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 .
DETAILED ACTION
A request for continued examination under 37 CFR 1.114, including the fee set forth in 37 CFR 1.17(e), was filed in this application after final rejection. Since this application is eligible for continued examination under 37 CFR 1.114, and the fee set forth in 37 CFR 1.17(e) has been timely paid, the finality of the previous Office action has been withdrawn pursuant to 37 CFR 1.114. Applicant's submission filed on November 13, 2025 has been entered.
Applicant has amended claims 21-22, 30-32, and 40-42. Claims 22-28, 30-38 and 40-42 are pending.
This action is response to the application filed on November 13, 2025
Claim Interpretation; Broadest Reasonable Interpretation
CLAIMS MUST BE GIVEN THEIR BROADEST REASONABLE INTERPRETATION IN LIGHT OF THE SPECIFICATION
During patent examination, the pending claims must be "given their broadest reasonable interpretation consistent with the specification." The Federal Circuit’s en banc decision in Phillips v. AWH Corp., 415 F.3d 1303, 1316, 75 USPQ2d 1321, 1329 (Fed. Cir. 2005) expressly recognized that the USPTO employs the "broadest reasonable interpretation" standard: The Patent and Trademark Office ("PTO") determines the scope of claims in patent applications not solely on the basis of the claim language, but upon giving claims their broadest reasonable construction "in light of the specification as it would be interpreted by one of ordinary skill in the art.".
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 112
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.
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), second paragraph:
The specification shall conclude with one or more claims particularly pointing out and distinctly claiming the subject matter which the applicant regards as his invention.
Claims 22-28, 30-38 and 40-42 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 112(b) or 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), second paragraph, as being indefinite for failing to particularly point out and distinctly claim the subject matter which the inventor or a joint inventor (or for applications subject to pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, the applicant), regards as the invention.
2173.05(e) Lack of Antecedent Basis. A claim is indefinite when it contains words or phrases whose meaning is unclear.
Claims 22-28, 30-38 and 40-42 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 112, second paragraph, as being indefinite for failing to particularly point out and distinctly claim the subject matter which applicant regards as the invention. Because claims 21 and 31 recites, “…. the one or more objects in the frame of the video stream …. ". The term “the one or more objects in the frame of the video stream” is introduced without first defining what constitutes a “the one or more objects in the frame of the video stream”. Thus, it is unclear whether: The phrase should be grounded in previously introduced elements, which render indefinite claimed invention scope. A claim is indefinite when it contains words or phrases whose meaning is unclear.
Examiner Note: May be renders the claim indefinite by failing to point out that is being performed. Applicants are advised to amend the claim so solve the 112 rejection set forth in the claim.
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 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)(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.
Claims 21, 23-28, 30-31, 33-38 and 40-42 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(2) as being anticipated by Teichman et al (US 20180246964 A1).
With respect to claims 21 and 31, Teichman et al teaches
receiving, at an artificial intelligence (Al) engine, a search query from a user device, wherein the search query is received while a video stream is displayed on the user device (FIG. 2, FIG. 4, [0002] query video frames that relate to the query. The video frames include the detected object. providing the video frames to the user. [0020] using the streamed video data, servicing speech queries [0087] select in a video frame or in a sequence of video frames displayed on the owner's smartphone);
determining, by analyzing the video stream in real-time in response to the search query received while the video stream is displayed on the user device, whether the search query is related to the video stream ([0051] video streams stored in the video in real-time, as the video data are streamed to the video analyzing the stored video streams. [0043] video frames of the videos stored in the video may be tagged with the recognized action “entering through front door”. Action tags to serve database queries that are directed toward an action); and
in response to determining that the search query is related to the video stream (claim11. from the monitoring system database, video frames that relate to the query, comprises: identifying, in site-specific data of a metadata archive of the monitoring system database, tags that relate to the query, wherein the tags label occurrences of at least one selected from a group consisting of the object and an action involving the object, wherein the tags identify the video frames that relate to the query; and retrieving the video frames that relate to the query from a video archive of the monitoring system):
determining context related to the search query, wherein the determining context comprises generating at least one of a keyword or an audio signal based on analysis of an audio stream associated with the video stream ([0002] query video frames that relate to the query. The video frames include the detected object. providing the video frames to the user. [0065] in Step 504, content fragment extracted from the text. A filtering by querying the monitoring system database for in the text. in Step 504 to obtain keyword matching. [0051] real-time, as the video data are streamed to the video archive, e.g., at the time when objects are detected by the monitoring system by analyzing the video streams. [0027] audio signal captured by the input device (202) any kind of spoken user input],
identifying, by the Al engine, one or more matches in a database based on the context, wherein the one or more matches comprise information related to the one or more objects in the frame of the video stream ([0058] In Step 406, the monitoring system database is accessed using query. If the query includes a question to be answered based on content of the monitoring system database, a query result, i.e., an answer to the question is generated and returned to the user in Step 408A. a scenario in which a user submits the question “Who was in the living room today?”. The monitoring system is queried for any moving object that was identified as a person, The querying may be performed by analyzing the moving object); and
displaying search results based on the identified one or more matches (Step 408A. a scenario in which a user submits the search, “Who was in the living room today?”. The monitoring system displayed the moving object as person that was resulted by search).
With respect to claims 23 and 33, Teichman et al teaches receiving, at the Al engine, the video stream and information associated with the video stream, wherein the information associated with the video stream comprises at least one of an audio stream, frame stream, closed captioning stream, and metadata ([0033] The video data may be accompanied by depth data and audio data).
With respect to claims 24 and 34, Teichman et al teaches analyzing a combination of textual, audio, and touch input ([0028] the input device further includes a speech-to-text conversion engine (204) that is configured to convert the recorded audio signal, e.g., the spoken user input, to text. The speech-to-text-conversion engine may convert the recorded spoken user input to a text in the form of a string).
With respect to claims 25 and 35, Teichman et al teaches matches are entries in one or more data lakes of a database ([0003] monitoring system database, video frames that relate to the database query).
With respect to claims 26 and 36, Teichman et al teaches receiving feedback relating to an accuracy of the one or more matches ([0080] In Step 606, the monitoring system database may be updated to permanently store the newly resolved filtering intent).
With respect to claims 27 and 37, Teichman et al teaches updating the one or more matches based on the feedback ([0080] In Step 606, the monitoring system database may be updated to permanently store the newly resolved filtering intent. the dog's name “Lucky” may be stored in the moving object definition for the dog, and/or the a new static object definition may be generated for the front door. Thus, future queries that include the name “Lucky” and/or the term “front door” can be directly processed without requiring a clarification request).
With respect to claims 28 and 38, Teichman et al teaches updating the Al engine based on the feedback ([0080] In Step 606, the monitoring system database may be updated to permanently store the newly resolved filtering intent. the dog's name “Lucky” may be stored in the moving object definition for the dog, and/or the a new static object definition may be generated for the front door. Thus, future queries that include the name “Lucky” and/or the term “front door” can be directly processed without requiring a clarification request).
With respect to claims 30 and 40, Teichman et al teaches search query is related to identifying a location of the one or more objects in the frame of the video stream ([0048 objects may thus be defined in the camera-specific data (352) based on their geometry, location, texture or any other feature that enables the detection).
With respect to claims 41 and 42, Teichman et al teaches analyzing, via the AI engine, an audio stream or a segment of the audio stream associated with the video stream to determine at least one of a keyword or an audio signal associated with the one or more objects in the frame of the video stream, wherein the one or more matches are identified based at least in part on the at least one of a keyword or an audio signal [0065] (keyword matching, regular expressions, recurrent neural networks, long short term memories).
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 22 and 32 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.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to ISAAC M WOO whose telephone number is (571)272-4043. The examiner can normally be reached 9:00 to 5:00.
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/ISAAC M WOO/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2163