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 .
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 4-11, 17, and 18 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 claims.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 102
The following is a quotation of the appropriate paragraphs of 35 U.S.C. 102 that form the basis for the rejections under this section made in this Office action:
A person shall be entitled to a patent unless –
(a)(1) the claimed invention was patented, described in a printed publication, or in public use, on sale, or otherwise available to the public before the effective filing date of the claimed invention.
(a)(2) the claimed invention was described in a patent issued under section 151, or in an application for patent published or deemed published under section 122(b), in which the patent or application, as the case may be, names another inventor and was effectively filed before the effective filing date of the claimed invention.
Claims 1, 12-14, and 19 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) and (a)(2) as being anticipated by Arngren et al. (US Pub. 20160217171).
Referring to claim 1, Arngren discloses A retrieval method, comprising:
obtaining first data corresponding to a retrieval object [fig. 2; pars. 33, 34, 38, and 39; a query processor receives a query comprising one or more keywords describing a content item (e.g., video file) to be retrieved], wherein the first data indicates M first feature vectors of the retrieval object [fig. 2; pars. 33, 34, 38, and 39; the keywords are matched to keywords included in an index, where the index includes a set of records (i.e., vectors)], wherein each of the M first feature vectors corresponds to one first modality of the retrieval object [fig. 2; pars. 33, 34, and 39; each record associated with a matching keyword identifies a modality of the content item], and wherein M is an integer greater than 1 [fig. 2; pars. 33, 34, 38, and 39; multiple keywords in the query would mean there are multiple matching records]; and
obtaining, based on the first data and a first plurality of groups of second data in an index, a first correlation between a second plurality of groups of object information and the retrieval object [fig. 2; pars. 33, 34, and 40; each query keyword and associated matching record are used to identify records associated with a set of overlapping keywords (i.e., additional keywords correlated with the content item)];
outputting, based on the first correlation, at least one group of retrieved object information [pars. 41-44; additional information associated with the set of overlapping keywords is provided to a user as search results],
wherein a second correlation between each of the second plurality of groups and the retrieval object is greater than a first threshold [pars. 44, 88, 89, 100-104, 111; the set of overlapping keywords may be ranked based on relevance (to the content item) and provided based on rank to the user such that only the most relevant search results (i.e., search results greater than a first threshold) are provided to the user],
wherein each of the first plurality of groups corresponds to M second feature vectors [fig. 2; pars. 33, 34, and 40; the set of overlapping keywords identified in each matching record corresponds to respective records (i.e., vectors) associated with the set of overlapping keywords],
wherein the M second feature vectors are indicated by one of the first plurality of groups [fig. 2; pars. 33, 34, and 40; note the set of overlapping keywords identified in each matching record], and
wherein each of the M second feature vectors corresponds to one second modality of the object information [fig. 2; pars. 33, 34 and 40; the records associated with the set of overlapping keywords may identify a different modality of the content item].
Referring to claim 12, Arngren discloses The retrieval method of claim 1, wherein the retrieval object is retrieved content, wherein a carrier of the retrieved content comprises one or more of a picture, audio, a video, data, or a text, and wherein the retrieved content indicates one or more of first information about a person, second information about an animal, third information about an article, fourth information about a plant, fifth information about a location, sixth information about a landscape, or seventh information about a building [fig. 2; the content item may be a video comprising text and/or image and indicates information about a person (e.g., Obama)].
Referring to claim 13, Arngren discloses The retrieval method of claim 1, wherein the object information indicates one or more feature categories of at least one of a person, an animal, an article, a plant, a landscape, or a building [fig. 2; each record includes information about different entities identified by a keyword (e.g., a person)].
Referring to claim 14, see at least the rejection for claim 1. Arngren further discloses A retrieval apparatus, comprising: a memory configured to store instructions; and a processor coupled to the memory and configured to execute the instructions to perform the claimed steps [par. 123; the query processor includes a computer system with one or more processors for executing a computer program stored on a non-transitory computer-readable medium].
Referring to claim 19, see at least the rejection for claim 1. Arngren further discloses A computer program product comprising instructions stored on a non-transitory computer-readable medium that, when executed by a processor, cause a retrieval apparatus to perform the claimed steps [par. 123; the query processor includes a computer system with one or more processors for executing a computer program stored on a non-transitory computer-readable medium].
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.
Claim 2, 3, 15, 16, and 20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Arngren in view of Zhang et al. (CN 111026887A, see translation).
Referring to claim 2, Arngren does not appear to explicitly disclose The retrieval method of claim 1, wherein the first data comprises N first codes, wherein each of the N first codes indicates at least one of the M first feature vectors, wherein N is a positive integer, wherein the second data comprises N second codes, and wherein each of the N second codes indicates at least one of the M second feature vectors.
However, Zhang discloses The retrieval method of claim 1, wherein the first data comprises N first codes, wherein each of the N first codes indicates at least one of the M first feature vectors, wherein N is a positive integer, wherein the second data comprises N second codes, and wherein each of the N second codes indicates at least one of the M second feature vectors [abstract; a query hash is used to retrieve vector data from an information database].
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the search system taught by Arngren so that the query keywords are represented using query hashes and the vector records in the index are retrieved using the query hashes as taught by Zhang, with a reasonable expectation of success. The motivation for doing so would have been to improve the precision and accuracy of the search [Zhang, abstract].
Referring to claim 3, Arngren discloses The retrieval method of claim 2, wherein the N first codes are in a one-to-one correspondence with the N second codes, and wherein in two corresponding codes, the first modality corresponding to one of the M first feature vectors is the same as the second modality corresponding to one of the M second feature vectors [fig. 2; pars. 33, 34, and 40; one or more of the query keywords and sets of overlapping keywords may share the same modality].
Referring to claim 15, see the rejection for claim 2.
Referring to claim 16, see the rejection for claim 3.
Referring to claim 20, see the rejection for claim 2.
Conclusion
The following prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure:
Kim et al. (US Pub. 20190251245) discloses authentication based on multiple modalities via feature fusion.
Lin et al. (US Pub. 20160283858) discloses multi-view data fusion using a dictionary.
Contact Information
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/Grace Park/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2144