Image annotation for image auxiliary information storage and retrieval

1. A method for image annotation for image auxiliary information storage and retrieval comprising:

storing a digital image into memory of a computer;

selecting separately stored auxiliary information for the digital image;

encoding a network location of the auxiliary information; and,

embedding the encoding into the digital image;

wherein the stored auxiliary information includes audio commentary providing context to the digital image, video imagery temporally contemporaneous to the corresponding digital image, a textual statement of a location of a subject of the digital image, camera settings at a time of acquiring the digital image, identity of a user of a camera at the time of acquiring the digital image, and text providing classification and categorization information with respect to the digital image.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein encoding a network location of the auxiliary information, comprises embedding the bar code into a comer of the digital image.

3. An image data processing system comprising:

a host computer with at least one processor and memory;

an image editing tool executing in the memory of the host computer; and,

an image annotation module coupled to the image editing tool, the module

comprising program code enabled upon execution by the host computer to select auxiliary information for a digital image loaded in the image editing tool, to encode a network location of the auxiliary information, and to direct the image editing tool to embed the encoding into the digital image;

wherein the stored auxiliary information includes audio commentary providing context to the digital image, video imagery temporally contemporaneous to the corresponding digital image, a textual statement of a location of a subject of the digital image, camera settings at a time of acquiring the digital image, identity of a user of a camera at the time of acquiring the digital image, and text providing classification and categorization information with respect to the digital image.

4. The system of claim 3 , wherein the encoding is a bar code.

5. A computer program product for image annotation for image auxiliary information storage and retrieval, the computer program product comprising:

a non-transitory computer readable storage medium having computer readable program code embodied therewith, the computer readable program code comprising:

computer readable program code for storing a digital image into memory of a computer;

computer readable program code selecting separately stored auxiliary information for the digital image;

computer readable program code encoding a network location of the auxiliary information; and,

computer readable program code embedding the encoding into the digital image;

wherein the stored auxiliary information includes audio commentary providing context to the digital image, video imagery temporally contemporaneous to the corresponding digital image, a textual statement of a location of a subject of the digital image, camera settings at a time of acquiring the digital image, identity of a user of a camera at the time of acquiring the digital image, and text providing classification and categorization information with respect to the digital image.

6. The computer program product of claim 5 , wherein the encoding is a bar code.

7. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:

scanning the encoding of the digital image;

decoding the encoding into the network location;

retrieving the auxiliary information from the network location;

displaying the auxiliary information including the audio commentary providing context to the digital image, video imagery temporally contemporaneous to the corresponding digital image, a textual statement of a location of a subject of the digital image, camera settings at a time of acquiring the digital image, identity of a user of a camera at the time of acquiring the digital image, and text providing classification and categorization information with respect to the digital image.

8. The system of claim 3 , wherein the image annotation module is configured to:

scan the encoding of the digital image;

decode the encoding into the network location;

retrieve the auxiliary information from the network location;

display the auxiliary information including the audio commentary providing context to the digital image, video imagery temporally contemporaneous to the corresponding digital image, a textual statement of a location of a subject of the digital image, camera settings at a time of acquiring the digital image, identity of a user of a camera at the time of acquiring the digital image, and text providing classification and categorization information with respect to the digital image.

9. The computer program product of claim 5 , the computer program product comprising:

computer readable program code for scanning the encoding of the digital image;

computer readable program code for decoding the encoding into the network location;

computer readable program code for retrieving the auxiliary information from the network location;

computer readable program code for displaying the auxiliary information including the audio commentary providing context to the digital image, video imagery temporally contemporaneous to the corresponding digital image, a textual statement of a location of a subject of the digital image, camera settings at a time of acquiring the digital image, identity of a user of a camera at the time of acquiring the digital image, and text providing classification and categorization information with respect to the digital image.