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
Claim 15 is objected to because of the following informalities:
Claim 15 depends on itself, for purposes of examination, claim 15 is treated as depending on claim 14.
Appropriate correction is required.
Double Patenting
The nonstatutory double patenting rejection is based on a judicially created doctrine grounded in public policy (a policy reflected in the statute) so as to prevent the unjustified or improper timewise extension of the “right to exclude” granted by a patent and to prevent possible harassment by multiple assignees. A nonstatutory double patenting rejection is appropriate where the conflicting claims are not identical, but at least one examined application claim is not patentably distinct from the reference claim(s) because the examined application claim is either anticipated by, or would have been obvious over, the reference claim(s). See, e.g., In re Berg, 140 F.3d 1428, 46 USPQ2d 1226 (Fed. Cir. 1998); In re Goodman, 11 F.3d 1046, 29 USPQ2d 2010 (Fed. Cir. 1993); In re Longi, 759 F.2d 887, 225 USPQ 645 (Fed. Cir. 1985); In re Van Ornum, 686 F.2d 937, 214 USPQ 761 (CCPA 1982); In re Vogel, 422 F.2d 438, 164 USPQ 619 (CCPA 1970); In re Thorington, 418 F.2d 528, 163 USPQ 644 (CCPA 1969).
A timely filed terminal disclaimer in compliance with 37 CFR 1.321(c) or 1.321(d) may be used to overcome an actual or provisional rejection based on nonstatutory double patenting provided the reference application or patent either is shown to be commonly owned with the examined application, or claims an invention made as a result of activities undertaken within the scope of a joint research agreement. See MPEP § 717.02 for applications subject to examination under the first inventor to file provisions of the AIA as explained in MPEP § 2159. See MPEP § 2146 et seq. for applications not subject to examination under the first inventor to file provisions of the AIA . A terminal disclaimer must be signed in compliance with 37 CFR 1.321(b).
The filing of a terminal disclaimer by itself is not a complete reply to a nonstatutory double patenting (NSDP) rejection. A complete reply requires that the terminal disclaimer be accompanied by a reply requesting reconsideration of the prior Office action. Even where the NSDP rejection is provisional the reply must be complete. See MPEP § 804, subsection I.B.1. For a reply to a non-final Office action, see 37 CFR 1.111(a). For a reply to final Office action, see 37 CFR 1.113(c). A request for reconsideration while not provided for in 37 CFR 1.113(c) may be filed after final for consideration. See MPEP §§ 706.07(e) and 714.13.
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Claims 1-2 are provisionally rejected on the ground of nonstatutory double patenting as being unpatentable over claims 1-3 of copending Application No. 18/420,582 (hereinafter 582’).
This is a provisional nonstatutory double patenting rejection.
Instant case: 18/420,559 Co-Pending case: 18,420,582
1. A system
comprising:
at least one processor; and
at least one memory device storing computer readable instructions that, when executed by the at least one processor, cause the system to:
process an input image using a three dimensional (3D) face detector network to determine a 3D representation of a face of a head, the input image comprising the face and the head;
determine a 3D hairstyle model of a 3D hairstyle to be applied to the input image;
render the 3D hairstyle from the 3D hairstyle
model to define an output image, wherein to render is responsive to one or more of:
a physics simulation of
hair movement and hair position of the 3D hairstyle to be rendered, the physics simulation responsive to the 3D representation of the face and the physics simulation modeling at least one force and deforming the 3D hairstyle in accordance with the at least one force; or
a hair color to recolor the hair of the 3D hairstyle model, the hair color refined in accordance with an estimation of ambient light conditions; and
provide the output image for display by a display device.
2. The system of claim 1, wherein the computer readable instructions that, when executed by the at least one processor, cause the system to provide one or more interfaces to at least one of:
receive input identifying one or more of the 3D hairstyle or the hair color for rendering;
recommend VTO options comprising one or more of 3D hairstyles or hair colors for selecting to identify for the rendering;
perform a transaction to purchase a product associated with the 3D hairstyle or the hair color.
1. (Currently amended) A system comprising:
at least one processor; and
at least one memory device storing computer readable instructions that, when executed by the at least one processor, cause the system to:
process an input image using a three dimensional (3D) face detector network to determine a 3D representation of a face of a head, the input image comprising the face and the head;
determine a 3D hairstyle model of a 3D hairstyle to be applied to the input image;
render the 3D hairstyle from the 3D hairstyle model responsive to the 3D representation of the face to define an output image…
2. (Currently amended) The system of claim 1, wherein the computer readable instructions [[that]], when executed by the at least one processor, further cause the system to perform a physics simulation of hair movement and hair position of the 3D hairstyle to be rendered, the physics simulation responsive to the 3D representation of the face and the physics simulation modeling at least one force and deforming the 3D hairstyle in accordance with the at least one force…
1. wherein to render applies
a hair color to recolor the hair of the 3D hairstyle model, the hair color refined in accordance with an estimation of ambient light conditions;
provide the output image for display by a display device.
3. (Currently amended) The system of claim 1, wherein the computer readable instructions [[that]], when executed by the
at least one processor, further cause the system to provide one or more interfaces to at least one of:
receive input identifying one or more of the 3D hairstyle or the hair color for rendering;
recommend VTO options comprising one or more of 3D hairstyles or hair colors for selecting to identify for the rendering;
perform a transaction to purchase a product associated with the 3D hairstyle or the hair color.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
In the event the determination of the status of the application as subject to AIA 35 U.S.C. 102 and 103 (or as subject to pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 102 and 103) is incorrect, any correction of the statutory basis (i.e., changing from AIA to pre-AIA ) for the rejection will not be considered a new ground of rejection if the prior art relied upon, and the rationale supporting the rejection, would be the same under either status.
The factual inquiries for establishing a background for determining obviousness under 35 U.S.C. 103 are summarized as follows:
1. Determining the scope and contents of the prior art.
2. Ascertaining the differences between the prior art and the claims at issue.
3. Resolving the level of ordinary skill in the pertinent art.
4. Considering objective evidence present in the application indicating obviousness or nonobviousness.
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) 1-4 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over LI (US2018/0374242A1, from ids filed on 7/1/25) in view of SKWAREK (US2019/0035163A1) in view of ZHANG (CN 113888398A).
Regarding claim 1, LI teaches:
1. A system comprising (LI: par. 25):
at least one processor (LI: par. 38); and
at least one memory device storing computer readable instructions that, when executed by the at least one processor, cause the system to (LI: par. 39):
process an input image using a three dimensional (3D) face detector network to determine a 3D representation of a face of a head, the input image comprising the face and the head (LI: pars. 47-51);
determine a 3D hairstyle model of a 3D hairstyle to be applied to the input image (LI: pars. 135-137);
render the 3D hairstyle from the 3D hairstyle model to define an output image (LI: fig. 13 see par. 144)
LI doesn’t teach however the analogous prior art SKWAREK teaches:
wherein to render is responsive to one or more of:
a physics simulation of hair movement and hair position of the 3D hairstyle to be rendered, the physics simulation responsive to the 3D representation of the face and the physics simulation modeling at least one force and deforming the 3D hairstyle in accordance with the at least one force; or
a hair color to recolor the hair of the 3D hairstyle model (SKWAREK: fig. 11 see par. 42); and
provide the output image for display by a display device (SKWAREK: fig. 5 see par. 19).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine a hair color to recolor the hair of the 3D hairstyle model; and provide the output image for display by a display device as shown in SKWAREK with LI for the benefit of fulfilling a need in the art for a hairstyle preview method and apparatus that overcomes at least some of the limitations of conventional computer displays in previewing a hairstyle for each individual client. The present disclosure is directed toward such a method and apparatus that generates a preview of a hairstyle and hair color including a customizable rendering of the client's existing hair on a digitized photograph (3D Model) of the client. The computer-generated hairstyle is thus displayed relative to the client's own facial structure, skin tone, etc., for an improved representation of the actual hairstyle and hair color the client is to receive [5].
The previous combination of LI and SKWAREK remains as above but doesn’t teach however the analogous prior art ZHANG teaches:
the hair color refined in accordance with an estimation of ambient light conditions (ZHANG: pg. 3 lines 24-34)
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine the hair color refined in accordance with an estimation of ambient light conditions as shown in ZHANG with the previous combination for the benefit of solving the problem that the head rendering effect of the virtual image is bad, improving the head rendering effect of the virtual image [pg. 2 lines 33-34].
Regarding claim 2, LI as modified by SKWAREK (with the same motivation from claim 1) further teaches:
2. The system of claim 1, wherein the computer readable instructions that, when executed by the at least one processor, cause the system to provide one or more interfaces to at least one of:
receive input identifying one or more of the 3D hairstyle or the hair color for rendering (SKWAREK: fig. 4 see par. 36);
recommend VTO options comprising one or more of 3D hairstyles or hair colors for selecting to identify for the rendering;
perform a transaction to purchase a product associated with the 3D hairstyle or the hair color.
Regarding claim 3, LI teaches:
3. The system of claim 1, wherein the computer readable instructions that, when executed by the at least one processor, cause the system to represent the head as a 3D representation to which the 3D hairstyle is rendered (LI: fig. 13 see par. 144).
Regarding claim 4, LI teaches:
4. The system of claim 3, wherein the computer readable instructions that, when executed by the at least one processor, cause the system to remove existing hair from the head; and wherein the rendering renders to the head with the existing hair removed (LI: see pars. 78-79).
Claim(s) 7 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over LI in view of SKWAREK in view of ZHANG in view of CHOUKROUN (US2018/0005448A1) in view of SCAPEL (US2023/0343053A1).
Regarding claim 7, the previous combination of LI, SKWAREK and ZHANG don’t teach however the analogous prior art CHOUKROUN teaches:
7. The system of claim 1, wherein the computer readable instructions that, when executed by the at least one processor, cause the system to process the input image to determine at least one of a position of the face or a rotation of the face (CHOUKROUN: par. 73).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine process the input image to determine at least one of a position of the face or a rotation of the face as shown in CHOUKROUN with the previous combination for the benefit of so that the three-dimensional model representing the face is oriented in a realistic manner in the virtual space corresponding to the scene acquired by the image [74].
The previous combination of LI, SKWAREK, ZHANG and CHOUKROUN don’t teach however the analogous prior art SCAPEL teaches:
wherein the physics simulation is responsive to at least one of the position of the face or the rotation of the face (SCAPEL: par. 508).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine wherein the physics simulation is responsive to at least one of the position of the face or the rotation of the face as shown in SCAPEL with the previous combination for the benefit of providing electronic devices with faster, more efficient methods and interfaces for creating and editing avatars. Such methods and interfaces optionally complement or replace other methods for creating avatars. Such methods and interfaces reduce the cognitive burden on a user and produce a more efficient human-machine interface. For battery-operated computing devices, such methods and interfaces conserve power and increase the time between battery charges [5].
Claim(s) 24 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over LI in view of SKWAREK in view of ZHANG in view of KIM et. al., “Efficient and Stable Generation of High-Resolution Hair and Fur With ConvNet Using Adaptive Strand Geometry Images”, IEEE Access 11 (2023): 81101-81112 (hereinafter KIM).
Regarding claim 24, the previous combination of LI in view of SKWAREK in view of ZHANG don’t teach however the analogous prior art KIM teaches:
24. The system of claim 1, wherein one or both of:
a. the 3D hairstyle model comprises: a hair cards model defined using 3D rectangular planes; or a hair curves model defined using a set of Bézier curves, with each curve representing a strand of hair (KIM: pg. 81106, right col., sec. A); or
b. wherein the 3D hairstyle model comprises a hair curves model defined using a set of Bézier curves, with each curve representing a strand of hair, and wherein the 3D hairstyle model is defined or stored using one or more optimization techniques of:
representing at least some of the Bézier curves in a quadratic curve form rather than in a cubic curve where the quadratic curve form approximates the cubic curve form;
storing only one of two sides of a symmetric hairstyle, mirroring the other side when the symmetric hairstyle is loaded; or
storing curve data in a binary format compressed with a lossless compression technique.
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine wherein one or both of:
a. the 3D hairstyle model comprises: a hair cards model defined using 3D rectangular planes; or a hair curves model defined using a set of Bézier curves, with each curve representing a strand of hair; or
b. wherein the 3D hairstyle model comprises a hair curves model defined using a set of Bézier curves, with each curve representing a strand of hair, and wherein the 3D hairstyle model is defined or stored using one or more optimization techniques of:
representing at least some of the Bézier curves in a quadratic curve form rather than in a cubic curve where the quadratic curve form approximates the cubic curve form;
storing only one of two sides of a symmetric hairstyle, mirroring the other side when the symmetric hairstyle is loaded; or
storing curve data in a binary format compressed with a lossless compression techniqueas shown in KIM with the previous combination for the benefit of successfully capturing the smooth shape of the hair without any angular sections [pg. 81106, right col., sec. A, last par.].
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 5-6, 8-23 and 25-28 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.
The following is a statement of reasons for the indication of allowable subject matter:
Regarding claims 5-6, 8-23 and 25-28 the prior art doesn’t teach:
5. The system of claim 4, wherein one or both of: to remove the existing hair comprises: processing the input image using a hair segmentation network to provide a hair segmentation mask for the existing hair; and removing the existing hair from the head using the hair segmentation mask; or to remove the existing hair comprises in-painting a scalp portion of the head using a 3D scalp filter to reconstruct a shape of the head, the 3D scalp filter responsive to at least some of a position of the face, a rotation of the face and the 3D representation of the face and the head; and wherein the 3D hairstyle is to be applied to the head as reconstructed.
6. The system of claim 5, wherein one or both of: i) in-painting the scalp uses a skin color determined from the input image; or the computer readable instructions that, when executed by the at least one processor, cause the system to downsample and dilate an area of the existing hair as detected by the hair segmentation network to remove the existing hair.
8. The system of 7, wherein the computer readable instructions that, when executed by the at least one processor, cause the system to define a collision 3D shape representation for at least some objects of the input image, the at least some objects selected from the head, a neck and a shoulder; and wherein the physics simulation of the hair movement and hair position is responsive to one or more collisions of hair strands with the collision 3D shape representation.
9. The system of claim 8, wherein the collision 3D shape representation is responsive to at least some of the position of the face, the rotation of the face, the 3D representation of the face, or a 3D representation of the hair according to the 3D hairstyle model.
10. The system of 7, wherein the 3D hairstyle model models a plurality of hair strands defining the hairstyle, the model comprising an embedded frame to guide the movement of the hair strands, the frame comprising a set of guided strands distributed throughout the model, each hair strand mapped to at least one of the guided strands, each individual hair strand and each individual guided strand extending from a respective individual root of the hair outward in accordance with a shape of the hair model; and wherein the physics simulation determines the hair movement and the hair position of the guided strands according to the at least one force and determines hair movement and hair position of the hair strands according to the mapping to the guided strands.
11. The system of claim 10, wherein each guided strand comprises a plurality of particles linked one to the next by line segments, the particles comprising i) anchored particles that only follow a movement or a position of the head and ii) unanchored particles, the movement or position of which are responsive to at least some of: the position of the face, the rotation of the face, the 3D representation of the face, or the at least one force.
12. The system of claim 11, wherein the computer readable instructions that, when executed by the at least one processor, cause the system to map each hair strand to two closest guided strands wherein the two closest guided strands for a particular hair strand are determined in response to an evaluation of the physical distance between a vertex of the hair strand and a vertex of the guided strand, and wherein the vertex of the hair strand is between 50% and 80% or preferably 75% the distance along the hair strand and the vertex of the guided strand is between 50% and 80% or preferably 75% there along the guided strand.
13. The system of claim 12, wherein for a particular hair strand, mapping comprises mapping each vertex on the particular hair strand to a respective corresponding segment on each of the two closest guided strands.
14. The system of claim 11, wherein each of the particles in a guided strand is associated with a respective mass parameter and wherein an acceleration of any one of the particles determined by the physics simulation is responsive to the respective mass parameter of the one of the particles.
15. The system of claim 15, wherein a mass of the guided strand is further responsive to the number of hair strands mapped to the guided strand.
16. The system of claim 10, wherein the computer readable instructions that, when executed by the at least one processor, cause the system to:
define a plurality of reference strands comprising unanchored particles subject to movement by at least one force;
assign each guided strand to a respective one of the reference strands;
for each respective reference strand:
model the at least one force; and
apply the at least one force as modeled to the respective reference strand, moving unanchored particles in response; and
move respective guided strands around the respective reference strands.
17. The system of claim 16, wherein the at least one force comprises one or both of gravity or centrifugal force.
18. The system of claim 16, wherein the computer readable instructions that, when executed by the at least one processor, cause the system to model each force of the at least on force as deflections on a respective bendable straight cantilever beam, wherein a fixed end of the beam begins at a location of a closest anchored particle to the root of the associated guided strand.
19. The system of claim 18, wherein the at least one force comprises two or more forces and wherein to apply the at least one force comprises moving the unanchored particles according to the addition of deflections from the two or more forces.
20. The system of claim 16, wherein the at least one force comprises two or more forces and wherein to apply the at least one force comprises moving the unanchored particles according to the addition of deflections from the two or more forces.
21. The system of claim 1, wherein the computer readable instructions that, when executed by the at least one processor, cause the system to define a rendered pixel depth map for pixels rendered for the output image, initializing the depth map responsive to pixel depths for the face a neck and at last one shoulder of the input image, and updating the depth map as pixels are rendered to the output image; and using the rendered pixel depth map to determine hair pixel occlusion.
22. The system of claim 21, wherein the computer readable instructions that, when executed by the at least one processor, cause the system to skip a rendering of a hair pixel to a location of the output image in response to an evaluating of a depth value of the hair pixel and a depth value from the rendered pixel depth map at the location of the hair pixel, the evaluating indicating the hair pixel is occluded.
23. The system of claim 1, wherein the computer readable instructions that, when executed by the at least one processor, cause the system to define the 3D hairstyle model as a hair cards model using 3D rectangular planes; and skip a rendering of a transparent hair pixel to the output image defined from the 3D hairstyle model.
25. The system of claim 1, wherein the computer readable instructions that, when executed by the at least one processor, cause the system to apply two or more hair colors to respective hair segments from the 3D hairstyle model, wherein the hair segments are arranged as any of horizontally, vertically, or as root recoloring.
26. The system of claim 25, wherein one or both of:
a. the 3D hairstyle model segments hair strands into multiple groups, and the computer readable instructions that, when executed by the at least one processor, cause the system to apply the two or more hair colors to at least some of the multiple groups; or
b. the computer readable instructions that, when executed by the at least one processor, cause the system to:
segment the hair into multiple groups interactively in accordance with user input to identify the multiple groups; and
apply the two or more hair colors to at least some of the multiple groups.
27. The system of claim 26, wherein the respective hair segments are grouped to define non-contiguous clumps of hair strands and the computer readable instructions that, when executed by the at least one processor, cause the system to one or both of:
apply a first color to a majority of the clumps and a second color to a group of strands at the front of the head, creating a framing effect for the face; or
apply a first color to a majority of clumps of strands throughout the hair and a second color to distributed second clumps of strands throughout the hair, creating a streak highlight effect.
28. The system of claim 26, wherein the computer readable instructions that, when executed by the at least one processor, cause the system to smooth out the transition of colors, adjusting colors of adjacent hair strands that do not belong to a same group, and blending the color of the different groups to produce a visually transitional color for adjacent strands.
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure.
JIAO (US2019/0035133A1) discloses in response to movement of an underlying structure, motion of complex objects connected to that structure may be simulated relatively quickly and without requiring extensive processing capabilities. A skeleton extraction method is used to simplify the complex object. Tracking is used to track the motion of the underlying structure, such as the user's head in a case where motion of hair is being simulated. Thus, the simulated motion is driven in response to the extent and direction of head or facial movement. A mass-spring model may be used to accelerate the simulation in some embodiments; WENG (US2015/0054825A1) discloses a method for image and video virtual hairstyle modeling, including: performing data acquisition for a target subject by using a digital device and obtaining a hairstyle region from an image by segmenting; obtaining a uniformly distributed static hairstyle model which conforms to the original hairstyle region by solving an orientation ambiguity problem of an image hairstyle orientation field, calculating a movement of the hairstyle in a video by tracing a movement of a head model and estimating non-rigid deformation, generating a dynamic hairstyle model in every moment during the moving process, so that the dynamic hairstyle model fits the real movement of the hairstyle in the video naturally. The method is used to perform virtual 3D model reconstruction with physical rationality for individual hairstyles in single-views and video sequences, and widely applied in creating virtual characters and many hairstyle editing applications for images and videos; ZHOU (US2019/0051048A1) discloses a single-image-based fully automatic three-dimensional (3D) hair modeling method. The method mainly includes four steps: generation of hair image training data, hair segmentation and growth direction estimation based on a hierarchical depth neural network, generation and organization of 3D hair exemplars, and data-driven 3D hair modeling. The method can automatically and robustly generate a complete high quality 3D model of which the quality reaches the level of the currently most advanced user interaction-based technology. The method can be used in a series of applications, such as hair style editing in portrait images, browsing of hair style spaces, and searching for Internet images of similar hair styles; WENG (US20140233849A1) discloses a method for single-view hair modeling and portrait editing. The method is capable of 3D structure reconstruction for individual's hairstyle in an input image, and it requires only a small amount of user inputs to bring about a variety of portrait editing functions; after steps of image preprocessing, 3D head model reconstruction, 2D strands extraction and 3D hairstyle reconstruction, the method finally achieves portrait editing functions such as portrait pop-ups, hairstyle replacements, hairstyle editing, etc.; the invention discloses a method for creating a 3D hair model from a single portrait view for the first time, thereby bringing about a series of practical portrait hairstyle editing functions, of which the effect is superior to methods in the prior art, and having features such as simple interactions and highly efficient calculations.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to MAURICE L MCDOWELL, JR whose telephone number is (571)270-3707. The examiner can normally be reached Mon-Fri: 2pm-10pm.
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If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Said A. Broome can be reached at 571-272-2931. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/MAURICE L. MCDOWELL, JR/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2612