AUTOMATED PHOTO-PRODUCT SPECIFICATION METHOD
A computer-implemented method of making a photo-product by sending a collection of digital images, a plurality of image-type data, an image-product selection, and a predefined image-type distribution over a communication network to a network destination. The destination, which can comprise a computer system, or an image processing service, processes the sent data and delivers the image-product selection having incorporated therein a plurality of digital images selected from the sent collection of digital images wherein a distribution of the images in the image-product matches the defined distribution.
1 . A computer-implemented method of making an image-product, comprising:
digitally analyzing a plurality of digital images including classifying each digital image into one of a plurality of image-types such that the plurality of digital images includes images classified into a plurality of different image-types; and
accessing an electronic file comprising a predefined image-type distribution;
automatically selecting digital images from the plurality of digital images for forming a collection of digital images whose image distribution matches the predefined image-type distribution.
2 . The computer-implemented method of claim 1 , further comprising determining a value associated with each of the plurality of digital images, the value for indicating a type strength of the associated digital image.
3 . The computer-implemented method of claim 2 , further comprising ranking the plurality of digital images according to each of their associated values.
4 . The computer-implemented method of claim 3 , wherein the step of automatically selecting digital images comprises preferentially selecting higher ranked ones of the plurality of digital images.
5 . The computer-implemented method of claim 1 , wherein the step of classifying each digital image includes storing type data associated with each classified digital image for identifying a type of the digital image, and wherein the step of determining a value associated with each of the plurality of digital images includes storing value data associated with each evaluated digital image.
6 . The computer-implemented method of claim 5 , wherein the predefined distribution specifies a distribution of image values of the plurality of digital images with respect to at least one image type.
7 . The computer-implemented method of claim 1 , further comprising calculating an image-type distribution for the plurality of digital images, and wherein the predefined image-type distribution is equivalent to the image-type distribution for the plurality of digital images.
8 . The computer-implemented method of claim 1 , further comprising printing the collection of digital images and incorporating the printed collection of digital images into an image product.
9 . The computer-implemented method of claim 1 , further comprising incorporating the collection of digital images into a digital image product.
10 . The computer-implemented method of claim 1 , further comprising printing the collection of digital images onto an image product.
11 . The computer-implemented method of claim 1 , further comprising receiving over a communication network the plurality of digital images and the electronic file comprising the predefined image-type distribution.
12 . A computer-implemented method of making a photo-product, comprising:
sending a collection of digital images and a plurality of image-type data, each associated with one of the collection of digital images, over a communication network to a network destination;
sending an image-product selection over the communication network to the network destination;
sending a predefined image-type distribution over the communication network to the network destination; and
receiving the image-product selection, the image-product selection having incorporated therein a plurality of digital images wherein an image-type distribution of the plurality of digital images is equivalent to an image-type distribution of the defined distribution.
13 . The computer-implemented method of claim 12 , wherein the step of receiving comprises receiving the image-product selection in a digital format over the communication network.
14 . The computer-implemented method of claim 12 , wherein the step of receiving comprises receiving the image-product selection in a physical format having printed versions of the plurality of digital images incorporated therein.
15 . The computer-implemented method of claim 13 , wherein the image-product selection is selected from the group consisting of a photo-book, a photo-card, and a photo-collage.
16 . The computer-implemented method of claim 12 , further comprising initiating a user interface, wherein the step of sending an image-product selection is performed using the user interface.
17 . The computer-implemented method of claim 12 , wherein the predefined image-type distribution includes relative percentages of the image types.