DETAILED ACTION
The present application, filed on or after March 16, 2013, is being examined under the first inventor to file provisions of the AIA .
Claims 1-20, 22-23 and 26 are pending.
Claims 21 and 24-25 are canceled.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
The following is a quotation of pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 103(a) which forms the basis for all obviousness rejections set forth in this Office action:
(a) A patent may not be obtained though the invention is not identically disclosed or described as set forth in section 102 of this title, if the differences between the subject matter sought to be patented and the prior art are such that the subject matter as a whole would have been obvious at the time the invention was made to a person having ordinary skill in the art to which said subject matter pertains. Patentability shall not be negatived by the manner in which the invention was made.
Claim(s) 1-3, 5-6, 9-10, 14-15, 19-20, 22-23 and 6 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Horesh (US20160227113) in view of Caraffi et al (US20160274659A1).
Regarding claims 1 and 14, Horesh teaches a method for controlling one or more illumination devices in an eye tracker such that a measured pupil/iris contrast exceeds a predefined minimum pupil/iris contrast under bright pupil conditions, the method comprising:
(Horesh, "an imaging device 100 includes a camera 122 and one or more light sources 124 associated therewith to facilitate gaze tracking of a user", [0014]; "ensures the iris-pupil contrast (e.g., of each eye) is not less than a predefined contrast value.", [0044]; "detect the reflections (i.e., glints or Purkinje images) from the person's retina/cornea.", [0002]; Caraffi, "illumination unit 30, which has at least one light source, in particular two or more LEDs, which are preferably placed near by the camera or the cameras.", [0057]; Horesh teaches controlling illumination devices in an eye tracking system to ensure the pupil-iris contrast exceeds a predefined minimum threshold, and notes tracking reflections from the retina/cornea. Caraffi teaches providing light sources placed near the camera)
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention was made to incorporate the teachings of Caraffi into the system or method of Horesh in order to configure the illumination devices to be located near the camera, ensuring the required contrast is maintained exclusively under the resulting bright pupil conditions caused by the camera-adjacent placement. The combination of Horesh and Caraffi also teaches other enhanced capabilities.
The combination of Horesh and Caraffi further teaches:
capturing images of a subject, including one or both of the subject's eyes, during predefined image capture periods with a camera, wherein a lens of the camera is located sufficiently close to one or both of the subject’s eyes to generate bright pupil effects;
(Horesh, “The camera 122 may be embodied as any peripheral or integrated device suitable for capturing images…”, [0019]; “The image capturing module 202 controls the camera 122 to capture images within the field of view of the camera 122”, [0023]; the system analyzes those images for eye location, iris-pupil contrast and glints; Caraffi, “The imaging device 20 comprises at least one camera which during operation of the eye tracking device 10 captures images of the eyes of the user with a certain frequency.”, [0060]; Horesh and Caraffi both teach using a camera to capture images of the user’s eyes at specific intervals or frequencies (image-capture periods); As to the newly amended limitation “wherein a lens of the camera is located sufficiently close to one or both of the subject’s eyes to generate bright pupil effects”, the language indicates a comparatively loose functional statement of relative proximity; Horesh expressly teaches and relies upon an eye-camera distance. Fig. 6 and the accompanying text ([0031]) show, for any given light source shining on a subject’s eye 602, “a specific distance defined between the eye 602 and the camera 122 of the imaging device 100 (i.e., the eye-camera distance)”. That distance (denoted DEC) is calculated from the three-dimensional location of the eye relative to the camera and is an explicit input to the illumination-efficiency formula (see [0031], [0041], claim 32):
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The entire optimization framework of Horesh presupposes that the camera lens is positioned close enough to the eye for reliable imaging, glint detection and iris-pupil contrast measurement, i.e., “sufficiently close” in the ordinary operational sense required by any practical eye-tracking geometry. Because the claim language does not recite a quantitative threshold or angular constraint, the short eye-camera distance already shown and used in Horesh’s Fig. 6 satisfies the functional requirement of being “sufficiently close … to generate bright pupil effects.” (Bright-pupil geometry itself is produced when an illuminator lies near the camera’s optical axis; Horesh already places its light sources in fixed spatial relationship to the same camera whose distance to the eye is quantified in Fig. 6). Thus the newly amended limitation is taught by the combination: Horesh supplies the camera that captures eye images while operating at a short, explicitly measured eye-camera distance (Fig. 6), and Caraffi confirms the same camera-based, periodic image-capture architecture)
illuminating, from only one or more bright pupil illumination devices, one or both of the subject's eyes during the predefined image capture periods,
(Horesh, "the light sources 124 are embodied as infrared light sources configured to project infrared light into the subject's eyes", [0020]; Caraffi, "illumination unit 30, which has at least one light source, in particular two or more LEDs, which are preferably placed near by the camera or the cameras.", [0057]; Horesh teaches illuminating the subject's eyes using light sources. Caraffi teaches an illumination configuration where the light sources are placed strictly near the camera. Incorporating Caraffi into Horesh would lead to restrict the system to illuminate the user's eyes using solely camera-adjacent (bright pupil) illumination devices during the capture periods, without requiring an alternating dark pupil setup)
wherein each of the bright pupil devices is located sufficiently close to a lens of the camera to generate bright pupil effects; and
(Caraffi, "illumination unit 30, which has at least one light source, in particular two or more LEDs, which are preferably placed near by the camera or the cameras.", [0057]; placing the light sources explicitly near the camera)
selectively varying the output power of only the one or more bright pupil illumination devices with a controller
(Horesh, "The light source power control module 222 regulates the amount of power supplied to the light sources 124.", [0034]; "dynamically adjusts the amount of power driving the light sources 124", [0021]; Horesh teaches a controller dynamically varying the output power of its light sources. By incorporating Caraffi's exclusively camera-adjacent hardware arrangement as established in the preceding limitations, the system inherently varies the output power of "only" the bright pupil illumination devices)
to generate a bright pupil reflection intensity and
(Horesh, "the light (e.g., infrared light) transmitted from the light sources 124 is reflected off the subject's eye and captured by the camera 122", [0020]; Caraffi, "detects the reflections (glints) of the light sources on the cornea of the eyes.", [0058]; Horesh and Caraffi teach generating reflections or glints off the eye from the illumination sources. Applying the bright pupil configuration physically provides the bright pupil reflection intensity)
to vary a ratio between ambient and controlled light such that a measured pupil/iris contrast in a captured image exceeds a predefined minimum pupil/iris contrast under bright pupil conditions.
(Horesh, " ensures the iris-pupil contrast (e.g., of each eye) is not less than a predefined contrast value ... consider the effects of ambient or stray light and may, therefore, be modified to ... equation", [0044]; Caraffi, "During the exposure time-window 20 a the illumination source(s) must emit the light power necessary to create glint(s) in the visible eye(s) of the user(s) and provide, if needed, the necessary remaining share of light to obtain the necessary eye features contrast 62 a.", [0106]; Horesh teaches ensuring pupil/iris contrast remains above a threshold by considering ambient light. Caraffi teaches balancing the ratio of environmental (ambient) light with the emitted (controlled) light to provide the remaining share needed for contrast. Incorporating Caraffi into Horesh would lead to actively vary the ratio of emitted controlled light to ambient environmental light to successfully exceed the required pupil/iris contrast threshold exclusively under the configured bright pupil conditions)
Regarding claims 2 and 19, the combination of Horesh and Caraffi teaches its/their respective base claim(s).
The combination further teaches the method according to claim 1 wherein the output power of at least one of the bright pupil illumination devices is selectively varied based on a direct measure of pupil/iris contrast determined by pixel intensity of a pupil region relative to an iris region of one or both of the subject's eyes.
(Horesh, "The iris-pupil contrast is determined by comparing the intensity of the pixels in the iris region with the intensity of the pixels in the pupil region.", [0027]; "The power optimization module 220 optimizes (e.g., reduces or minimizes) the total cumulative power of the light sources 124 based on the image parameters", [0033]; selectively varying the power based on the pupil/iris contrast which is directly determined via the pixel intensities of the pupil and iris regions)
Regarding claim 3, the combination of Horesh and Caraffi teaches its/their respective base claim(s).
The combination further teaches the method according to claim 1 wherein the output power of at least one of the bright pupil illumination devices is selectively varied based on one or more of:
i. a measure of ambient light;
ii. a measure of pupil diameter of the subject; and/or
iii. a current or recent gaze direction of the subject.
(Horesh, "the power constraint may also consider the effects of ambient or stray light", [0044]; varying the output power constraints based on a measure of ambient light.)
Regarding claim 5, the combination of Horesh and Caraffi teaches its/their respective base claim(s).
The combination further teaches the method according to claim 1 wherein the output power of at least one of the bright pupil illumination devices is selectively varied based on physiological parameters of the subject.
(Caraffi, "Also the eye colour of the user and/or its skin colour have influence on the quality and therefore on the corresponding settings of the adjustment parameters.", [0023]; adjusting illumination settings based on physiological parameters such as eye or skin color. Incorporating Caraffi into Horesh would lead to selectively vary the output power based on the user's physiological parameters to optimize illumination efficiency and image quality)
Regarding claim 6, the combination of Horesh and Caraffi teaches its/their respective base claim(s).
The combination further teaches the method according to claim 1 wherein the output power of at least one of the bright pupil illumination devices is selectively varied between at least two different power levels within an image capture period.
(Horesh, "digital mechanisms (e.g., duty-cycle modification) to regulate the power supplied", [0034]; Caraffi, "The illumination unit may control both the pulse duration (pulse length) and the pulse amplitude (pulse intensity).", [0019]; Horesh and Caraffi teach regulating power via duty cycle modification and pulse durations, which inherently requires selectively varying the power between at least two different levels (e.g., active/high and inactive/low) within the image capture period)
Regarding claims 9 and 15, the combination of Horesh and Caraffi teaches its/their respective base claim(s).
The combination further teaches the method according to claim 1 wherein the eye tracker includes a single bright pupil illumination device configured and positioned to generate only bright pupil effects.
(Caraffi, "illumination unit 30, which has at least one light source", [0057]; Caraffi teaches the system having at least one light source, which encompasses the use of a single device. Incorporating Caraffi into Horesh would lead to configure the system with a single camera-adjacent bright pupil illumination device to save power and simplify the hardware)
Regarding claim 10, the combination of Horesh and Caraffi teaches its/their respective base claim(s).
The combination further teaches the method according to claim 1 wherein the controller is configured to modulate the illumination power of the one or more bright pupil illumination devices during an image capture period.
(Horesh, "digital mechanisms (e.g., duty-cycle modification) to regulate the power supplied", [0034]; Caraffi, "The illumination unit may control both the pulse duration (pulse length) and the pulse amplitude (pulse intensity).", [0019]; Horesh and Caraffi teach modulating the illumination power via pulses and duty cycles during the exposure/capture period)
Regarding claim 20, the combination of Horesh and Caraffi teaches an eye tracking system comprising:
a camera configured to capture images of a subject, including one or both of the subject's eyes, during predefined image capture periods, wherein a lens of the camera is located sufficiently close to one or both of the subject’s eyes to generate bright pupil effects;
one or more bright pupil illumination devices configured to illuminate one or both of the subject's eyes during the predefined image capture periods,
wherein each of the bright pupil illumination device is located sufficiently close to a lens of the camera to generate bright pupil effects; and
(Horesh, Caraffi, see comments on claim 1)
a controller configured to:
process the captured images to perform an eye gaze tracking routine to track the eyes of the subject, the eye gaze tracking routine including determining one or more control parameters; and
(Horesh, "analyzes each of the images (e.g., each frame of a streamed video or a subset thereof) for gaze tracking", [0024]; "determines an amount of power to supply to each light source 124 to reduce or optimize the total power supplied to the light sources 124 based on one or more power constraints.", [0042]; processing captured images to execute a tracking routine on the eyes and determining necessary control parameters like power constraints)
control an output power of only the one or more bright pupil illumination devices based on the one or more control parameters
to generate a bright pupil reflection intensity and
to vary a ratio between ambient and controlled light such that a measured pupil/iris contrast in a captured image exceeds a predefined minimum pupil/iris contrast, under bright pupil conditions.
(Horesh, Caraffi, see comments on claim 1)
Regarding claim 22, the combination of Horesh and Caraffi teaches its/their respective base claim(s).
The combination further teaches the method according to claim 1 wherein the output power of at least one of the bright pupil illumination devices is selectively varied based on a measure of pupil contrast of the subject's eyes from a previous image capture period.
(Horesh, Fig. 2; "dynamically adjusts the amount of power driving the light sources 124 in order to reduce or minimize the total power output of the light sources 124 while increasing or maximizing the pupil-iris contrast", [0021]; "The power optimization module 220 receives the illumination efficiency determined for each of the light sources 124 and various image parameters (e.g., the iris-pupil contrast, glint intensity, and/or the glint-eye contrast).", [0033]; Caraffi, Fig. 1; "After the image is analysed and one or more of the above named image features or image quality characteristics is extracted, the eye tracking device 10 decides, whether the image quality is sufficient for the desired eye tracking quality and depending on this send a feedback to the control unit 42 in order to adjust its settings and regulate the used energy for the next frames.", [0081]; "So the control unit 42 can control the adjustment parameters PA in a closed loop control, wherein the image quality 62 is persistently derived from the captured images 60 and fed back to the control loop and the control unit 42 controls on the basis of the predetermined correlation 42 a the adjustment parameters PA, e.g. the intensity 30 a, so that the image quality 62 fulfils the set condition 44.", [0082]; Horesh teaches selectively varying the power of light sources based on a measure of pupil-iris contrast, but does not expressly disclose that this measurement is taken from a previous image capture period to adjust the power for a subsequent capture period. Caraffi fills this gap by teaching a closed-loop control system where image features derived from previously captured images are fed back to adjust settings and regulate used energy for the next frames. Incorporating Caraffi into Horesh would lead to use measurements from a previous image capture period to adaptively control the power for subsequent frames.)
Regarding claim 23, the combination of Horesh and Caraffi teaches its/their respective base claim(s).
The combination further teaches the method according to claim 1 wherein the one or more bright pupil illumination devices are driveable at one of a number of predefined non-zero voltage or current levels.
(Caraffi, "normalized with respect to the efficiency η at 100 mA input current I. The chart shows, at constant electrical potential, the amount of input current I, which is proportional to the input power.", [0072]; driving the illumination source at specific, predefined non-zero current levels such as 100 mA to control input power)
Regarding claim 26, the combination of Horesh and Caraffi teaches its/their respective base claim(s).
The combination further teaches the system according to claim 20, wherein the controller is configured to control an output power of only the one or more bright pupil illumination devices such that a measured pupil/iris contrast in a captured image exceeds the predefined minimum pupil/iris contrast.
(Horesh, "ensures the iris-pupil contrast (e.g., of each eye) is not less than a predefined contrast value.", [0044]; controlling the power such that the pupil-iris contrast exceeds a minimum threshold. See comments on claim 1 and claim 20)
Claim(s) 4 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Horesh (US20160227113) in view of Caraffi et al (US20160274659A1) and further in view of Bell (US20100039414A1).
Regarding claim 4, the combination of Horesh and Caraffi teaches its/their respective base claim(s).
The combination does not expressly disclose but Bell teaches the method according to claim 3 wherein the measure of ambient light is obtained from an exposure setting of the camera and/or illumination settings of the one or more bright pupil illumination devices.
(Bell, "For example, for image capture devices such as charged coupled device (CCD) cameras or complementary metal oxide semiconductor (CMOS) imagers, circuitry which adjusts exposure settings, for example, may be used to assess ambient luminance levels.", [0030]; "software may include the above formula to derive the ambient luminance, based upon the integration time value 156 received from the control unit 154.", [0036]; Horesh teaches using a measure of ambient light but lacks explicit details on obtaining it from the camera's exposure settings. Bell explicitly teaches determining ambient light (luminance) directly from the integration time (exposure setting) of the camera's image sensor)
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention was made to incorporate the teachings of Bell into the modified system or method of Horesh and Caraffi in order to obtain the measure of ambient light from the camera's exposure settings to reuse existing imaging circuitry and eliminate the need for a separate hardware light sensor. The combination of Horesh, Caraffi and Bell also teaches other enhanced capabilities.
Claim(s) 7-8 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Horesh (US20160227113) in view of Caraffi et al (US20160274659A1) and further in view of Vertegaal et al (US20050175218A1).
Regarding claim 7, the combination of Horesh and Caraffi teaches its/their respective base claim(s).
The combination does not expressly disclose but Vertegaal teaches the method according to claim 6
wherein the camera captures at least two images within an image capture period, and
wherein the two images are captured with different illumination or image capture settings.
(Vertegaal, "images with alternate on-axis and off-axis illumination", [0005]; "switch on or off the on-axis camera illuminator and off-axis illuminators in alternate frames, such that one frame will obtain a bright pupil image ... The alternate camera frame will show a dark pupil", [0084]; Horesh and Caraffi teach capturing images and varying power. Vertegaal explicitly teaches capturing alternating images (at least two images) under different illumination settings (e.g., alternating between bright pupil and dark pupil illumination)).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention was made to incorporate the teachings of Vertegaal into the modified system or method of Horesh and Caraffi in order to capture at least two consecutive images with different illumination settings to exploit the different optical reflections of the eye for enhanced feature detection. The combination of Horesh, Caraffi and Bell also teaches other enhanced capabilities.
Regarding claim 8, the combination of Horesh, Caraffi and Vertegaal teaches its/their respective base claim(s).
The combination further teaches the method according to claim 7 including the step of performing image subtraction on the two images to generate a resultant image of increased pupil contrast.
(Vertegaal, "images with alternate on-axis and off-axis illumination are subtracted from one another, to isolate the pupil image.", [0005]; "the two images are subtracted to obtain an image that contains one or several pupils with no background.", [0084]; performing image subtraction on the two images captured with different illumination settings to remove the background and isolate the pupil. Incorporating Vertegaal into Horesh would lead to perform image subtraction on the two images to eliminate background noise and generate a resultant image with substantially increased pupil contrast for highly accurate gaze tracking)
Allowable Subject Matter
Claim(s) 11-13 and16-18 is/are objected to as being dependent upon a rejected base claim, but would be allowable if rewritten in independent form including all of the limitations of the base claim and any intervening Claim(s).
The following is a statement of reasons for the indication of allowable subject matter:
Claim(s) 11 and 16 recite(s) limitation(s) related to two bright pupil illumination devices positioned at different distances from the camera for bright pupil effects. There are no explicit teachings to the above limitation(s) found in the prior art cited in this office action and from the prior art search.
Claim(s) 12-13 and Claims 17-18 depend on claims 11 and 16, respectively.
Response to Arguments
Applicant's arguments filed on 9/3/2026 with respect to one or more of the pending claims have been fully considered but they are not persuasive.
Regarding claim(s) 1, 14 and 20, Applicant, in the remarks, argues that the combination of the cited reference(s) fails to teach the newly amended limitations in the claims.
The Examiner respectfully disagreed. The office action has been updated to address applicant’s argument. See the updated review comments for details.
Conclusion
THIS ACTION IS MADE FINAL. Applicant is reminded of the extension of time policy as set forth in 37 CFR 1.136(a).
A shortened statutory period for reply to this final action is set to expire THREE MONTHS from the mailing date of this action. In the event a first reply is filed within TWO MONTHS of the mailing date of this final action and the advisory action is not mailed until after the end of the THREE-MONTH shortened statutory period, then the shortened statutory period will expire on the date the advisory action is mailed, and any nonprovisional extension fee (37 CFR 1.17(a)) pursuant to 37 CFR 1.136(a) will be calculated from the mailing date of the advisory action. In no event, however, will the statutory period for reply expire later than SIX MONTHS from the mailing date of this final action.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to JIANXUN YANG whose telephone number is (571)272-9874. The examiner can normally be reached on MON-FRI: 8AM-5PM Pacific Time.
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/JIANXUN YANG/
Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2662 9/18/2026
