Patent ID: 8805791

Claim:
A method of managing images over a wide-area network, the method comprising: acquiring digital image files using a plurality of acquisition devices, wherein each acquisition device is at a separate remote location; transferring identifying information about the acquired image files from one or more remote locations over a network to a central server location remote from the one or more remote locations and storing the identifying information at the central server location; transferring copies of image files from the one or more remote locations over the network to the central server location and storing the copies at the central server location, wherein the transferring comprises receiving a notification at the central server location when image files are stored at one or more of the one or more remote locations, based on one or more of the notifications, queuing a plurality of file transfer operations to transfer the image files from the one or more remote locations to the central server location, pacing the plurality of file transfer operations to reduce the rate at which the image files are transferred during transfer of the image files to the central server location, and deleting each image file from its remote location when a copy of the respective image file is stored in the central server location; creating a common catalog comprising image files and identifying information available at the central server location; and transferring at least a portion of an image file and identifying information from the central server location to one or more remote user viewing devices over at least one network.