DETAILED ACTION
Notice of Pre-AIA or AIA Status
The present application, filed on or after March 16, 2013, is being examined under the first inventor to file provisions of the AIA .
Continued Examination Under 37 CFR 1.114
A request for continued examination under 37 CFR 1.114, including the fee set forth in 37 CFR 1.17(e), was filed in this application after final rejection. Since this application is eligible for continued examination under 37 CFR 1.114, and the fee set forth in 37 CFR 1.17(e) has been timely paid, the finality of the previous Office action has been withdrawn pursuant to 37 CFR 1.114. Applicant's submission filed on 03/10/2026 has been entered.
Status of Claims
Claims 1, 5-7, and 10-14 are pending. Claims 2-4, 8-9, and 15 are canceled.
Response to Arguments
Applicant’s arguments, see p.6-8, filed 03/10/2026, with respect to the rejections of Claims 1, 5-7, and 10-14 under 35 U.S.C. 103 have been fully considered but are moot because Applicant’s amendments of the independent claims has altered the scope of the claims, and therefore, necessitated new grounds of rejection which are presented below.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 103 which forms the basis for all obviousness rejections set forth in this Office action:
A patent for a claimed invention may not be obtained, notwithstanding that the claimed invention is not identically disclosed as set forth in section 102, if the differences between the claimed invention and the prior art are such that the claimed invention as a whole would have been obvious before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to a person having ordinary skill in the art to which the claimed invention pertains. Patentability shall not be negated by the manner in which the invention was made.
The factual inquiries for establishing a background for determining obviousness under 35 U.S.C. 103 are summarized as follows:
1. Determining the scope and contents of the prior art.
2. Ascertaining the differences between the prior art and the claims at issue.
3. Resolving the level of ordinary skill in the pertinent art.
4. Considering objective evidence present in the application indicating obviousness or nonobviousness.
This application currently names joint inventors. In considering patentability of the claims the examiner presumes that the subject matter of the various claims was commonly owned as of the effective filing date of the claimed invention(s) absent any evidence to the contrary. Applicant is advised of the obligation under 37 CFR 1.56 to point out the inventor and effective filing dates of each claim that was not commonly owned as of the effective filing date of the later invention in order for the examiner to consider the applicability of 35 U.S.C. 102(b)(2)(C) for any potential 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(2) prior art against the later invention.
Claims 1, 7, and 10-14 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Xie et al. (US 20140188722 A1) in view of Lin et al. (US 20210192185 A1), Ross et al. (US 20110116690 A1), Kusano (US 20150339874 A1), Shiraishi (US 20150371078 A1), Bataller et al. (US 20160350334 A1), Hanna (US 20100232655 A1), and Tsutsui et al. (US 20060097045 A1).
Regarding Claim 1, Xie teaches "A self-service terminal, comprising: an imaging device, configured for providing a plurality of digital images; a storage device having a non-volatile memory designed for storing the plurality of digital images"; (Xie, Paras. 42, 64 and 98, teaches a self-service terminal which comprises an image acquiring unit which collects images, i.e., imaging device that provides a plurality of digital images, and a storing unit to store the face images wherein non-volatile memory storage types are used);
"
"determining, for each of the plurality of digital images, whether that digital image comprises a face of a person"; (Xie, Para. 41, teaches a face image detecting and extracting unit configured to perform feature extraction to a feature region of the image for extracting a face image, i.e., determine if the current image of a plurality of images comprises a face);
"
"in response to that digital image comprising the face of the person, cutting out from that digital image an image region which comprises the face of the person"; (Xie, Paras. 64 and 67, teaches capturing the face of a person and performing face image detection and extraction for extracting a face image from the previously obtained image, i.e., in response to the image comprising a face, cut-out or extract the face feature region from the image);
"commanding the storage device to store the image region after said cutting out the image region from the at least one digital image"; (Xie, Paras. 41-42, teaches storing the face image as a reference for comparison with a currently extracted face image after extracting the face feature region from the captured image, i.e., commanding storage device to store the cut-out face region after cutting out the face image region from the image);
"
"
"
"
"
"wherein the storage device is furthermore configured for storing at least one of a time of day at which the at least one digital image was detected by the imaging device"; (Xie, Para. 34, teaches storing the value for the specific time of business service, i.e., storing the time of day an image was captured for the self-service terminal).
However, Xie does not explicitly teach "and at least one processor, configured for: commanding the storage device to store each of the plurality of digital images; in response to that digital image not comprising the face of the person, commanding the storage device to erase that digital image; commanding the storage device to erase that digital image after said commanding the storage device to store the image region; determining whether the image region satisfies a predefined criterion; in response to the image region satisfying the predefined criterion, commanding the storage device to store the image region; in response to a first plurality of image regions stored in the storage device having the same face of a first person, (1) determining a first image regions of the first plurality of image regions is highest-rated of the first plurality of image regions and (2) commanding the storage device to erase all of the first plurality of image regions except the first image region; in response to each of a second plurality of image regions having the same face of a second person and not satisfying the predefined criterion, wherein all image regions in the second plurality of image regions fail to satisfy the predefined criterion the processor is further configured for: (1) determining a second image region of the second plurality of image regions is highest-rated of the second plurality of image regions and (2) commanding the storage device to erase all of the second plurality of image regions except the second image region thereby ensuring retention of a single best-available image region for the second person even when no image region satisfies the predefined criterion; and a bank transaction number assigned to the cut-out image region in conjunction with the cut-out image region".
In an analogous field of endeavor, Lin teaches "and at least one processor, configured for: commanding the storage device to store each of the plurality of digital images"; (Lin, Para. 10, teaches a processor configured to store captured images on a storage device, i.e., store each of a plurality of images).
It would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date to modify the invention of Xie by including the storage of the obtained digital image taught by Lin. One of ordinary skill in the art would be motivated to combine the references since it efficiently stores the captured images (Lin, Para. 10, teaches the motivation of combination to be to store captured images efficiently).
However, the combination of references of Xie in view of Lin does not explicitly teach “in response to that digital image not comprising the face of the person, commanding the storage device to erase that digital image; commanding the storage device to erase that digital image after said commanding the storage device to store the image region; determining whether the image region satisfies a predefined criterion; in response to the image region satisfying the predefined criterion, commanding the storage device to store the image region; in response to a first plurality of image regions stored in the storage device having the same face of a first person, (1) determining a first image regions of the first plurality of image regions is highest-rated of the first plurality of image regions and (2) commanding the storage device to erase all of the first plurality of image regions except the first image region; in response to each of a second plurality of image regions having the same face of a second person and not satisfying the predefined criterion, wherein all image regions in the second plurality of image regions fail to satisfy the predefined criterion the processor is further configured for: (1) determining a second image region of the second plurality of image regions is highest-rated of the second plurality of image regions and (2) commanding the storage device to erase all of the second plurality of image regions except the second image region thereby ensuring retention of a single best-available image region for the second person even when no image region satisfies the predefined criterion; and a bank transaction number assigned to the cut-out image region in conjunction with the cut-out image region”.
In an analogous field of endeavor, Ross teaches "in response to that digital image not comprising the face of the person, commanding the storage device to erase that digital image"; (Ross, Para. 10, teaches a system with a face signature detector that detects faces within the set of images and removes non-face images, i.e., erasing digital images from storage in response to the digital image not comprising a face).
It would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date to modify the invention of Xie and Lin by including the deletion of the image if it does not comprise a face taught by Ross. One of ordinary skill in the art would be motivated to combine the references since it return more accurate models for the face images (Ross, Para. 10, teaches the motivation of combination to be to return highly accurate biometric models for each face image).
However, the combination of references of Xie in view of Lin and Ross does not explicitly teach “commanding the storage device to erase that digital image after said commanding the storage device to store the image region; determining whether the image region satisfies a predefined criterion; in response to the image region satisfying the predefined criterion, commanding the storage device to store the image region; in response to a first plurality of image regions stored in the storage device having the same face of a first person, (1) determining a first image regions of the first plurality of image regions is highest-rated of the first plurality of image regions and (2) commanding the storage device to erase all of the first plurality of image regions except the first image region; in response to each of a second plurality of image regions having the same face of a second person and not satisfying the predefined criterion, wherein all image regions in the second plurality of image regions fail to satisfy the predefined criterion the processor is further configured for: (1) determining a second image region of the second plurality of image regions is highest-rated of the second plurality of image regions and (2) commanding the storage device to erase all of the second plurality of image regions except the second image region thereby ensuring retention of a single best-available image region for the second person even when no image region satisfies the predefined criterion; and a bank transaction number assigned to the cut-out image region in conjunction with the cut-out image region”.
In an analogous field of endeavor, Kusano teaches "commanding the storage device to erase that digital image after said commanding the storage device to store the image region"; (Kusano, Para. 33, teaches an extraction unit which makes the storage unit store the extracted information then delete the images except for the extracted image from the image data, i.e., commanding the storage device to erase the digital image after storing the image region).
It would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date to modify the invention of Xie, Lin, and Ross by including the deletion of the image after storing the extracted region taught by Kusano. One of ordinary skill in the art would be motivated to combine the references since it effectively utilizes the storage unit (Kusano, Para. 66, teaches the motivation of combination to be to effectively utilize the storage unit).
However, the combination of references of Xie in view of Lin, Ross, and Kusano does not explicitly teach “determining whether the image region satisfies a predefined criterion; in response to the image region satisfying the predefined criterion, commanding the storage device to store the image region; in response to a first plurality of image regions stored in the storage device having the same face of a first person, (1) determining a first image regions of the first plurality of image regions is highest-rated of the first plurality of image regions and (2) commanding the storage device to erase all of the first plurality of image regions except the first image region; in response to each of a second plurality of image regions having the same face of a second person and not satisfying the predefined criterion, wherein all image regions in the second plurality of image regions fail to satisfy the predefined criterion the processor is further configured for: (1) determining a second image region of the second plurality of image regions is highest-rated of the second plurality of image regions and (2) commanding the storage device to erase all of the second plurality of image regions except the second image region thereby ensuring retention of a single best-available image region for the second person even when no image region satisfies the predefined criterion; and a bank transaction number assigned to the cut-out image region in conjunction with the cut-out image region”.
In an analogous field of endeavor, Shiraishi teaches "determining whether the image region satisfies a predefined criterion"; (Shiraishi, Paras. 120 and 213, teaches judging whether the quality of the new object region satisfies the preset criterion);
"in response to the image region satisfying the predefined criterion, commanding the storage device to store the image region"; (Shiraishi, FIG. 22 and Paras. 60 and 119-120, teaches judging the quality of the new object region to satisfy a preset criterion wherein the analysis processing execution control part displays an alarm in accordance with the result of the satisfaction wherein the image is stored in the video analysis system that includes frame face position information storage part and an analysis processing task information storage part, i.e., the image region is stored in response to the image region satisfying the predefined criterion);
"
"in response to each of a second plurality of image regions having the same face of a second person and not satisfying the predefined criterion"; (Shiraishi, FIG. 20 and Paras. 120 and 213, teaches a case where the same person appears in a subsequent new frame and labeled as not a new object region wherein the image may not satisfy a quality criterion, i.e., a plurality of image regions having the same face and not satisfying the predefined criterion).
It would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date to modify the invention of Xie, Lin, Ross, and Kusano by including the determination if an image region satisfies a criterion and deleting the image if it does not satisfy the criterion taught by Shiraishi. One of ordinary skill in the art would be motivated to combine the references since it increases analysis speed (Shiraishi, Para. 29, teaches the motivation of combination to be to increase the speed of analysis processing on an image).
However, the combination of references of Xie in view of Lin, Ross, Kusano, and Shiraishi does not explicitly teach "in response to a first plurality of image regions stored in the storage device having the same face of a first person, (1) determining a first image regions of the first plurality of image regions is highest-rated of the first plurality of image regions and (2) commanding the storage device to erase all of the first plurality of image regions except the first image region; wherein all image regions in the second plurality of image regions fail to satisfy the predefined criterion the processor is further configured for: (1) determining a second image region of the second plurality of image regions is highest-rated of the second plurality of image regions and (2) commanding the storage device to erase all of the second plurality of image regions except the second image region thereby ensuring retention of a single best-available image region for the second person even when no image region satisfies the predefined criterion; and a bank transaction number assigned to the cut-out image region in conjunction with the cut-out image region".
In an analogous field of endeavor, Bataller teaches "in response to a first plurality of image regions stored in the storage device having the same face of a first person, (1) determining a first image regions of the first plurality of image regions is highest-rated of the first plurality of image regions and (2) commanding the storage device to erase all of the first plurality of image regions except the first image region"; (Bataller, Claim 13, teaches determining that the highest quality second image and the current highest quality image data, stored in the memory, are for the same person and wherein a highest quality second image from the multiple second images that has a higher quality than the other images is selected, and in response to a determination that the data for the highest quality second image has a lower quality than the current highest quality image data for the person: discarding the highest quality image and maintaining the current highest quality image data for the person in the memory, i.e., determine the image region of the plurality of image regions that has the highest-rated image region and erase all of the region except the highest-rated region in response to a plurality of image regions having the same face of a person).
It would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date to modify the invention of Xie, Lin, Ross, Kusano, and Shiraishi by including the erasure of image regions except for the image region with the highest rating for image regions of the same face of a person taught by Bataller. One of ordinary skill in the art would be motivated to combine the references since it creates a faster recognition (Bataller, Para. 9, teaches the motivation of combination to be to more quickly recognize an individual for which one of the caches includes data compared to the other systems).
However, the combination of references of Xie in view of Lin, Ross, Kusano, Shiraishi, and Bataller does not explicitly teach "wherein all image regions in the second plurality of image regions fail to satisfy the predefined criterion the processor is further configured for: (1) determining a second image region of the second plurality of image regions is highest-rated of the second plurality of image regions and (2) commanding the storage device to erase all of the second plurality of image regions except the second image region thereby ensuring retention of a single best-available image region for the second person even when no image region satisfies the predefined criterion; and a bank transaction number assigned to the cut-out image region in conjunction with the cut-out image region".
In an analogous field of endeavor, Hanna teaches "wherein all image regions in the second plurality of image regions fail to satisfy the predefined criterion the processor is further configured for: (1) determining a second image region of the second plurality of image regions is highest-rated of the second plurality of image regions and (2) commanding the storage device to erase all of the second plurality of image regions except the second image region thereby ensuring retention of a single best-available image region for the second person even when no image region satisfies the predefined criterion"; (Hanna, Paras. 10-11, teaches automatically acquiring a series of images, analyzing the images for quality, and stores only the best quality image, not necessarily dependent on whether the quality exceeds a predetermined threshold, thereby saving memory and assuring that at one image is stored, even if not having a quality exceeding a threshold wherein lesser quality images are removed from memory storage, i.e., determining an image is the highest-rated of the set of images by determining the best quality image and commanding the storage of only a single-best available image region even when no image region satisfies the criterion and removal of lesser quality images due to none of the images having a quality exceeding a threshold).
It would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date to modify the invention of Xie, Lin, Ross, Kusano, Shiraishi, and Bataller wherein the images are second image regions of a second person having the same face image region by including the determination of the highest-rated image of the image and storing the highest rated image to ensure at least one image it retained for the second person even though no image region satisfies the criterion taught by Hanna. One of ordinary skill in the art would be motivated to combine the references since it assures at least one image is stored and the system has at least some data of the subject (Hanna, Paras. 10-11, teaches the motivation of combination to be to assure that at least one image is stored and the system has at least some biometric data of the subject).
However, the combination of references of Xie in view of Lin, Ross, Kusano, Shiraishi, Bataller, and Hanna does not explicitly teach "and a bank transaction number assigned to the cut-out image region in conjunction with the cut-out image region".
In an analogous field of endeavor, Tsutsui teaches "and a bank transaction number assigned to the cut-out image region in conjunction with the cut-out image region"; (Tsutsui, FIG. 3 and Paras. 23 and 80, teaches a bank account number being stored and associated with the customer's face image, i.e., bank transaction number assigned to the cut-out image region in conjunction with the image region).
It would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date to modify the invention of Xie in view of Lin, Ross, Kusano, Shiraishi, Bataller, and Hanna by including the assigning of a bank transaction number with the image region taught by Tsutsui. One of ordinary skill in the art would be motivated to combine the references since it more easily identifies information for customers (Tsutsui, Para. 7, teaches the motivation of combination to be to identify information appropriate for the customer more easily).
Thus, the claimed subject matter would have been obvious to a person having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date.
Regarding Claim 7, the combination of references of Xie in view of Lin, Ross, Kusano, Shiraishi, Bataller, Hanna, and Tsutsui teaches "The self-service terminal of claim 1 wherein the self-service terminal is one of an automated teller machine, a self-service checkout or a self-service kiosk"; (Xie, Para. 31, teaches the self-service terminal is an automatic teller machine).
Regarding Claim 10, the combination of references of Xie in view of Lin, Ross, Kusano, Shiraishi, Bataller, Hanna, and Tsutsui teaches "The self-service terminal of claim 1 wherein the at least one processor is further configured for determining whether the at least one digital image comprises a face of a person by a facial recognition algorithm"; (Xie, Paras. 64 and 67, teaches a face identification technique and face image detecting and extracting unit, i.e., facial recognition algorithm to determine that the image comprises a face).
Regarding Claim 11, the combination of references of Xie in view of Lin, Ross, Kusano, Shiraishi, Bataller, Hanna, and Tsutsui teaches "The self-service terminal of claim 1, wherein the at least one digital image is a sequence of digital images"; (Xie, Para. 39, teaches the image collecting unit collects images every 300 ms, i.e., a sequence of digital images).
Regarding Claim 12, the combination of references of Xie in view of Lin, Ross, Kusano, Shiraishi, Bataller, Hanna, and Tsutsui teaches "The self-service terminal as claimed in claim 11, wherein the processor is configured to process the sequence of images and to provide a sequence of cut-out image regions, and wherein the storage device is configured to store the sequence of cut-out image regions"; (Xie, Paras. 39-42, teaches an image pre-processing unit which processes the collected sequence of images every 300 ms wherein the extracting unit extracts a face image from the sequence of images and the storing unit stores the face image, i.e., process a sequence of images to store a sequence of cut-out face regions).
Regarding Claim 13, the combination of references of Xie in view of Lin, Ross, Kusano, Shiraishi, Bataller, Hanna, and Tsutsui teaches "The self-service terminal of claim 1 wherein the storage device comprises a non-volatile memory for storing the cut-out image region and a volatile memory for storing the at least one digital image"; (Xie, Para. 98, teaches storage mediums including a magnetic disk, optical disk, ROM, or RAM, i.e., storage device comprising non-volatile and volatile memory types for storing the extracted image regions and the images).
Claim 14 recites a method with steps corresponding to the elements of the system or device recited in Claim 1. Therefore, the recited steps of this claim are mapped to the proposed combination in the same manner as the corresponding elements in its corresponding system or device claim. Additionally, the rationale and motivation to combine the Xie in view of Lin, Ross, Kusano, Shiraishi, Bataller, Hanna, and Tsutsui references, presented in rejection of Claim 1, applies to this claim.
Claims 5-6 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Xie in view of Lin, Ross, Kusano, Shiraishi, Bataller, Hanna, Tsutsui, and Bowles et al. (US 20160275518 A1).
Regarding Claim 5, the combination of references of Xie in view of Lin, Ross, Kusano, Shiraishi, Bataller, Hanna, and Tsutsui does not explicitly teach "The self-service terminal of claim 1 wherein the predefined criterion comprises at least one of the following parameters: sharpness, brightness, contrast".
In an analogous field of endeavor, Bowles teaches "The self-service terminal of claim 1 wherein the predefined criterion comprises at least one of the following parameters: sharpness, brightness, contrast"; (Bowles, Para. 44, teaches the image region comprising feature characteristics such as relative brightness or contrast, i.e., predefined criterion comprising brightness and contrast).
It would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date to modify the invention of Xie, Lin, Ross, Kusano, Shiraishi, Bataller, Hanna, and Tsutsui by including the predefined criterion including an evaluation of at least one of sharpness, brightness, or contrast taught by Bowles. One of ordinary skill in the art would be motivated to combine the references since it ensures identity verification (Bowles, Para. 6, teaches the motivation of combination to be to ensure identity verification for conducting legal transactions).
Thus, the claimed subject matter would have been obvious to a person having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date.
Regarding Claim 6, the combination of references of Xie in view of Lin, Ross, Kusano, Shiraishi, Bataller, Hanna, Tsutsui, and Bowles teaches "The self-service terminal of claim 1 wherein the predefined criterion comprises at least one of the following parameters: degree of concealment of the face and a viewing angle"; (Bowles, Paras. 37, 43, and 46 and Claim 26, teaches a degree of correlation representative of an item the user may be wearing, i.e., degree of concealment of the user from worn items, and viewing angles of the cameras for capturing images of a user's facial features).
The proposed combination as well as the motivation for combining the Xie, Lin, Ross, Kusano, Shiraishi, Bataller, Hanna, Tsutsui, and Bowles references presented in the rejection of Claim 5, applies to claim 6. Thus, the system or device recited in claim 6 is met by Xie in view of Lin, Ross, Kusano, Shiraishi, Bataller, Hanna, Tsutsui, and Bowles.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to ANDREW STEVEN BUDISALICH whose telephone number is (703)756-5568. The examiner can normally be reached Monday - Friday 8:30am-5:00pm EST.
Examiner interviews are available via telephone, in-person, and video conferencing using a USPTO supplied web-based collaboration tool. To schedule an interview, applicant is encouraged to use the USPTO Automated Interview Request (AIR) at http://www.uspto.gov/interviewpractice.
If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Amandeep Saini can be reached on (571) 272-3382. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
Information regarding the status of published or unpublished applications may be obtained from Patent Center. Unpublished application information in Patent Center is available to registered users. To file and manage patent submissions in Patent Center, visit: https://patentcenter.uspto.gov. Visit https://www.uspto.gov/patents/apply/patent-center for more information about Patent Center and https://www.uspto.gov/patents/docx for information about filing in DOCX format. For additional questions, contact the Electronic Business Center (EBC) at 866-217-9197 (toll-free). If you would like assistance from a USPTO Customer Service Representative, call 800-786-9199 (IN USA OR CANADA) or 571-272-1000.
/ANDREW S BUDISALICH/Examiner, Art Unit 2662
/AMANDEEP SAINI/Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 2662