Prosecution Insights
Last updated: April 19, 2026
Application No. 18/376,056

INFORMATION PROCESSING APPARATUS, INFORMATION PROCESSING METHOD, AND PROGRAM

Non-Final OA §103§112
Filed
Oct 03, 2023
Examiner
CHIN, RICKY
Art Unit
2424
Tech Center
2400 — Computer Networks
Assignee
NEC Corporation
OA Round
1 (Non-Final)
68%
Grant Probability
Favorable
1-2
OA Rounds
3y 1m
To Grant
90%
With Interview

Examiner Intelligence

Grants 68% — above average
68%
Career Allow Rate
375 granted / 551 resolved
+10.1% vs TC avg
Strong +22% interview lift
Without
With
+21.6%
Interview Lift
resolved cases with interview
Typical timeline
3y 1m
Avg Prosecution
19 currently pending
Career history
570
Total Applications
across all art units

Statute-Specific Performance

§101
5.7%
-34.3% vs TC avg
§103
58.4%
+18.4% vs TC avg
§102
13.1%
-26.9% vs TC avg
§112
10.2%
-29.8% vs TC avg
Black line = Tech Center average estimate • Based on career data from 551 resolved cases

Office Action

§103 §112
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 Objections 1. Claims 2-7 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 and by overcoming any 112b rejections detailed below. Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 112 2. 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. 3. Claims 1-10 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 112(b), second paragraph, as being vague and indefinite for failing to particularly point out and distinctly claim the subject matter which applicant regards as the invention for the reasons stated below. Claims 1 and 9-10 recites “a location of the camera when it shot the camera image from a location in the same space as the specific location in the three-dimensional space”. However, since the claims refers to a virtual camera as “a camera”. It is unclear as to which camera “the camera” refers to. Appropriate Correction is required. Claims 2-3 recites “each of the plurality of feature points” without any antecedent basis for any feature points”. Appropriate Correction is required. Claim 4 recites “number of faces of the object” and “the target” without any antecedent basis for any object or target. Appropriate Corrections if required. Claim 5 recites “number of faces of the object” without any antecedent basis for “the object”. Appropriate Corrections if required. Claim 6 recites “the same side as viewed from the face of the object” without any antecedent basis for any side or object. Appropriate Corrections if required. Claim 7 recites “the same side as viewed from the face of the object” without any antecedent basis for any side or object. Appropriate Corrections if required. Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103 4. 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 of this title, 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. 5. Claims 1 and 8-10 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Colmenares et al., US 2021/0256729 in view of Lee et al., KR 20200132065 (English translation). Regarding claim 1, Colmenares teaches of an information processing apparatus comprising: at least one memory configured to store instructions (See [0034] and [0097] memory to store instructions); and at least one processor configured to execute the instructions (See [0034] and [0097] processor for executing the instructions) to: generate a virtual camera image shot by a virtual camera in a specific location and orientation in a three-dimensional space on the basis of point cloud data of the three-dimensional space (See [0018], [0024], [0028]-[0029], [0035] and [0038 which discloses of the virtual camera image shot of a specific location and orientation in a 3D space and generating a point cloud and/or 3D mesh of the scene). Colmenares is silent with respect to estimate, on the basis of the virtual camera image, a camera image shot by a camera, and the point cloud data, a location of the camera when it shot the camera image from a location in the same space as the specific location in the three-dimensional space. However, in the same field of endeavor, Lee teaches of estimate, on the basis of the virtual camera image, a camera image shot by a camera, and the point cloud data, a location of the camera when it shot the camera image from a location in the same space as the specific location in the three-dimensional space (See Pages 8-11 which discloses of estimating/determining/calculating the position of camera photographing position in the same 3D space from the point cloud, image of the 2D shot/camera image shot by a camera, and the virtual camera image). It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the time effective filing date of the claimed invention to have modified the teachings of Colmenares to have incorporated the teachings of Lee for the mere benefit of being able to track and align cameras and/or images in the virtual environment with the real-world environment. Regarding claim 8, the combination teaches the information processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the cloud data is generated by at least one of a LiDAR (Light Detection And Ranging, Laser Imaging Detection And Ranging), a ToF (Time of Flight) camera, a stereo camera, and a 3D (Dimension) scanner (See Colmenares, [0028] lidar and stereoscopic). Regarding claim 9, the claim has been analyzed and rejected for the same reasons set forth in the rejection of claim 1. Regarding claim 10, the claim has been analyzed and rejected for the same reasons set forth in the rejection of claim 1. Contact 6. Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to Ricky Chin whose telephone number is 571-270-3753. The examiner can normally be reached on M-F 8:30-6:00. If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Benjamin Bruckart can be reached on 571-272-3982. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 703-872-9306. Information regarding the status of an application may be obtained from the Patent Application Information Retrieval (PAIR) system. Status information for published applications may be obtained from either Private PAIR or Public PAIR. Status information for unpublished applications is available through Private PAIR only. For more information about the PAIR system, see http://pair-direct.uspto.gov. Should you have questions on access to the Private PAIR system, contact the Electronic Business Center (EBC) at 866-217-9197 (toll-free). /Ricky Chin/ Primary Examiner AU 2424 (571) 270-3753 Ricky.Chin@uspto.gov
Read full office action

Prosecution Timeline

Oct 03, 2023
Application Filed
Jan 15, 2026
Non-Final Rejection — §103, §112 (current)

Precedent Cases

Applications granted by this same examiner with similar technology

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Patent 12579874
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Patent 12579818
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Patent 12581170
CINEMATIC MASTERING FOR VIRTUAL REALITY AND AUGMENTED REALITY
2y 5m to grant Granted Mar 17, 2026
Study what changed to get past this examiner. Based on 5 most recent grants.

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Prosecution Projections

1-2
Expected OA Rounds
68%
Grant Probability
90%
With Interview (+21.6%)
3y 1m
Median Time to Grant
Low
PTA Risk
Based on 551 resolved cases by this examiner. Grant probability derived from career allow rate.

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