FORM 2
THE PATENTS ACT, 1970
(39 of 1970)
&
THE PATENT RULES, 2003
COMPLETE SPECIFICATION
(See Section 10 and Rule 13)
Title of invention:
A SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR REAL-TIME ANALYSIS OF IMAGES USING A CLOUD-COMPUTING SERVER
Applicant:
Tata Consultancy Services Limited A company Incorporated in India under The Companies Act, 1956
Having address:
Nirmal Building, 9th Floor,
Nariman Point, Mumbai 400021,
Maharashtra, India
The following specification particularly describes the invention and the manner in which it is to be performed.

FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The invention generally relates to the field of secure authentication of digital data. More particularly, the invention relates to a system and method for secure transmission of digital contents from a digital communication device to a remote
server.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
In a digital distribution system, there are various scenarios wherein digital contents such as videos, images, documents or files etc are transmitted to disparate locations from the source stations for real-time acquisition and processing. However, considering the risk of piracy, theft and associated violation of intellectual property rights, transmission of said contents from the site of creation to the site of further processing or consumption is still rendered either physically or in an unsecured manner.
For example, in the remote or on-field photography, a photographer captures photographs or shoots images or video at a remote location. The photographer may be a professional photographer hired by a sponsoring agency for a particular assignment for capturing photographs at remote locations. Alternatively, the photographer may be a news correspondent capturing videos that narrate the news segments related to natural calamities, sports events, cultural activities or current affairs etc. Such captured photographs or videos may then be further transmitted to authorized agency for processing or directly to subscribers for consumption.
In any such scenario, the sponsoring agency or the news channel studio needs to track the status of the photographs or images and videos being captured by the photographer or the news reporter in a real-time. This is required to ensure that the photographs are captured with desired specifications ensuring a high-quality output

being delivered to the relevant viewers or consumers watching these captured photographs and videos.
Many digital cameras manufactured by companies like Canon® and Nikon® are now implemented with operating system (OS) that are adapted for networking support, particularly based on HTTP, Ethernet and Wi-Fi communication protocols for initiating data communication between the connecting devices. The Canon® WFT series camera enables real-time transfer of stored videos or images automatically. Also, Nikon® D2H camera comprises an add-on feature known as WT-1, that enables transmission of images to either a PC with Wi-Fi capability (ad-hoc connection) or a Wireless Base Station (infrastructure connection). Transmission is carried out over standard TCP/IP using the FTP protocol. Further, in the background art, many of the advanced digital cameras include a GPS module that enables tracking of location of the images or photos being captured thereby helping the sponsoring agencies or news studio personals to locate the photographer's location in a real-time.
Further, an Eye-Fi™ card known in the background art is a wireless memory card. The Eye-Fi™ card stores media such as videos and photos captured by a digital camera and can be fitted into the said digital camera just like a regular SDHC card. The Eye-Fi™ card supports built-in Wi-Fi facility that enables transfer of stored videos and images using wireless communication network.
Thus, it can be observed from the background art that there have been efforts made in the past for wireless transfer of videos and images with the help of HTTP, Wi-Fi, and FTP protocols. However, considering the existing practices in on-field or remote photography, it is observed that the contents are transmitted using a digital communication link and since the contents are proprietary in nature, there is a need in the art to have a secure transmission method and system that ensures authentication of the digital content so transferred.

In the existing systems, whenever photographer uploads few photographs on a server by any of the previously disclosed communication techniques, the other parties such as authorized agencies sponsoring the photographer may access these uploaded photos by means of logging in the system with valid login credentials. Alternatively, the authorized agencies may utilize a decryption key for decrypting the photos or videos stored on the server using known techniques in the art such as file-transfer protocol (FTP), HTTP, and Wi-Fi etc in an encrypted form.
However, the security measures adopted by the agencies as discussed above are still unsecured. For example, the images and videos stored on the server may be retrieved by malicious attackers and hackers upon hacking of the login credentials or private encryption keys.
The unauthorized access may either take place during transmission of the digital contents to the server or after the digital contents are stored on the server. As a result of such unauthorized access, the digital contents may further be pirated, copied, published and re-distributed to other unauthorized parties leading to violation of copyrights of the owner of the contents. Further, there is no access control mechanism at the server to prevent the unauthorized access and thereby prevention of intellectual property rights associated with the digital contents. Thus, the prior art lacks in ensuring real-time copyright and access controls associated with the digital contents adopted for transmission to the remote locations such as remote servers via communication networks.
Thus, in view of the above lacunae in the art, there is a long-felt need for a system and method that facilitates a technical solution enabling real-time secure transmission of the digital contents on a remote server. Further such a system and method should also be capable of analyzing the digital contents for further decision-making and thereby processing.

OBJECTS OF THE INVENTION
The principal object of the present invention is to enable a system and method that facilitates secure transmission of digital contents from 'a digital communication device to a server for real-time analysis of the digital contents.
Yet another object of the present invention is to enable a system and method for real-time embedding of authentication information in the form of a metadata in the digital content representing authorized parties associated with the digital contents.
Yet another object of the present invention is to enable a system and method for transmitting the digital contents with embedded metadata to the server for performing real-time analytics.
Still another object of the present invention is to enable a system and method to transmit result of real-time analysis for further processing to one or more authorized parties identified through the metadata embedded in the digital contents.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
Before the present methods, systems, and hardware enablement are described, it is to be understood that this invention is not limited to the particular systems, and methodologies described, as there can be multiple possible embodiments of the present invention which are not expressly illustrated in the present disclosure. It is also to be understood that the terminology used in the description is for the purpose of describing the particular versions or embodiments only, and is not intended to limit the scope of the present invention.
In one aspect the present invention enables a system and method for real-time copyright and access controls of images captured by an image-capturing device. The system of the present invention enables embedding authentication data of the authorized parties related to the image captured using the said image-capturing

device. According to one aspect of the invention where the photographer capturing the image is also the owner of the captured image, the biometric information of the said photographer such as fingerprint or iris scan is embedded in the image captured by the said photographer, to create a layer in authentication process. The image captured is then transmitted to a server electronically coupled to the image capturing device. Irrespective of the ownership of the image, a secured image or copyrighted image is then transferred to the server for real-time analytics.
In another aspect of the invention, the server analyzes the received copyrighted image by utilizing multiple known image-analysis algorithms. These algorithms analyze the image stored on the server to obtain various image-specific parameters such as lens focal-length, focus point, distortion in the image such as chromatic or barrel distortion, noise-type, and noise-level in the image etc. Further, the server generates an alternative image with resolution less than the original image received. These parameters along-with the generated alternative image are then transmitted to authorized parties for further processing or decision-making.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF DRAWINGS
The foregoing summary, as well as the following detailed description of embodiments, is better understood when read in conjunction with the appended drawings. For the purpose of illustrating the invention, there is shown in the drawings example constructions of the invention; however, the invention is not limited to the specific methods and architecture disclosed in the drawings:
Figure 1 is a system block diagram (100) illustrating various hardware elements enabling secure storage of digital contents on a remote server for real-time analysis according to an embodiment of the invention,

Figure 2 is a flow diagram (200) illustrating various steps implemented by various hardware elements collectively for enabling secure storage of digital contents on a remote server for real-time analysis according to an embodiment of the invention.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION:
The description has been presented with reference to various embodiments of the invention. Persons skilled in the art and technology to which this invention pertains will appreciate that alterations and changes in the described method and system of operation can be practiced without meaningfully departing from the principle spirit and scope of this invention,
Referring to figure 1 is system diagram 100 illustrating various hardware elements enabling secure storage of digital contents on a remote server for real-time analysis according to an embodiment of the invention.
As illustrated in figure 1, the system 100 is shown comprising various hardware elements such as a digital communication device 101 and a server 102 located at remote location capable of storing data by means of a database 111. The server 102 is electronically coupled to the digital communication device 101 through a communication network 103. The communication network may be any type of wireless network or can be combination of multiple wireless networks.
In an embodiment, as illustrated in figure 1, the communication network 103 may include combination of cellular networks supporting next-generation 3G (third generation) or 4G (fourth generation) services such as W-CDMA network, mobile ad-hoc network, CDMA 2000 network and combinations thereof. In the alternative embodiments, the wireless network may be any wireless local network such as Wi-Fi™ and any other private communication networks known in the background art.
According to other embodiment, the digital communication device 101 may be a mobile phone, a digital camera, a laptop, a Smart Phone, a PDA, or combinations

thereof. The digital communication device 101 may comprise a microphone 104. a speaker 105, a keypad 106 displayed on the back LCD. In the embodiment, the digital communication device 101 may communicate with other communication devices located remotely from the digital communication device 101 by utilizing the communication network 103 as illustrated in figure 1.
In an exemplary embodiment, the digital communication device 101 may comprise a 4G (Fourth-Generation) capable MODEM 107 that can be connected to any of the 4G access points in the network. The MODEM 107 enables real-time communication between the digital communication device 101 to the server 102 through communication network 103. The 4G capable MODEM 107 is implemented in order to enable real-time transmission of digital contents stored in a local storage of the digital communication device 101 to the server 102 at a faster speed as a result of high connectivity supported by the 4G cellular communication network.
The digital communication device 101 may further include an authentication module 108 for securely authenticating the authorized parties associated with the digital contents that is to be transmitted from the local storage of the digital communication device 101 to the server 102 for real-time analysis. In the embodiment, the said authentication module 108 captures multiple authentication information related to different authorized parties located at disparate locations. For example, first authentication information may be bio-metric information such as finger-print, iris scan, facial, palm-print and hand gestures etc of an individual possessing the digital communication device 101. The first authentication information may also include voice or audio inputs from the individual as voice signature captured through the microphone 104 of the digital communication device 101 for identifying the said individual. Further, the first authentication information may also include a private data key identifying the individual in accordance with the embodiment of the present invention.

In a specific embodiment, the biometric information can be captured by the authentication module 108 by means of a finger-print authentication device implemented in the digital communication device 101. In another embodiment, the authentication module 108 may utilize an iris-scanner to scan the iris of the individual as a bio-metric identifier for authentication of the individual. In the embodiment, second authentication information may include private data key identifier, ASCII key identifier or a unique identification number identifying one or more disparate authorized parties other than the individual possessing the digital communication device 101.
In another embodiment of the present invention, as illustrated in figure 1, an embedding module 112 is shown that embeds metadata information in the digital contents stored in the local storage of the digital communication device 101 that is to be transmitted to the server 102 through the communication network 103 for real-time analysis and thereby further processing. In the embodiment, the said metadata information includes plurality of parameters associated with the digital contents stored in the digital communication device 101.
For example, one of the plurality of parameters embedded as metadata information in the digital contents include the first and the second authentication information captured by the authentication module 108. The first and the second authentication information embedded as metadata represents the identification information of various authorized parties associated with the digital contents including the individual possessing the digital communication device 101.
Preferably, the first and the second authentication information are securely tagged in the digital contents to be transmitted to the server 102 for real-time analysis. This secure tagging of the digital contents enables the secure storage of the digital contents at the server 102. More particularly, the tagging of the digital contents with the authentication information such as bio-metric information, private data key

identifiers, ASCII key identifiers allows the digital contents being copyrighted or authenticated as a result of embedded metadata. Such embedding of authentication information in the digital contents ensures secure copyright and access control on the digital contents stored on the server 102 that are transmitted from the digital communication device 101. That is, only authorized parties identified by the authentication parameter embedded in the digital contents can access the stored digital contents while avoiding any other unauthorized party to access them.
In a further embodiment of the invention, the other parameter embedded as metadata in the digital contents may include data format of the digital contents that are to be transmitted from the digital communication device 101 to the server 102 for real-time analysis. The data format information is tagged as one of the embedding parameter in the form of metadata information in each of the digital contents by the digital communication device 101.
In a still further embodiment of the invention, the other parameter embedded in the digital contents may include latitude and longitude information indicating the location or place or area of the digital communication device 101 storing the digital contents in the local storage. In this embodiment, such latitude and longitude information may be determined by a Global Positioning System (GPS) module 109 implemented in the digital communication device 101 as illustrated in figure 1. In an alternative embodiment, this information may be determined by accessing the cell tower in the near-by cell network storing the information about the area or region served by the said cell tower facilitating various telecommunication services to the customers in that particular region or area.
Yet another parameter that may be embedded in the digital contents by the digital communication device 101 includes different audio data in the form of notes. comments and description about the digital contents from the individual possessing the digital communication device 101.

According to another embodiment of the invention, the digital contents with embedded metadata information including plurality of parameters are transmitted in a real-time to the server 102 from the digital communication device 101. This is implemented for performing real-time analysis on the digital contents for further processing and decision-making. The service at the destined Internet Protocol (IP) stores these digital contents securely on the server 102. In the embodiment, the server may be a cloud-computing server capable of performing various cloud-computing operations and facilitating various cloud-computing applications,
The digital contents with embedded metadata in the form of different parameters such as authentication information identifying the authorized parties, data format of the digital contents, location information and audio tracks are received at the server 102. As illustrated in figure 1, the digital contents received at the server 102 may be stored in the database 111.
According to one embodiment of the invention, the server 102 as illustrated in figure 1 further comprises an analysis engine 110 that enables real-time analysis of the digital contents received on the server 102. The said analysis engine comprises multiple analysis algorithms implementing the real-time analysis of the digital contents stored on the server 102. The real-time analysis of the digital contents enables a generation of real-time analytics report describing details of the analysis performed on the digital contents. For example, in the embodiment, the analysis report may include the desired specifications of the digital content, noise level, if any present in the digital content and distortion in the digital content.
The analysis report is then transmitted from the server 102 to at least one of the authorized parties identified through the authentication information embedded in the digital content as one of the metadata parameters. For example, if the embedded metadata parameter includes the first authentication information such as bio-metric. then the analysis report is transmitted to the individual possessing the digital

communication device 101 for further referencing and decision-making related to the digital contents based on post analysis results in the analysis report. On the contrary, if the embedded metadata parameter includes the second authentication information identifying one or more disparate authorized parties other than the individual, then the analysis report is transmitted to one of the multiple authorized parties based for further referencing and decision-making related to the digital contents based on post analysis results in the analysis report. The authorized party may then transmit the results of the analysis to the individual possessing the digital communication device 101 for further processing.
BEST ENABLED MODE:
In an exemplary embodiment, consider the digital communication device 101 as illustrated in figure 1 to be a digital camera used by a photographer for capturing the photographs in a photographic assignment event sponsored by the photographic agency located remotely from the photographer's location. Assume the server 102 as illustrated in figure 1 to be a cloud server storing pre-defined image-analysis algorithms for performing the real-time analysis of the photographs captured by the photographer through the said digital camera. In this exemplary embodiment, the present invention ensures real time copyright and access control of the said photographs taken by the digital camera 101 using bio-metric identification and cloud computing for real time analysis of the said photographs.
In this exemplary embodiment, the digital communication device 101 in the form of a digital camera can also be utilized to perform the functions of a cellular mobile phone. In such scenario, the keypad 106 displayed on the: back LCD of the digital communication device 101 can be utilize to dial a required number by using the UP-DOWN menu select button implemented on the digital communication device 101. Similarly, the UP-DOWN menu select button can be utilized for receiving the call on

the digital communication 101 used as digital camera in this embodiment of the present invention.
In this exemplary embodiment, the digital camera 101 is embedded with multiple parameters in the form of metadata information. One of the parameter is the authentication information that distinguishes the identification of the photographer capturing the photographs using the digital camera and the other authorized parties such as photographic agency in this exemplary embodiment of the present invention.
In this exemplary embodiment, a finger-print reader attached to the shutter button of the digital camera 101 signs each of the photographs captured using the digital camera 101 by the photographer handling the sponsored event. The signing of the photographs enables copyrighting of the said photographs thereby resulting in the ownership rights for the authorized users for the photographs being captured,
In this exemplary embodiment, if the photographer owns the photographs, the photographs are tagged with the bio-metric information such as finger-print or iris scan of the photographer. Further, the voice signature of the photographer can also be used as authentication information for the photographer. On the contrary, if the photographic event is sponsored, the photographs can be tagged with the authentication information such as private data key identifier, ASCII key identifier for identifying the sponsored agencies sponsoring the photography event being implemented at remote location.
In this exemplary embodiment, the other parameter that is embedded in each of the photographs captured is the data format of the photographs. For example, the different data formats of the image or photo captured by the digital camera 101 such as CR2, NEF, and JPEG etc are embedded as metadata information. Further, the latitude and longitude information determined by a Global Positioning System (GPS) module 109 is embedded as another parameter in the form of metadata information in

the digital camera 101 that depicts the information of exact location of the photographs being captured using the digital camera.
In this exemplary embodiment, the photographer can narrate the story about the experience of photography and the sight-scene information about the location or area by using the microphone 104 of the digital camera 101. This enables generation of real-time storyboarding that can be embedded in the photographs as another parameter in the form of metadata. This storyboarding of the photographer related to the captured photographs represents voicing notes in the form of audio track describing the additional detail information about the photographs being clicked using the digital camera 101.
. In this exemplary embodiment, the photographs tagged with such bio-metric information and other parameters collectively representing metadata information are then transmitted to the cloud server 102. Thus, the photographs captured by the photographer are automatically copyrighted based on the tagged authentication information for secure storage and access control at the cloud server 102. Such transmission of tagged photographs is enabled using a MODEM module 107 in the digital camera 101 with the help of cellular communication network 103 as illustrated in figure 1 .The authentication information is preserved even though the photographs are transferred online to the cloud server 102. The photographs can be transferred instantaneously during shooting in continuous or burst mode. Thus, the mechanism of transfer of photos is not only restricted to urban areas but can be made feasible in rural and inaccessible remote areas supporting cellular network.
In this exemplary embodiment, the cloud server 102 implements image analytics on the photographs received from the digital camera 101 with the help of an analysis engine 110 stored on the cloud server 102 executing different image analysis algorithms to obtain following information in the form of analytics results related to the photographs:

• Lens focal length and focus point of each of the photographs stored on the cloud server.
• Any specific identifiable distortion such as chromatic or barrel distortion in each of the photographs stored on the cloud server.
• Noise level and the type of the noise identified in each of the photographs stored on the cloud server.
In this exemplary embodiment, the results of the analytics on each of the photographs are then transmitted to the authorized parties including the photographer and the photographic agency sponsoring the' remote photography event in the form of an image-analysis report for taking further decisions on the captured photographs.
For example, if the photographer is the owner of the photographs and is the sole proprietor of the copyright, then the modified version of each of the photographs typically having 1/10th size as that of the original photographs along with the analytics results in the image-analysis report are then transmitted to the photographer for future reference and decision-making. For example, based on the results of analysis, the photographer may decide to share, delete and re-take the photographs.
Similarly, if the copyright belongs to the sponsored agency, the photographs in the modified version with analytics results in the form of the image-analysis report are transferred to the agency or the sponsor for post-analysis decision making. In this exemplary embodiment, the cloud server analysis engine may notify the sponsor as a result of analytics. The sponsor then notifies the photographer capturing the photographs at remote location. The photographer then provides feedback on the photographs analytics based on which the sponsor may decide to use, share or delete the photographs. The sponsor may then instruct the photographer to re-take or recapture the deleted photographs.

Thus, the present invention enables agency sponsoring remote photographic event in real-time tracking of the photographs in order to take real-time decisions on the captured photographs. Further, the present invention ensures copyright and access controls for the photographs captured by the camera and transferred to the cloud server for real-time image analysis. The results of the image analysis are forward to copyright owners of the photographs identified through e.nbedded metadata in the form of authentication information such as bio-metric information, private data key identifier, ASCII identifier etc. Now, based on the received image-analytics results, the authorized parties can further decide on accessing, storing, sharing, re-capturing or deleting of the photographs.
Referring to figure 2 is a flow diagram 200 illustrating various steps implemented by various hardware elements collectively for real-time tracking of images stored on a remote server in accordance to an embodiment of the invention.
As illustrated in figure 2, at step 201, capturing of distinct authentication information for the individual possessing a digital communication device and one or more disparate authorized parties other than the said individual associated with the digital contents stored in the digital communication device is done.
At step 202, embedding of metadata such as the distinct authentication information, data format of the digital contents, location information of the digital communication device and audio data etc in the digital contents takes place.
At step 203, the digital contents with embedded metadata are transmitted at the cloud-computing server from the digital communication device using a communication network such as private data network or cellular network or local-area network.
At step 204, the digital contents received are analyzed by executing pre-stored analysis algorithms on the cloud-computing server to generate an analysis report.

At step 205, the said analysis report is transmitted either to the individual or one or more authorized parties based on the authentication information embedded in the digital contents.
ADVANTAGES OF THE INVENTION
The present invention enables instantaneous real time transfer of images while shooting in burst or continuous mode.
The present invention enables transfer of images urban areas as-well-as in rural and inaccessible areas where cellular network is available.
The present invention enables cloud-computing analysis on the images captured, the results of which allow the photographer to re-capture the images in real-time.
The present invention enables secure copyrighted remote storage of the images captured on the cloud-computing server.
The present invention enables agencies to effectively track all the images associated with an assignment without any major data loss.

Claims:
1. A system (100) for secured transmission of at least one digital content from at least one digital communication device (101) to a server (102) that enables real-time analysis of the said digital content, the system comprising:
a) an authentication module (108) in the said digital communication device
(101) to capture a first authentication information identifying at least one first
party possessing the digital communication device (101) and at least one
second authentication information identifying one or more disparate
authorized parties other than the said first party;
b) an embedding module (112) in the digital communication device (101) to embed the said first authentication information and the said second authentication information in the digital content in the form of at least one metadata; and
c) a transmitting module (107) in the digital communication device (101) to transmit the digital content embedded with the said metadata to the server
(102) via a communication network (103).
2. The system of claim 1, wherein the said digital communication device (101) is selected from a group comprising of a mobile phone, a digital camera, a laptop. a Smart Phone, a PDA, or combinations thereof.
3. The system of claim 1, wherein the said digital content is selected from a group comprising of an image, an audio, a video, a digital document or combinations thereof. .
4. The system of claim 1, wherein the said first authentication information includes biometric information such as a finger-print, palm-print, an iris scan, facial, voice, hand gestures or a private data key and combinations thereof.

5. The system of claim 1, wherein the said second authentication information includes a private data key identifier, an ASCII key identifier or combinations thereof.
6. The system of claim 1, wherein the said transmitting module (107) includes a MODEM capable of supporting connectivity of high data rates.
7. The system of claim 1, wherein the said embedded metadata further includes other information such as data format, location information, audio data or combinations thereof related to the said digital content.
8. The system of claim 1, wherein the said server (102) further comprising an analysis engine (110) implementing at least one analysis algorithm to perform a real-time analysis of the digital content received on the server (102) to generate an analysis report.
9. The system of claim 1, wherein the said report is transmitted from the server to the first party if the embedded metadata includes only the first authentication information.
10. The system of claim 1, wherein the said report is transmitted from the server to at least one of the said disparate authorized parties if the embedded metadata includes the second authentication information.
11. A method (200) for secured transmission of at leas:, one digital content from at least one digital communication device to a server that enables real-time analysis of the said digital content, the method comprising steps of:
a) capturing (201) first authentication information identifying at least one first party possessing the digital communication device and at least one second authentication information identifying one or more disparate authorized parties other than the said first party;

b) embedding (202) the said first authentication information and the said
second authentication information in the digital content in the form of at least
one metadata; and
c) transmitting (203) the digital content embedded with the said metadata to
the server via a communication network.
12. The method of claim 31,wherein the said digital communication device is
selected from a group comprising of a mobile phone, a digital camera, a
laptop, a Smart Phone, a PDA, or combinations thereof
13. The method of claim 11,wherein the said digital content is selected from a
group comp rising of an image, an audio, a video, a digital document or combinations thereof.
14. The method of claim 11,wherein the said first authentication information includes biometric information such as a finger-print, palm-print, an iris scan, facial, voice, hand gestures or a private data key and combinations thereof.
15. The method of claim 11, wherein the said second authentication information includes a private data key identifier, an ASCII key identifier or combinations thereof
16. The method of claim 11, wherein the said embedded metadata further includes
other information such as data format, location information, audio data or combinations thereof related to the said digital content.
17. The method of claim 11, further comprising the step of performing a real-time
analysis (204) of the digital content received on the server to generate an analysis report.
18. The method of claim 17, further comprising the step of transmitting (205) the
said analysis report from the server to either the said first party or at least one

of the said disparate authorized parties based on the embedded authentication information in the digital content.