DETAILED ACTION
Notice of Pre-AIA or AIA Status
1. The present application, filed on or after March 16, 2013, is being examined under the first inventor to file provisions of the AIA .
Continued Examination Under 37 CFR 1.114
2. 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and the fee set forth in 37 CFR 1.17(e) has been timely paid, the finality of the previous Office action has been withdrawn pursuant to 37 CFR 1.114.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 6/25/2026 has been entered.
Claim Objections
3. Claims 1 and 34 are objected to because of the following informalities: the last limitation recites, “rejecting rejection the banknote…”. Appropriate correction is required.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
4. 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.
5. Claim(s) 1, 29-34, 37 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Mizuno (US 2016/0350995) in view of Steinlin et al. (US 2021/0264711) in view of Fish et al. (US 2008/0301047) in further view of Jones et al. (US 6,128,402).
Re-claim 1:
Mizuno discloses:
automated teller machine (ATM) (ATM [0028]), comprising:
a user interface (UI) (Fig. 1 item 6 (operation screen [0031]);
a banknote acceptor including a slot and an electric motor to facilitate receipt of bank notes (deposit/withdrawal unit 12- Fig. 2 item 12a including a shutter capable of being opened and closed-[0038]; The transport unit 13 forms a transport path in which portions within the banknote deposit/withdrawal mechanism 10 are connected by a motor, a roller, a belt, a guide, etc.- [0039]);
one or more optical sensors mounted for movement relative to the banknote acceptor; ([0040] --The discrimination unit 14 internally has various sensors such as an optical sensor, an image sensor, and a magnetic sensor, obtains a discrimination result by each sensor while the banknotes are internally transported, and supplies the discrimination result to the banknote control unit 11);
one or more processors comprising hardware circuits operatively connected to the one or more optical sensors, the UI and the electric motor (banknote control unit 11 comprises a CPU performing various processes-[0036]; and banknote control unit CPU is connected to optical sensors in the discrimination unit 14-see Fig. 3 items 11 and 14 and [0040]; bank note control unit comprising a CPU is connected to the electric motor-see fig. 2 items 11(bank note control unit) and connected to the transport unit 13 connected by a motor-[0039]).
Mizuno further discloses one or more processors to perform operations including:
capturing authentication credentials of a user to authenticate the user as an authenticated user to initiate an active deposit session with the authenticated user (ATM used for banknote deposit and wherein a unique identification number to a user to perform the deposit –[0026]);
driving the electric motor to cause the banknote acceptor to receive a banknote from the user during the deposit session (control unit comprising a CPU performing various processes as indicated above, and receiving banknote from user by acceptor and motor driving the banknote [0038],[0039]);
automatically identifying, based on comparison of the captured image data with stored reference image data, a currency type and a denomination of the banknote [0005];
rejecting the banknote and driving the electric motor to cause banknote acceptor to return the banknote to the authenticated user in response to a determination that the banknote is counterfeit (rejected banknote is transported to the deposit withdrawal unit 12 by transport unit 13 and returned to user- [0049]; counterfeit bank notes-[0044] -see Fig. 2 items 11(bank note control unit) and connected to the transport unit 13 connected by a motor-[0039]).
Mizuno fails to specifically disclose a non-transitory memory coupled to the one or more processors, the non-transitory memory including a set of instructions of computer-executable program code and using pre-trained neural network to identify based on comparison of captured image to stored image data currency type and denomination.
Steinlin however, teaches memory coupled to a processor arranged to run stored software comprising executable machine code in [0027] and using pretrained neural network to classify banknotes -Abstract, [0009], [0012-0013]; neural networks trained to recognize different types of cash, currencies and denominations-[0041]; For instance a convolutional neural network (CNN) can be used to recognize a banknote based on an image of the banknote-[0006], [0047]).
It would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art to include in the automatic processing of foreign currency transactions of Mizuno memory coupled to processor and executing machine code and a pretrained neural network classifying banknotes and recognizing types of cash and denominations wherein neural network recognizes banknote based on images of banknotes as taught by Steinlin in order to determine if cash deposited into a cash handling machine is authentic or counterfeit.
Mizuno fails to disclose whether the banknote corresponds to native or foreign currency relative to user financial account selected during active deposit session. Fish however, teaches the ATM system determining whether the banknote corresponds to a native or foreign currency relative to the user account during deposit transaction.[0004].
It would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify Mizuno to include determining whether the banknote corresponds to a native or foreign currency relative to the user account during deposit transaction as taught by Fish in order to convert foreign currency to native currency and deposit native currency into user’s financial account.
Mizuno fails to disclose dynamically changing, as the banknote is transported through the slot of the banknote acceptor, a position of the one or more optical sensors relative to the banknote acceptor and causing the one or more optical sensors to capture, as image data, images from different regions of a front surface and a rear surface of the banknote; receiving, from the optical sensors, the captured image data.
Jones however, teaches receiving banknotes at an ATM and transport banknotes through banknote acceptor Fig. 1a item 1 and through bill scanning module fig. 1b item 8 wherein optical sensors scan both surfaces of the bank notes, sensors are positioned above and below transport path, and photodetector of scan head produces analog outputs.-see Figs. 6c and 6d and col. 16 lines 5-45; see also figs 2d scan head item 18 and Fig. 3 optical sensor and banknote.
It would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify Mizuno to include changing position of optical sensors to capture images of different parts of bank notes, and receiving the captured images as taught by Jones in order to detect a variety of characteristic information from currency bills. (Jones -col. 13).
Re-claim 29. Fish, not Mizuno, discloses wherein the set of instructions, when executed by the one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to perform operations further including determining, based on stored data and/or wireless communication network data and when the identified currency type is a foreign currency type, a current exchange rate for the foreign currency type. [0022-0023], [0041], Fig. 5.
It would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify Mizuno to include determining whether the banknote corresponds to a native or foreign currency relative to the user account during deposit transaction as taught by Fish in order to convert foreign currency to native currency and deposit native currency into user’s financial account.
Re-claim 30. Fish, not Mizuno, disclose wherein the set of instructions, when executed by the one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to perform operations further including converting, based on the determined current exchange rate, the identified foreign currency type to a native currency type associated with the user financial account. [0023],[0041], Fig. 5.
It would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify Mizuno to include determining whether the banknote corresponds to a native or foreign currency relative to the user account during deposit transaction as taught by Fish in order to convert foreign currency to native currency and deposit native currency into user’s financial account.
Re-claim 31. Fish, not Mizuno, disclose wherein the set of instructions, when executed by the one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to perform operations further including displaying, on the UI, one or more user-engageable icons that enable the authenticated user to selectively accept or reject the banknote. (consumer presented with foreign currency amount, exchange rate, fees and native currency amount on ATM UI and consumer may choose whether or not to continue with transaction present through the user interface. [0043]).
It would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify Mizuno to include determining whether the banknote corresponds to a native or foreign currency relative to the user account during deposit transaction as taught by Fish in order to convert foreign currency to native currency and deposit native currency into user’s financial account.
Re-claim 32. Fish, not Mizuno, disclose wherein the set of instructions, when executed by the one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to perform operations further including completing the deposit by crediting, in response to the authenticated user accepting the banknote, the user financial account with an amount based on the converted value. (user authentication-[0040]; conversion of foreign currency to native and depositing converted currency as native funds in the consumer financial account- [0043]).
It would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify Mizuno to include determining whether the banknote corresponds to a native or foreign currency relative to the user account during deposit transaction as taught by Fish in order to convert foreign currency to native currency and deposit native currency into user’s financial account.
Re-claim 33. Fish, not Mizuno, discloses wherein the set of instructions, when executed by the one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to perform operations further including displaying, on the UI, an itemization including the banknote, the identified foreign currency type, and a converted value of the identified foreign currency type based on the determined current exchange rate. -see Fig. 5 item 530 and [0039], receipt of foreign currency, provided to user-[0043-0045].
It would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify Mizuno to include displaying, on the UI, an itemization including the banknote, the identified foreign currency type, and a converted value of the identified foreign currency type based on the determined current exchange rate as taught by Fish in order to provide a receipt of the transaction to the consumer.
Re-claim 34. Mizuno discloses wherein the set of instructions, when executed by the one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to perform operations further including rejecting rejection [SIC] the banknote and driving the electric motor to cause the banknote acceptor to return the banknote to the authenticated user in response to the authenticated user rejecting the banknote. (rejected banknote is transported to the deposit withdrawal unit 12 by transport unit 13 and returned to user- [0049]; counterfeit bank notes-[0044] -see Fig. 2 items 11(bank note control unit) and connected to the transport unit 13 connected by a motor-[0039]).
Re-claim 37. Jones, not Mizuno, discloses wherein dynamically changing the position of the one or more optical sensors relative to the banknote acceptor comprises extending the one or more optical sensors relative to the banknote acceptor along an axis. (optical scanners including photodetector positioned on an axis relative to bank note acceptor-col 44 line 23 to col. 45). It would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify Mizuno to include optical scanners including photodetector positioned on an axis relative to bank note acceptor as taught by Jones in order to account for variations in illumination of banknotes when capturing images of the banknotes.
Allowable Subject Matter
6. Claims 35-36 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.
Response to Arguments
7. In response to the amendments of claims 1 and 15, the Examiner withdraws the claim objections.
In response to the amendments of claim 2, the Examiner withdraws the 35 USC 112(b) rejection.
In response to the amendments to the claims, the Examiner withdraws the 35 USC 101 rejections.
The remaining arguments with respect to the rejection of claim(s) 1 under 35 USC 103 have been considered but are moot because the new ground of rejection does not rely on any reference applied in the prior rejection of record for any teaching or matter specifically challenged in the argument.
Conclusion
8. The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure.
WO-2016093440-A1(English translation)-cited for detection of counterfeit banknotes at an ATM during a cash deposit transaction.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to ELDA MILEF whose telephone number is (571)272-8124. The examiner can normally be reached Monday-Thursday 6:30am-3:30pm; Friday 7am-12pm.
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If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Bennett Sigmond can be reached at (303)297-4411. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/ELDA G MILEF/ Primary Examiner, Art Unit 3694
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