Automatic management of digital archives, in particular of audio and/or video files

摘要

Methods are described for selecting and/or deleting files in a set of files, preferably relating to audio and/or video sequences. The present invention is based on the idea of finding substantially duplicate files, selecting the best one and deleting the others, this process being carried out in an automatic or quasi-automatic manner, i.e. with the user having to answer one or more confirmation requests. A certain number of duplicate files can be subjected to P logic blocks Ck (k being an integer, 1≦k≦P); each logic block makes a selection according to a choice criterion having higher priority than the next block.

主权项

1. A method for managing digital archives on an electronic apparatus having a non-transitory digital data storage medium storing a plurality of files, said method comprising the steps of:
finding a set of files from said plurality of files, said set of files having at least one similar or identical datum; setting a plurality of file selection criteria; defining a priority order of said plurality of file selection criteria based on priority, from a highest priority decreasing to a lowest priority; selecting the highest priority file selection criterion according to said priority order; iteratively performing the following steps (a) through (d) until either (1) all file selection criteria have been applied, or (2) there is only one file in said set of files: (a) applying said selected file selection criterion to each file in said set of files, (b) determining a number of files which meet the requirements of said selected file selection criterion, (c) if said number of files which meet the requirements of said selected file selection criterion is greater than one, removing from said set of files all files in said set of files which do not meet the requirements of said selected file selection criterion, and (d) selecting the next lower priority file selection criteria according to said priority order; and selecting the file(s) which remain in said set of files.