Patent ID: 7340676

Claim:
A digital image album layout system comprising: a page creator module operable to receive a set of images, a plurality of different user album preferences, and a plurality of album preference importance values, each said album preference importance value indicating a weighting of a corresponding one of said user album preferences relative to the other said user album preferences, and to generate album preference criteria using said user album preferences and album preference importance values, said page creator module having a first genetic engine operable to execute genetic evolution calculations on a first genetic population of album criteria, said page creator module having a page evaluation module operable to test said first genetic population for fitness to said album preference criteria, said page creator module being operable to distribute said images to a plurality of album pages responsive to said testing for fitness to said album preference criteria; an image placement module operable to receive the set of images, a plurality of different user page preferences, and a plurality of page preference importance values, each said page preference importance value indicating a weighting of a corresponding one of said user page preferences relative to the other said user page preferences, and to generate page preference criteria using said user page preferences and page preference importance values, said image placement module having a second genetic engine operable to execute genetic evolution calculations on a second genetic population of page layout criteria, said image placement module having a layout evaluation module operable to test said second genetic population for fitness to said page preference criteria, said image placement module being operable to distribute said images on respective said album pages responsive to said testing for fitness to said page preference criteria; wherein said page creator module and said image placement module operate separately.