendar-based image asset organization

Abstract

A calendar-based image asset organizer, including a user interface for designating at least one date range, an image date reader for determining a date associated with an image, and an image query manager for identifying images having an associated date within the designated at least one date range. A method and a computer readable storage medium are also described and claimed.

1 . A calendar-based asset organizer, implemented by instructions of a computer program stored on a computer readable storage medium, the medium comprising:
 instructions for a digital asset manager, for receiving a search query for digital assets, and for returning a result set of identifiers for a plurality of digital assets that satisfy the query, wherein each asset in the result set has a date&time associated therewith; and   instructions for a user interface, communicatively coupled with the digital asset manager, (i) for issuing the search query to the digital asset manager, (ii) for receiving the result set of the search query from the digital asset manager, (iii) for presenting a calendar view of the result set wherein years, months and days between the earliest and latest date&times associated with assets in the result set are represented by cells, the cells being of uniform size and sorted by time, the calendar view comprising (a) a year view displaying one year per cell, (b) a month view displaying one month per cell, and (c) a day view displaying one day per cell, and (iv) for switching the calendar view between year view, month view and day view,   
     wherein selection of non-contiguous cells causes said user interface to display representations of the assets in the result set that have associated date&times within any of the selected cells' date&time ranges. 
   
   
       2  The medium containing the calendar-based asset organizer of  claim 1 , wherein the date&time associated with an asset is a date&time stored by an asset capture device within a file header of a file containing the asset. 
   
   
       3 . The medium containing the calendar-based asset organizer of  claim 1 , wherein the date&time associated with an asset is a date&time entered manually by a user. 
   
   
       4 . The medium containing the calendar-based digital asset organizer of  claim 1 , wherein the assets are image collections comprising a plurality of individual image assets that are aggregated together, and wherein the date&time associated with an image collection is the earliest of the date&times associated with the individual image assets in the collection. 
   
   
       5 . The medium containing the calendar-based asset organizer of  claim 1 , wherein the representations of the assets are thumbnail image representations. 
   
   
       6 . The medium containing the calendar-based asset organizer of  claim 1 , wherein double-clicking on a cell within the year view serves to activate the month view, and double-clicking on a cell within the month view serves to activate the day view. 
   
   
       7 . The medium containing the calendar-based asset organizer of  claim 1 , further comprising instructions for deselecting a currently selected cell in the calendar view, and selecting the next or the previous cell whose associated date&time range includes a date&time associated with at least one of the assets in the result set. 
   
   
       8 . The medium containing the calendar-based asset organizer of  claim 1 , wherein the user interface further presents a list of assets in the result set, and wherein selecting at least one asset in the list serves to visually mark cells in the calendar view that have date&time ranges that include a date&time associated with the selected at least one asset. 
   
   
       9 . The medium containing the calendar-based asset organizer of  claim 1 , wherein the user interface further presents a list of assets in the result set, and wherein hovering a mouse cursor over a cell in the calendar view serves to highlight assets in the list having associated date&times within the cell's date&time range. 
   
   
       10 . The medium containing the calendar-based asset organizer of  claim 1 , wherein at least one additional search criterion is received, and wherein the user interface makes the display of at least one cell dependent upon results obtained by the digital asset manager for a second search query, the second search query using the at least one additional search criterion and being performed on the subset of assets having associated date&times within the cell's date&time range. 
   
   
       11 . A method for organizing assets, comprising:
 issuing a search query for digital assets;   receiving a result set of identifiers for a plurality of digital assets that satisfy the search query, wherein each asset in the result set has a date&time associated therewith;   presenting a calendar view of the result set wherein years, months and days between the earliest and latest date&times associated with assets in the result set are represented by cells, the cells being of uniform size and sorted by time, the calendar view comprising (a) a year view displaying one year per cell, (b) a month view displaying one month per cell, and (c) a day view displaying one day per cell; and   switching the calendar view between year view, month view and day view,   
     wherein selection of non-contiguous cells causes displaying representations of the assets in the result set that have associated date&times within any of the selected cells' date&time ranges. 
   
   
       12 . The method of  claim 11  wherein the assets are image collections comprising a plurality of individual image assets that are aggregated together, and wherein the date&time associated with an image collection is the earliest of the date&times associated with individual image assets in the collection. 
   
   
       13 . The method of  claim 11 , wherein the representations of the assets are thumbnail image representations. 
   
   
       14 . The method of  claim 11 , wherein double-clicking on a cell within the year view serves to activate the month view, and double-clicking on a cell within the month view serves to activate the day view. 
   
   
       15 . The method of  claim 11 , wherein said presenting further comprises
 deselecting a currently selected cell in the calendar view; and   selecting the next or the previous cell whose associated date&time range includes a date&time associated with at least one of the assets in the result set.   
   
   
       16 . The method of  claim 11 , wherein said presenting further comprises presenting a list of assets in the result set, and wherein selecting at least one asset in the list serves to visually mark cells in the calendar view that have date&time ranges that include a date&time associated with the selected at least one asset. 
   
   
       17 . The method of  claim 11 , wherein said presenting further comprises presenting a list of assets in the result set, and wherein hovering a mouse cursor over a cell in the calendar view serves to highlight assets in the list having associated date&times within the cell's date&time range. 
   
   
       18 . A calendar-based asset organizer, implemented by instructions of a computer program stored on a computer readable storage medium, the medium comprising:
 instructions for a digital asset manager, for receiving a search query for digital assets, and for returning a result set of identifiers for a plurality of digital assets that satisfy the query, wherein each asset in the result set has a date&time associated therewith; and   instructions for a user interface, communicatively coupled with the digital asset manager, (i) for issuing the search query to the digital asset manager, (ii) for receiving the result set of the search query from the digital asset manager, (iii) for presenting a calendar view of the result set wherein years, months and days between the earliest and latest date&times associated with assets in the result set are represented by cells, the cells being of uniform size and sorted by time, the calendar view comprising (a) a year view displaying one year per cell, (b) a month view displaying one month per cell, each cell within the month view comprising sub-cells corresponding to days within that month, and (c) a day view displaying one day per cell, each cell within the day view comprising sub-cells corresponding to hours within that day, and (iv) for switching the calendar view between year view, month view and day view,   
     wherein selecting a cell or a sub-cell causes said user interface to display representations of assets in the result set that have associated date&times within the selected cell's or the selected sub-cell's date&time range. 
   
   
       19 . The medium containing the calendar-based asset organizer of  claim 18 , wherein day-of-the-week labels are displayed within each sub-cell of the month view, and selecting a day-of-the-week label serves to select all sub-cells within the month having their day of the week the same as the label day of the week. 
   
   
       20 . A method for organizing assets, comprising:
 issuing a search query for digital assets;   receiving a result set of identifiers for a plurality of digital assets that satisfy the search query, wherein each asset in the result set has a date&time associated therewith;   presenting a calendar view of the result set wherein years, months and days between the earliest and latest date&times associated with assets in the result set are represented by cells, the cells being of uniform size and sorted by time, the calendar view comprising (a) a year view displaying one year per cell, (b) a month view displaying one month per cell, each cell within the month view comprising sub-cells corresponding to days within that month, and (c) a day view displaying one day per cell, each cell within the day view comprising sub-cells corresponding to hours within that day; and   switching the calendar view between year view, month view and day view,   
     wherein selecting a cell or a sub-cell causes displaying representations of assets in the result set that have associated date&times within the selected cell's or the selected sub-cell's date&time range. 
   
   
       21 . A calendar-based asset organizer, implemented by instructions of a computer program stored on a computer readable storage medium, the medium comprising:
 instructions for a digital asset manager, for receiving a search query for digital assets, and for returning a result set of identifiers for a plurality of digital assets that satisfy the query, wherein each asset in the result set has a date&time associated therewith; and   instructions for a user interface, communicatively coupled with the digital asset manager, (i) for issuing the search query to the digital asset manager, (ii) for receiving the result set of the search query from the digital asset manager, (iii) for presenting a view of the result set wherein months between the earliest and latest date&times associated with assets in the result set are represented by cells, the cells being of uniform size and arranged into a two-dimensional grid of rows and columns,   
     wherein selecting a cell causes said user interface to display representations of assets in the result set that have associated date&times within the selected cell's month. 
   
   
       22 . A method for organizing assets, comprising:
 issuing a search query for digital assets;   receiving a result set of identifiers for a plurality of digital assets that satisfy the search query, wherein each asset in the result set has a date&time associated therewith; and   presenting a view of the result set wherein months between the earliest and latest date&times associated with assets in the result set are represented by cells, the cells being of uniform size and arranged into a two-dimensional grid of rows and columns,   
     wherein selecting a cell causes displaying representations of assets in the result set that have associated date&times within the selected cell's month.