Abstract:
Disclosed embodiments facilitate correlation between recordings of an event, e.g., photographs, videos, audio recordings, holographic recordings, etc., and one interested in obtaining a copy of the recordings, e.g., participants, watchers/audience, managers, other recorders, etc. As recordings from a particular location in the event are made, a signal is emitted by the recorder that may be received by recipients, such as people or locations, e.g., desired vantage points, seats, etc. The emitted signal includes an identifier that allows a recipient to identify the recording. Use of the emitted signal may be limited to people or locations near the recorder. A broker service may facilitate anonymous or face-to-face commercial sales or other distribution of recordings between recorders and recipients.

Description:
FIELD OF THE INVENTION 
   The invention generally relates to recording an event, and more particularly to facilitating obtaining copies of a recording based at least in part on positioning data, such as global positioning data (GPS), associated with a recorder. 
   BACKGROUND 
   During public events, such as a sports competition, presentation, or the like, persons at the event typically record some or all of the event, such as with a video recorder, camera, audio recorder, or the like. Frequently there are professional recorders in addition to amateur recorders that may also be present at the event. For example, at a sporting event, there are frequently freelance photographers at the side-lines recording the event and parties attending the event (e.g., crowd shots or the like). 
   A person at the event, or participating in the event, may find it desirable to purchase a copy of a professional&#39;s recording of the event. For example, the person may be part of the event, or may have forgotten to bring a recorder, e.g., a camera, or the person&#39;s recording equipment may be low quality. Or, the person may be interested in obtaining pictures of her or himself at the event, an option not typically available unless a companion uses the person&#39;s recorder to take a picture. 
   One existing solution allowing a person in a photograph to locate photographs likely including the person is provided by ImageID Ltd. Of New York, N.Y., which provides technology in which one wears an identification badge that is recorded along with the recording of an event. (See www-vividot-com; please note that to prevent inadvertent hyperlinks, the periods in the preceding uniform resource locator (URL) were replaced with hyphens.) For example, if a picture is taken of a person, the person&#39;s badge is pictured, and a computer system can scan the picture to identify all badges that are in the picture. 
   A significant limitation to this arrangement, however, is that a person&#39;s identification badge must be adequately captured in a recording to enable the person to later search for pictures containing the person. Thus, a crowd shot would have insufficient detail to allow later identifying the person&#39;s identification badge. Another significant limitation is that the person cannot obtain recordings in which the person does not appear. For example, the person cannot locate a professional recording taken from a position adjacent the person, or directed away from the person. 

   
     BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 
     The features and advantages of the present invention will become apparent from the following detailed description of the present invention in which: 
       FIG. 1  illustrates a system according to one embodiment of the invention in which an event attendee is facilitated in obtaining a recording of the event. 
       FIG. 2  illustrates one exemplary embodiment in which a recorder records an event, and an event attendee obtains a copy of the recording. 
       FIG. 3  illustrates another exemplary embodiment in which a recorder records an event, and an event attendee obtains a copy of the recording. 
       FIG. 4  illustrates another exemplary embodiment in which a recorder records an event, and an event attendee obtains a copy of the recording. 
       FIG. 5  illustrates a suitable computing environment in which certain aspects of the invention may be implemented. 
   

   DETAILED DESCRIPTION 
     FIG. 1  illustrates a system according to one embodiment of the invention in which a person at an event is facilitated in obtaining recordings of the event that are of interest to the person. 
   As illustrated, a recording device  100 , which may be a video recorder, camera, audio recorder, three-dimensional imaging apparatus, or other recording technology, is used to record an event. An event attendee device  102  (e.g., a device associated with an event attendee, such as a badge, key-card, ticket, machine, computing device, etc.) is communicatively coupled with the recording device over a wireless link  104 , such as a short-range radio technology such as “Bluetooth” link (see www-bluetooth-com), an 802.11 link (a communication technology promulgated by the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) for wireless LAN technology), an infrared (IR) link, or some other communication technique. In another embodiment, not illustrated, the event attendee device is physically coupled to the recorder, possibly only intermittently, by way of direct contact, a cable, or other coupling. 
   The recorder  100  and event attendee device  102  are both intermittently or continuously communicatively coupled  106 ,  108 , e.g., physically or wirelessly, to a broker  110 . The broker represents a conduit through which recordings from the recorder may be provided, e.g., given, sold, etc., to event attendees. The following figures illustrate several exemplary embodiments in which a broker is used to distribute event recordings. It will be appreciated that many different communication models, including ones not illustrated, may be employed to distribute recordings to event attendees. 
   In some circumstances, it may be desirable that the distribution of a recording be made anonymously. For example, a person operating the recorder might wish to remain unknown, or an attendee might not wish to become known. In such circumstances, communication between persons associated with the recorder and event attendee device may be routed through a privacy server  112  configured to effect a transaction between the parties without revealing their identities. Note that even though the broker is illustrate as being communicatively coupled to a separate privacy server, it will be appreciated that the broker and privacy server may be a single physical or logical machine  114 . 
     FIG. 2  illustrates one exemplary embodiment in which a recorder records  200  an event, and an event attendee obtains a copy of the recording. While recording, the recorder broadcasts  202  an identifier, e.g., a globally unique identifier (GUID), hash value, or other (near) unique value that identifies the recording. For example, for a camera, the identifier is associated with a current picture being taken. In one embodiment, environmental characteristics regarding the recording are also embedded within or associated with the identifier, such as lighting conditions, physical location of the recording, etc. 
   The broadcast identifier is received  204 , such as by a badge worn by an event attendee, or other event attendee device or structure associated with the attendee, e.g., a seat or seat component. The received identifier is stored  206  for later use to retrieve the recording. To do so, an operator of the recorder provides  208  the recording and broadcasted  202  recording identifier to a broker. It is assumed that associated with the provision are distribution terms, such as price, duration of availability, etc. A party, such as an event attendee, interested in obtaining a copy of the recording according to the distribution terms provides  210  the broker with the broadcasted recording identifier, which in turn provides the recording according to the distribution terms. 
   In such fashion, assuming that the broadcast  202  of the identifier is based on a relatively-short range technology (or a long-range technology in which positional data may be acquired to allow identifying short-ranges), an event attendee may identify and obtain recordings that do not include the event attendee in the recording. In addition, such providing of recordings may be performed with no more effort by the recorder than making such recording available to the broker. In the illustrated embodiment, the interested party is required to track broadcasted recording identifiers. 
     FIG. 3  illustrates another exemplary embodiment in which, as discussed above in  FIG. 2 , a recorder records  300  an event, broadcasts  302  a unique or near unique (e.g., hash based, etc.) identifier for the recording, and the identifier is received  304  by an event attendee device. However, in contrast with  FIG. 2 , in this embodiment, the receiving event attendee device broadcasts  306  a responsive identifier identifying the event attendee device. Note that an event attendee may anonymously utilize the event attendee device. 
   The recorder (or device associated thereto) receives and stores  308  such responsive identifiers. In such manner, the recorder is able to track attendees that express an interest in obtaining the recording. It will be appreciated that various techniques may be employed by a receiving event attendee device to control for which recordings the device broadcasts  306  responsive identifiers. For the purposes of this description, it is assumed that all recordings are provided with a responsive identifier, however, it will be appreciated that an event attendee may restrict responses to certain recordings, such as those by a certain recording person (if known), from a certain vantage point within the event, for certain occurrences within the game, etc. 
   An operator of the recorder provides  310  the recording, broadcasted  302  recording identifier, and stored responsive identifiers to a broker. A party interested in obtaining a copy of the recording can provide  312  the broadcasted  306  responsive identifier to the broker to obtain the recording. However, in this embodiment, and unlike  FIG. 2 , restrictions can be placed on who can obtain the recording. In particular, since the recorder knows what responses were broadcast  306  back to the recorder, the operator of the recorder can restrict access to the recording to only those parties that responded to the recording. Alternatively, the operator of the recorder may set different terms, such as a higher price, to those parties that can provide the broadcasted  302  identifier of the recording, but are not known to have broadcast  306  a responsive identifier. 
     FIG. 4  illustrates another exemplary embodiment in which, as discussed above, a recorder records  400  and event and broadcasts  402  an identifier for the recording. However, in this embodiment, a fixed location at the event, such as a chair on which an event attendee sits, or another structure at desirable vantage points, e.g., behind home plate at baseball game, courtside at a basketball game, in the water in an aquatic competition, etc., receives  404  the broadcasted  402  identifier. 
   A badge or other article or device associated with the attendee provides  406  an identifier for the attendee to the fixed location. It will be appreciated that even though the figure illustrates providing  406  after receiving  404  the broadcasted  402  identifier, such providing may occur as desired before during or after the recording  400  of the event. It will be further appreciated that the attendee is not restricted to providing  406  an identifier to fixed locations proximate to the attendee. 
   In one embodiment, not illustrated, an attendee may take a badge or other article or device associated with the attendee to fixed locations at the event and register interest in receiving recordings that occur near that fixed location. This would allow, therefore, recorders to wander about and event and record the event as desired, and attendees would be able to obtain copies of recordings that happened to occur near the fixed location. It will be appreciated that the concept of “near” may be defined as desired, and may be limited by transmission ranges inherent to the technology used to broadcast identifiers, or may be limited, if desired, based on positioning calculations. 
   In the illustrated embodiment, somewhat akin to  FIG. 3  item  306 , the fixed location broadcasts  408  a responsive identifier, based at least in part on the provided  406  attendee identifier, is broadcasted to the recorder that identifies the attendee. An operator of the recorder in turn provides  410  the recording, the identifier for the recording, and received responsive identifiers to a broker. This allows an attendee to later identify  412  itself to the broker and obtain a copy of the recording from the broker. As discussed above, such obtaining may be performed anonymously. 
   In another embodiment, not illustrated, the operations of providing  406  and broadcasting  408  the attendee&#39;s identity is not performed, and in turn, the recorder does not provide  410  it to the broker. Instead, as discussed above, fixed locations track recordings  400  that occurred near them, and a party interested in a recording simply contacts the broker to obtain copies of recording that may have occurred from desired fixed locations. In addition, note that in other embodiments, fixed need not be fixed, e.g., the recorder can track it&#39;s location at the event, and one may seek recordings that happened to occur at or near a desired vantage point. 
   FIG.  5  and the following discussion are intended to provide a brief, general description of a suitable computing environment in which certain aspects of the illustrated invention may be implemented. An exemplary system for embodying, for example, the broker  110 , privacy server  112 , or recording device  100  of  FIG. 1 , includes a machine  500  having system bus  502 . As used herein, the term “machine” includes a single machine, such as a computer or other machine, or a system of machines or other communicatively coupled devices operating together. 
   Typically, attached to the bus are processors  504 , a memory  506  (e.g., RAM, ROM), storage devices  508 , a video interface  510 , and input/output interface ports  512 . The machine  500  may be controlled, at least in part, by input from conventional input devices, such as keyboards, mice, joysticks, as well as directives received from another machine, a user&#39;s interaction with a virtual reality (VR) environment, biometric feedback, e.g., data incident to monitoring a person, plant, animal, organism, etc., or other input. 
   The system may also include embedded controllers, such as Generic or Programmable Logic Devices or Arrays, Application Specific Integrated Circuits, single-chip computers, smart cards, or the like, and the system is expected to operate in a networked environment using physical and/or logical connections to one or more remote machines  514 ,  516  through a network interface  518 , modem  520 , or other data pathway. Machines may be interconnected by way of a wired or wireless network  522 , such as the wireless link  104  of  FIG. 1 , an intranet, the Internet, local area networks, wide area networks, cellular, cable, laser, satellite, microwave, “Bluetooth” type networks, optical, infrared, or other short range or long range wired or wireless carrier. 
   The invention may be described by reference to or in conjunction with program modules, including functions, procedures, data structures, application programs, etc. for performing tasks, or defining abstract data types or low-level hardware contexts. Program modules may be stored in memory  506  and/or storage devices  508  and associated storage media, e.g., hard-drives, floppy-disks, optical storage, magnetic cassettes, tapes, flash memory cards, memory sticks, digital video disks, biological storage. Program modules may be delivered over transmission environments, including network  522 , in the form of packets, serial data, parallel data, propagated signals, etc. Program modules may be used in a compressed or encrypted format, and may be used in a distributed environment and stored in local and/or remote memory, for access by single and multi-processor machines, portable computers, handheld devices, e.g., Personal Digital Assistants (PDAs), cellular telephones, etc. 
   Thus, for example, with respect to the illustrated embodiments, assuming machine  500  operates as a recorder  100  (FIG.  1 ), then remote machines  514 ,  516  may respectively be a broker  110 , and a privacy server  112 . It will be appreciated that remote machines  514 ,  516  may be configured like machine  500 , and therefore include many or all of the elements discussed for machine. 
   Having described and illustrated the principles of the invention with reference to illustrated embodiments, it will be recognized that the illustrated embodiments can be modified in arrangement and detail without departing from such principles. And, though the foregoing discussion has focused on particular embodiments, other configurations are contemplated. In particular, even though expressions such as “in one embodiment,” “in another embodiment,” or the like are used herein, these phrases are meant to generally reference embodiment possibilities, and are not intended to limit the invention to particular embodiment configurations. As used herein, these terms may reference the same or different embodiments that are combinable into other embodiments. 
   Consequently, in view of the wide variety of permutations to the embodiments described herein, this detailed description is intended to be illustrative only, and should not be taken as limiting the scope of the invention. What is claimed as the invention, therefore, is all such modifications as may come within the scope and spirit of the following claims and equivalents thereto.