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 .
Response to Arguments
Applicant’s arguments with respect to claims 1-4 and 7-15 have been considered but are moot because the new ground of rejection does not rely on any reference applied in the prior rejection of record for any teaching or matter specifically challenged in the argument.
Claims 1 and 14-15 have been amended and claims 5-6 have been canceled.
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.
Claims 1-4 and 7-15 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Chapdelaine (US 2009/0273711) in view of Gao (US 2018/0047193).
Regarding claim 1, Chapdelaine discloses a display device comprising:
a display (see at least paragraph 0048);
a memory storing at least one instruction (see at least paragraph 0048); and
at least one processor configured to execute the at least one instruction, wherein the at least one instruction, when executed by the at least one processor, causes the display device to:
receive an image and a closed caption corresponding to the image (receive motion video signal and caption data; see at least paragraphs 0047 and 0049),
detect a plurality of region of interest (ROIs) included in the image by using a neural network (the ROI detection modules detect in the sequence of frames defining the shot regions of interest such as faces, text or areas where significant movement exist; see at least paragraphs 0053-0059),
generate at least one integrated region by grouping two or more ROI of the plurality of ROIs into at least one group of adjacent ROIs, wherein the two or more ROIs are selected for inclusion in the at least one group of adjacent ROIs based on a determination that each of the two or more ROIs is adjacent to another ROI among the plurality of ROIs (motion activity grid MAG; see at least paragraphs 0065-0067. Furthermore, grouping the ball location 1700 into an area 1702; see at least Figs. 17A-17D and paragraphs 0103-0104),
determine a closed caption output region among at least one preset candidate closed caption region, based on whether the at least one preset candidate closed caption region overlaps at least one of the plurality of ROIs and the at least one integrated region (disqualify areas with significant movement and leave only those in which the placement of caption will not mask high action events; see at least paragraphs 0064, 0067, 0101 and 0104-0106),
and
control the display to display the closed caption in the closed caption output region (the placement of caption will not mask high action events; see at least paragraphs 0067, 0101 and 0104-0107).
Chapdelaine discloses grouping two or more ROIs into at least one group of adjacent ROIs, but is not clear about that the grouping is based on a first threshold distance or a second threshold distance, wherein based on a distance between a first ROI and a second ROI adjacent in a vertical direction among the plurality of ROIs, being less than or equal to the first threshold distance, integrate the first ROI and the second ROI to generate a first integrated region, wherein based on a distance between the first ROI and a third ROI adjacent in a horizontal direction, among the plurality of ROIs, being less than or equal to the second threshold distance, integrate the first ROI and the third ROI to generate a second integrated region, and wherein the first integrated region includes a region between the first ROI and the second ROI, and the second integrated region includes a region between the first ROI and the third ROI.
Gao discloses the above missing limitations; a bounding box merge process to merge bounding boxes for a group of related blobs into one bounding box. The merging process may determine, based on the proximity of the blobs to each other, that the blobs should be merged, wherein a distance in the horizontal and vertical directions are considered in the merging process; see at least paragraphs 0063-0064, 0125-0126, 0140, 0145 and 0178. Further, Fig. 5 shows the merging of two bounding boxes into a single box that includes an intersecting region 508 and not intersecting regions, i.e. union regions 506, see also Figs. 8B-8C, 13A-13C and 14C-14D.
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filling date of the claimed invention to modify Chapdelaine by the teachings of Gao by having the above limitations so to provide content-adaptive bounding box merging; see at least the Abstract.
Regarding claim 2, Chapdelaine in view of Gao disclose the display device of claim 1, wherein the at least one instruction, when executed by the at least one processor, further causes the display to:
determine the closed caption output region based on the at least one preset candidate closed caption region that do not overlap at least one of the plurality of ROIs and the at least one integrated region (Chapdelaine; disqualify areas with significant movement and leave only those in which the placement of caption will not mask high action events; see at least paragraphs 0064, 0067, 0101 and 0103-0107).
Regarding claim 3, Chapdelaine in view of Gao disclose the display device of claim 1, wherein the at least one instruction, when executed by the at least one processor, further causes the display to:
identify at least one object included in the image by using the neural network, and identify the plurality of ROIs by obtaining information about a location and a size of the at least one object (Chapdelaine; see at least paragraphs 0053-0058).
Regarding claim 4, Chapdelaine in view of Gao disclose the display device of claim 3, wherein the at least one object comprises at least one of a text, a person, an animal, and an object (Chapdelaine; see at least paragraphs 0053-0059).
Regarding claim 7, Chapdelaine in view of Valadez disclose the display device of claim 1, wherein the at least one instruction, when executed by the at least one processor, further causes the display to:
detect the plurality of ROIs based on whether a function for automatically adjusting a display position of the closed caption is activated (Chapdelaine; it is always activated. The claim does not require activation by who; see at least paragraph 0047).
Regarding claim 8, Chapdelaine in view of Gao disclose the display device of claim 1, wherein the at least one instruction, when executed by the at least one processor, further causes the display to:
based on a plurality of candidate closed caption regions that do not overlap at least one of the plurality of ROIs and the at least one integrated region, determine the closed caption output region based on at least one of contiguity information and location information of the plurality of candidate closed caption regions (Chapdelaine; disqualify areas with significant movement and leave only those in which the placement of caption will not mask high action events; see at least paragraphs 0064, 0067, 0101 and 0104-0106).
Regarding claim 9, Chapdelaine in view of Gao disclose the display device of claim 8, wherein the at least one instruction, when executed by the at least one processor, further causes the display to:
based on the plurality of candidate closed caption regions including a first candidate region, a second candidate region, and a third candidate region, and further based on the first candidate region and the second candidate region being located contiguously and the third candidate region is located separately from the first candidate region and the second candidate region, determine the first candidate region and the second candidate region as the closed caption output region (Chapdelaine; a GUI presents the user with a variety of options to review detection results and reject the results that are inaccurate; see at least paragraphs 0068-0070).
Regarding claim 10, Chapdelaine in view of Gao disclose the display device of claim 8, wherein the at least one instruction, when executed by the at least one processor, further causes the display to:
based on the plurality of candidate closed caption regions including a first candidate region, a second candidate region, and a third candidate region, and further based on the third candidate region being located below the first candidate region and the second candidate region, determine the third candidate region as the closed caption output region (Chapdelaine; a GUI presents the user with a variety of options to review detection results and reject the results that are inaccurate; see at least paragraphs 0068-007).
Regarding claim 11, Chapdelaine in view of Gao disclose the display device of claim 1, wherein the at least one instruction, when executed by the at least one processor, further causes the display to:
based on all of the at least one preset candidate closed caption regions overlapping at least one of the plurality of ROIs and the at least one integrated region, determine, as the closed caption output region, a region in which the closed caption was displayed in an image corresponding to a first frame preceding a second frame corresponding to the image (Chapdelaine; a GUI presents the user with a variety of options to review detection results and reject the results that are inaccurate; see at least paragraphs 0068-007).
Regarding claim 12, Chapdelaine in view of Gao disclose the display device of claim 11, wherein the at least one instruction, when executed by the at least one processor, further causes the display to:
based on all of the at least one preset candidate closed caption region overlapings at least one of the plurality of ROIs and the at least one integrated region, determine the closed caption output region among the at least one preset candidate closed caption region, based on at least one of a size of a portion of each of the at least one preset candidate closed caption region overlapping at least one of the plurality of ROIs and the at least one integrated region, a position of an overlapping portion, and importance of information displayed in the overlapping portion (Chapdelaine; see at least paragraphs 0101, 0105. Furthermore, a GUI presents the user with a variety of options to review detection results and reject the results that are inaccurate; see at least paragraphs 0068-007).
Regarding claim 13, Chapdelaine in view of Gao disclose the display device of claim 11, wherein the at least one instruction, when executed by the at least one processor, further causes the display to adjust at least one of a color of the closed caption displayed in the closed caption output region and a transparency of a background of the closed caption (Chapdelaine; see at least Figs. 9-10 and paragraph 0061).
Claims 14 and 15 are rejected on the same grounds as claim 1.
Conclusion
THIS ACTION IS MADE FINAL. Applicant is reminded of the extension of time policy as set forth in 37 CFR 1.136(a).
A shortened statutory period for reply to this final action is set to expire THREE MONTHS from the mailing date of this action. In the event a first reply is filed within TWO MONTHS of the mailing date of this final action and the advisory action is not mailed until after the end of the THREE-MONTH shortened statutory period, then the shortened statutory period will expire on the date the advisory action is mailed, and any nonprovisional extension fee (37 CFR 1.17(a)) pursuant to 37 CFR 1.136(a) will be calculated from the mailing date of the advisory action. In no event, however, will the statutory period for reply expire later than SIX MONTHS from the mailing date of this final action.
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/YASSIN ALATA/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2426