 of the client computer can be a person who is not the owner of the digital image, for example a person who has an interest in the digital image because of shared interests, relationships, or activities with the owner.
Thus, according to an embodiment of the present invention, a method for providing imaging products and services comprises the steps of providing a first digital image server having a storage system for storing collections of digital images for a plurality of users in response to a plurality of remote client computers connected to and in communication with the remote server through a computer network; forming a user personalization profile for each of the plurality of users, each user personalization profile providing personal preferences for one of the plurality of users; receiving digital images from the plurality of remote client computers and storing the digital images in the storage system on the digital image server; forming image usage profiles for the stored digital images, the image usage profiles providing data indicating how often the stored digital images have been used; and responsive to a particular one of the plurality of users selecting, from a remote client computer, a first image product or service using a first stored digital image, automatically providing a customized offering of a second product or service to the particular user, wherein the customized offering is customized in response to at least one of the image usage profiles and in response to at least one of the user personalization profiles.
Referring to FIG. 6, the profiles can be analyzed in step 612 to determine a preferred group (step 613) to assist in selecting the image products or services (step 615). For example, analysis of the profiles can determine that a group of several people have user profile data stored on the server that each defines similar interests and image profiles contain data indicating that this group of several people has an interest in the same digital images. This data is used, as described below, to automatically select an image product or service. This group may likewise have a preferred image product or service referenced in their profiles. The digital image server can then select the preferred image product or service (step 615) as described below, inform one or more of the group members in step 617 that a product or service has been selected, and receive a request from one or more of the preferred group members (step 619). The selected image product or service is then sold to the preferred group members (step 625), the image product is produced (e.g. printed) and delivered (step 635). In an alternative embodiment, the user may have a relationship to another person that is a member of a group and the image product or service can be selected based on the preferences of the group. This can be accomplished by accessing the personalization profiles of the group, creating a list of any common preferences, and selecting the preference that is held by the greatest number of group members. In such a case, the selected image product or service can be a gift to the other person.
As shown in FIG. 11, a profile file can include a user personalization profile, an image usage profile, or both. An image usage profile includes a use record for one or more digital images, that can be identified using image identifiers and that records for each of the identified images, for example, the time spent viewing the digital image, the number and type of products (e.g. prints, photobooks) made using the digital image. The image usage profile can also include the date that the image was last viewed, the number of access hits to a web-page displaying the digital image by the owner, or by one or more persons who are not the owner. The image usage profile can also include a “shared with list” of people with whom the image has been shared, for example by email. The image usage profile can include a degree of preference for the image, as described in commonly assigned U.S. Pat. No. 7,327,505 entitled “Method for providing affective information in an imaging system” to Fedorovskaya et al. This degree of preference can include a rating manually input by a user, such as a “star rating” of one to five stars. The image usage profile can include the use of the digital images by people who are not the owner as well as use of the digital images by the owner.
The profile can be a user personalization profile that includes information about a particular user. This information can include, for example personal information such as the user's name, nickname, gender, approximate income level, birth date, marital status and anniversary, and spouses name. The user personalization profile can also include one or more images of the user, such as a portrait image that identifies the user.
The user personalization profile can also include imaging product preferences, image type preferences, and a history of prior imaging product purchases. The imaging product preferences can include a preference for certain types of products (e.g. albums or separate prints), a particular type of print (e.g. 4×6 or 3×5, glossy or matte finish, border or no border). The image type preferences can include the type of images (mood, level of color saturation, contrast level) preferred by the user based on image analysis of the user's preferred images. The history of prior imaging product purchases can determine, for example, if the user prints images on a regular basis, prints cards on a repeating basis (e.g. Christmas or New Year's Day cards).
The user personalization profile can also include information about the personal tastes of the user. This information can, in many cases, be automatically determined by analyzing one or more social network web sites associated with the user, such as their personal MySpace or Facebook page. The information in the user personalization file can include, for example, the user's most favorite colors, and also the user's least favorite colors, as well as typefaces, graphics, templates, or other design elements the user prefers for greeting cards, calendars, and the like. The information can also include the user's favorite music genres and groups, and can also include their least favorite genres and groups. The information can include the user's favorite schools, such as their alma mater. The information can include the user's favorite sports, and favorite athletes or sports teams.
The user personalization profile can also include a list of family members, and a “friends” list. The information used to identify family members and friends can include links to the user personalization profiles of these family members and friends.
The user personalization profile can be linked to the image usage profiles of any digital images found to be of interest (viewed, printed, emailed, etc.) by the user. Similarly, the image usage profile of a digital image can be linked to the user personalization profiles of any user that has used the digital image.
The information in the user personalization profile can be gathered from a variety of sources, for example direct interaction with an image fulfillment server, from image origination devices (e.g. digital image cameras or scanners), or from personal web-pages found, for example, in social network sites. As noted above, the profile information (relating to both image use and image users) can be stored in a common database or distributed among separate files, possibly located on separate computers. Such computers can include servers used for image product fulfillment or social networking websites employed by users for social interactions.
Image products can include, for example, prints, post cards, albums, calendars, mugs, and the like. Certain types of users, for example grandparents, can have certain types of preferred products, for example calendars, while other types of users, for example friends, can have different types of preferred products, for example post cards or albums. Note that in some cases, the owner of the image may not be a subject within the image, e.g. a picture taken of a friend. In other cases, a collection of images can be associated with a group of individuals with a common interest in a certain type of product, such as an album, that commemorates an activity the group enjoyed together. All the foregoing example profile data can be stored in user and image profile files accessible by the server.
To facilitate interactions between members of a group, referring to FIG. 7 in another embodiment of the present invention, a digital image, a reference to a digital image, or access to a digital image can be provided in step 740 from the digital image owner to another person who is not the owner, for example. In step 745, a profile (such as a user personalization profile), a reference to the profile, or access to the profile or a subset of the information within the profile (as controlled by the owner of the information, for example) can be provided. An image product using the information in multiple user personalization profiles can be created in step 750.
In one example of the embodiment of FIG. 7, a user can be given permission to access the information in the user personalization profiles of many different friends and family members, in order to create an image product. The image product could be a calendar, and the user personalization profiles can be used to provide the name, birthday, and image of each friend or family member. In step 750, the digital image server can automatically use the information in each of the user personalization profiles to create a calendar which indicates the birthday of each friend or family member on the appropriate day of the month. The calendar can also show the image of the particular friend or family member, provided in the user personalization profile for that friend or family member, overlaying the appropriate day of the year on the calendar, or as one of the images used for that month of the year.
To facilitate the automatic creation of image products that are likely to appeal to a particular user, both the user personalization profile and the image usage profile can be used together, to select a particular type of image product and the particular images to be used in the image product as described below, and as shown in FIG. 8. In