Photo-serving communication protocols and methodology for providing disparate host devices with FTP-like access to digital images residing on a digital camera device

A method for a digital camera device to provide a variety of disparate host devices access to files residing on digital camera device, upon the digital camera device's connection to one of the host devices, the method comprising:

• sending, prior to establishing a communication session on top of a physical communication link for a communication stack of the connection, one or more queries over the connection, the one or more queries being associated with one or more expected responses stored in a knowledgebase including a registry, the communication stack having one or more communication layers including the communication session, each communication layer corresponding to a communication protocol;
• comparing, subsequently to sending the one or more queries, a response received over the connection with the one or more expected responses to determine an identifier for a kind of a physical communication link for the communication stack of the connection to the particular host device;
• looking up preferred configurations for the one or more communication layers according to the determined identifier referencing the settings in the registry;
• allowing communication between the digital camera device and the particular host device;
• automatically identifying the particular host device that the digital camera device is connected to;
• and
• based on said determined kind of physical communication link:
• (1) establishing the communication session between the digital camera device and the particular host device for the communication stack of the connection, said communication session supporting file-serving communication protocols that present the digital camera device as a file server to the host device;
• and
• (2) if needed by the host for supporting said file-serving communication protocols, automatically uploading a driver from the digital camera device to the particular host device and thereafter invoking execution of the driver at the particular host device, for providing host-side support for said file-serving communication protocols, wherein said particular host device and said digital camera device support TCP/IP connectivity corresponding to one of the communication protocols of the communication stack and wherein the communication session is a TCP/IP session.

A digital camera device allowing a variety of disparate host devices access to files residing on the digital camera device, upon the digital camera device's connection to one of the host devices, the digital camera device comprising:

• a connection interface for enabling the connection of the digital camera device to a particular host device that is capable of hosting the digital camera device;
• an identification module configured for sending, prior to establishing a communication session on top of a physical communication link for a communication stack of the connection, one or more queries over the connection, the one or more queries being associated with one or more expected responses stored in a knowledgebase including a registry having key settings configured with factory preset values, the communication stack having one or more communication layers including the communication session, each communication layer corresponds to a communication protocol comparing, subsequently to sending the one or more queries, a response received over the connection with the one or more expected responses according to the key settings of the registry to determine an identifier for a kind of the physical communication link for the communication stack of the connection to the particular host device;
• looking up preferred configurations for the one or more communication layers according to the determined identifier referencing the configured key settings in the registry device is currently connected to, wherein the key settings include sub-keys as a table of possible communicating devices that may be connected from time to time to the digital camera device and wherein the particular host device is indicated by one or more internal flags updated according to the identification;
• and
• a communication module for establishing, based on said determined kind of physical communication link, the communication session between the digital camera device and the particular host device, wherein said communication session supports file-serving communication protocols that present the digital camera device as a file server to the host device, wherein the access of the files includes quality of the files depending on the preferred configurations for the preferred configurations for the one or more communication layers of the communication stack, wherein said particular host device and said digital camera device support TCP/IP connectivity corresponding to one of the communication protocols of the communication stack and wherein the communication session is a TCP/IP session.