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, see the remarks, filed 07/08/2026, with respect to the amended claim(s) 1, 15, and 18 have been fully considered and moot in view of new grounds of rejection by relying on the teachings of Davis et al. (US 10958457 B1).
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 102
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 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.
(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, 3-4, 8-15, 18, and 21-25 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by Davis et al. (US 10958457 B1).
Regarding claims 1, 15, and 18, Davis discloses an Information Handling System (IHS) (figs. 1A, 1B and 2), comprising:
a processor (352 of figs. 1A and 1B, processors); and
a memory (354 of figs. 1A and 1B, computer-readable media) coupled to the processor, the memory having program instructions stored thereon that, upon execution by the processor (Col. 16, lines 18-40), cause the IHS to:
obtain, via a conferencing application module (350 and 362 of figs. 1A and 1B, Col. 17, lines 14-23, the conferencing module 362 may assist users in joining conference calls, videoconferences or other meetings, and may act as a conference call hosting service in some embodiments), remote conferencing status information for a remote conferencing application that enables a remote conferencing session in a conference room (Col. 2, lines 19-2, the service provider system may identify a meeting from calendar entries or messages, may determine contextual meeting information, and may then determine the device settings for controllable devices associated with each of a number of different VA devices at different locations. The service provider system may determine contextual meeting information, in some embodiments, by parsing text data retrieved from a meeting invitation for the meeting using keywords, a template, machine learning models, and/or other methods that will be described herein; Col. 6, lines 37-39, the parser 358 may parse text data from calendars, emails or other messages, or other sources to determine contextual information associated with a meeting; Col. 7, line 60-Col. 8, line 20, to identify contextual meeting information specific to the given meeting), wherein the remote conferencing status information corresponds to events in the remote conferencing session (Col. 3, lines 40-59, a meeting with a telephone and/or video conference; 202 and 204 of fig. 2; Col. 10, lines 44-61, at block 204, the parser 358 of the service provider system 350 may parse text data of the meeting notification and/or other information retrieved above to identify contextual meeting information, such as one or more topics, meeting agenda items, documents to be discussed, technological features to be utilized in the meeting (e.g., videoconferencing, video presentations, document display, etc.), meeting location, a list of participants, accessibility preferences of individual participants, and/or other information. In some embodiments, the parser may receive or retrieve the input text data (including some structured data, such as fields designated as “subject,” “required attendees,” “optional attendees,” etc., as well as unstructured or freeform text that may appear in the body of a meeting invitation or email) and build a data structure giving a structural representation of the input. The data structure may include, in some embodiments, a parse tree, abstract syntax tree or other hierarchical structure);
establish a session with a room controller module that is coupled to lighting controls in the conference room (Col. 6, lines 19-31, a VA device, such as VA device 106 may implement a discovery process to identify controllable devices that the given VA device can communicate with, such as by searching for such devices on a local network or searching for signals broadcast by the devices. Once a device, such as a network-connected light 111, is discovered by the VA device 106, for instance, the VA device 106 may store device information associated with the light 111 in a local data store of the VA device 106 and/or may send such information to the service provider system 350 to be stored in association with the VA device 106 (such as information identifying light 111 as a local device controllable by the VA device 106); Col. 8, lines 21-36; 206 of fig. 2; Col. 12, lines 42-64, the service provider system 350 may identify in-room equipment or other controllable devices at one or more of the locations from which at least one participant will be joining the meeting. The meeting locations or specific VA devices that will be used in association with the meeting may be determined dynamically at the time of the meeting. For example, if the service provider system identifies that a given participant is currently located at his home office based on sensing information received from a VA device at that location, the service provider system may ask the user through that VA device whether he would like to join the meeting from his home office, even if the meeting invitation indicated that the participants would be meeting in an office conference room. Once the locations and associated VA devices are identified for the meeting, the service provider system may either retrieve previously stored information regarding the controllable devices or in-room equipment accessible to each VA device (e.g., from a database that describes equipment available at different locations), or may send a request to each VA device to return a list of devices or equipment located in the given VA device's room that the VA device is capable of controlling (either directly or through an external device controller));
in response to receiving a change in the remote conferencing status information, automatically modify the lighting controls in the conference room via the room controller module (Col. 7, line 59-Col. 8, line 20, the parser 358 may generally be trained, programmed, or otherwise configured to identify and extract, from input text data, meeting information relevant to one or more meeting-related skills or functionalities that may later be invoked by a user. One or more functionalities may relate to specific controllable device features, such as devices that can control lighting, temperature, a display screen, audio equipment, window shades, etc; Col. 8, lines 60-67, the service provider system 350 may further determine that overall lighting in each meeting room should be adjusted to a level appropriate for both filming and for viewing a display screen, prior to determining specific settings for given devices (e.g., specific lighting equipment or controllable window blinds) that meet that desired criteria. Device setting determinations will be discussed further below with respect to FIG. 2; 208 of fig. 2; Col. 12, line 65-Col. 13, line 24; Col. 13, line 55-Col. 14, line 3, If the service provider system 350 determines that video will be used for a meeting, device settings may be determined for various devices that can affect the lighting conditions in a room. For example, lights may be automatically set to a certain optimal brightness for recording video and blinds may be closed to prevent glare or uneven lighting from the sun. The time of day or weather conditions may also be considered, such as not closing the blinds if it is nighttime or if open blinds are not otherwise expected to adversely affect lighting conditions for video recording or display. Whether or not a file is going to be discussed during a meeting (such that one or more devices will display the document on a screen) may similarly affect the system's decision of the proper settings for lighting in the room and/or whether to close window blinds);
wherein to automatically modify the lighting controls in the conference room, the program instructions, upon execution by the processor (Col.1, line 60-Col. 2, line 12, Various controllable devices present in a room of at least one meeting participant may also be automatically controlled during the meeting in accordance with device settings determined from the contextual meeting information; Col. 8, lines 60-67, the service provider system 350 may further determine that overall lighting in each meeting room should be adjusted to a level appropriate for both filming and for viewing a display screen, prior to determining specific settings for given devices (e.g., specific lighting equipment or controllable window blinds) that meet that desired criteria. Device setting determinations will be discussed further below with respect to FIG. 2; Col. 13, line 55-Col. 14, line 3, if the service provider system 350 determines that video will be used for a meeting, device settings may be determined for various devices that can affect the lighting conditions in a room. For example, lights may be automatically set to a certain optimal brightness for recording video and blinds may be closed to prevent glare or uneven lighting from the sun. Note: the provider 350 determines a device setting for the controllable device based on the contextual meeting information, wherein the device setting comprises (a) a position of the window shade, (b) a brightness level of the lighting equipment, or (c) display settings of the display device; and send, over the network, device control instructions to the device controller or the controllable device, wherein the device control instructions instruct the controllable device to perform an action corresponding to the device setting prior to or during the meeting), further cause the IHS to:
apply at least the remote conferencing status information to a machine learning model (Col. 2, lines 24-29; Col. 11, lines 5-16, 50-65, in some embodiments, machine learning models may be employed to enable the parser to improve over time by determining text patterns and keywords that have correlated with certain device settings being used by particular users in past meetings; the parser 358 may use one or more machine learning models (such as support vector machines, various types of neural networks, naive Bayes classifiers, or others known in the art) to learn patterns, formatting, keywords and/or various other text features that correlate with the presence of text data or file references that may be relevant to custom meeting-related skills or functionalities implemented in accordance with the present disclosure); and
determine control settings for the lighting controls in the conference room from the machine learning mode (Col. 12, line 65-Col. 13, line 23; Col. 13, line 55-Col. 14, line 3, if the service provider system 350 determines that video will be used for a meeting, device settings may be determined for various devices that can affect the lighting conditions in a room. For example, lights may be automatically set to a certain optimal brightness for recording video and blinds may be closed to prevent glare or uneven lighting from the sun; Col. 12, line 65 to Col. 13, line 22, the device setting for the controllable device is further based on expected lighting conditions at the location at a time of day that the meeting occurs).
Regarding claim 3, Davis discloses the IHS of claim 1, Davis further discloses wherein the room controller module is further coupled to one or more peripheral devices disposed in the conference room (102, 104, 106, 111, and 113 of figs. 1A and 1B; Col. 5, lines 64-Col. 6, line 18).
Regarding claim 4, Davis discloses the IHS of claim 3, Davis further discloses wherein the one or more peripheral devices comprise at least one of: a shared display, a shared microphone, a shared speaker, or a shared camera (Col. 2, lines 5-12, Based on this information, device settings for one or more controllable devices (such as remote controllable window shades, lighting equipment, camera equipment, display screens and/or other in-room equipment) at one or more of the meeting locations may be automatically determined and assigned to the corresponding device during the in-person meeting, conference call or videoconference; Col. 5, lines 64-Col. 6, line 18; various communication protocols or techniques may be employed for such communication, such as communicating via a local network (such as by the VA device and another local device both being connected to the same wireless network) or by a more direct device-to-device communication protocol (such as by establishing a Bluetooth connection). Such devices may include various controllable equipment such as a light 111 (or other lighting equipment of various types), a television or other display monitor, a projector, blinds or other controllable window shades, various audiovisual equipment, heating and air conditioning thermostats, and/or many others).
Regarding claim 8, Davis discloses the IHS of claim 1, Davis further discloses wherein to apply at least the remote conferencing status information to a machine learning model (Col. 2, lines 24-29, the service provider system may determine contextual meeting information, in some embodiments, by parsing text data retrieved from a meeting invitation for the meeting using keywords, a template, machine learning models, and/or other methods that will be described herein; Col. 8, lines 7-20, for example, searches for certain key-value pairs may be employed by the parser to identify one set of information associated with a first functionality, while a neural network or other machine learning model may be used by the parser to identify a second set of information associated with a second functionality), the program instructions, upon execution by the processor, further cause the IHS to:
apply the remote conferencing status information and other context information to the machine learning model (Col. 6, lines 37-39; Col. 11, lines 5-15, lines 47-54).
Regarding claim 9, Davis discloses the IHS of claim 8, Davis further discloses wherein the other context information comprises at least one of: time of the day, or number of people in the conference room (Col. 9, lines 26-41; Col. 12, lines 45-48).
Regarding claims 10, 21, and 23, Davis discloses the IHS of claims 1, 15, and 18, Davis further discloses wherein the remote conferencing status information is received from an on-the-box agent of a video bar or a host IHS that is executing the remote conferencing application (102, 104, and 106 of fig. 1A, 350 and 358 of figs. 1A and 1B, process of figure 2).
Regarding claims 11, 22, and 24, Davis discloses the IHS of claims 1, 15, and 18, Davis further discloses wherein the remote conferencing status information is requested by an application integrator module from the remote conferencing application via an application programming interface (API) of the remote conferencing application (Col. 3, lines 33-36, Functionalities or skills may be offered to devices by a cloud-based service provider environment to implement particular tasks requested by the devices; Col. 7, lines 12-16, the service provider system 350 may utilize an application programming interface (API) offered by the calendar and messaging system 120; Col. 8, lines 23-26, this information may be sent periodically, whenever the VA device discovers a new local device, or in response to a request from the service provider system 350, Col. 14, lines 50-60).
Regarding claim 12, Davis discloses the IHS of claim 1, Davis further discloses wherein the remote conferencing application enables a client IHS to participate in one or more aspects of the remote conference session (Col. 8, lines 41-47, Col. 9, lines 30-35).
Regarding claim 13, Davis discloses the IHS of claim 12, Davis further discloses wherein the one or more aspects comprises: receive video, transmit video, receive audio, transmit audio, or share an electronic file (Col. 5, lines 10-25; Col. 11, lines 55-62).
Regarding claim 14, Davis discloses the IHS of claim 12, Davis further discloses wherein the remote conferencing application allows a participant to record the one or more aspects of the remote conferencing session (Col. 14, lines 14-18, when the system determines that a meeting should be recorded, the system may automatically announce so at the beginning of the meeting and request approval of the participants to record the meeting, in some embodiments).
Regarding claim 25, Davis discloses the IHS of claim 1, Davis further discloses wherein the remote conferencing status information further comprises at least one of: a meeting start, a meeting end, an end of a remote user on video, a start of a slide presentation, or an end of a slide presentation (Col. 9, line 54-Col. 10, line 4; Col. 10, lines 44-60, to identify contextual meeting information, such as one or more topics, meeting agenda items, documents to be discussed, technological features to be utilized in the meeting (e.g., videoconferencing, video presentations, document display, etc.), meeting location, a list of participants, accessibility preferences of individual participants, and/or other information).
Conclusion
Applicant's amendment necessitated the new ground(s) of rejection presented in this Office action. Accordingly, THIS ACTION IS MADE FINAL. See MPEP § 706.07(a). 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.
Contact Information
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to TUNG T VO whose telephone number is (571)272-7340. The examiner can normally be reached Monday-Friday 6:30 AM - 5:00 PM.
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If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Brian Pendleton can be reached at 571-272-7527. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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TUNG T. VO
Primary Examiner
Art Unit 2425
/TUNG T VO/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2425
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