Patent ID: 8842197

Claim:
A method for automatically generating metadata for a user for a digital image, comprising: obtaining user-definable aggregation rules of the user that includes at least one of: a rule indicating that “muggy” is specified when a plurality of ambient conditions is “warm” and “very humid”; a rule indicating that “sweltering” is specified when the plurality of ambient conditions is “hot” and “humid”; a rule indicating that “balmy” is specified when the plurality of ambient conditions is “mild”, “breezy”, and “partially humid”; a rule indicating that “driving rain” is specified when the plurality of ambient conditions is “rainy” and “windy”; a rule indicating that “monsoon-like” is specified when the plurality of ambient conditions is “warm” and “gusty” and “rainy” and “winds from the South to South-West”; a rule indicating that “Sudden shower” is specified when the plurality of ambient conditions is “hot” and “humid” transitioninq to “cooler” and “rainy”; and a rule indicating that “Clearing” is specified when the plurality of ambient conditions is “foggy”, “cold”, and “partly humid” transitioninq to “brightening”, “warming”, and with “falling humidity”; determining a plurality of ambient conditions existing at a time related to a time of capture of the digital image and associated with a location of a subject of the digital image captured with a mobile image capture device even when the mobile image capture device is in a different location, wherein determining the plurality of ambient conditions includes determining variations of the ambient conditions over time by receiving readings of the ambient conditions at a plurality of times including at least one of a time before the time of capture, at the time of capture, and after the time of capture; aggregating and transforming data associated with the plurality of ambient conditions into at least one ambient trend descriptor based on the obtained user- definable aggregation rules wherein the aggregating includes aggregating the variations of the ambient conditions determined over the plurality of times; associating the ambient trend descriptor with the digital image as metadata; and enabling a user to search for the digital image based on the at least one ambient trend descriptor.