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 .
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.
Claim(s) 11-13, 15, 17-20 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by Liaw US 2007/0013493.
Liaw discloses a product vending machine, comprising: a monitoring system designed to:
(Re claim 1) “monitor whether consumers in a consumer area of the product vending machine comply with one or more stored health policies for protecting consumers’ health against contagious infectious diseases and containing recommendations on one or more of interpersonal distance, body temperature and use of respiratory personal protective equipment that consumers have to comply with in the consumer area of the product vending machine” (figure 4,5, ‘body temperature’ para 0020,0021). “if one or more consumers in the consumer area of the product vending machine are determined to fail to comply with one or more of the stored health policies, implement one or both of: informing the consumers in the consumer area of the product vending machine that one or more of the stored health policies fail to be complied with by one or more of the consumers in the consumer area of the product vending machine; and modifying operation of the product vending machine to cause the consumers in the consumer area of the product vending machine to become aware that one or more of the health policies fail to be complied with by one or more of the consumers in the consumer area of the product vending machine” (‘light’, ‘speaker’, ‘shut off the operational interface’ para 0021). A product vending machine given its broadest reasonable interpretation would include a banking machine.
(Re claim 12) “a sensory system designed to output an output such as to allow to determine whether the consumers in the consumer area of the product vending machine comply with one or more of the stored health policies; and electronic storage and processing resources designed to store data representative of one or more health policies that consumers in the consumer area of the product vending machine have to comply with, and to communicate with the sensory system to receive and process the output of the sensory system based on the stored health policies in order to determine whether the consumers in the consumer area of the product vending machine comply with one or more of the stored health policies” (para 0021, 40,41 figure 3).
(Re claim 13) “wherein the sensory system comprises an electronic digital image/video capture device arranged to capture digital images/videos of the consumer area of the product vending machine; the electronic storage and processing resources are further designed to receive digital images/videos from the electronic digital image/video capture device and to process the received digital images/videos based on the stored health policies in order to determine whether the consumers in the consumer area of the vending machine comply with one or more of the stored health policies” (CCD 2 figure 3,5).
(Re claim 15) “the sensory system comprises a contactless body temperature measuring device operable to measure, and output an output indicative of, the body temperatures of the consumers in the consumer area of the product vending machine; the electronic storage and processing resources are configured to: receive and process the output of the contactless body temperature measuring device to determine the body temperatures of the consumers in the consumer area of the product vending machine; and determine whether the body temperatures of the consumers in the consumer area of the product vending machine comply with the stored health policy relating to the body temperature” (para 0020, 40,41 figure 3).
(Re claim 17) “the electronic storage and processing resources are further designed to modify operation of the product vending machine by either limiting or inhibiting operation of the product vending machine as long as one or more of the stored health policies fail to be complied with by one or more of the consumers in the consumer area of the product vending machine” (‘shut off the operational interface’ para 0021).
(Re claim 18) “determine a degree of severity of failure of the consumers in the consumer area of the product vending machine to comply with the stored health policies based on a stored assessment criterion; and determine whether to inform the consumers in the consumer area of the product vending machine that one or more of the health policies fail to be complied with by one or more of the consumers in the consumer area of the product vending machine either through a display of the product vending machine or by modifying operation of the product vending machine based on the degree of severity of failure of the consumers in the consumer area of the product vending machine to comply with the stored health policies” (‘shut off the operational interface’ para 0021, ‘display a body temperature’ para 0023).
(Re claim 19) “the electronic storage and processing resources are further designed to display on a display of the product vending machine different warnings to consumers in the consumer area of the product vending machine depending on the degree of severity of failure of the consumers in the consumer area of the product vending machine to comply with the stored health policies and to modify operation of the product vending machine if the degree of severity of failure of the consumers in the consumer area of the product vending machine to comply with the stored health policies is even higher” (‘if person continues to force in … notify a police authority’ para 0001).
(Re claim 20) “) Software loadable in the electronic storage and processing resources of the product vending machine of claim 11 and designed to cause, when run, the electronic storage and processing resources to become configured as claimed in claim 11” (abstract, 5,51 figure 5).
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(s) 14 and 16 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Liaw in view of Adifon US 2022/0017327 (provisional date 07/15/2020).
Liaw discloses the system as rejected above.
(Re claim 14) Liaw does not disclose identify the consumers in the consumer area of the product vending machine; determine one or both of the interpersonal distance of the consumers in the consumer area of the product vending machine and whether the consumers in the consumer area of the product vending machine are wearing respiratory personal protective equipment; and determine whether the consumers in the consumer area of the product vending machine comply with the stored health policies relating to one or both of the interpersonal distance and the wearing of respiratory personal protective equipment.
Adifon teaches identify the consumers in the consumer area of the product vending machine; determine one or both of the interpersonal distance of the consumers in the consumer area of the product vending machine and whether the consumers in the consumer area of the product vending machine are wearing respiratory personal protective equipment; and determine whether the consumers in the consumer area of the product vending machine comply with the stored health policies relating to one or both of the interpersonal distance and the wearing of respiratory personal protective equipment (‘social distance’ para 0028, 0075).
It would have been obvious to one skilled in the art to modify the system of Liaw to include teaches identify the consumers in the consumer area of the product vending machine; determine one or both of the interpersonal distance of the consumers in the consumer area of the product vending machine and whether the consumers in the consumer area of the product vending machine are wearing respiratory personal protective equipment; and determine whether the consumers in the consumer area of the product vending machine comply with the stored health policies relating to one or both of the interpersonal distance and the wearing of respiratory personal protective equipment because it helps prevent the transmission of possibly infectious diseases.
Liaw discloses the system as rejected above.
(Re claim 16) Liaw does not disclose that the electronic storage and processing resources are further designed to cause the consumers in the consumer area of the product vending machine to be informed that one or more of the health policies fail to be complied with by one or more of the consumers in the consumer area of the product vending machine by displaying, on a display of the product vending machine, either a video feed from the electronic digital image/video capture device or a graphical representation of the consumers in the consumer area of the product vending machine constructed based on the captured digital images/videos, both with highlighting or graphical indications of the consumers who fail comply with the stored health policies, or even a simplified graphical representation containing one or more of the following information: number of consumers in the consumer area of the product vending machine, presence of consumers in the consumer area of the product vending machine who fail to comply with the stored health policies, number of consumers in the consumer area of the product vending machine who fail to comply with the stored health policies, number of consumers in the consumer area of the product vending machine who fail to maintain the recommended interpersonal distance, number of consumers in the consumer area of the product vending machine who fail to wear a respiratory personal protective equipment, number of consumers in the consumer area of the product vending machine the body temperature of which is not in compliance with the stored health policies.
Adifon teaches that the electronic storage and processing resources are further designed to cause the consumers in the consumer area of the product vending machine to be informed that one or more of the health policies fail to be complied with by one or more of the consumers in the consumer area of the product vending machine by displaying, on a display of the product vending machine, either a video feed from the electronic digital image/video capture device or a graphical representation of the consumers in the consumer area of the product vending machine constructed based on the captured digital images/videos, both with highlighting or graphical indications of the consumers who fail comply with the stored health policies, or even a simplified graphical representation containing one or more of the following information: number of consumers in the consumer area of the product vending machine, presence of consumers in the consumer area of the product vending machine who fail to comply with the stored health policies, number of consumers in the consumer area of the product vending machine who fail to comply with the stored health policies, number of consumers in the consumer area of the product vending machine who fail to maintain the recommended interpersonal distance, number of consumers in the consumer area of the product vending machine who fail to wear a respiratory personal protective equipment, number of consumers in the consumer area of the product vending machine the body temperature of which is not in compliance with the stored health policies (‘alerting … body temperature … social distancing … mass detection … air sanitation’ para 0069, ‘HUFD can alert’ para 0080).
It would have been obvious to one skilled in the art to modify the system of Liaw to include that the electronic storage and processing resources are further designed to cause the consumers in the consumer area of the product vending machine to be informed that one or more of the health policies fail to be complied with by one or more of the consumers in the consumer area of the product vending machine by displaying, on a display of the product vending machine, either a video feed from the electronic digital image/video capture device or a graphical representation of the consumers in the consumer area of the product vending machine constructed based on the captured digital images/videos, both with highlighting or graphical indications of the consumers who fail comply with the stored health policies, or even a simplified graphical representation containing one or more of the following information: number of consumers in the consumer area of the product vending machine, presence of consumers in the consumer area of the product vending machine who fail to comply with the stored health policies, number of consumers in the consumer area of the product vending machine who fail to comply with the stored health policies, number of consumers in the consumer area of the product vending machine who fail to maintain the recommended interpersonal distance, number of consumers in the consumer area of the product vending machine who fail to wear a respiratory personal protective equipment, number of consumers in the consumer area of the product vending machine the body temperature of which is not in compliance with the stored health policies because it helps prevent the spread of infectious diseases.
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure. US 2023/0401937 is directed to denying access to a vending machine based on health related data. US 2022/0230492 discloses a kiosk which denies access based on health conditions and overlays health data on to an image of a user.
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TIMOTHY R. WAGGONER
Primary Examiner
Art Unit 3655 B
/TIMOTHY R WAGGONER/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 3655