WO2017212499A1

WO2017212499A1 - Systems and methods for storage space management and high availability of digital media on mobile devices

Info

Publication number: WO2017212499A1
Application number: PCT/IN2017/050227
Authority: WO
Inventors: Vijay Mann
Original assignee: Vijay Mann
Priority date: 2016-06-07
Filing date: 2017-06-06
Publication date: 2017-12-14

Abstract

Embodiments disclosed herein provide systems, methods and computer products that provide storage space management and high availability of digital media files on mobile devices. The system presented in this invention helps a user retain a large number digital media files such as photos and videos on the mobile device, by compressing them to a resolution and size that is suitable for sharing over social media networks or for viewing on the device screen without any perceptible loss of quality. The proposed system provides the user with the option of storing the original media files to one or more backup storage options such as one or more storage drives on the cloud or a phone or desktop connected to the same wireless local area network (WLAN) or secondary storage such as SD cards on the mobile device. Once configured, digital media files on a mobile device are then selected based on user specified storage location, size, age and content and then backed up to the desired backup storage provider. The original media files are then compressed and finally deleted from the local storage on the mobile device to save storage space on the mobile device, while ensuring that the user is able to retain a much larger number of media files on the device.

Description

Systems and methods for storage space management and high availability of digital media on mobile devices

The present invention relates to storage space management and high availability of digital media on consumer electronic devices, and more specifically, to systems, methods and computer products for storage space management and high availability of digital media on mobile devices.

Mobile devices have become increasingly popular in recent years. Mobile devices such as tablets and smartphones have capabilities to capture and create digital media such as photos and videos through embedded camera equipment and associated applications. Examples of such mobile devices include Apple’s iPhone and iPad, models from Samsung, LG and other companies that run on the Android operating system, and other mobile devices that run on the Windows operating system.

Most mobile devices these days have high resolution cameras with a resolution of 13 MegaPixels (MP) or more and these devices can produce very large photos (of a few MegaBytes or MBs) and videos (of hundreds of MegaBytes or MBs) with default settings. However, most mobile devices today come with a storage space of a few tens of GigaBytes (or GBs) with most devices typically comprising of 16 GB or 32 GB storage space. As a result, photos and videos on these devices need to be continuously backed up and deleted to make space for newer photos and videos. This degrades the overall quality of experience for the user since this reduces the availability of digital media on user’s device and limits the number of photos and videos that can stay on the device at any given time. The user may not have access to a recent photo or video of importance because it was backed up to cloud to make space for new photos and videos.

While a number of solutions exist in the prior art for backing up the digital media files on a mobile device, most of them backup this digital media on to their own proprietary cloud storage service which is accessed over the Internet (for example NPL:1, NPL:2, NPL:3, NPL:4, NPL:5, NPL:6, NPL:7). Most cloud providers provide some free storage to their users and then charge on pay-per-usage basis. This has two drawbacks. First, this restricts the user to use only a given cloud storage service which has limited free storage space. Second, most of the cloud providers do not delete the original files from the device. This leaves the user with the difficult task of first figuring out which media files have been backed up and then deleting those files from the device to make space for new media files. There are other solutions (such as NPL8 and NPL9) that shrink or compress the photos or videos on a mobile device and even delete the original files to save space on the mobile device. However, these solutions do not give any option to the user to save or backup original media files to a backup location of his/her choice.

Finally, there are mechanisms in some mobile devices like Apple’s iphone and ipad, that can transfer all photos from the device to manufacturer’s proprietary cloud (iCloud) and replace them with smaller previews (NPL:3). Every time the user clicks on the preview, mobile device will download the original file from iCloud for a full view. This has several disadvantages. First, it requires the user to have an Internet connection for viewing photos. Second, backups are stored on to a proprietary cloud with limited free storage and the user cannot change that. Third, the previews that are generated on the device are small and not fit for viewing on the mobile device. Fourth, the user has no control over which photos get backed up and which do not. Finally, this mechanism is only restricted to photos and is not available for other digital media formats like videos. A similar system is also presented in PTL:1 with similar drawbacks as mentioned above and discussed below.

None of the existing solutions allow continuous selection of media files (both photos and videos) based on size, age and contents followed by their compression, backup and deletion which enables high availability of those media files on the mobile device while ensuring minimal storage space is used.

Therefore, it is apparent that most of the current solutions for digital media storage management on mobile devices have some drawbacks. They result in more costs for the user either in the form of storage space costs on the cloud or in the form of mobile data network usage charges. They also do not provide the user any flexibility in choosing either the files to be compressed, backed up and deleted or the backup storage option to which they should be backed up. They also reduce the availability of digital media on the devices to a few very recent media files.

Embodiments disclosed herein address the above stated needs by providing systems, methods and computer products that provide storage space management and high availability of digital media on mobile devices. This invention builds on the key observation that for most everyday usage scenarios such as sharing on social media networks (such as Facebook and WhatsApp) or for viewing on the device screen, the media files do not need to be their original size and could be reduced in resolution to save on storage space. Large resolution medial files (photos and videos) are typically required for less frequent usage scenarios such as viewing on a large television screen or printing on a large sheet of paper. The system presented in this disclosure can help a user retain many more digital media files (such as photos and videos) by compressing them to a resolution and size that is suitable for sharing over social media networks or for viewing on the device screen. The proposed system provides the user with the option of storing the original media files to a number of backup storage options which could be either on the cloud or on the wireless local area network (WLAN) or even on the device as a secondary storage (Secure Digital (SD) cards). Once configured, the selected digital media files (either all files or user specified files based on size (for example, largest first) and age (for example, oldest first)) or other user search parameters (such as all images that have text or all images that feature a particular face) are uploaded to the desired backup storage provider. The original media files are then deleted from the local storage on the mobile device.

Proposed invention can either be implemented as an application or a service that will run on the mobile device or can be embedded as part of the mobile device Operating System itself. Proposed system can also be configured as a service to run daily at a specific time to compress original media files, backup original media files and delete original media files to save storage space on the mobile device, while ensuring that the user is able to retain a much larger number of media files on the for sharing on social media networks or viewing on the device than that is possible by solutions present today.

The accompanying drawing, which is incorporated in and constitutes part of the specification, illustrate various embodiments of the invention. Together with the general description, the drawings serve to explain the principles of the invention. In the drawings:

Fig. 1 depicts an overview of a system for storage space management and high availability of digital media files on mobile devices;

Fig. 2 depicts a method of preliminary activities for preparing the storage space management and high availability system for digital media files on mobile devices;

Fig. 3 is a flowchart of a method of configuring and discovering a backup storage provider in the same wireless local area network as the target mobile device;

Fig. 4 depicts a block diagram of a mobile device such as a smartphone suitable for use in the various embodiments; and

Fig. 5 depicts a computer system suitable for implementing and practicing various embodiments.

The various embodiments disclosed herein involve systems and methods that can be used to manage storage space on mobile devices while ensuring high availability of digital media files on those devices.

Fig. 1 depicts an overview of a system for managing the storage space on a mobile device while ensuring high availability of digital media files on those devices, according to various embodiments disclosed here. Most of the system modules reside inside the mobile device (101). Users of the mobile device input their preferences (103) in terms of desired media files (storage location to use - primary or secondary local storage and whether to select all files of a given content type or files that match a specific search criteria (for example, all files that are older than the specified age or all files that are larger than the specified size or all files that contain text or a human face)), desired resolution (type of social media network on which they usually share digital media files, and viewing screen where they would like to view the media files) and quality, backup options (one or more cloud storage drives or a phone or desktop on the wireless local area network or secondary storage on phone (SD cards)) and whether to retain the files on the device or not (deletion of original files).

Trigger module (105) controls when the process of compressing and backing up one or more media files is triggered. The trigger may be a user trigger (when the user opens the application and explicitly requests an operation to be performed) or time based trigger (when entire process is configured as a service to run daily or weekly at a specific time) or an event based trigger (for example, the process may get triggered whenever a new media file is added to the mobile device).

Media file selection module (107) implements the logic to pick the user specified storage location (primary or secondary (SD cards)) and searches for all media files that match the user selection criteria. User selection criteria such as age and size are easily implemented through available filesystem metadata. Selection criteria such as files that contain text or specific objects or human faces (for example, all photos that have an orange ball or all photos that show two adult males) are implemented through image and video processing libraries such as FFMpeg and OpenCV. Media file selection module can also invoke external viewers and players to help the user in selection of media files by viewing them first.

Resolution and quality module (109) shows the user various compression options through configurable settings and determines the appropriate resolution and quality at which the compressed images and videos should be generated. For example, in one embodiment the resolutions could be Facebook Home (720 x 960), Facebook Timeline (404 x 404), Facebook HighRes (2048 x 2048), WhatsApp (600 x 800) or Optimized for Device (which would detect the screen size of the mobile device and use those dimensions as the desired resolution). Furthermore, compressions algorithms like JPEG compression take in a quality factor which also determines the final quality and size of the photos generated. In one embodiment of this system, this quality factor can be intelligently calculated based on the contents of the photos. Similarly, video compression technologies such as those used by MPEG encoder allow use of variable bit rate compression through the qscale parameter. Technologies to compress media files such as photos and videos are known in the prior art (for example, services provided by libraries such as FFMpeg and OpenCV) and the Compression module (111) leverages such libraries for implementing compression of media files.

The proposed system provides the user with the option of storing the original media files to a number of backup storage options such as a secondary storage card (SD card) on the device (121) or a cloud drive provided by a cloud storage provider (123) or another phone or desktop connected the same WIFI network (125). A number of cloud storage providers (123) provide free storage of a few GigaBytes (GBs) such as GoogleDrive from Google, OneDrive from Microsoft, DropBox, Box or Flicker. The storage space provided by these different cloud providers could be aggregated to provide the user with a much larger backup storage space for zero or very low cost. Backup Storage Provider Management and Discovery module (113) manages the metadata for the aggregated cloud storage and the user does not have to worry about what files are stored on which cloud storage provider or whether the same file has been backed up twice. In this manner, it provides the user with an abstraction of a virtual filesystem that is in turn comprised of several remote filesystems (similar to the system in PLT:2). In another embodiment of the system, the system may even give the user a choice to pick a faster cloud backup storage albeit with a slightly lower read access. This could be important in scenarios where the user needs to back up media files urgently to free up device space (for capturing new photos or videos) and would not mind accessing the backed up media files later at a bit slower speed. Backup Storage Provider Management and Discovery module (113) determines these metrics for each cloud storage provider either through the course of normal operation or through periodic small experiments (such as ping network messages).

Different cloud storage drives when combined with the ability to select media files based on content such as media containing text or objects or human faces can be used to backup different kind of media onto different cloud storage drives. For example, all photos and videos with text may be backed up onto one cloud drive and higher resolution and quality setting may be used for their compression (since photos and videos with text can be hard to view if their quality falls below a certain threshold). On the other hand, all photos and videos with human faces can be backed up onto another cloud drive and a slightly lower resolution and quality setting may be used for their compression.

Proposed system also allows another desktop or phone (125) connected to the same WiFI network to be used as a storage backup option for media files. In one embodiment, the Backup Storage Provider Management and Discovery module (113) enables this functionality through the use of custom server applications that run on the desktop or phone to receive media files over a standard network protocol such as TCP or HTTP. In another embodiment, the Backup Storage Provider Management and Discovery module (113) can leverage operating system file sharing (such as that provided by NFS (Network File System) or SMBFS (Samba File System) to do this backup. In both the cases, the local storage providers are discovered automatically by the system by looking up IP addresses adjacent to the IP address of the device on which the proposed system is running. For each such IP address the type of service (a custom server application or OS based file sharing such as SMBFS), is discovering by trying to connect on specific ports that are used by these services.

Proposed system also allows use of secondary storage on device (typically a SD card) (121) to be used as backup storage. Secondary storage like SD cards provide a very cost effective way to extend storage space on a mobile device and hence represent a good backup option that is reliable and fast as well. Proposed system can use secondary storage on mobile device (SD cards) as a backup target to move media files from primary storage (119) to secondary storage (121). It can also use secondary storage to select media files and back them up to primary storage thereby providing a fast and easy-to-use mechanism to transfer media files between primary and secondary storage on a mobile device.

Upload module (115) uploads the selected digital media files to the determined backup storage provider (either on the cloud or on the wireless local area network). The original media files are then deleted by the Deletion Module (117) from the primary local storage (119) or the secondary storage (121) on the mobile device.

The proposed system can let the user execute the combined tasks of compressing the original digital media file, backing up the original file and deleting the original file from the device either for all digital media files of a particular type (Photos, Videos or Music Files) or for selected individual files that satisfy user specified criteria such as the largest files (which will save the most space if backed up and deleted from the device) or the oldest files (which either are no longer relevant or have been backed up already) or files that contain text or specific objects or human faces.

The proposed system can also be configured to use one or more actions of compression, backup and delete in any combination. For example, in certain scenarios, such as compression of video files, it may be preferable to skip compression and only use backup and deletion since compression may take a very long time and the user may have a requirement to immediately free space on the device (to capture another image or video). In other scenarios, it may be preferable to skip backup since there may not be any network connectivity (for example in remote areas) or the network costs of backing up may be too huge. Finally, in some scenarios, it may be preferable to skip both backup and compression and only delete the media files because the files may have already been backed up to some other device through other means.

Fig. 2 depicts a method of preliminary activities for preparing the storage space and high availability system according to various embodiments disclosed herein. The preliminary activities typically entail setting up the system and specifying the parameters, methods and interfaces for practicing the embodiments. Such preliminary activities are generally taken care of before beginning the process of providing storage space management and high availability of digital media files on a mobile device to users. First, the process for compression and backup of one or more media files on a mobile device is started based on one of the received triggers (201). This trigger could be a user driven trigger (for example, the user explicitly requests an operation to be performed on the mobile device) or a time based trigger (for example, the process can be configured to run as a service every day or week at a specific day and time) or an event based trigger (for example, the process can be triggered every time when a new media file is captured on the mobile device). Next, one or more media files to be compressed and backed up are selected based on storage location of media files, and age, size and contents of media files such as files containing text or specific objects or human faces (203). After this, the desired resolution for the digital media files on the mobile device is determined (205). The system then compresses one or more digital media files based on the determined resolution (207). Desired backup storage option for the digital media files is determined based on the user preferences (209). This may even involve discovering local storage providers in the same wireless local area network (WLAN) through the use of network messages. One or more original digital media files are then backed up to the desired backup storage option (211). Finally, the original digital media files are deleted from the local storage on the mobile device (213).

Fig. 3 shows the flowchart for configuring and discovering one or more local backup storage providers in the same wireless local area network to which the target mobile device is connected. In one embodiment, the configuring step (301) requires the use of custom server applications that run on the desktop or phone to receive media files over a standard network protocol such as TCP or HTTP. In another embodiment, the configuration step (301) can leverage operating system file sharing (such as that provided by NFS (Network File System) or SMBFS (Samba File System) to do this backup. Next the IP address of the mobile device in the wireless local area network (WLAN) is determined through the use of networking APIs on the mobile device 303). The local storage providers are then discovered automatically by the system by looking up IP addresses adjacent to the IP address of the device on which the proposed system is running by sending network ping messages (305). For each such IP address the type of service (a custom server application or OS based file sharing such as SMBFS), is discovering by trying to connect on specific ports that are used by these services 305). If a connection is established, appropriate metadata is exchanged to find out the type of backup storage provider (desktop or phone) and the type of backup technology (custom server or file sharing) and the list is shown to the user for selecting the appropriate backup storage provider.

Fig. 4 depicts a block diagram of a smartphone 401 suitable for implementing and practicing various embodiments. The various embodiments are described herein in terms of managing the storage space on a mobile device such as a smartphone. However, some of the embodiments may be applied to applications for other types of portable electronic devices, including for example, personal digital assistants (PDAs), cellular telephones, portable gaming devices, or even laptop computers. The various embodiments may be applied to yet other devices, so long as they are capable of sharing, viewing and storing digital media files and capable of loading and executing software applications. However, for the sake of illustration the various embodiments are described as being implemented on a smartphone. Typical features of a smartphone suitable for implementing various embodiments are depicted in FIG. 4.

The smartphone 401 is wirelessly coupled to a base station 450 of the wireless communication system via a wireless communication link. The establishment of a wireless communication link registers the smartphone 401 with the wireless system for communication purposes. For example, the smartphone 401 may register with a Mobile Switching Center (MSC) 460 or other like communication system control point connected to either the public switched telephony network (PSTN) or other type of network such as the Internet. A certain frequency range, timeslot or other measure of a wireless resource may be allocated to the smartphone 401, so as to allow the smartphone 401 to send and receive telephone calls, pages, text messages or data. The smartphone 401 may also be configured to wirelessly connect to other devices through a second, local wireless communications link using the local wireless transmitter/receiver circuitry 411. Typical local wireless links include, for example, Bluetooth, infrared, wi-fi or another short range wireless technology.

The smartphone 401 includes transmitter/receiver circuitry 403 configured to wirelessly send and receive signals to and from a cellular telephone base station 450. The smartphone 401 also includes local wireless transmitter/receiver circuitry 411 configured to wirelessly send and receive short range signals such as Bluetooth, infrared or wi-fi. The memory 407 is configured to store the requisite logic and parameters to control the transmitter/receiver circuitry 403 and 411, access and control the memory 407, and control the other functions of the smartphone 401. The memory 407 is generally integrated as part of the smartphone 401 circuitry, but may, in some embodiments, include a removable memory such as a removable disk memory, integrated circuit (IC) memory, a memory card, or the like. The controller 405 and memory 407 also implement the logic and store the settings, preferences and parameters for the smartphone 401.

The smartphone 401 also has a microphone 419 and speaker 417 for the user to speak and listen to callers. The speaker 417 may represent multiple speakers, at least some of which are configured to alert the user to incoming calls or messages. A keypad 415 is configured as part of smartphone 401 for dialing telephone numbers and entering data. The smartphone 401 may be configured with a data input/output (I/O) port 413 for downloading data, applications, programs and other information. In addition, the smartphone 401 typically includes a display screen 409 for displaying messages and information about incoming calls or other features of the smartphone that use a graphic display.

Fig. 5 depicts a computer system suitable for implementing and practicing various embodiments. The computer system 500 may be configured in the form of a desktop computer, a laptop computer, a mainframe computer, or any other arrangement capable of being programmed or configured to run a software application, execute code, or otherwise carry out instructions. The components of computer system 500 may be located and interconnected in one location, or may be distributed in various locations and interconnected via communication links such as a local or wide area network (LAN or WAN), via the Internet, via the public switched telephone network (PSTN), or other such communication links. Other devices may also be suitable for implementing or practicing the embodiments, or a portion of the embodiments. Such devices include personal digital assistants (PDA), wireless handsets (e.g., a cellular telephone or pager), and other such consumer electronic devices preferably capable of being programmed to run a software application, execute code, or otherwise carry out instructions.

Computer system 500 includes a processor 501 which may be embodied as a microprocessor, two or more parallel processors, central processing unit (CPU) or other such control logic or circuitry. The processor 501 is configured to access an internal memory 503, generally via a bus such as the system bus 521. The internal memory 503 may include one or more of random access memory (RAM), read-only memory (ROM), cache memory, or a combination of these or other like types of circuitry configured to store information in a retrievable format. In some implementations, the internal memory 503 may be configured as part of the processor 501, or alternatively, may be configured separate from it but within the same packaging. The processor 511 may be able to access internal memory 503 via a different bus or control lines (e.g., local bus 505) than is used to access the other components of computer system 500.

The computer system 500 also includes, or has access to, one or more storage drives 507 (or other types of storage memory) and floppy disk drives 509. Storage drives 507 and the floppy disks for floppy disk drives 509 are examples of machine readable (also called computer readable) mediums suitable for storing the final or interim results of the various embodiments. The floppy disk drives 509 may include a combination of several disc drives of various formats that can read and/or write to removable storage media (e.g., CD-R, CD-RW, DVD, DVD-R, floppy disk, or the like). The computer system 500 may either include the storage drives 507 and floppy disk drives 509 as part of its architecture (e.g., within the same cabinet or enclosure and/or using the same power supply), as connected peripherals, or may access the storage drives 507 and floppy disk drives 509 over a network, or a combination of these. The storage drive 507 is often a hard disk drive configured for the storage and retrieval of data, computer programs or other information. The storage drive 507 need not necessarily be contained within the computer system 500. For example, in some embodiments the storage drive 507 may be server storage space within a network that is accessible to the computer system 500 for the storage and retrieval of data, computer programs or other information. In some instances the computer system 500 may use storage space at a server storage farm, or like type of storage facility, that is accessible by the Internet 550 or other communications lines. The storage drive 507 is often used to store the software, instructions and programs executed by the computer system 500, including for example, all or parts of the computer application program for carrying out activities of the various embodiments of the invention.

The computer system 500 may include communication interfaces 511 configured to be communicatively connected to the Internet, a local area network (LAN), a wide area network (WAN), or connect with other devices using protocols such as the Universal Serial Bus (USB), the High Performance Serial Bus IEEE-1394 and/or the high speed serial port (RS-232). The communication interface 511 may be configured to receive various data and information pertaining to embodiments for management of storage space on mobile devices, such as backing up the original media files to a cloud storage service over the Internet or a desktop or another phone on the same wireless local area network (WLAN). The computers system 500 may be connected to the Internet via the wireless router 501, or a wired router or other such access node (not show). The components of computer system 500 may be interconnected by a bus 521 and/or may include expansion slots conforming to any of various industry standards such as PCI (Peripheral Component Interconnect), ISA (Industry Standard Architecture), or EISA (enhanced ISA).

Typically, the computer system 500 includes one or more user input/output devices such as a keyboard and/or mouse 513, or other means of controlling the cursor represented by the user input devices 515 (e.g., touchscreen, touchpad, joystick, trackball, etc.). The communication interfaces 511, keyboard and mouse 513 and user input devices 515 may be used in various combinations, or separately, as means for receiving information and other inputs to be used in carrying out various programs and calculations. A display 517 is also generally included as part of the computer system 500. The display may be any of several types of displays, including a liquid crystal display (LCD), a cathode ray tube (CRT) monitor, a thin film transistor (TFT) array, or other type of display suitable for displaying information for the user. The display 517 may include one or more light emitting diode (LED) indicator lights, or other such display devices. In addition, most computer systems 500 also include, or are connected to, one or more speakers and microphones 519 for audio output and input. Speech recognition software may be used in conjunction with the microphones 519 to receive and interpret user speech commands.

Various activities may be included or excluded as described above, or performed in a different order, while still remaining within the scope of at least one of the various embodiments. For example, the compression step in FIG 3 may be omitted to include just backup and delete. This may be the case when the user has decided that the user does not need those media files even in compressed mode on the mobile device. Other steps or activities of the methods disclosed herein may be omitted or performed in a different manner while remaining within the intended scope of the invention. The method may be implemented through the addition and manipulation of circuitry to a design, hence is applicable for analysis using logic evaluation frameworks such as logic simulators or formal verification algorithms, as well as hardware-based frameworks such as hardware emulators/ accelerators and even fabricated chips.

The invention may be implemented with any sort of processing units, processors and controllers (e.g., processor 501 of FIG. 5) capable of performing the stated functions and activities. For example, the processor 501 may be embodied as a microprocessor, microcontroller, DSP, RISC processor, two or more parallel processors, or any other type of processing unit that one of ordinary skill would recognize as being capable of performing or controlling the functions and activities described herein. A processing unit in accordance with at least one of the various embodiments can operate computer software programs stored (embodied) on computer-readable medium such those compatible with the disk drives 509, the storage drive 507 or any other type of hard disk drive, CD, flash memory, ram, or other computer readable medium as recognized by those of ordinary skill in the art.

The computer software programs can aid or perform the steps and activities described above for managing storage space of mobile devices through backup and deletion of original media files while ensuring the high availability of those digital media files through compression of those files and retaining the compressed version on the mobile device. For example computer programs in accordance with at least one of the various embodiments may include: source code for compressing the digital media files, source code for determining the optimal resolution of a media file to be shared on a user specified social network or to be viewed on the user’s mobile device screen, source code for discovering backup storage providers in the same wireless local area network (WLAN), source code of backing original media files to one or more cloud storage providers or discovered storage providers in the same local area network, source code for deleting original media files that have already been backed up, source code for executing the steps of compression, backup and delete as a service on a daily basis. There are many further source codes that may be written to perform the various steps, activities and procedures disclosed above that are intended to lie within the scope of the various embodiments. Various activities may be included or excluded as described above, or performed in a different order, with the rest of the activities still remaining within the scope of at least one exemplary embodiment.

The description of the various embodiments provided above is illustrative in nature and is not intended to limit the invention, its application, or uses. Thus, variations that do not depart from the gist of the invention are intended to be within the scope of the embodiments of the present invention. Such variations are not to be regarded as a departure from the intended scope of the present invention.

Citation List follows:

PLT1: US20080032739A1, Management of digital media using portable wireless devices in a client-server network, https://www.google.com/patents/US20080032739

US6438642B1, File-based virtual storage file system, method and computer program product for automated file management on multiple file system storage devices, http://www.google.co.in/patents/US6438642

Google Drive auto backup for photos and videos, https://support.google.com/drive/answer/6093613

Apple iCloud Photo Library, https://www.icloud.com

iOS service to compress existing photos on an iphone and backup the originals to iCloud, https://www.imyfone.com/iphone-space-saver/how-to-compress-photos-on-ipad/

Box Drive, https://www.box.com/home

OneDrive, https://onedrive.live.com

DropBox, https://www.dropbox.com

Flickr, https://www.flickr.com

PhotoShrinker app for iphone and ipad, https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/photoshrinker/id928350374

Minima image and video resizer app for iphone and ipad, https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/minima-image-video-resizer/id604943012

Claims

A system comprising:
a memory; and
at least one processor coupled to said memory and operative to manage storage space on a mobile device and provide high availability of stored digital media files on the mobile device by executing one or more of the following steps:
selecting the desired media files based on their age, size and contents;
compressing the selected media files to an appropriate resolution and quality that allows them to be viewed on the mobile device or shared on social media without any perceptible loss of quality;
backing up the selected original media files on the mobile device to one or more of a plurality of cloud storage drives or a phone or desktop connected to the same wireless local area network or secondary storage on the mobile device; and
deleting the selected original media files on the mobile to save storage space.
System of claim 1, wherein the said selection of media files is done based on either the time when the media files were added to the mobile device or their size or their contents such as media files that contain text or specific objects or human faces.
System of claim 1, wherein the said compression of selected media files is done by using either a user specified setting for resolution and quality or by automatically determining the resolution and quality required for the given mobile device.
System of claim 1, wherein the backup of selected original media files to one or more storage drives on the cloud comprises of aggregating the storage space provided by different cloud providers to provide the user with a much larger backup storage space at very low cost.
System of claim 1, wherein the system also manages the metadata for the aggregated cloud storage to keep track of files stored on each cloud storage provider or whether the same file has been backed up twice.
System of claim 1, wherein the system allows another desktop or phone connected to the same wireless local area network or a secondary storage card (such as a SD card) on the device to be used as a storage backup option for media files.
System of claim 1, wherein the storage providers on wireless local area network are discovered automatically by the system by looking up IP addresses adjacent to the IP address of the device on which the proposed system is running and discovering the type of service (a custom server application or OS based file sharing such as SMBFS) by trying to connect on specific ports that are used by these services.
System of claim 1, wherein the steps of selection, compression, backup and deletion of media files are triggered either through a user action such as a user requesting a specific operation or through a timer such as a service configured to run daily at a specific time or through an event such as the addition of a new media file.
A method performed by one or more computing devices for managing storage space on a mobile device and providing high availability of stored digital media files on the mobile device by executing one or more of the following steps:
selecting the desired media files based on their age, size and contents;
compressing the selected media files to an appropriate resolution and quality that allows them to be viewed on the mobile device or shared on social media without any perceptible loss of quality;
backing up the selected original media files on the mobile device to one or more of a plurality of cloud storage drives or a phone or desktop connected to the same wireless local area network or secondary storage on the mobile device; and
deleting the selected original media files on the mobile to save storage space.
Method of claim 9, wherein the said selection of media files is done based on either the time when the media files were added to the mobile device or their size or automatically determining their contents such as media files that contain text or specific objects or human faces.
Method of claim 9, wherein the said compression of selected media files is done by using either a user specified setting for resolution and quality or by automatically determining the resolution and quality required for the given mobile device.
Method of claim 9, wherein the backup of selected original media files to one or more storage drives on the cloud comprises of aggregating the storage space provided by different cloud providers to provide the user with a much larger backup storage space at very low cost.
Method of claim 9, wherein the said backing up also manages the metadata for the aggregated cloud storage to keep track of files stored on each cloud storage provider or whether the same file has been backed up twice.
Method of claim 9, wherein the said backing up gives the user a choice to pick a faster cloud backup storage albeit with a slightly lower read access or the option of backing up to another phone or desktop on the same wireless local area network or onto a secondary storage (SD card) on phone if the network access to the cloud backup drive is determined to be too slow.
Method of claim 9, wherein another desktop or phone connected to the same wireless local area network or a secondary storage card (such as a SD card) on the device can be used as a backup storage option for media files.
Method of claim 9, wherein another desktop or phone connected to the same wireless local area network is used as a backup storage option through the use of custom server applications that run on the desktop or phone to receive media files over a standard network protocol such as TCP or HTTP or through the use of operating system file sharing (such as that provided by NFS (Network File System) or SMBFS (Samba File System).
Method of claim 9, wherein the storage providers in the same wireless local area network are discovered automatically by looking up IP addresses adjacent to the IP address of the device on which the proposed system is running and discovering the type of service (a custom server application or OS based file sharing such as SMBFS) by trying to connect on specific ports that are used by these services.
Method of claim 9, wherein the steps of selection, compression, backup and deletion of media files are triggered either through a user action such as a user requesting a specific operation or through a timer such as a service configured to run daily at a specific time or through an event such as the addition of a new media file.
Method of claim 9, wherein any one or more of the steps of selection, compression, backup and deletion of media files can be configured to be skipped and used in any combination with each other.
A computer program product comprising a non-transitory computer readable medium on which is stored program of instructions for managing storage space on a mobile device and providing high availability of stored digital media files on the mobile device by executing one or more of the following steps:
selecting the desired media files based on their age, size and contents;
compressing the selected media files to an appropriate resolution and quality that allows them to be viewed on the mobile device or shared on social media without any perceptible loss of quality;
backing up the selected original media files on the mobile device to one or more of a plurality of cloud storage drives or a phone or desktop connected to the same wireless local area network or secondary storage on the mobile device; and
deleting the selected original media files on the mobile to save storage space.