DETAILED ACTION
A. This action is in response to the following communications: Transmittal of New Application filed 12/06/2023.
B. Claims 1-20 remains pending.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 101
35 U.S.C. 101 reads as follows:
Whoever invents or discovers any new and useful process, machine, manufacture, or composition of matter, or any new and useful improvement thereof, may obtain a patent therefor, subject to the conditions and requirements of this title.
Claims 1-20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 101 because the claimed invention is directed to certain methods of organizing human activity without significantly more. The claim(s) 1, 12 and 18 recite(s) “accessing information indicative of a genre interest associated with user profile”, grouping of abstract ideas. The mere nominal recitation of a generic processing devices does not take the claim out of the “certain methods of organizing human activity” grouping. Thus, the claim recites an abstract idea.
This judicial exception is not integrated into a practical application because the claim as a whole merely describes how to generally “apply” the concept of accessing, obtaining, identifying and generating in a computer environment. The claimed “processing devices” are recited at a high level of generality and are merely invoked as tools perform an accessing, obtaining, identifying and generating process. Even considered in combination, simply implementing the abstract idea on a generic computer with storage devices recited at a high level of generality is not a practical application of the abstract idea.The limitation obtaining a plurality of frames associated with video content, information about which is to be displayed as selectable thumbnail within user profile, as drafted, is a process that, under its broadest reasonable interpretation, covers performance of the limitation in the mind but for the recitation of generic computer components. That is, other than reciting “by a processing devices,” nothing in the claim element precludes the step from practically being performed in the mind. For example, but for the “by a processing devices” language, “identifying from a plurality of frames, at least one frame that represents characteristics associated with genre of interest” in the context of this claim encompasses the user manually organizing data through matching data.
The claim does not include additional elements that are sufficient to amount to the significantly more than the judicial exception because as noted previously, the processing devices individually and in combination merely describe how to generally “apply” the concept of identifying thumbnail and generating thumbnail such as matching interest with a picture/thumbnail in a computer environment. The same applies here. (MPEP 2106.05(d). Thus, even when viewed as a whole, nothing in the claims adds significantly more (i.e. an inventive concept) to the abstract idea.
The claim is ineligible.
Claims 2-11,13-17 and 19-20 do not include elements that amount to significantly more than the abstract idea and are also rejected under the same rational.
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)(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) 1-5,7,9-10,12-16 and 18-20 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(2) as being clearly anticipated by Lyu, Shenglong et al. (US Pub. 2024/0214651 A1), herein referred to as “Lyu”.
As for claims 1, 12 and 18, Lyu teaches. A method and corresponding system of claim 18 and corresponding One or more non-transitory computer storage media encoded with computer program instructions of claim 12 that when executed by one or more computers cause the one or more computers to perform the operations (par. 31-34 describe the hardware environment for implementing the software for generating smart thumbnails) comprising:
accessing, by one or more processing devices, information indicative of a genre of interest associated with a user-profile (par. 36 a content store 152 holds metadata about media content which includes genre of content among other data such as characters in a video/movie; par. 37 a database 160 is used (accessed) to obtain user information stored in which the information pertains to interest of the user related to multimedia (videos); par. 38 the communication module 208 is in operative communication with both the content store (genre) and the database (user profile) wherein the content analyzer 210 is configured be in a loop of communication checking for new information coming into the monitored environment);
obtaining, by the one or more processing devices, a plurality of frames associated with video content, information about which is to be displayed as a selectable thumbnail within the user-profile (par. 36 movie trailer is used in the creation of smart thumbnails);
identifying, by the one or more processing devices from the plurality of frames, at least one frame that represents characteristics associated with the genre of interest (par. 39 content analyzer pieces information from the user profile stored in database 160 to determine user’s interest with media content stored in content store 152 to identify what visual and audio information is of interest of the user to aid in creating a smart thumbnail that would appeal to a user to interact with);
and generating, by the one or more processing devices, a user-profile-specific image from a portion of the at least one frame as the selectable thumbnail corresponding to the video content (par. 43 the actual generation of thumbnails is discussed in greater detail that uses stored user profile information, metadata and video content data to create thumbnails; . “It is noted that the generation of the thumbnail may involve aspects related to the selection of a background theme, text font, colors, etc. In at least some embodiments, the content analyzer 210 may also be configured to predict viewer's preferences in relation to background themes, colors, fonts, etc. and generate one or more thumbnails while taking into account the preferences of the viewer. In some embodiments, the content analyzer 210 may use known techniques for generating thumbnails from the content, the metadata, and the predicted content element preferences of the viewers”).
As for claims 2, 13 and 19, Lyu teaches. The method of claim 1, comprising:
displaying the selectable thumbnail on a display device as a part of a menu associated with the user-profile (fig. 8A; par. 85 a user interface displaying menu and thumbnails related to selectable content, said thumbnails are custom created tailored based upon user profile as mentioned in par.36-39).
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Par. 85 The UI 800 is exemplarily depicted to include a menu portion 802, a trailer portion 804 and a content options portion 806. The menu portion 802 is depicted to display a plurality of content category types, such as TV 808. Movies 810, Sports 812, News 814 and Premium (content) 816. The menu portion 802 may also include an option (not shown in FIG. 8A) to enable a user to search for specific content. The trailer portion 804 is depicted to include a rolling ribbon showcasing the recent content additions with an option to play the content embedded in each content element displayed on the rolling ribbon. The content options portion 806 is depicted to include several rows of content options separated by content categories such as a category 820 related to content recommended based on previously viewed content, a category 830 for latest Web series related content, a category 840 related to latest movie releases, and the like. Each category is associated with several thumbnails corresponding to a plurality of content titles. For example, the category 820 is exemplarily depicted to include four thumbnails associated with four content titles. Each of the thumbnails displayed on the UI 800 may be configured as a smart thumbnail, i.e. a thumbnail capable of describing content or a role of a key content element associated with the thumbnail using an audio version.
As for claims 3, 14 and 19, Lyu teaches. The method of claim 1, wherein the genre of interest represented in the selectable thumbnail is different from a pre-defined genre-classification of the video content (fig. 8a; par. 86 if the user/subscriber has previously demonstrated an interest in thriller genre, or a particular type of Web series, or a particular language, or content including particular lead artists, then the relevant content options based on those preferences may be displayed to the subscriber on the UI 800 to increase a likelihood of the subscriber selecting a content option to view).
As for claims 4, 15 and 19, Lyu teaches. The method of claim 1, wherein identifying at least one frame comprises: identifying, for at least one frame, a number of times a character has occurred in the plurality of frames (par. 81 number of cast characters are tracked for metadata and therein).
As for claims 5 and 16, Lyu teaches. The method of claim 1, wherein identifying at least one frame comprises: identifying, for at least one frame, a facial expression of a character in each of the plurality of frames (par. 7 extracting facial expression from cast members/ characters in video media content).
As for claims 7 and 20, Lyu teaches. The method of claim 1, comprising:
in response to identifying the at least one frame, ranking each of the plurality of frames; and selecting, from the plurality of frames, user-profile-specific image from the at least one frame having a highest rank (par. 86 a most likely of content is displayed thereby implying a rank list of content to serve to the user’s user interface of figure 8A).
As for claim 9, Lyu teaches. The method of claim 7, further comprising: determining, in the plurality of frames, a number of interactions between each of one or more main characters among a plurality of characters (par. 90 At operation 906 of the method 900, presence of the key content element in the thumbnail is determined by the processing module. The key content element may be identified based on the synopsis or the highest number of occurrences in the content or in metadata (such as trailer content) as explained with reference to FIG. 2).
As for claim 10, Lyu teaches. The method of claim 7, comprising:
generating, using two or more facial perspective views, a character database of one or more main characters in the video content, the character database used to classify the character as a main character when a confidence threshold is satisfied (par. 7 method for identifying and extracting key cast members in content, to extract key cast member in creation of thumbails).
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 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) 6,8,11 and 17 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Lyu in view of Hamedi, Jehan et al. (US Pub. 2019/0034976 A1), herein referred to as “Hamedi”
As for claims 6 and 17, Lyu teaches. The method of claim 1. Lyu does not teach about attribute brightness; however in the same field of endeavor Hamedi teaches, comprising: identifying a brightness of the at least one frame to determine the genre of interest (par. 770 performance metric predictor are used to calculate score based upon variety of factors or attributes of content, this includes brightness).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine Hamedi into Lyu because Hamedi suggest a means to use the disclosed functionality is to “Select an optimal video thumbnail for the purpose of increasing video views or engagement” as stated in par. 273.
As for claim 8, Lyu teaches. The method of claim 6. Lyu does not teach about attribute brightness; however in the same field of endeavor Hamedi teaches wherein: the brightness is used to classify the at least one frame as one of a first genre or a second genre different from the first genre (par. 770 performance metric predictor are used to calculate score based upon variety of factors or attributes of content, this includes brightness).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine Hamedi into Lyu because Hamedi suggest a means to use the disclosed functionality is to “Select an optimal video thumbnail for the purpose of increasing video views or engagement” as stated in par. 273.
As for claim 11, Lyu teaches. The method of claim 1. Lyu does not teach comparing facial expression however in the same field of endeavor Hamedi teaches comprising:
accessing, by the one or more processing devices, a genre database comprising data indicative of a first genre and a second genre different from the first genre, wherein the first genre and the second genre comprise: a first value indicative of a first facial expression and second value indicative of a second facial expression; and a sum of the first and second values corresponding to the first genre is different than a sum of the first and second values corresponding to the second genre; and utilizing the genre database to generate the selectable thumbnail (par. 4 a system for automatically transforming a content item. The system can include a content item harvesting module configured to receive a plurality of harvest content items. The system can include a performance metric ranking engine configured to rank each of the plurality of harvest content items based on at least one performance metric. The system can include a matching criterion manager configured to determine matching criterion aspects of the plurality of harvest content items. The matching criterion manager can also be configured to compare aspects of a candidate content item with the plurality of harvest content items according to the determined matching criterion aspects. Par. 643 the system 1000 may be used to select a particular person (e.g. an actor, a model, etc.) to be featured in a particular image. For example, images containing one or more people may be uploaded and received by the system 1000. The system 1000 can then determine which images are optimal based upon an analysis of various attributes of the people in the images. These attributes may include facial or body attributes. Based on this analysis, the system 1000 can select a subset of one or more of the people depicted in the images for inclusion in a candidate content item directed towards a target audience, based on a likelihood that content items including the selected subset of people are likely to perform well according to at least one performance metric. In an example, a user may upload a candidate content item and may select a target audience, and the system 1000 can determine and provide recommendations for ideal characteristics of people to be depicted in the content item. The target audience is equivalent to a genre as it is a group defined by characteristic and function similarly. It should be understood that the system 1000 could determine any combination of attributes or numbers of such people to include in a content item. The system can determined based upon target audience A that facial attributes of depicted person A can be harvested to create media thumbnail over target audience B is better suited for images of depicted person B having facial attributes different from person A; par. 778 method 1200 can further include receiving at least a second candidate content item from the user, calculating a score for the second candidate content item, and ranking the first candidate content item and the second candidate content item according to their respective scores. The scoring and ranking of the second candidate content items can be performed, for example, by the performance metric predictor in a manner similar to that used for scoring the first candidate content item.).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine Hamedi into Lyu because Hamedi suggest a means to use the disclosed functionality is to “Select an optimal video thumbnail for the purpose of increasing video views or engagement” as stated in par. 273.
(Note :) It is noted that any citation to specific, pages, columns, lines, or figures in the prior art references and any interpretation of the references should not be considered to be limiting in any way. A reference is relevant for all it contains and may be relied upon for all that it would have reasonably suggested to one having ordinary skill in the art. In re Heck, 699 F.2d 1331, 1332-33, 216 USPQ 1038, 1039 (Fed. Cir. 1983) (quoting In re Lemelson, 397 F.2d 1006,1009, 158 USPQ 275, 277 (CCPA 1968)).
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure.
Document ID
US 11763546 B1
Date Published
2023-09-19
A method includes storing a database comprising a plurality of pointers to web pages and identifiers of entities associated with the plurality of pointers; receiving a first request comprising a first identifier; identifying subset of the plurality of pointers from the database responsive to each pointer of the subset having a stored association with a first identification that matches the first identifier; responsive to identifying the subset of the plurality of pointers, establishing, via one or more pointers, a connection with a server hosting a set of web pages associated with the subset of the plurality of pointers; retrieving one or more images or videos from each of the set of web pages over the established connection; calculating a performance score for each of the one or more images or videos; and generating a record identifying the performance score for each of the one or more images or videos.
Document ID
US 20090172545 A1
Date Published
2009-07-02
An electronic equipment includes: a storage unit that stores a plurality of facial images extracted from video data and time stamp information indicating time points when the plurality of facial images appear in the video data; and a processor that operates, based on the time stamp information, to: arrange a plurality of facial image display areas in a two-dimensional display area in a grid layout having a given number of rows and a plurality of columns, each of the columns being assigned with respective time zones divided from a total time length of the video data; and display the facial images, which belong to each of the time zones assigned to the columns, in the facial image display areas included in the respective columns.
Inquires
Any inquiry concerning this communication should be directed to NICHOLAS AUGUSTINE at telephone number (571)270-1056.
Examiner interviews are available via telephone, in-person, and video conferencing using a USPTO supplied web-based collaboration tool. To schedule an interview, applicant is encouraged to use the USPTO Automated Interview Request (AIR) at http://www.uspto.gov/interviewpractice.
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/NICHOLAS AUGUSTINE/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2178 November 6, 2025