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 § 101
35 U.S.C. 101 reads as follows:
Whoever invents or discovers any new and useful process, machine, manufacture, or composition of matter, or any new and useful improvement thereof, may obtain a patent therefor, subject to the conditions and requirements of this title.
Claims 1-10 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 101 because the claimed invention is directed to an abstract idea without significantly more. Claim 1 recites analyzing a social media post to identify event information to correlate to an event captured; identifying an event represented in sensor data; and generating a notification. If a claim limitation, under its broadest reasonable interpretation, covers performance of the limitation in the mind, then it falls within the “Mental Process” grouping of abstract ideas. Accordingly, the claim recites an abstract idea. This judicial exception is not integrated into a practical application. The claim(s) does/do not include additional elements that are sufficient to amount to significantly more than the judicial exception. The claim is not patent eligible.
Claims 2-10 are rejected for the same reasons because of the dependency.
Claims 11-20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 101 because the claimed invention is directed to non-statutory subject matter.
Claims 11 and 16 are drawn to a computer readable storage media storing program instructions, where the computer readable storage media can be transitory, i.e., is not explicitly limited as disclosed as only being non-transitory computer readable media; therefore, fail(s) to fall within a statutory category of invention. Applicant should note that adding "non-transitory" to the claim to limit a claimed computer readable medium to being statutory would be acceptable.
A claim directed to a computer readable storage media storing program instructions is non-statutory, where the computer readable storage media can be a signal, a carrier wave, or a data structure, per se, which are non-statutory as noted, infra.
A claim directed to a signal, a carrier wave, or a data structure, per se, is non-statutory because it is not:
A process, or
A machine, or
A manufacture, or
A composition of matter.
Claims 12-15 and 17-20 are rejected for the same reasons because of the dependency.
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)(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.
Claim(s) 1-20 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(2) as being anticipated by Chen (US 11,416,571).
Regarding claim 1, Chen discloses a computer-implemented method comprising:
analyzing (step 310) a social media post to identify event information to correlate to an event captured by an Internet of Things (IoT) device (221, 220, 120, 110), wherein social media account owners provide social media posts to allow correlation of event information in the social media posts to events captured by IoT devices (column 8, lines 10-30, col. 3, lines 36-55, col. 4, line 25-54);
identifying (steps 320-330) an event represented in sensor data generated by an IoT device that correlates to the event information contained in the social media post, wherein device owners provide sensor data generated by IoT devices to allow the sensor data to be analyzed for events represented in the sensor data (col. 7, lines 15-45), and context information is generated for the events represented in the sensor data to allow correlation of the events to event information contained in the social
media posts (col. 8, lines 10-30); and
generating (step 340) a notification for an account owner of the social media post to indicate that the event represented in the sensor data generated by the IoT device may be related to the event information in the social media post (col. 11, lines 47-65).
Regarding claim 11, Chen discloses a system comprising:
one or more computer readable storage media 203 storing program instructions and one or more processors 213 which, in response to executing the program instructions, are configured to:
analyze (step 310) a social media post to identify event information to correlate to an event captured by an Internet of Things (IoT) device (221, 220, 120, 110), wherein social media account owners provide social media posts to allow correlation of event information in the social media posts to events captured by IoT devices (col. 8, lines 10-30, col. 3, lines 36-55, col. 4, line 25-54);
identify (steps 320-330) an event represented in sensor data generated by an IoT device that correlates to the event information contained in the social media post, wherein device owners provide sensor data generated by loT devices to allow the sensor data to be analyzed for events represented in the sensor data (col. 7, lines 15-45), and context information is generated for the events represented in the sensor data to allow correlation of the events to event information contained in the social media posts (col. 8, lines 10-30); and
generate (step 340) a notification for an account owner of the social media post to indicate that the event represented in the sensor data generated by the IoT device may be related to the event information in the social media post (col. 11, lines 47-65).
Regarding claim 16, Chen discloses a computer program product comprising:
one or more computer readable storage media 203, and program instructions collectively stored on the one or more computer readable storage media, the program instructions configured to cause one or more processors 213 to:
analyze (step 310) a social media post to identify event information to correlate to an event captured by an Internet of Things (IoT) device (221, 220, 120, 110), wherein social media account owners provide social media posts to allow correlation of event information in the social media posts to events captured by IoT devices (col. 8, lines 10-30, col. 3, lines 36-55, col. 4, line 25-54);
identify (steps 320-330) an event represented in sensor data generated by an IoT device that correlates to the event information contained in the social media post, wherein device owners provide sensor data generated by IoT devices to allow the sensor data to be analyzed for events represented in the sensor data (col. 7, lines 15-45), and context information is generated for the events represented in the sensor data to allow correlation of the events to event information contained in the social media posts (col. 8, lines 10-30); and
generate (step 340) a notification for an account owner of the social media post to indicate that the event represented in the sensor data generated by the IoT device may be related to the event information in the social media post (col. 11, lines 47-65).
Regarding claim 2, Chen discloses wherein analyzing the social media post further comprises: analyzing text in the social media post using natural language processing (NLP) to generate the event information (col. 8, lines 10-30).
Regarding claims 3, 12, and 17, Chen discloses wherein analyzing the social media post further comprises: analyzing one or more images contained in the social media post to generate context information that corresponds to the event information in the social media post (col. 8, lines 10-30); and augmenting the event information from the social media post with the context information generated from the one or more images (col. 9, lines 21-65, col. 10, line 1-24).
Regarding claims 4, 13, and 18, Chen discloses in response to receiving sensor data generated by an IoT device: processing the sensor data to generate context information for the event represented in the sensor data (col. 8, lines 33-67); and storing the sensor data with the context information in a data store to make the sensor data searchable via the context information (col. 7, lines 15-45).
Regarding claims 5, 14, and 19, Chen discloses wherein identifying the event represented in the sensor data generated by the IoT device further comprises: querying the data store for context information linked to sensor data that corresponds to the event information from the social media post (col. 7, lines 15-45, col. 12, line 13-col. 13, line 5).
Regarding claims 6, 15, and 20, Chen discloses wherein querying the data store further comprises applying privacy parameters and participation parameters specified by the device owners (col. 9, lines 1-20, col. 13, line 5-47).
Regarding claim 7, Chen discloses sending a request to the device owners for sensor data that matches the event information (col. 13, lines 5-47).
Regarding claim 8, Chen discloses determining a geographic region associated with the event based in part on a location associated with the social media post and a boundary associated with an event category (col. 8, lines 10-30); and identifying a subset of sensor data provided by the device owners that correspond to the geographic region (col. 8, lines 31-67).
Regarding claim 9, Chen discloses wherein the sensor data from the IoT device is user-submitted sensor data uploaded to an event correlation service (col. 9, lines 22-67).
Regarding claim 10, Chen discloses wherein the social media post is a user-submitted social media post tagged with an event category and uploaded to an event correlation service (col. 9, lines 22-67, figure 1).
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure.
Aitchison, Hernandez, Donovan, and Halse disclose social media analytics systems.
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/ANH V LA/ Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2685
ANH V. LA
Primary Examiner
Art Unit 2685
Al
August 8, 2026
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