Content-aware digital media storage device and methods of using the same
A content-aware digital media storage device includes a host device interface for exchanging digital information with a host device, a memory array for storing digital information received from the host device via the host interface, a peripheral module configured to communicate the digital information stored in the memory array to a receiver located remote from the digital media storage device, and a controller communicatively coupled to the host device interface, the memory array and the peripheral module configured to interpret directory information associated with the digital information stored in the memory array so as to selectively access said digital information and communicate such accessed digital information to the peripheral module for transmission to the remote receiver. Digital images stored in the memory array may be transmitted to a remote host via a wireless network access point with which the peripheral module of the storage device is associated.
1. A digital media storage device comprising:
a host device interface adapted for exchanging digital information with a host;
a memory, at least a first portion of which for storing the digital information received from the host via the host device interface;
a wireless communications interface; and
a controller communicatively coupled to the host device interface, the memory and the wireless communications interface and configured to interpret directory information associated with the digital information stored in the memory so as to selectively access said digital information,
wherein said memory stores, in a second portion of the memory not used for storing the digital information and not accessible to the host, (i) a wireless network configuration utility for the wireless communication interface, said configuration utility including controller-executable instructions for causing said controller to store configuration information for the wireless communication interface to associate with a wireless network, and (ii) controller-executable instructions to cause the controller to proxy all accesses from the host device interface to storage locations of the memory at which the digital information is to be stored before resolving said accesses to said storage locations of the memory.
2. The digital media storage device of claim 1 , wherein the memory comprises a flash memory array.
3. The digital media storage device of claim 1 , further comprising a global positioning system (GPS) receiver.
4. The digital media storage device of claim 1 , wherein the second portion of the memory comprises a first memory separate from a second memory used for storing the digital information.
5. The digital media storage device of claim 1 , wherein the second portion of the memory comprises a private partition of the first portion of the memory used for storing the digital information.
6. The digital media storage device of claim 1 , wherein the memory further stores controller-executable instructions for causing said controller to permit access to the digital information during an authenticated network session.
7. The digital media storage device of claim 1 , wherein the memory further stores, in the second portion, controller-executable instructions to cause the controller to mount the digital media storage device, obtain an inventory of files stored thereon, and make modifications to a file system within which said files are cataloged.
8. The digital media storage device of claim 7 , wherein said modifications include one or more of: removing files, renaming files, updating file attributes, and creating new files.
9. The digital media storage device of claim 1 , wherein the memory is formatted so that only blocks that contain file system metadata have a valid translation from logical block addresses presented at the host device interface to physical addresses within the digital media storage device and all other blocks are not directly accessible by the host.
10. A digital media storage device comprising a controller, a memory array coupled to the controller, a host interface coupled to the controller and a wireless communication module coupled to the controller, wherein the controller is configured to interpret and process digital content stored in the memory array under the control of controller-executable instructions stored in the digital media storage device, which controller-executable instructions when executed by the controller cause the controller to (i) proxy accesses to the memory array by a host device before resolving said accesses to specific blocks of data in the memory array according to a mapping of logical block addresses presented at the host interface to physical addresses within the digital media storage device, and (ii) maintain persistent databases of free physical blocks within the memory array and logical-to-physical mappings for allocated blocks within the memory array, and (iii) intercept block accesses via the host interface and,
(a) if a block read is requested and there exists a logical-to-physical mapping for that block address, to read a corresponding block of data from the memory array and return the corresponding block of data to the host interface, or
(b) if a block read is requested but there exists no logical-to-physical mapping for that block address, to fabricate a block data read response without accessing the memory array, or
(c) if a block write is requested and there exists a logical-to-physical mapping for that block address, to write data presented at the host interface into the memory array at a corresponding physical address, or
(d) if a block write is requested but no existing logical-to-physical mapping for that block address is present, to take a currently unmapped physical block from a database of free physical blocks, create a new mapping from the block address provided at the host interface to a physical address of the currently unmapped physical block, and write the data provided by at the host interface to the memory array at that physical address.
11. The digital media storage device of claim 10 , wherein the memory array comprises a flash memory array.
12. The digital media storage device of claim 10 , further comprising a global positioning system (GPS) receiver.