Distributed content identification system
OwnerMark Raymond Pace, Brooks Cash Talleyinventors
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Abstract
A file content classification system includes a digital ID generator and an ID appearance database coupled to receive IDs from the ID generator. The system further includes a characteristic comparison routine identifying the file as having a characteristic based on ID appearance in the appearance database. In a further aspect, a method for identifying a characteristic of a data file comprises the steps of: generating a digital identifier for the data file and forwarding the identifier to a processing system; determining whether the forwarded identifier matches a characteristic of other identifiers; and processing the data file based on said step of determination.
Claims25
A file content classification system comprising:
- a plurality of agents, each agent including a file content ID generator creating file content IDs using a mathematical algorithm, at least one agent provided on one of a plurality of clients;
- an ID appearance database, provided on a server, coupled to receive file content IDs from the agents;
- and
- a characteristic comparison routine on the server, identifying a characteristic of the file content based on the appearance of the file content ID in the appearance database and transmitting the characteristic to the client agents.
A method for identifying characteristics of data files, comprising:
- receiving, on a processing system, file content identifiers for data files from a plurality of file content identifier generator agents, each agent provided on a source system and creating file content IDs using a mathematical algorithm, via a network;
- determining, on the processing system, whether each received content identifier matches a characteristic of other identifiers;
- and
- outputting, to at least one of the source systems responsive to a request from said source system, an indication of the characteristic of the data file based on said step of determining.
A method of filtering an email message, comprising:
- receiving, on a second computer, a digital content identifier created using a mathematical algorithm unique to the message content from at least two of a plurality of first computers having digital content ID generator agents;
- comparing, on the second computer, the digital content identifier to a characteristic database of digital content identifiers received from said plurality of first computers to determine whether the message has a characteristic;
- and
- responding to a query from at least one of said plurality of computers to identify the existence or absence of said characteristic of the message based on said comparing.
A file content classification system for a first computer and a second computer coupled by a network, comprising:
- a client agent file content identifier generator on the first computer, the file content identifier comprising a computed value of at least two non-contiguous sections of data in a file;
- and
- a server comparison agent and data-structure on the second computer receiving identifiers from the client agent and providing replies to the client agent;
- wherein the client agent processes the file based on replies from the server comparison agent.
A method for providing a service on the Internet, comprising:
- collecting data on a processing system from a plurality of systems having a client agent generating digital content identifiers created using a mathematical algorithm for each of a plurality of files on the Internet to a server having a database;
- characterizing the files on the server system based on said digital content identifiers received relative to other digital content identifiers collected in the database;
- and
- transmitting a substance identifier from the server to the client agent indicating the presence or absence of a characteristic in the file.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.