Abstract:
A server maintains a gallery of ephemeral messages. Each ephemeral message is posted to the gallery by a user for viewing by recipients via recipient devices. In response to a gallery view request from any of the recipient devices, the ephemeral messages in the gallery are displayed on the requesting device in automated sequence, each message being displayed for a respective display duration before display of the next message in the gallery. Each ephemeral message has an associated message availability parameter, at the expiry of which the ephemeral message is made unavailable for viewing as part of the gallery. At expiry of the message availability parameter of the last posted message, the gallery is made unavailable for viewing upon request by any recipient.

Description:
FIELD OF THE INVENTION 
       [0001]    This invention relates generally to the display of computer network delivered ephemeral messages. More particularly, this invention relates to an ephemeral gallery of ephemeral messages. 
       BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 
       [0002]    Messages (e.g., text, photo or video) delivered over computer networks are well known. However, one problem associated with such messages is that they require an affirmative act on the part of a user to delete or remove messages from their devices once the messages have been viewed or read. As a result, in sonic instances, users refrain from spontaneously sending many messages for fear of filling, or cluttering a recipient&#39;s in-box. 
         [0003]    In view of the foregoing, it would be desirable to maintain spontaneity and expand communicative content of messaging activity, while reducing the device management burdens imposed upon a message recipient. 
       SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 
       [0004]    A server has a processor and a memory storing instructions executed by the processor to maintain an ephemeral gallery of ephemeral messages. An ephemeral message is posted to the ephemeral gallery. The ephemeral message has an associated message duration parameter and a gallery participation parameter. An ephemeral message is removed from the ephemeral gallery in response to the identification of an expired gallery participation parameter. 
     
    
     
       BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE FIGURES 
         [0005]    The invention is more fully appreciated in connection with the following detailed description taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, in which: 
           [0006]      FIG. 1  illustrates components of an electronic device utilized in accordance with the invention. 
           [0007]      FIG. 2  illustrates processing operations associated with an embodiment of the invention. 
           [0008]      FIG. 3  illustrates an electronic device for capturing and augmenting an ephemeral message. 
           [0009]      FIG. 4  illustrates an ephemeral message destination routing interface that may be used in accordance with an embodiment of the invention. 
           [0010]      FIG. 5  illustrates a system to implement an embodiment of the invention. 
           [0011]      FIG. 6  illustrates ephemeral gallery processing operations associated with an embodiment of the invention. 
           [0012]      FIG. 7  illustrates an ephemeral gallery data structure associated with an embodiment of the invention. 
           [0013]      FIG. 8  illustrates ephemeral gallery indicia associated with an embodiment of the invention. 
           [0014]      FIG. 9  illustrates ephemeral gallery indicia associated with another embodiment of the invention. 
           [0015]      FIG. 10  illustrates operations performed in response to an ephemeral gallery view request. 
           [0016]      FIG. 11  illustrates an account administration interface to establish an ephemeral gallery that receives ephemeral messages from multiple users. 
       
    
    
       [0017]    Like reference numerals refer to corresponding parts throughout the several views of the drawings. 
       DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION 
       [0018]      FIG. 1  illustrates an electronic device  100 . In one embodiment, the electronic device  100  is a smartphone with a processor  102  in communication with a memory  104 . The processor  102  may be a central processing unit and/or a graphics processing unit. The memory  104  is a combination of flash memory and random access memory. The memory  104  stores an ephemeral message controller  106  to implement operations of the invention. The ephemeral message controller  106  may include executable instructions to access a server which coordinates operations disclosed herein. Alternately, the ephemeral message controller  106  may include executable instructions to coordinate, some of the operations disclosed herein, while the server implements other operations. 
         [0019]    An ephemeral message may be a text, an image, a video and the like. The display time for the ephemeral message is typically set by the message sender. However, the display time may be a default setting or a setting specified by the recipient. Regardless of the setting technique, the message is transitory (i.e., the message is deleted or otherwise made inaccessible after a certain period of time or after a certain action has been taken). 
         [0020]    The processor  102  is also coupled to image sensors  115 . The image sensors  115  may be known digital image sensors, such as charge coupled devices. The image sensors capture visual media, which is presented on display  116 . 
         [0021]    A touch controller  118  is connected to the display  116  and the processor  102 . The touch controller  118  is responsive to haptic signals applied to the display  116 . In one embodiment, the ephemeral message controller  106  monitors signals from the touch controller  118 . If haptic contact is observed by the touch controller  118  in connection with indicia of an ephemeral gallery, then the ephemeral gallery is displayed to the user as a sequence of ephemeral messages. 
         [0022]    The electronic device  100  may also include other components commonly associated with a smartphone, such as a wireless signal processor  120  to provide connectivity to a wireless network. A power control circuit  122  and a global positioning system processor  124  may also be utilized. While many of the components of  FIG. 1  are known in the art, new functionality is achieved through the ephemeral message controller  106  operating in conjunction with a server. 
         [0023]      FIG. 2  illustrates processing operations associated with the ephemeral message controller  106 . Initially, an ephemeral message is captured  200 .  FIG. 3  illustrates electronic device  100  and touch display  116  with a photograph  300  operative as an ephemeral message. 
         [0024]    The next processing operation of  FIG. 2  is to determine whether to alter a timer or a message duration parameter  202 .  FIG. 3  illustrates an example of indicia  302  of a message duration parameter. In this example, the indicia indicates a default of 5 seconds as the message duration parameter. If the indicia is engaged (e.g., through haptic contact), then a prompt may be supplied for a new message duration parameter (e.g., 10 seconds). Such activity ( 202 —Yes) results in the acceptance of the new timer value  204 . If a new timer value is specified or no alteration of a timer transpires ( 202 —No) control proceeds to block  206 . The user may be prompted to augment the ephemeral message. As shown in  FIG. 3 , a drawing tool  304  may be supplied to allow a user to add a hand drawn message. The drawing tool  304  may be manipulated by haptic contact to enter a message or annotation of visual media. Alternately or in addition, a keyboard may be used to type augment a message. For example, a tap on the touch display  116  may result in a keyboard being displayed, which allows a user to enter a typed message. 
         [0025]    As shown in  FIG. 2 , annotations may be accepted  208  in this manner. Augmentation may also be in the form of photograph filters. That is, photograph filters may be accepted  210 . For example, a first right-to-left swipe motion on the touch display  116  may drag a first filter on top of the photograph. A second right-to-left swipe motion on the touch display  116  may drag a second filter on top of the photograph. Filter processing of this type is described in commonly owned U.S. Ser. No. 14/325,270, filed Jul. 7, 2014, the contents of which are incorporated herein by reference. 
         [0026]    The next operation of  FIG. 2  is to accept destinations  212 . As more fully described below, a destination may be used to identify intended recipients of a message or a location or “gallery” where one or more messages may be accessed.  FIG. 3  illustrates an icon  306  to invoke a destination list. Haptic contact on the icon may result in a destination list of the type shown in  FIG. 4 .  FIG. 4  illustrates an electronic device  100  displaying a destination list. The destination list may include a destination of “My Story”  402 , where “My Story” is a reference to an ephemeral gallery of ephemeral messages. The destination list may also include a friends or contacts section  404  listing various friends that may be ephemeral message recipients. Haptic contact with a box  406  associated with a listed individual or story places the corresponding individual or story on a destination list. 
         [0027]    Returning to  FIG. 2 , after the destination list is specified, the ephemeral message is sent to the specified destinations  214 . For example, the ephemeral message is sent to friends selected from section  404 , if any. A check is also made to determine whether the message should be posted to an ephemeral gallery  216 . If not ( 216 —No), processing is completed. If so ( 216 —Yes), the processing of  FIG. 6  is performed  220 . Thus, it is possible to send a message to one or more friends and/or post to an ephemeral gallery. 
         [0028]      FIG. 5  illustrates a system  500 . The figure presents a simplified representation of a set of electronic devices  100 _ 1  through  100 _N, where each electronic device may be configured as the device of  FIG. 1 . Each electronic device is in communication with a network  502 , which may be any combination of wireless and wired networks. 
         [0029]    A server  504  is also connected to the network  502 . The server  504  includes standard components, such as a central processing unit  510  connected to input/output devices  514  via a network  512 . The input/output devices  514  may include a keyboard, mouse, display and the like. A network interface circuit  516  is also connected to the bus  512  to provide connectivity to network  502 . A memory  520  is also connected to the bus  512 . The memory  520  stores an ephemeral gallery module  522 . The ephemeral gallery module  522  stores instructions executed by the central processing unit  510  to implement operations of the invention. For example, the ephemeral gallery module  522  may include instructions to coordinate the processing operations of  FIG. 2 . These operations may be controlled by the ephemeral gallery module  522  or they may be performed in conjunction with selective operations performed by the ephemeral message controller  106 . 
         [0030]      FIG. 6  illustrates ephemeral gallery module  522  operations performed in accordance with an embodiment of the invention. The first operation of  FIG. 6  is to determine whether a new gallery is needed  600 . As discussed in connection with  FIG. 4 , designating “My Story”  402  as a message recipient results in a post of an ephemeral message to an ephemeral gallery. If a gallery does not exist ( 600 —Yes), then a new gallery is created  602 . Alternately, if a gallery does exist and a user wants to create a new gallery, then the new gallery is created  602 . The user may be supplied a prompt to indicate whether an existing gallery should be used or a new gallery should be designated. 
         [0031]    The message is then posted in the gallery with a gallery participation parameter  606 . The gallery participation parameter is an ephemeral period of time that the ephemeral message will continue to exist in the gallery. For example, a first ephemeral message posted to the gallery may have a default gallery participation parameter of 24 hours. In other instances, the gallery participation parameter may be set by a user. The gallery participation parameter value decreases with the passage of time. Thus, in this embodiment, an ephemeral message gallery subsists for as long as the gallery participation parameter of the last message posed to the gallery. 
         [0032]    In another embodiment, a gallery timer may be assigned to a gallery by a user. The gallery timer may be used to establish a lifespan of an associated gallery and messages posted to this gallery subsist for no longer than the life of the gallery. Thus, in some embodiments, all messages posted to such a gallery will subsist for the duration of the life of the gallery (regardless of posting time). In other embodiments, messages may be submitted with a gallery participation parameter. In these embodiments, messages expire and become inaccessible at the earlier of the gallery participation parameter or the remaining life of the gallery. 
         [0033]    The next processing operation of  FIG. 6  is to post activity indicia  608 . Examples of activity indicia are provided below. A check is then made to determine whether there is an expired participation parameter  610 . If so ( 610 —Yes), the ephemeral message associated with the expired participation parameter is removed from the ephemeral gallery  614 . If as a result of this removed message the gallery is empty ( 616 —Yes), then the ephemeral gallery terminates and indicia of the gallery is removed  618 . If the gallery is not empty ( 616 —No), a check is made for a new message  612 . If a new message exists ( 612 —Yes), then processing returns to block  604 . If a new message does not exist ( 612 —No), then processing returns to block  610 . If an expired participation parameter does not exist ( 610 —No), then a check is made once again for a new message  612 . 
         [0034]      FIG. 7  illustrates a data structure for an ephemeral message gallery. A first column  700  may have a list of messages. Another column  702  may have a list of message duration parameters for individual messages. Another column  704  may have a list of gallery participation parameters for individual messages. Observe in this example that the values in column  702  add up to 30 seconds. Thus, the ephemeral message gallery in this example has four messages that will take 30 seconds to display. Further observe that the oldest message (Message_ 1 ) is displayed first and will be removed in 120 minutes. In this example, the newest message (Message_ 4 ) will remain in the ephemeral gallery for 1320 minutes at which point the ephemeral gallery will expire, unless another message is posted. The arrival of a. new message alters the gallery timer, but does not alter gallery participation parameters. 
         [0035]      FIG. 8  illustrates an interface  800  with a section  802  that designates available ephemeral message galleries (stories) and a section  804  with a listing of friends (available destinations for an ephemeral message). Observe that section  802  has indicia of ephemeral message gallery activity.  FIG. 8  provides example indicia, of the time that the last message was posted to the ephemeral message gallery.  FIG. 8  also provides example graphical indicia of the amount of time remaining for an ephemeral message gallery. Observe that the first entry was posted 20 minutes ago and therefore has a full circle indicative of the time remaining for that ephemeral message gallery. On the other hand, the third entry was posted 12 hours ago and has approximately half a circle to indicate the time remaining for that ephemeral message gallery. This example contemplates a 24 hour period for an ephemeral message gallery. Naturally, other time periods may be utilized in accordance with embodiments of the invention. 
         [0036]      FIG. 9  illustrates an interface  900  with information on a user&#39;s stories. Individual stories  902  have indicia of the amount of time remaining. Indicia  904  of the number of ephemeral gallery views is also provided. Indicia  906  of screenshots taken of an ephemeral message is also provided. This information is significant since the intent of the message was that it be ephemeral. If a message recipient overrides this intent by taking a screen shot, then the message sender is advised. 
         [0037]      FIG. 10  illustrates processing operations performed by the ephemeral gallery module  522  in response to a request for an ephemeral message gallery. As shown in  FIG. 8 , a user receives a list of  802  of available stories. Haptic contact with indicia of a story is operative as a request to view an ephemeral message gallery. 
         [0038]    The first operation in  FIG. 10  is to display the next message in the gallery  1000 . In the example of  FIG. 7 , the oldest message is the first message to be displayed. A message timer is then started  1002 . The message timer expires at the end of the message duration parameter for the displayed ephemeral message. In the example of  FIG. 7 , the first message (Message_ 1 ) is displayed for 10 seconds. Block  1004  checks for the timer to expire. Upon expiration of the timer ( 1004 —Yes), a check is made to determine if the gallery is empty  1006 . If so ( 1006 —Yes), processing is completed  1008 . If not ( 1006 —No),processing returns to block  1000 . This processing loop is repeated until the gallery is empty. 
         [0039]      FIG. 11  illustrates an account administration interface  1100  to establish an ephemeral gallery that receives ephemeral messages from multiple users. Such a feature may be used to facilitate celebrity or organizational accounts where numerous authorized users are allowed to post on behalf of a single account. In one embodiment, a username, display name, contact email and contact phone are specified by an account administrator. An authorized accounts prompt  1102  allows the account administrator to add other users to the ephemeral gallery. For example, activation of the prompt  1102  may result in prompts tor a username, display name, contact email and/or contact phone. Alternately, of the prompt  1102  may result in an interface of the type shown in  FIG. 4  through which authorized accounts may be added. 
         [0040]    An embodiment of the present invention relates to a computer storage product with a computer readable storage medium having computer code thereon for performing various computer-implemented operations. The media and computer code may be those specially designed and constructed for the purposes of the present invention, or they may be of the kind well known and available to those having skill in the computer software arts. Examples of computer-readable media include, but are nest limited to: magnetic media such as hard disks, floppy disks, and magnetic tape; optical media such as CD-ROMs, DVDs and holographic devices; magneto-optical media; and hardware devices that are specially configured to store and execute program code, such as application-specific integrated circuits (“ASICs”), programmable logic devices (“PLDs”) and ROM and RAM devices. Examples of computer code include machine code, such as produced by a compiler, and files containing higher-level code that are executed by a computer using an interpreter. For example, an embodiment of the invention may be implemented using JAVA®, C++, or other object-oriented programming language and development tools. Another embodiment of the invention may be implemented in hardwired circuitry in place of, or in combination with, machine-executable software instructions. 
         [0041]    The foregoing description, for purposes of explanation, used specific nomenclature to provide a thorough understanding of the invention. However, it will be apparent to one skilled in the art that specific details are not required in order to practice the invention. Thus, the foregoing descriptions of specific embodiments of the invention are presented for purposes of illustration and description. They are not intended to be exhaustive or to limit the invention to the precise firms disclosed; obviously, many modifications and variations are possible in view of the above teachings. The embodiments were chosen and described in order to best explain the principles of the invention and its practical applications, they thereby enable others skilled in the art to best utilize the invention and various embodiments with various modifications as are suited to the particular use contemplated. It is intended that the following claims and their equivalents define the scope of the invention.