Patent Document ID: 20160070892
Application ID: 14821602
Patent Status: 0

Claim One:
1. A system for processing, storage, distribution, and interaction with electronic images, comprising: a cloud service for storing source-and-content-verifiable images, processing the source-and-content-verifiable images to create source-and-content-verifiable interactive images having embedded interactive features, distributing the interactive images; a programmable electronic imaging device arranged to create an image, said imaging device including a memory for storing imaging software made up of a set of instructions executed by a processor for creating the image, steganographically marking the image to create one of said source-and-content verifiable images, and securely transmitting the source-and-content-verifiable image to said cloud service; a programmable electronic viewing device arranged to view images, said viewing device including a memory for storing viewing software made up of a set of instructions executed by a processor for capturing, viewing, and interacting with one of said interactive images, wherein said cloud service includes programmable computing devices for constructing and maintaining data structures, generating said interactive features based on said data structures, and embedding the interactive features in the source-and-content-verifiable images to create the interactive images, and transmitting one of said interactive images to said viewing device, wherein said data structures constructed and maintained by the cloud service include the following data structures: a. a picture interaction data structure (PIDS) that captures and records ongoing interactions that happen between image viewers and image authors/facilitators relative to an image; b. a user interaction data structure (UIDS) that contains a user's identification information and preferences, and pointers to images with which the user has interacted; and c. a picture-generated recursive data structure (PRIDS) relative to any given image, the PRIDS containing the PIDS of the image and the UIDS of the users who have interacted with the image, which in turn contains the PIDS's of all other images with which the users have interacted, which in turn contains the UIDS's of users that have interacted with those images, wherein the interactive features embedded in the interactive images are based on the PRIDS and therefore include information on all users who have interacted with a respective interactive image, wherein the viewing software instructions executed by the processor of the viewing device include instructions for enabling a user of the viewing device to select a communication option upon interaction of the user of the viewing device with the respective interactive image, and wherein upon selection of the communication option, a communication channel is opened between the user of the viewing device and one or more of said users who have authored, facilitated, or interacted with the respective interactive image.