Adaptive image browsing

Abstract

A method for browsing a collection of multimedia assets on a soft-copy display comprising: receiving a collection of multimedia assets, each multimedia asset having a set of associated metadata; defining an interest criterion; using a processor to analyze the metadata associated with the multimedia assets and rank the multimedia assets according to the interest criterion; displaying a portion of the multimedia assets on the soft-copy display according to the ranking; interactively user selecting a displayed multimedia asset using a user interface; updating the interest criterion based on the selected multimedia asset; using a processor to determine an updated ranking of the multimedia assets according to the updated interest criterion; and displaying a portion of the multimedia assets on the soft-copy display according to the updated ranking.

1 . A non-transitory computer readable medium storing instructions executable by one or more processors, the instructions comprising instructions to:
 identify a collection of multimedia assets, each multimedia asset having metadata descriptive of the multimedia asset's content;   determine a first interest criterion that corresponds to, at least in part, one or more factors relating to the metadata;   identify a first portion of multimedia assets from the collection of multimedia assets, the first portion comprising multimedia assets, wherein inclusion within the first portion is based, at least in part, on the determined interest criterion;   rank the multimedia assets in the first portion of multimedia assets based, at least in part, on the determined interest criterion;   display at least some of the ranked media assets of the first portion in a first region of a display in accordance with their rank;   select one of the displayed multimedia assets;   determine a second interest criterion based, at least in part, on the first interest criterion and metadata of the selected multimedia asset;   identify a new first portion of multimedia assets from the collection of multimedia assets based, at least in part, on the second interest criterion;   rank the multimedia assets in the new first portion of multimedia assets based, at least in part, on the second interest criterion;   display at least some of the ranked multimedia assets of the new first portion in a new first region of the display in accordance with their rank; and   display an option icon which is actuable to cause the one or more processors to identify and display a second portion of multimedia assets from the collection of multimedia assets.   
     
     
         2 . The non-transitory storage medium of  claim 1 , wherein identifying and displaying a second portion of multimedia assets from the collection of multimedia assets comprises:
 displaying at least some of the second portion of multimedia assets in a second region of the display, wherein the second region is disjoint of the first region.   
     
     
         3 . The non-transitory storage medium of  claim 2 , wherein the first portion of multimedia assets and the second portion of multimedia assets are mutually exclusive. 
     
     
         4 . The non-transitory storage medium of  claim 2 , wherein a majority of depictions of the multimedia assets displayed in the first region of the display are larger than a majority of depictions of the multimedia assets displayed in the second region of the display. 
     
     
         5 . The non-transitory storage medium of  claim 1 , wherein the first interest criterion is based on one or more sources from a group of sources, the group of sources comprising an interest criterion used in a previous session, a multimedia asset capture time, and a user profile. 
     
     
         6 . The non-transitory storage medium of  claim 1 , wherein the first interest criterion relates to one or more of an event, a location, a person, a time-frame, an anniversary, or a special occasion. 
     
     
         7 . The non-transitory storage medium of  claim 1 , wherein the metadata comprises information obtained from a device which initially captured a multimedia asset to which the metadata pertains, the information comprising one or more of: capture time, capture date, capture location, and settings of the device. 
     
     
         8 . The non-transitory storage medium of  claim 1 , wherein the metadata comprises semantic metadata determined by analyzing the multimedia assets using a semantic analysis algorithm. 
     
     
         9 . The non-transitory storage medium of  claim 8 , wherein the determined metadata comprises one or more of: an event type, a number and size of faces in an image, identity of individuals in an image, objects depicted in an image, distribution of colors in an image, similarity between images, and an appeal of an image, wherein the appeal is based on viewing time, viewing frequency, or both. 
     
     
         10 . The non-transitory storage medium of  claim 1 , wherein the selection of one of the displayed multimedia assets is responsive to a selective input at the display. 
     
     
         11 . A method for browsing a collection of multimedia assets, the method comprising:
 identifying a collection of multimedia assets, each multimedia asset having metadata descriptive of the multimedia asset's content;   determining a first interest criterion that corresponds to, at least in part, one or more factors relating to the metadata;   identifying a first portion of multimedia assets from the collection of multimedia assets, the first portion comprising multimedia assets, wherein inclusion within the first portion is based, at least in part, on the determined interest criterion;   ranking the multimedia assets in the first portion of multimedia assets based, at least in part, on the determined interest criterion;   displaying at least some of the ranked media assets of the first portion in a first region of a display in accordance with their rank;   selecting one of the displayed multimedia assets;   determining a second interest criterion based, at least in part, on the first interest criterion and metadata of the selected multimedia asset;   identifying a new first portion of multimedia assets from the collection of multimedia assets based, at least in part, on the second interest criterion;   ranking the multimedia assets in the new first portion of multimedia assets based, at least in part, on the second interest criterion;   displaying at least some of the ranked multimedia assets of the new first portion in a new first region of the display in accordance with their rank; and   displaying an option icon which is actuable to cause the one or more processors to identify and display a second portion of multimedia assets from the collection of multimedia assets.   
     
     
         12 . The method of  claim 11 , wherein identification and display of a second portion of multimedia assets from the collection of multimedia assets comprises:
 displaying at least some of the second portion of multimedia assets in a second region of the display, wherein the second region is disjoint of the first region.   
     
     
         13 . The method of  claim 12 , wherein first portion of multimedia assets and the second portion of multimedia assets are mutually exclusive. 
     
     
         14 . The method of  claim 12 , wherein a majority of depictions of the multimedia assets displayed in the first region of the display are larger than a majority of depictions of the multimedia assets displayed in the second region of the display. 
     
     
         15 . The method of  claim 11 , wherein the first interest criterion is based on one or more sources from a group of sources, the group of sources comprising an interest criterion used in a previous session, a multimedia asset capture time, and a user profile. 
     
     
         16 . The method of  claim 11 , wherein the first interest criterion relates to one or more of an event, a location, a person, a time-frame, an anniversary, or a special occasion. 
     
     
         17 . The method of  claim 11 , wherein the metadata comprises information obtained from a device which initially captured a multimedia asset to which the metadata pertains, the information comprising one or more of: capture time, capture date, capture location, and settings of the device. 
     
     
         18 . The method of  claim 11 , wherein the metadata comprises semantic metadata determined by analyzing the multimedia assets using a semantic analysis algorithm. 
     
     
         19 . The method of  claim 18 , wherein the determined metadata comprises one or more of: an event type, a number and size of faces in an image, identity of individuals in an image, objects depicted in an image, distribution of colors in an image, similarity between images, and an appeal of an image, wherein the appeal is based on viewing time, viewing frequency, or both. 
     
     
         20 . The method of  claim 11 , wherein selecting one of the displayed multimedia assets is responsive to a selective input at the display.