File kinship for multimedia data tracking

A method comprising:

• performing operations under control of one or more processors, the operations including:
• developing a first kinship of files stored on a first device and a second kinship of files stored on a second device, wherein developing the first kinship of files stored on the first device comprises:
• identifying a plurality of potentially related files stored on the first device, each of the potentially related files having image content;
• filtering the plurality of potentially related files based on metadata associated with individual files of the plurality of potentially related files to identify a plurality of related files stored on the first device;
• applying a bit-level analysis, on a pair-wise basis, to the plurality of related files to obtain a bit-level similarity for each pair of related files of the plurality of related files, the bit-level similarity being a numerical measure of similarity, with the bit-level similarity obtained without considering image content of the files of each pair, by treating the files of each pair as bit streams and counting a number of bits in common between the files of each pair;
• applying a content level analysis, on the pair-wise basis, to the plurality of related files to obtain a content level similarity for each pair of related files of the plurality of related files, the content level analysis being a separate and different process from the bit-level analysis, with the content level similarity being a numerical measure of similarity;
• quantifying a strength of kinship between the plurality of related files based, at least in part, on a comparison between the bit-level similarity to the content level similarity with respect to a normalized numerical range for each pair of related files of the plurality of related files;
• establishing a kinship relationship between a first file of the plurality of related files and a second file of the plurality of related files based on the strength of kinship between the first file and the second file;
• propagating updates to the first kinship and the second kinship, the propagating comprising:
• establishing a connection between the first device and the second device;
• determining files in common between the first device and the second device to define common files;
• updating the first kinship for the common files on the first device based on updates from the second device;
• and
• updating the second kinship for the common files on the second device based on updates from the first device;
• and
• performing an operation with regard to at least one of two particular related files, the performing of the operation based at least in part on the kinship relationship between the two particular related files, the operation with regard to at least one of the two particular related files comprising facilitating smart selection, facilitating intelligent de-duplication, or facilitating data tracing.

A system for determining kinship between a plurality of image files, the system comprising:

• a processor;
• and
• a memory coupled to the processor, the memory storing instructions, which are executable by the processor, the instructions include instructions to:
• operate as a file system monitor component configured to monitor operational commands between the plurality of image files;
• and
• operate as a kinship capture engine component configured to:
• determine an operational relationship between a first file of the plurality of image files and a second file of the plurality of image files based on the operational commands;
• quantify a strength of kinship between the first file and the second file by:
• applying a bit-level analysis to the first file and the second file to obtain a bit-level similarity between the first file and the second file, with the bit-level similarity obtained without considering image content of the first file and the second file, by treating the first file and the second file as bit streams and counting a number of bits in common between the first file and the second file;
• applying a content level analysis to the first file and the second file to obtain a content level similarity between the first file and the second file, with the content level analysis being a separate and different process from the bit-level analysis;
• and
• comparing the bit-level similarity from the bit-level analysis to the content level similarity from the content level analysis, the bit-level similarity being a numerical measure of similarity and the content level similarity being a numerical measure of similarity, with the bit-level similarity and the content level similarity normalized with respect to a common numerical range;
• and
• establish a kinship relationship between the first file and the second file based on the strength of kinship;
• and
• facilitate smart selection, intelligent de-duplication, or data tracing based on one or more kinship relationships between the plurality of image files.