Linking Photographs via Face, Time, and Location

Abstract

The subject disclosure is directed towards a technology in which metadata such as time, location and/or people identity data, and/or tag or album data that is associated with a photograph or other content may be used to serendipitously discover related content, from among many possible sources. The related content may be from any local or remote source, such as uploaded by multiple contributors corresponding to content captured during a social event, and may be presented in an integrated view in conjunction with a local photograph or other content. Different views of content and related content are automatically constructed from the metadata, providing different user experiences/scenarios without manual collection of the photos. Also described are notifications of newly detected related content, and face detection and recognition to obtain additional metadata.

What is claimed is: 
     
         1 . In a computing environment, a method comprising:
 matching, by at least one processor, content metadata associated with content maintained locally with other content metadata associated with other content maintained at a plurality of sources to automatically locate the other content related to the content; and   constructing an integrated view that presents the other content in conjunction with the content.   
     
     
         2 . The method of  claim 1  wherein at least some of the content metadata comprises automatically generated metadata, including at least one of time, location, or identity data. 
     
     
         3 . The method of  claim 1  wherein the content comprises a photograph. 
     
     
         4 . The method of  claim 1  wherein matching the content metadata with the other content metadata comprises matching at least one of time, location, or identity metadata. 
     
     
         5 . The method of  claim 1  further comprising:
 obtaining identity metadata corresponding to at least one person in the content, including providing the content to a face detection mechanism to obtain face-related data, and providing the face-related data to a recognition service. 
 
     
     
         6 . The method of  claim 1  further comprising:
 outputting a notification with respect to the content when new related content is determined to exist. 
 
     
     
         7 . The method of  claim 6  wherein the notification with respect to the content corresponds to information that appears on an album to indicate that the album contains or is linked to the new related content. 
     
     
         8 . The method of  claim 1  wherein constructing the integrated view comprises assembling one or more media components via matching metadata. 
     
     
         9 . A system comprising:
 a device configured to automatically relate a first set of content from one source with a second set of content obtained from at least one other source, including by using metadata to determine which other content to select as the second set of content, the device further configured to maintain the first set of content and the second set of content as an integrated set of content.   
     
     
         10 . The system of  claim 9  wherein the metadata comprises at least one of time information, location information, identity information, tag information or album information. 
     
     
         11 . The system of  claim 9  wherein the second set of content is obtained via a social network source, or a web source, or both. 
     
     
         12 . The system of  claim 9  wherein the second set of content is obtained as an attachment of a message received at the device, including an email message, an MMS message, or any other message format. 
     
     
         13 . The system of  claim 9  wherein the metadata further includes identity metadata obtained via face detection and a face recognition service. 
     
     
         14 . The system of  claim 9  wherein the device is further configured to output a notification of newly detected related content associated with the first set of content. 
     
     
         15 . The system of  claim 14  wherein the notification comprises at least one of an indicator or text that appears on an icon representative of the first set of content. 
     
     
         16 . The system of  claim 9  wherein the device is further configured to present an integrated view of the first set of content and the second set of content for at least one of viewing or interaction, the integrated view including at least one of a camera roll view, an album view, or a view that separates the first set of content from the second set of content for display. 
     
     
         17 . The system of  claim 9  wherein the device is further configured to run a service to automatically relate the first set of content with the second set of content. 
     
     
         18 . One or more computer storage devices having computer-executable instructions, which when executed by a computer cause the computer to perform steps comprising:
 accessing at least one source to locate related content that is related to a selected content item based upon matching metadata of the selected content item with metadata of the related content;   automatically combining the selected content item and the related content into a view; and   displaying the view on a device screen for user interaction.   
     
     
         19 . The one or more computer storage devices of  claim 18  having further computer-executable instructions comprising:
 outputting a notification indicative of new related content. 
 
     
     
         20 . The one or more computer storage devices of  claim 18  wherein the selected content item is at least one of a photograph or a video.