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 .
Response to Amendment
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 102
In the event the determination of the status of the application as subject to AIA 35 U.S.C. 102 and 103 (or as subject to pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 102 and 103) is incorrect, any correction of the statutory basis for the rejection will not be considered a new ground of rejection if the prior art relied upon, and the rationale supporting the rejection, would be the same under either status.
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 1-8 and 10-12 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by Wang et al (2022/0198774).
Consider claims 1, 8, 10 and 12, Wang et al teach a method, system, nontransitory information storage medium storing a computer program product and videoconference system for selecting portions of images to be reproduced, from a video stream comprising a plurality of images each comprising a representation of a subject (par. 0060; “a system and method for dynamically cropping a video transmission according to an embodiment is shown. The system 100 may include or be configured to cooperate with one or more image capture devices 102. ... The image capture device 102 may be configured to capture discrete images or may be configured to capture video comprising a plurality of frames”), the method comprising the steps of: -determining limits of a first portion of an image comprising the subject (par. 0066-0069; determine the region of interest and dynamically crop the video transmission to show only the region of interest…The system 100 may be configured to detect and identify one or more predefined keypoints or key areas on each presenter 105”; “The keypoints or key areas may be predefined to correspond to a desired feature of a person, such as joints including the hip, knee, ankle, wrist, elbow, and/or shoulder, body parts such as the foot tip, hand tip, head top, chin, nose, mouth, eyes, and/or ears, or any other suitable feature. Any suitable combination of keypoints or key areas may be utilized”), -selecting a target zoom factor among a plurality of predefined discrete zoom factors from the limits, a current zoom factor and at least one maximum resolution of the images (par. 0076; “The processor 111 of the system 100 may determine that a region of interest 108 includes the presenter's head 107 and hand 109, with a cropped image output by the processor 111 including only the region of interest 108, with the remaining areas of the image 106 automatically cropped out. Alternatively, the processor 111 may determine that a region of interest 110 includes the presenter's hand 109 only, with a cropped image output by the processor 111 automatically removing the remainder of the image 106. At a step 112, the system 100 may convert the cropped image 108, 110 to a standard size, e.g., a transmission resolution, for transmitting the image 108, 110. The step 112 may utilize the processor 111. The cropped image 108, 110 may retain a same aspect ratio before and after cropping and rescaling”; par. 0084; “In embodiments, the processor 158 may be configured to scale up the images 108, 110 to the display resolution, which may be a user-defined resolution”; (i.e., zoom image to user defined resolution)), -determining target coordinates of a second portion of an image, representing the subject, obtained from the first portion of an image, by a refraining implemented according to the target zoom factor determined and from the at least one maximum resolution (par. 0072; “A top-down approach may utilize a suitable deep-learning based approach including a face-based body detection for human detection, denoted for example by a bounding box from or in which keypoints or key areas are detected using a multi-stage cascade DNN-based joint coordinate regressor, for example. A “top-down approach,” as defined herein, indicates generally a method of identifying humans first and then detecting keypoints or key areas of the detected humans”; par. 0086-0087; “The scaled-up images 108, 110 may have a same aspect ratio as the original image 106 and, to the extent necessary, may be displayed with one or more margins 161 or as cropped such that the aspect ratio of the original image 106 and the aspect ratio of the display 160 may be resolved. While an aspect ratio corresponding to 1080p is contemplated, it will be appreciated that any suitable resolution and any suitable aspect ratio may be utilized”; “The margin 161 is configured to allow a presenter or viewer or other user to define a space in four directions that surrounds the bounding box. In embodiments, the four directions of the margin 161 may include a top margin, a bottom margin, a left side margin, and a right side margin, each of which may be configurable as needed, either automatically by the system or manually by the presenter or viewer or other user”).
Consider claims 2 and 11, Wang et al teach the method furthermore comprising, subsequently to the step of determining target coordinates:- a determination of display coordinates of the second portion of an image from the target coordinates and prior display coordinates used for a display of a third portion of an image on a display, and- a display of the second portion of an image on the display (par. 0086-0087; “The scaled-up images 108, 110 may have a same aspect ratio as the original image 106 and, to the extent necessary, may be displayed with one or more margins 161 or as cropped such that the aspect ratio of the original image 106 and the aspect ratio of the display 160 may be resolved. While an aspect ratio corresponding to 1080p is contemplated, it will be appreciated that any suitable resolution and any suitable aspect ratio may be utilized”; “The margin 161 is configured to allow a presenter or viewer or other user to define a space in four directions that surrounds the bounding box. In embodiments, the four directions of the margin 161 may include a top margin, a bottom margin, a left side margin, and a right side margin, each of which may be configurable as needed, either automatically by the system or manually by the presenter or viewer or other user”).
Consider claim 3, Wang et al teach wherein the determination of display coordinates of a second portion of an image comprises a time filtering implemented using a plurality of prior display coordinates used for a display of portions of images (par. 0077; “The use of the stabilization algorithm described in combination with the use of keypoint or key area detection as described herein advantageously allows for the real-time detection and cropping of a region of interest based on real-time, dynamic movements by a presenter, such as a lecturer or teacher, while rendering the transmitted, cropped video to a viewer in a stabilized manner, with reduced jitter, that is tolerable to view, and with reduced tendency for the determined region of interest to shift because of insignificant movements by the lecturer”; par. 0102; “prior to the step 310 of cropping the image or video frame, the processor may perform a distortion correction process that corrects distortions in the image or video frame”).
Consider claim 4, Wang et al teach wherein said determination of limits of said first portion of an image comprises a time filtering implemented using a plurality of images (par. 0066-0069; determine the region of interest and dynamically crop the video transmission to show only the region of interest…The system 100 may be configured to detect and identify one or more predefined keypoints or key areas on each presenter 105”; “The keypoints or key areas may be predefined to correspond to a desired feature of a person, such as joints including the hip, knee, ankle, wrist, elbow, and/or shoulder, body parts such as the foot tip, hand tip, head top, chin, nose, mouth, eyes, and/or ears, or any other suitable feature. Any suitable combination of keypoints or key areas may be utilized”).
Consider claim 5, Wang et al teach wherein the determination of a target zoom factor is implemented using a hysteresis mechanism (par. 0102; “The cropped image is rescaled at a sixth step 312 to a predefined resolution. For example, the predefined resolution may be 640×320 or any other suitable resolution. In embodiments, the predefined resolution is a transmission resolution that is lower than the original resolution, the lower resolution facilitating transmission of the cropped, rescaled image without causing network bottlenecks”; Thus, implies rescale based on state of network).
Consider claim 6, Wang et al teach further comprising a use of a plurality of second zoom factors and comprising a modification of at least one of the second zoom factors in the plurality of second zoom factors according to at least the target zoom factor (par. 0039; “The system may be configured to automatically scale up the resolution of the transmitted cropped image on the viewer's end. The system may comprise or cooperate with a neural network or other artificial intelligence modality to upscale the transmitted cropped image, for example back to the predetermined display resolution, such as 720p or 1080p or other suitable display resolutions. The neural network may be configured to upscale the transmitted cropped image by a predetermined factor, such as a factor of 2, 3, 4, or any other suitable factor”).
Consider claim 7, Wang et al teach wherein the modification of at least one of the second zoom factors uses a method for modifying a series of data according to a variant of the so-called "Adaptive Neural Gas" algorithm (i.e., machine learning algorithm) (par. 0039; “The system may be configured to automatically scale up the resolution of the transmitted cropped image on the viewer's end. The system may comprise or cooperate with a neural network or other artificial intelligence modality to upscale the transmitted cropped image, for example back to the predetermined display resolution, such as 720p or 1080p or other suitable display resolutions. The neural network may be configured to upscale the transmitted cropped image by a predetermined factor, such as a factor of 2, 3, 4, or any other suitable factor”).
Response to Arguments
Applicant’s arguments, see Amendment, filed 11/25/2025, with respect to the rejection(s) of claim(s) 1-8 and 10-12 under Teng et. al (US 20230247293 A1, hereinafter Teng), Regensburger (US 20180136450 A1), and Seichter (US 20150130704 A1) have been fully considered and are persuasive. Therefore, the rejection has been withdrawn. However, upon further consideration, a new ground(s) of rejection is made in view of Wang et al (2022/0198774).
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure.
Any response to this action should be mailed to:
Mail Stop ____(explanation, e.g., Amendment or After-final, etc.) Commissioner for Patents
P.O. Box 1450
Alexandria, VA 22313-1450
Facsimile responses should be faxed to:
(571) 273-8300
Hand-delivered responses should be brought to:
Customer Service Window
Randolph Building
401 Dulany Street
Alexandria, VA 22314
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to QUOC DUC TRAN whose telephone number is (571) 272-7511. The examiner can normally be reached Monday-Friday 8:30am - 5pm.
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, Duc Nguyen can be reached on (571) 272-7503. 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.
/Quoc D Tran/
Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2691
July 6, 2026
Prosecution Insights