Prosecution Insights
Last updated: October 25, 2026
Application No. 18/246,132

METHOD AND APPARATUS OF EMBEDDING IMAGE IN VIDEO, AND METHOD AND APPARATUS OF ACQUIRING PLANE PREDICTION MODEL

Non-Final OA §112
Filed
Mar 21, 2023
Priority
Sep 22, 2020 — CN 202011004707.1 +1 more
Examiner
FELIX, BRADLEY OBAS
Art Unit
2671
Tech Center
2600 — Communications
Assignee
Beijing Jingdong Century Trading Co., Ltd.
OA Round
3 (Non-Final)
25%
Grant Probability
At Risk
3-4
OA Rounds
0m
Est. Remaining
81%
With Interview

Examiner Intelligence

Grants only 25% of cases
25%
Career Allowance Rate
6 granted / 24 resolved
-37.0% vs TC avg
Strong +56% interview lift
Without
With
+55.6%
Interview Lift
resolved cases with interview
Typical timeline
3y 3m
Avg Prosecution
22 currently pending
Career history
53
Total Applications
across all art units

Statute-Specific Performance

§101
8.3%
-31.7% vs TC avg
§103
67.3%
+27.3% vs TC avg
§102
13.1%
-26.9% vs TC avg
§112
11.3%
-28.7% vs TC avg
Black line = Tech Center average estimate • Based on career data from 24 resolved cases

Office Action

§112
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and the fee set forth in 37 CFR 1.17(e) has been timely paid, the finality of the previous Office action has been withdrawn pursuant to 37 CFR 1.114.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 9/24/2026 has been entered. Response to Amendment Withdrawn claims 13-14, 16, and 18 have been canceled. Thus, this application has pending claims 1, 3-6, 8-12, 15, and 17. Response to Arguments Applicant’s arguments, see Remarks page 1, filed 09/24/2026, with respect to claims 1, 3-6, 8-12, 15, and 17 have been fully considered and are persuasive. The 35 U.S.C. 103 rejection of claims 1, 3-6, 8-12, 15, and 17 has been withdrawn. However, upon further consideration, a new ground(s) of 35 U.S.C. 112 rejection is made. Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 112 The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 112(b): (b) CONCLUSION.—The specification shall conclude with one or more claims particularly pointing out and distinctly claiming the subject matter which the inventor or a joint inventor regards as the invention. The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), second paragraph: The specification shall conclude with one or more claims particularly pointing out and distinctly claiming the subject matter which the applicant regards as his invention. Claims 3-6 and 8-9 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 112(b) or 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), second paragraph, as being indefinite for failing to particularly point out and distinctly claim the subject matter which the inventor or a joint inventor (or for applications subject to pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, the applicant), regards as the invention. Claim 3 recites the limitation “a plane coordinate system” in page 3 of the Claims filed 9/24/2026. It is unclear if the plane coordinate system is the same as the plane coordinate system disclosed in claim 1, or if this is a new plane coordinate system since it comes from a pixel coordinate system. Additionally, claim 3 also recites “a boundary line” and “an inscribed rectangle,” both of which have already been disclosed in claim 1. It is unclear if these are different or the same. Claim 5 recites the limitation “Hough line detection” in page 3 of the Claims filed 9/24/2026. It is unclear if this is meant to be a new Hough line detection or if this is the one disclosed from claim 1. The Examiner notes that claim 8 discloses the limitation “the Hough line detection,” which adds to the uncertainty of the interpterion of claim 5 since claim 8 uses the antecedent basis of claim 1’s Hough line detection. Claim 6 recites the limitation “a line” and “the line” in page 4 of the Claims filed 9/24/2026. It is uncertain which line “a line” is referring to, whether it is one of the detected line or a new line entirely. It is also unclear as to what line “the line” is drawing antecedence from, whether it is one of the detected lines or the possible new line. Claim 8 recites the limitation “…a slope of each line…” in page 4 of the Claims filed 9/24/2026. It is unclear which line “each line” is referring to, whether it be the detected line or the pair of lines from claim 1. Claim 9 recites the limitation “an inscribed rectangle” in page 4 of the Claims filed 9/24/2026. Claim 1 already discloses “an inscribed rectangle” so it is unclear if this is the same inscribed rectangle or different. Allowable Subject Matter Claims 1, 10-12, 15, and 17 are allowed. Independent claim 1 recites the limitations of: inputting a video frame image of a video into a plane prediction model, and acquiring a predicted plane mask of the video frame image as well as 4 key points in the plane mask, wherein the plane prediction model is obtained by training a deep learning model using training images with labels of a plane detection frame and a plane mask as well as labeling information of the 4 key points in the plane mask; and embedding the image to be embedded into the predicted plane mask of the video frame image, comprising: aligning 4 vertexes of the image to be embedded with the 4 key points in the predicted plane mask of the video frame image, and embedding the image to be embedded into a position region corresponding to the 4 key points in the predicted plane mask of the video frame image, wherein the labeling information of the 4 key points in the plane mask in the training images is determined by a boundary line and an inscribed rectangle of the plane mask in a plane coordinate system, and the boundary line of the plane mask in the plane coordinate system is determined by the following methods: performing Hough line detection on an edge of the plane mask in the plane coordinate system; determining a probability that each detected line is the boundary line of the plane mask; choosing a pair of lines having a perpendicular relation or a parallel relation from the detected lines; and determining a line with the highest probability in the pair of lines or the detected lines as one boundary line of the plane mask in the plane coordinate system, depending on whether the pair of lines is found,. wherein determining the line with the highest probability in the pair of lines or the detected lines as one boundary line of the plane mask in the plane coordinate system, depending on whether the pair of lines is found comprises: under the condition that the pair of lines is found, determining a line with the greatest probability in the pair of lines with a greatest sum of probabilities as the one boundary line of the plane mask in the plane coordinate system; and under the condition that the pair of lines is not found, determining a line with the greatest probability as the one boundary line of the plane mask in the plane coordinate system. The combination of these features as cited in the claims in combination with the other limitations of the claims are neither disclosed nor suggested. The closest reference found, Xu-bo SONG CN-108334878-A, discloses inputting a video frame and acquiring a predicted plane region of the video frame as well as 4 key points in the plane region, wherein the plane prediction model is obtained by training a deep learning model using training images with labels of a plane detection frame and a plane region as well as labeling information of the 4 key points in the plane region. However, it fails to explicitly disclose a predicted plane mask, embedding the image to be embedded into the predicted plane mask of the video frame image, comprising: aligning 4 vertexes of the image to be embedded with the 4 key points in the predicted plane mask of the video frame image, and embedding the image to be embedded into a position region corresponding to the 4 key points in the predicted plane mask of the video frame image, wherein the labeling information of the 4 key points in the plane mask in the training images is determined by a boundary line and an inscribed rectangle of the plane mask in a plane coordinate system, and the boundary line of the plane mask in the plane coordinate system is determined by the following methods: performing Hough line detection on an edge of the plane mask in the plane coordinate system; determining a probability that each detected line is the boundary line of the plane mask; choosing a pair of lines having a perpendicular relation or a parallel relation from the detected lines; and determining a line with the highest probability in the pair of lines or the detected lines as one boundary line of the plane mask in the plane coordinate system, depending on whether the pair of lines is found,. wherein determining the line with the highest probability in the pair of lines or the detected lines as one boundary line of the plane mask in the plane coordinate system, depending on whether the pair of lines is found comprises: under the condition that the pair of lines is found, determining a line with the greatest probability in the pair of lines with a greatest sum of probabilities as the one boundary line of the plane mask in the plane coordinate system; and under the condition that the pair of lines is not found, determining a line with the greatest probability as the one boundary line of the plane mask in the plane coordinate system. Conclusion Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to Bradley Obas Felix whose telephone number is (703)756-1314. The examiner can normally be reached M-F 8-5 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, Vincent Rudolph can be reached at 5712728243. 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. /BRADLEY O FELIX/Examiner, Art Unit 2671 /VINCENT RUDOLPH/Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 2671
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Prosecution Timeline

Mar 21, 2023
Application Filed
Dec 11, 2025
Non-Final Rejection mailed — §112
Feb 17, 2026
Response Filed
Jun 26, 2026
Final Rejection mailed — §112
Aug 07, 2026
Response after Non-Final Action
Sep 24, 2026
Request for Continued Examination
Sep 27, 2026
Response after Non-Final Action
Oct 02, 2026
Non-Final Rejection mailed — §112 (current)

Precedent Cases

Applications granted by this same examiner with similar technology

Patent 12608780
IMAGE PROCESSING APPARATUS AND METHOD, IMAGE CAPTURING APPARATUS AND STORAGE MEDIUM
2y 10m to grant Granted Apr 21, 2026
Patent 12592076
OBJECT IDENTIFICATION SYSTEM AND METHOD
3y 11m to grant Granted Mar 31, 2026
Patent 12340540
AN IMAGING SENSOR, AN IMAGE PROCESSING DEVICE AND AN IMAGE PROCESSING METHOD
3y 1m to grant Granted Jun 24, 2025
Study what changed to get past this examiner. Based on 3 most recent grants.

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Prosecution Projections

3-4
Expected OA Rounds
25%
Grant Probability
81%
With Interview (+55.6%)
3y 3m (~0m remaining)
Median Time to Grant
High
PTA Risk
Based on 24 resolved cases by this examiner. Grant probability derived from career allowance rate.

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