Patent ID: 8825812

Claim:
A peer-to-peer image streaming system comprising: a sharer computer, a viewer computer and a community server interconnected via a communication network, wherein the sharer computer notifies the community server of an assigned IP address associated with the sharer computer whenever the sharer computer connects to the network, and wherein the sharer computer includes: (i) an image store storing digital images, (it) a transmitter for sending an electronic message over the network to the viewer computer, wherein the message includes a web address pointing to the community server and information identifying the image store, and (iii) a peer-to-peer image streamer streaming image data over a network; the viewer computer includes: (i) a transceiver receiving the message from the sharer computer and connecting the viewer computer to the web address specified in the message, and (ii) a peer-to-peer image viewer viewing image data over the network; and the community server includes: (i) a look-up table listing current IP addresses for registered peer-to-peer image servers, (ii) an address translator looking up a network address of the image store based on the image store identification information in the message transmitted by the sharer computer, and (iii) a peer-to-peer network connector instructing the peer-to-peer image streamer to open a direct peer-to-peer socket connection with the viewer computer, wherein the sharer computer sends to the viewer computer the electronic message comprising the web address which points to the community server, the viewer computer utilizes the transceiver to browse the web address and connects to the community server, the community server looks up the assigned IP address of the sharer computer from the said look-up table based on the web address, the community server instructs the sharer computer to open a peer-to-peer connection with the viewer computer and directs the viewer computer to the sharer computer, the sharer computers opens a peer-to-peer connection with the viewer computer and transmits images from the image store to the viewer computer, whereby the viewer computer views the images from the image store associated with the sharer computer without requiring the viewer computer to register with the community server or search for images thereon.