Secure manipulation archiving retrieval and transmission system for electronic multimedia commerce

1. A secure manipulation archiving retrieval and transmission system for electronic multi media commerce, comprising:

a) a plurality of client devices having image communication capability;

b) an image processing center, including an application server(s), and an image archiving and storage database containing multimedia files, associated meta data, and image-rendering scripts for processing images to create variations of high resolutions images wherein the image rendering scripts are stored in lieu of non high-resolution images;

c) a host server connected to client devices by a communication network, and to the image processing center through an electronic security mechanism, the host server providing the client devices indirect access to the image processing center through the electronic security mechanism, whereby the client devices are prevented from interacting directly with the image processing center to provide multiple levels of security to the image processing center;

d) a commercial photo network including a plurality of image capture devices and image output devices connected by a communication network;

e) an image clearinghouse connected to the commercial photo network for temporarily receiving, storing and distributing images based on a set of rules for storage, and distribution of the images, and connected to the image processing center through an electronic security mechanism, wherein the image clearinghouse can distribute a digital image to other servers that are not a part of the system, and wherein the image clearinghouse includes means for distributing digital images according to a distribution policy based upon image resolution, whereby the commercial photo network is prevented from interacting directly with the image processing center to provide multiple levels of security to the image processing center; and

f) a plurality of third party on-line image storage and retrieval sites connected to the image clearinghouse by a communication network.

2. The system claimed in claim 1 wherein the image archiving and storage database can be addressed to retrieve a single digital image input by a client device through the electronic security mechanism.

3. The system claimed in claim 1 wherein the image archiving and storage database can be addressed to retrieve a single motion image input by a client device through the electronic security mechanism.

4. The system claimed in claim 1 wherein the image archiving and storage database can be addressed to retrieve a single audio file input by a client device through the electronic security mechanism.

5. The system claimed in claim 1 wherein metadata is stored separately from image related data files.

6. The system claimed in claim 1 wherein XML (eXtensible Markup Language) data is electronically stored by the image-processing center.

7. The system claimed in claim 1 wherein the communication network between the image clearinghouse and the processing center is a public communications network, virtual private network (VPN) or private network.

8. The system claimed in claim 1 , wherein the communication network is the WWW and the host server is located at an internet gateway or a co-location site.

9. A secure manipulation archiving retrieval and transmission system for electronic multi media commerce, comprising:

a) a plurality of client devices having image communication capability;

b) an image processing center, including an application server(s), and an image archiving and storage database containing multimedia files, associated meta data, and image-rendering scripts for processing images to create variations of high resolutions images wherein the image rendering scripts are stored in lieu of non high-resolution images and wherein the stored image rendering scripts represent manipulations that were made to high resolution original images by a user with an application interface;

c) a host server connected to client devices by a communication network, and to the image processing center through an electronic security mechanism, the host server providing the client devices indirect access to the image processing center through the electronic security mechanism, whereby the client devices are prevented from interacting directly with the image processing center to provide multiple levels of security to the image processing center;

d) a commercial photo network including a plurality of image capture devices and image output devices connected by a communication network;

e) an image clearinghouse connected to the commercial photo network for temporarily receiving, storing and distributing images based on a set of rules for storage, and distribution of the images, and connected to the image processing center through an electronic security mechanism, whereby the commercial photo network is prevented from interacting directly with the image processing center to provide multiple levels of security to the image processing center; and

f) a plurality of third party on-line image storage and retrieval sites connected to the image clearinghouse by a communication network.

10. A secure manipulation archiving retrieval and transmission method for electronic multimedia commerce, comprising the steps of:

a) providing a plurality of client devices having image communication capability;

b) providing an image processing center, including an application server(s), and an image archiving and storage database containing multimedia files, associated meta data, and image-rendering scripts for processing images to create variations of high resolutions images wherein the image rendering scripts are stored in lieu of non high-resolution images;

c) providing a host server connected to client devices by a communication network, and to the image processing center through an electronic security mechanism, the host server providing the client devices indirect access to the image processing center through the electronic security mechanism, whereby the client devices are prevented from interacting directly with the image processing center to provide multiple levels of security to the image processing center;

d) providing a commercial photo network including a plurality of image capture devices and image output devices connected by a communication network;

e) providing an image clearinghouse connected to the commercial photo network for temporarily receiving, storing and distributing images based on a set of rules for storage and distribution of the images, and connected to the image processing center through an electronic security mechanism, whereby the commercial photo network is prevented from interacting directly with the image processing center to provide multiple levels of security to the image processing center;

f) providing a plurality of third party on-line image storage and retrieval sites connected to the image clearinghouse by a communication network;

g) electronically opening communication between the client device and the host server;

h) authenticating a client user id and password using the security mechanism;

i) processing instructions from the client device on the application server for output fulfillment, updating or delivering data for storage on the database, or retrieving data from the database; and

j) distributing a digital image from the image clearinghouse to a server located outside the system, wherein the image clearing house distributes digital images according to a distribution policy based upon image resolution.

11. The method claimed in claim 10 wherein the instructions include storing or retrieving a single digital image from the data base.

12. The method claimed in claim 10 wherein the instructions include storing or retrieving a single motion image from the database.

13. The method claimed in claim 10 wherein the image archiving and storage database can be addressed to retrieve a single audio file input by a client device via the electronic security mechanism.

14. The method claimed in claim 10 further comprising the step of distributing a digital image from the image clearinghouse to a server located outside the system.

15. The method claimed in claim 10 wherein XML (eXtensible Markup Language) data is electronically stored by the image processing center.

16. The method claimed in claim 10 wherein the communication network between the image clearinghouse and the processing center is a public communications network, virtual private network (VPN) or private network.

17. The method claimed in claim 10 , wherein the communication network is the WWW and the host server is located at an internet gateway or a co-location site.

18. The method claimed in claim 10 further comprising the step of retrieving at least one stored image from the storage database in response to a secure client request for output fulfillment by the commercial photo network.

19. The method claimed in claim 10 further comprising the step of identifying images that contain the presence of an electronic virus.

20. The method claimed in claim 10 further comprising the step of discarding images that do not comprise a standard file format or contain evidence of the presence of an electronic virus.

21. The method claimed in claim 10 further comprising the step of employing separate trusted application servers that are not maintained as part of the image-processing center access to the data stored on the storage data bases.

22. A secure manipulation archiving retrieval and transmission method for electronic multimedia commerce, comprising the steps of:

a) providing a plurality of client devices having image communication capability;

b) providing an image processing center, including an application server(s), and an image archiving and storage database containing multimedia files, associated meta data, and image-rendering scripts for processing images to create variations of high resolutions images wherein the image rendering scripts are stored in lieu of non high-resolution images and represent manipulations that were made to high resolution original images by a user with an application interface;

c) providing a host server connected to client devices by a communication network, and to the image processing center through an electronic security mechanism, the host server providing the client devices indirect access to the image processing center through the electronic security mechanism, whereby the client devices are prevented from interacting directly with the image processing center to provide multiple levels of security to the image processing center;

d) providing a commercial photo network including a plurality of image capture devices and image output devices connected by a communication network;

e) providing an image clearinghouse connected to the commercial photo network for temporarily receiving, storing and distributing images based on a set of rules for storage and distribution of the images, and connected to the image processing center through an electronic security mechanism, whereby the commercial photo network is prevented from interacting directly with the image processing center to provide multiple levels of security to the image processing center;

f) providing a plurality of third party on-line image storage and retrieval sites connected to the image clearinghouse by a communication network;

g) electronically opening communication between the client device and the host server;

h) authenticating a client user id and password using the security mechanism; and

i) processing instructions from the client device on the application server for output fulfillment, updating or delivering data for storage on the database, or retrieving data from the database.

23. A secure manipulation archiving retrieval and transmission system for electronic multi media commerce, comprising:

a) a plurality of client devices having image communication capability;

b) an image processing center, including an application server(s), and an image archiving and storage database containing multimedia files, associated meta data, and image-rendering scripts for processing images to create variations of high resolutions images wherein the stored image rendering scripts represent manipulations that were made to high resolution original images by a user with an application interface;

c) a host server connected to client devices by a communication network, and to the image processing center through an electronic security mechanism, the host server providing the client devices indirect access to the image processing center through the electronic security mechanism, whereby the client devices are prevented from interacting directly with the image processing center to provide multiple levels of security to the image processing center;

d) a commercial photo network including a plurality of image capture devices and image output devices connected by a communication network;

e) an image clearinghouse connected to the commercial photo network for temporarily receiving, storing and distributing images based on a set of rules for storage, and distribution of the images, and connected to the image processing center through an electronic security mechanism, whereby the commercial photo network is prevented from interacting directly with the image processing center to provide multiple levels of security to the image processing center; and

f) a plurality of third party on-line image storage and retrieval sites connected to the image clearinghouse by a communication network.

24. The system claimed in claim 23 wherein the image archiving and storage database can be addressed to retrieve a single digital image input by a client device through the electronic security mechanism.

25. The system claimed in claim 23 wherein the image archiving and storage database can be addressed to retrieve a single motion image input by a client device through the electronic security mechanism.

26. The system claimed in claim 23 wherein the image archiving and storage database can be addressed to retrieve a single audio file input by a client device through the electronic security mechanism.

27. The system claimed in claim 23 wherein the image clearinghouse can distribute a digital image to other servers that are not a part of the system.

28. The system claimed in claim 27 wherein the image clearinghouse includes means for distributing digital images according to a distribution policy based upon image resolution.

29. The system claimed in claim 23 wherein metadata is stored separately from image related data files.

30. The system claimed in claim 23 wherein XML (eXtensible Markup Language) data is electronically stored by the image-processing center.

31. The system claimed in claim 27 wherein the communication network between the image clearinghouse and the processing center is a public communications network, virtual private network (VPN) or private network.

32. The system claimed in claim 23 , wherein the communication network is the WWW and the host server is located at an internet gateway or a co-location site.

33. A secure manipulation archiving retrieval and transmission method for electronic multimedia commerce, comprising the steps of:

a) providing a plurality of client devices having image communication capability;

b) providing an image processing center, including an application server(s), and an image archiving and storage database containing multimedia files, associated meta data, and image-rendering scripts for processing images to create variations of high resolutions images wherein the stored image rendering scripts represent manipulations that were made to high resolution original images by a user with an application interface;

c) providing a host server connected to client devices by a communication network, and to the image processing center through an electronic security mechanism, the host server providing the client devices indirect access to the image processing center through the electronic security mechanism, whereby the client devices are prevented from interacting directly with the image processing center to provide multiple levels of security to the image processing center;

d) providing a commercial photo network including a plurality of image capture devices and image output devices connected by a communication network;

e) providing an image clearinghouse connected to the commercial photo network for temporarily receiving, storing and distributing images based on a set of rules for storage and distribution of the images, and connected to the image processing center through an electronic security mechanism, whereby the commercial photo network is prevented from interacting directly with the image processing center to provide multiple levels of security to the image processing center;

f) providing a plurality of third party on-line image storage and retrieval sites connected to the image clearinghouse by a communication network;

g) electronically opening communication between the client device and the host server;

h) authenticating a client user id and password using the security mechanism; and

i) processing instructions from the client device on the application server for output fulfillment, updating or delivering data for storage on the database, or retrieving data from the database.

34. The method claimed in claim 33 wherein the instructions include storing or retrieving a single digital image from the database.

35. The method claimed in claim 33 wherein the instructions include storing or retrieving a single motion image from the database.

36. The method claimed in claim 33 wherein the image archiving and storage database can be addressed to retrieve a single audio file input by a client device via the electronic security mechanism.

37. The method claimed in claim 33 further comprising the step of distributing a digital image from the image clearinghouse to a server located outside the system.

38. The method claimed in claim 37 wherein the image clearinghouse distributes digital images according to a distribution policy based upon image resolution.

39. The method claimed in claim 33 wherein metadata is stored separately from image related data files.

40. The method claimed in claim 33 wherein XML (eXtensible Markup Language) data is electronically stored by the image processing center.

41. The method claimed in claim 33 wherein the communication network between the image clearinghouse and the processing center is a public communications network, virtual private network (VPN) or private network.

42. The method claimed in claim 33 , wherein the communication network is the WWW and the host server is located at an internet gateway or a co-location site.

43. The method claimed in claim 33 further comprising the step of retrieving at least one stored image from the storage database in response to a secure client request for output fulfillment by the commercial photo network.

44. The method claimed in claim 33 further comprising the step of identifying images that contain the presence of an electronic virus.

45. The method claimed in claim 33 further comprising the step of discarding images that do not comprise a standard file format or contain evidence of the presence of an electronic virus.

46. The method claimed in claim 33 further comprising the step of employing separate trusted application servers that are not maintained as part of the image-processing center access to the data stored on the storage databases.