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 filed 09/11/2026 have been considered but are moot in view of a new ground of rejections.
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.
Claims 1-6 and 21-34 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Li et al. (US 2021/0073551 A1 – hereinafter Lee), Wang et al. (US 2009/0240650 A1 – hereinafter Wang), Balduino et al. (US 2019/0362021 A1 – hereinafter Balduino), and Graham (US 2003/0184598 A1 – hereinafter Graham).
Regarding claim 1, Li discloses a method comprising: obtaining subtitles for an item of media content ([0044] – obtaining subtitles from a subtitle file for a video content); dividing the subtitles to create shorts ([0044] – dividing the subtitles into subtitle segments); obtaining video data for the item of media content ([0043]-[0062] – obtaining video data for the video content); dividing the video data into video shots, wherein the dividing occurs at scene boundaries of the video data ([0043]; [0053]-[0057] – dividing the video data into video segments, the dividing occurs when a difference between two consecutive frames exceeds a threshold thus indicating a scene change); and aligning the shorts with the video shots to create content segments ([0058] – aligning the shorts of subtitles with the video segments), wherein displaying, in response to a search string, search results comprising identified ones of the content segments that correspond to the search string (Fig. 4; [0077]-[0079]; [0083] – displaying search results in response to a search string ‘water’). Li also discloses using UI navigation to display items interacted by the user ([0039]); and displaying thumbnails (Fig. 4).
However, Li does not explicitly disclose dividing the subtitles into topics to create shorts corresponding to the topics, wherein dividing the subtitles into the topics comprises: generating transformer embeddings for adjacent blocks of the subtitles, determining a cosine similarity between the transformer embeddings of the adjacent blocks, merging the adjacent blocks when the cosine similarity is greater than a threshold, and deriving a topic boundary between adjacent sentence blocks when the cosine similarity is lower than the threshold, wherein each of the content segments is associated with at least one of the topics; during presentation of the item of media content, displaying, in response to a search string, search results comprising identified ones of the content segments that correspond to the search string; and in response to selection of one of the identified ones of the content segments from the search results, navigating the presentation of the item of media content to a beginning of the selected one of the identified ones of the content segments; wherein the displaying further comprises, for each of the identified ones of the content segments that correspond to the search string, displaying a thumbnail corresponding to identified one of the content segments, wherein each of the thumbnails comprises an image derived from video data comprising the corresponding identified one of the content segments.
Wang discloses dividing subtitles into topics to create shorts corresponding to the topics, wherein each of the content segments is associated with at least one of the topics (Fig. 4; [0058] – dividing the subtitles into topics to create shorts, each short comprising a group of consecutive subtitles of a same subject or topic as shown in Fig. 4), dividing the subtitles into the topics comprises: determining a similarity between the adjacent blocks, merging the adjacent blocks when the similarity is great, and deriving a topic boundary between adjacent sentence blocks when the similarity is low (Fig. 4 – determining similarity between adjacent blocks, merging blocks 1001, 1002, and 1003 when similarity between these blocks is high, i.e. talking about terrorist, security and when similarity of block 1004 with blocks 1001-1003 is low), wherein each of the content segments is associated with at least one of the topics (Fig. 4; [0058] - dividing the subtitles into topics to create shorts, each short comprising a group of consecutive subtitles of a same subject or topic as shown in Fig. 4); displaying, in response to a search string, search results comprising identified ones of the content segments that correspond to the search string ([0023] – displaying a response to a search string, e.g. “sports” etc., as “desired contents” to be retrieved by the user so that the user can locate the desired content conveniently).
One of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention would have been motivated to incorporate the teachings of Wang into the method of Li to facilitate searching video segments based on topics.
However, Li and Wang do not disclose dividing the subtitles into topics to create shorts corresponding to the topics, wherein dividing the subtitles into the topics comprises: generating transformer embeddings for adjacent blocks of the subtitles, determining a cosine similarity between the transformer embeddings of the adjacent blocks, merging the adjacent blocks when the cosine similarity is greater than a threshold, and deriving a topic boundary between adjacent sentence blocks when the cosine similarity is lower than the threshold; during presentation of the item of media content, displaying, in response to a search string, search results comprising identified ones of the content segments that correspond to the search string; and in response to selection of one of the identified ones of the content segments from the search results, navigating the presentation of the item of media content to a beginning of the selected one of the identified ones of the content segments; wherein the displaying further comprises, for each of the identified ones of the content segments that correspond to the search string, displaying a thumbnail corresponding to identified ones of the content segments, wherein each of the thumbnails comprises an image derived from video data comprising the corresponding identified one of the content segments.
Balduino discloses dividing text into topics to create shorts corresponding to the topics, wherein dividing the text into the topics ([0004] – dividing textual contents into snippets corresponding to topics) comprises: generating transformer embeddings for adjacent blocks of the text ([0060][0061] – generating vectors for adjacent snippets of the text), determining a cosine similarity between the transformer embeddings of the adjacent blocks ([0061]-[0063] – determining a cosine similarity or distance between vectors of contiguous snippets), merging the adjacent blocks when the cosine similarity is greater than a threshold ([0061]-[0063] – merging contiguous snippets belonging to a same topic when the cosine similarity is greater than a threshold), and deriving a topic boundary between adjacent sentence blocks when the cosine similarity is lower than the threshold ([0061]-[0063] – confirming a topic boundary when there is a sudden changes in similarity, i.e. the similarity is lower than the threshold).
One of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention would have been motivated to incorporate the teachings of Balduino into the method taught by Li and Wang because transformer embeddings provide contextual, high-quality semantic representations while cosine similarity offers a fast and effective way to measure similarity.
Li, Wang, and Balduino do not disclose during presentation of the item of media content, displaying, in response to a search string, search results comprising identified ones of the content segments that correspond to the search string; and in response to selection of one of the identified ones of the content segments from the search results, navigating the presentation of the item of media content to a beginning of the selected one of the identified ones of the content segments; wherein the displaying further comprises, for each of the identified ones of the content segments that correspond to the search string, displaying a thumbnail corresponding to identified ones of the content segments, wherein each of the thumbnails comprises an image derived from video data comprising the corresponding identified one of the content segments.
Graham discloses during presentation of an item of media content, displaying, in response to a search string, search results comprising identified ones of content segments that correspond to the search string ([0050]-[0051]; Fig. 3; Fig. 8 - during presentation of an item of video content in a window 302 or window 802 as shown in Fig. 3 and Fig. 8, receiving keyword phrases as search strings, displaying search results comprising identified ones of content segments displayed as thumbnails in navigation bar 305 or 805 in a second viewing area 304 or 804); in response to selection of one of the identified ones of the content segments from the search results, navigating the presentation of the item of media content to a beginning of the selected one of the identified ones of the content segments ([0007]; [0069] – in response to selection of a thumbnail of identified ones of the content segments, jumping to the beginning of the corresponding content segment for playback in window 302 or window 802), wherein the displaying further comprises, for each of the identified ones of the content segments that correspond to the search string, displaying a thumbnail corresponding to the identified one of the content segments, wherein each of the thumbnails comprises an image derived from video data comprising the corresponding identified one of the content segments ([0089]; Fig. 3; Fig. 8 – search results are displayed in form of thumbnails extracted from the video data representing the corresponding segments).
One of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention would have been motivated to incorporate the teachings of Graham into the method taught by Li, Wang, and Balduino to enhance the search and playback interface of the method, e.g. allowing the user to quickly navigate directly to the segment of interest.
Regarding claim 2, Li in view of Wang, Balduino, and Graham also discloses the method of claim 1, wherein the aligning the shorts with the video shots to create the content segments further comprises comparing an end time of one of the shorts with an end time of an aligned one of the video shots ([0058] – comparing end time of the subtitle segment with end time of the end frame of the video shots).
Regarding claim 3, Li in view of Wang, Balduino, and Graham also discloses the method of claim 2, wherein the aligning the shorts with the video shots to create the content segments further comprises updating the end time of the aligned one of the video shots to correspond to the end time of the short ([0059]; Fig. 3D – updating the end time of the aligned one of the video shots by merging video segments).
Regarding claim 4, Li in view of Wang, Balduino, and Graham also discloses the method of claim 1, wherein the content segments are searchable ([0077]-[0079]; Fig. 4 – the content segments are searched and search results can be displayed).
Regarding claim 5, Li in view of Wang, Balduino, and Graham also discloses the method of claim 1, wherein each of the content segments has associated therewith a start time, an end time ([0058]-[0059] – a start time corresponding to the time of the start frame and an end time corresponds to the time of the end frame), and a summary ([0068]; Fig. 4 – scene labels provide a summary).
Regarding claim 6, Li in view of Wang, Balduino, and Graham also discloses the method of claim 1, further comprising identifying content segments that correspond to a search request from a user (Fig. 4; [0078]).
Regarding claim 21, Li in view of Wang, Balduino, and Graham also discloses the method of claim 1, wherein the search string identifies at least one of the topics and wherein the identified ones of the content segments comprise ones of the content segments that correspond to the identified topics ([0078]-[0079]; Fig. 4).
Claim 22 is rejected for the same reason as discussed in claim 1 above in view of Li also disclosing a multimedia system (Fig. 2 – system 200), comprising: a processor (Fig. 2; [0035] – processor 205); a memory device (Fig. 2 – memory 210); a database comprising items of media content, wherein each of the items of media content has metadata associated therewith (Fig. 2 - database 208 comprising content file 316, each has metadata associated therewith as further described at least in [0081]); and a content processing module (Fig. 2 – a content processing module 310) configured to perform the recited steps (in view of Wang, Balduino, and Graham as discussed in claim 1 above).
Claim 23 is rejected for the same reason as discussed in claim 2 above.
Claim 24 is rejected for the same reason as discussed in claim 3 above.
Claim 25 is rejected for the same reason as discussed in claim 4 above.
Claim 26 is rejected for the same reason as discussed in claim 5 above.
Claim 27 is rejected for the same reason as discussed in claim 6 above.
Claim 28 is rejected for the same reason as discussed in claim 21 above.
Claim 29 is rejected for the same reason as discussed in claim 1 above in view of Li also disclosing one or more non-transitory computer-readable storage media comprising instructions for execution (Fig. 2; [0037] - one or more non-transitory memories 210 storing instructions for execution by the processor 205) which, when executed by a processor, result in operations as recited (in view of Wang, Balduino, and Graham as discussed in claim 1 above).
Claim 30 is rejected for the same reason as discussed in claim 2 above.
Claim 31 is rejected for the same reason as discussed in claim 3 above.
Claim 32 is rejected for the same reason as discussed in claim 4 above.
Claim 33 is rejected for the same reason as discussed in claim 5 above.
Claim 34 is rejected for the same reason as discussed in claim 6 above.
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.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to HUNG Q DANG whose telephone number is (571)270-1116. The examiner can normally be reached IFT.
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If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Thai Q Tran can be reached at 571-272-7382. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/HUNG Q DANG/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2484
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