IMAGE DISPLAY DEVICE PROVIDING FEEDBACK MESSAGES

1 . A digital image display device for displaying a collection of digital media assets, comprising:

a display screen;

a processor;

a network connection for receiving digital media assets provided by one or more individuals using a plurality of sharing methods and for providing feedback related to the received digital media assets using the plurality of sharing methods;

an image memory for storing the received digital media assets together with associated metadata;

a user interface for receiving input from a user of the digital image display device; and

a processor-accessible program memory storing executable instructions for causing the processor to execute the steps of:

receiving a set of digital media assets and associated metadata using the network connection, wherein each digital media asset is provided by a particular individual using a particular sharing method, and wherein the metadata includes an association of the received digital media assets with the corresponding individuals who provided the received digital media assets and also includes an association of the received digital media assets with the corresponding sharing methods;

storing the received set of digital media assets and the associated metadata in the image memory;

displaying one of the digital media assets on the display screen;

displaying a set of feedback message choices on the display screen;

receiving input from the user of the digital image display device via the user interface to select a particular one of the set of feedback message choices;

using the metadata associated with the displayed digital media asset to determine the particular individual who provided the displayed digital media asset and the particular sharing method used by the individual to provide the displayed digital media asset; and

using the network connection to provide an indication of the selected feedback message to the particular individual who provided the digital media asset using the same particular sharing method that was used to provide the displayed digital media asset.

2 . The digital image display device of claim 1 wherein the set of feedback message choices that are displayed is determined responsive to the particular individual who provided the displayed digital media asset, and wherein different sets of feedback message choices are determined for different determined individuals.

3 . The digital image display device of claim 2 wherein particular set of feedback message choices includes feedback messages that have been previously provided for other digital media assets associated with the individual who provided the displayed digital media asset.

4 . The digital image display device of claim 2 wherein the previously provided feedback messages were provided by individuals different than the user of the digital image display device.

5 . The digital image display device of claim 2 wherein different sets of feedback message choices are associated with different groups of individuals, and wherein the particular set of feedback message choices is determined by determining a group of individuals that includes the individual who provided the displayed digital media asset.

6 . The digital image display device of claim 2 wherein the determination of the set of feedback message choices is also responsive to the identity of the user of the digital image display device.

7 . The digital image display device of claim 6 further including an image capture device, and wherein the identity of the user of the digital image display device is determined by applying a face recognition algorithm to an image of the user captured using the image capture device.

8 . The digital image display device of claim 6 wherein the identity of the user of the digital image display device is supplied using the user interface.

9 . The digital image display device of claim 6 wherein the identity of the user of the digital image display device is determined using a fingerprint scanner.

10 . The digital image display device of claim 6 wherein the set of feedback choices are determined responsive to a relationship between the user of the digital image display device and the individual who provided the displayed digital media asset.

11 . The digital image display device of claim 1 wherein the feedback message choices include an identification of the user of the digital image display device.

12 . The digital image display device of claim 1 wherein the set of feedback message choices that are displayed is determined responsive to the image content of the displayed digital media asset.

13 . The digital image display device of claim 1 wherein the sharing method associated with the displayed digital media asset is an E-mail sharing method, a social networking website sharing method, a digital image sharing website sharing method, a web browser upload sharing method or a direct network upload sharing method.

14 . The digital image display device of claim 1 wherein the received digital media assets are digital still images or digital video images captured using a digital camera, or are scans of photographic prints or film captured using a digital image scanner.

15 . The digital image display device of claim 1 wherein the network connection is a wireless network connection.

16 . The digital image display device of claim 1 wherein the user interface includes a touch screen, a pointing device, one or more touch strips, one or more buttons, a remote control, a gesture recognition interface or a voice recognition interface.

17 . The digital image display device of claim 1 wherein at least some of the displayed feedback choices are represented using icons.

18 . The digital image display device of claim 17 wherein at least one of the icons is an emoticon.

19 . The digital image display device of claim 17 wherein at least one of the icons includes an image of the user of the digital image display device.

20 . The digital image display device of claim 1 wherein the user interface is a touch screen interface, wherein the feedback choices are represented using icons, and wherein the user provides input by touching the icon corresponding to the particular one of the feedback messages.

21 . A method for providing a feedback message related to a digital media asset, comprising:

using a network connection to receive a digital media asset, together with associated metadata, wherein the digital media asset is provided by a particular individual on a remote system using a particular sharing method, and wherein the metadata includes an association between the received digital media asset and the individual who provided the received digital media assets and also includes an association between the received digital media asset and the particular sharing method;

storing the received digital media asset in an image memory;

displaying the received digital media asset on a display screen;

displaying a set of feedback message choices on the display screen,

receiving input from a user via a user interface, the input indicating a selection of a particular one of the displayed set of feedback message choices; and

using the metadata associated with the displayed digital media asset to determine the particular individual who provided the displayed digital media asset and the particular sharing method used by the individual to provide the displayed digital media asset; and

using the network connection to provide an indication of the selected feedback message to the particular individual who provided the digital media asset using the same particular sharing method that was used to provide the displayed digital media asset.