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
The RCE field on 3/29/22 has been approved.
Applicant’s arguments have been considered. Please see Olguin (9443521) which teaches speaker participants in col. 3 lines 60-67 and participant statistics like duration, number of turns, etc. in col. 4 lines 40-68 and col. 11 lines 46-58.
Please note the claims recite one or more.
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.
Claim(s) 1, 5, 9-10, 14, 19 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Chakra (20180358034) in view of Watson (20120293606) in view of Olguin Olguin (9443521, referred to Olguin).
Regarding claim 1, Chakra teaches A data processing method, comprising: acquiring behavioral attribute data of each object in a target space environment based on audio data and image data in the target space environment, the behavioral attribute data including statistical characteristics of behavior of the object (pars. 34-36 and 42, chakra’s scoring of detecting audio energy that are weighted and summed to provide a score is statistical characteristics of behavior);
determining target objects and output parameters thereof, at least based on the behavioral attribute data, (pars. 24 and 38-39, active speakers detection);
Watson teaches including evaluating each object in the target space environment based on the behavioral attribute data to determine the target objects (pars. 48 and 56, evaluating candidates based on measures, weighted score, selecting best framework).
controlling electronic devices in the target space environment to output target image data and/or target audio data of the target objects according to the output parameters (par. 48 of Watson).
It would have been obvious prior to the effective filing date of the invention to one of ordinary skill in the art to include in Chakra the ability to selected the optimal objects from multiple objects as taught by Watson. The reason is to improve object detection.
Chakra and Watson do not teach speaker duration and other statistics.
Olguin teaches speaker participants in col. 3 lines 60-67 and participant statistics like duration, number of turns, etc. in col. 4 lines 40-68 and col. 11 lines 46-58.
It would have been obvious prior to the effective filing date of the invention to one of ordinary skill in the art to include in Watson and Chakra the ability to determine speaking statistics as taught by Olguin Olguin. The reason is to improve active speaker detection and characteristics.
Regarding claim 5, Watson teaches wherein determining the target objects and the output parameters thereof at least based on the behavioral attribute data comprising: determining a vocal object as the target object if it is determined that the vocal object in the target space environment is an only vocal object based on the behavioral attribute data, and determining that the target object has first output parameters based on behavioral attribute data of the vocal object, wherein: a visual cue effect of the target object under the first output parameters is stronger than a visual cue effect of other objects in the target space environment (see pars. 28-29).
Regarding claim 9, see pars. 39-40 and pars. 53-57 of Chakra.
Regarding claims 10 and 19, see the rejection of claim 1.
Regarding claim 14, see the rejection of claim 5.
Regarding claim 21, see par. 42 of Chakra, audio energy reads on average volume.
Claim(s) 2, 4, 11, 13 and 20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Chakra in view of Watson in view of Olguin Olguin (9443521, referred to Olguin) in further view of Cutler (20120218371).
Regarding claim 2, Cutler and teaches wherein acquiring the behavioral attribute data of each object in the target space environment based on the audio data and the image data in the target space environment comprising: calibrating a spatial position of each object in the target space environment based on the image data (pars. 37 and 46);
determining sound source locations that generate valid audio data based on the audio data (see par. 23); and
determining behavioral attribute data of each vocal object based on the spatial position and the sound source location (par. 62).
It would have been obvious prior to the effective filing date of the invention to one of ordinary skill in the art to include in Chakra, Olguin and Watson the ability find the location and distance as taught by Cutler. The reason is to allow the system to locate the speaker more accurately.
Regarding claims 4, see Cutler who teaches wherein the zero-calibration parameter between the spatial position and the sound source location is determined by: determining a first spatial position of a first vocal object at a first sound source location in a target space environment image, the target space environment image being a panoramic image of the target space environment; and determining a matching difference between the first spatial position and the first sound source location and determining the matching difference as the zero-calibration parameter (see pars. 34-37 and 62).
Regarding claims 11 and 20, see the rejection of claim 2.
Regarding claim 13, see the rejection of claim 4.
Claim(s) 3 and 12 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Chakra in view of Watson in view of Olguin in further view of Ettinger (COORDINATE-FREE CALIBRATION OF AN ACOUSTICALLY DRIVEN CAMERA POINTING SYSTEM).
Regarding claim 3, Ettinger teaches wherein determining the behavioral attribute data of each vocal object based on the spatial position and the sound source location comprising: acquiring a zero-calibration parameter between the spatial position and the sound source location; and determining behavior data of each vocal object with reference to the zero-calibration parameter and acquiring behavioral attribute data of each vocal object (see section I, introduction “This would require either direct measurement or new calibration methods to locate and orient the camera. Instead, we curtail the need of assigning the camera and microphones spatial coordinates by directly learning the mapping from the set of delays for pairs of microphones to the correct pan-tilt (PT) of the camera so that the sound source is centered in the field of view. We do this by collecting observations consisting of a set of delays between microphones for a fixed source location and the associated PT to center such a source. With this database of samples, we estimate via standard polynomial regression a fixed model for the system. This model describes how PT and delays vary with each other. The result is a function that can map a series of delays between pairs of microphones to a PT directive for our camera”).
It would have been obvious prior to the effective filing date of the invention to one of ordinary skill in the art to include in Chakra, Olguin and Cutler the ability have zero calibration parameter as taught by Ettinger. The reason is to allow the system have a calibration location.
Regarding claim 12, see the rejection of claim 3.
Claim(s) 22 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Chakra in view of Watson in view of Olguin in further view of Wang (20190313050).
Regarding claim 22, see pars. 23 and 53 of Wang.
It would have been obvious prior to the effective filing date of the invention to one of ordinary skill in the art to include in Chakra, Olguin and Watson the ability to change brightness based on environment as taught by Wang. The reason is to allow adjustment based on varying lighting conditions.
Claim(s) 23-25 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Chakra in view of Watson in view of Olguin in further view of Chavez (11082465).
Regarding claim 23, see the rejection of claim 1 and in addition see col. 13 lines 22 to col. 14 line 5 and col. 14 lines 43-60, which teaches evaluation vocal behavior using vocal parameters and corresponding weights.
It would have been obvious prior to the effective filing date of the invention to one of ordinary skill in the art to include in Chakra and Watson to see
It would have been obvious prior to the effective filing date of the invention to one of ordinary skill in the art to include in Chakra, Olguin and Watson the ability to evaluate vocal behavior using vocal parameters as taught by Chavez. The reason is to allow vocal data usage.
Regarding claim 24, the rejection of claim 1 and also see col. 3 lines 20-68.
Regarding claim 25, see col. 3 lines 54-68, subsequent video conferences and col. 3 lines 20-30, baseline data.
Conclusion
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/HADI AKHAVANNIK/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2676
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