Patent ID: 7734724

Claim:
A method for providing remote access to captured content, comprising: automatically registering a capture device with a remote computer over a communications network, wherein the automatic registration associates the capture device with user information; locally capturing content for an event using the capture device; automatically encapsulating the content with metadata, wherein the metadata includes information about the capture device, the content, the event, and the user information; automatically transmitting the content encapsulated with metadata from the capture device to the remote computer over the communications network; processing the metadata encapsulating the content at the remote computer, wherein the processing comprises: automatically associating the content with a user account according to the user information included with the metadata; automatically publishing the content on the remote computer according to the information about the capture device, the content, and the event included with the metadata, wherein the remote computer comprises a database comprising locally captured content associated with user accounts and publishing the content comprises updating the database with the content; automatically generating a textual notification at the remote computer in response to publishing the content, wherein the notification indicates that the published content has been published on the remote computer and includes the information about the event included with the metadata; automatically transmitting the generated textual notification from the remote computer to a user associated with the user account; allowing the user to access the published content and current status information for the capture device on the remote computer with a user access device, wherein the current status information comprises data on a state of the capture device; allowing the user to send a command from the user access device to the capture device via the remote computer in order to change the state of the capture device; wherein: the capture device has an associated virtual interface; the metadata includes information about the virtual interface; and publishing the content on remote computer comprises providing the user with access to the content using the virtual interface according to the metadata.