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 with respect to claim(s) 1-20 have been considered but are moot in view of the new grounds of rejection below which is necessitated by Applicant’s amendment to the independent claims.
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) 1-20 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over U.S. Patent Application Publication 2024/0267627 A1 to Katz et al in view of U.S. Patent Application Publication 2023/0247076 A1 to Yu.
With respect to claim 1 Katz discloses, in Fig. 1A-5B, an apparatus for generating one or more frames (abstract and paragraph 51), comprising: at least one memory (paragraph 75); and at least one processor coupled to the at least one memory (paragraph 75) and configured to: obtain, from an image sensor, a first plurality of frames associated with a scene at a first frame rate, wherein the first plurality of frames are associated with a first region of the image sensor and have a first resolution (paragraph 51, 72 and 78); obtain, from the image sensor, a second plurality of frames associated with the scene at a second frame rate different from the first frame rate, wherein the second plurality of frames are associated with a second region of the image sensor and have a second resolution that is different from the first resolution (paragraph 51, 72 and 78); combine a first frame of the first plurality of frames and a second frame of the second plurality of frames to generate a first combined frame (paragraph 81).
Katz merely discloses the region of interest having different resolution and frame rate from the first plurality of frames but does not expressly disclose any adjustment upon a region of interest outside of a position for tracking. That is, Katz does not expressly disclose to detect a frame rate change event associated with the scene; obtain, from the image sensor based on the frame rate change event, a third plurality of frames associated with the scene at a third frame rate different from the first frame rate and the second frame rate, wherein the third plurality of frames are associated with the second region; and combine a third frame of the first plurality of frames and a fourth frame of the third plurality of frames to generate a second combined frame.
However, monitoring a region of interest for a frame rate change event associated with the scene and then updating the frame rate for the capturing process of a camera are well known and expected in the art. For example, Yu teaches an image capturing device which adjusts frame rates for regions of interest in a video stream (abstract) where if an event occurs within the region the frame rate of the region of interest could be subsequently adjusted based on the event during the capturing (paragraph 103-104). Therefore, Yu teaches the operation of updating frame rates dynamically on regions of interest which when viewed in view of the disclosure of Katz would then teach to detect a frame rate change event associated with the scene; obtain, from the image sensor based on the frame rate change event, a third plurality of frames associated with the scene at a third frame rate different from the first frame rate and the second frame rate, wherein the third plurality of frames are associated with the second region; and combine a third frame of the first plurality of frames and a fourth frame of the third plurality of frames to generate a second combined frame each time a frame rate of a region of interest of Katz is updated after a previous use of a frame rate.
Before the invention was effectively filed it would have been obvious to have used the updating process of Yu with the disclosed process of Katz as doing so would merely be use of a known technique of Yu to improve a similar device of Katz in the same way.
With respect to claim 2 Katz further discloses, in Fig. 1A-5B, wherein the second region is larger than the first region (Fig. 2 and 3B-D).
With respect to claim 3 Katz in view of Yu teaches the apparatus of claim 1, wherein the at least one processor is configured to: detect a frame rate change event associated with the scene; and increase the second frame rate to the third frame rate based on the frame rate change event (paragraph 70-71 and 77 of Katz where the ROI is moveable or created based on object detection and other factors, thus, a determination the ROI need to be moved or created is a change event associated with the scene; and paragraph 103-104 of Yu where the frame rates can be changed to other rates based on events in the region of interest).
With respect to claim 4 Katz in view of Yu teaches the apparatus of claim 3, wherein at least one processor is configured to: detect a change in a characteristic associated with the scene (paragraph 77 of Katz and 103 or Yu); detect motion applied to the image sensor based on motion data detected by a motion sensor (paragraph 76 and 78 of Katz); detect a change in a focal area of the scene based on motion data detected by an eye tracking sensor (paragraph 76 of Katz); or detect motion of an object within a peripheral edge of a frame from one of the second plurality of frames (paragraph 77 of Katz).
With respect to claim 5 Katz in view of Yu teaches the apparatus of claim 4, wherein the characteristic includes a lighting characteristic (paragraph 74 and 95 of Katz and paragraph 91 of Yu).
With respect to claim 6 Katz in view of Yu teaches the apparatus of claim 3, wherein the at least one processor is configured to: determine an end of the frame rate change event; and decrease the second frame rate based on the end of the frame rate change event (paragraph 70 of Katz; where the first region is movable, thus, a determination of an end of frame rate change even would be were the object is no longer in a region of the image sensor which is then returned to the lower resolution and/or frame rate and paragraph 103 of Yu which disclose periodic checking which would include a lowering after the event changed back).
With respect to claim 7 Katz further discloses, in Fig. 1A-5B, wherein the at least one processor is configured to: adjust readout portions of the image sensor based on whether a current time corresponds to one of the first frame rate and the second frame rate (paragraph 70 and 72; where frame rates are set accordingly based on the movement of the ROI).
With respect to claim 8 Katz further discloses, in Fig. 1A-5B, wherein the at least one processor is configured to: warp the second frame from the second plurality of frames to correspond to the first frame (paragraph 113; where second regions can be up-sampled or have super resolution performed on them), wherein the second frame is obtained before the first frame (paragraph 80; where high and low resolution portions can be read out sequentially with the lower resolution images as the “first video stream”); combine the warped second frame with the first frame (paragraph 113); and blend a boundary region between the warped second frame and the first frame (paragraph 113; where the new image data includes the higher resolution portions and the new portions from up sampling, so at least their locations are a “blending”).
With respect to claim 9 Katz further discloses, in Fig. 1A-5B, wherein the at least one processor is configured to: downsample each frame of the second plurality of frames in the image sensor; or downsample each frame of the second plurality of frames in an image signal processor (paragraph 51; where the lower resolution areas are binned in modes as seen in Fig. 1A-E).
With respect to claim 10 Katz further discloses, in Fig. 1A-5B, wherein the at least one processor is configured to: display at least one of the first combined frame or the second combined frame; or display at least one of the first combined frame or the second combined frame augmented with virtual content based on image data from a processor (paragraph 96).
With respect to claim 11 Katz further discloses, in Fig. 1A-5B, wherein the at least one processor is configured to determine the first region based on an eye gaze information from a gaze detection sensor (paragraph 76).
With respect to claim 12 Katz in view of Yu teaches the apparatus of claim 1, wherein the at least one processor is configured to: obtain, from the image sensor, a fifth plurality of frames associated with the scene at the first frame rate based on gaze information from a gaze detection sensor, wherein the fifth plurality of frames are associated with a third region of the image sensor and have the first resolution; and obtain, from the image sensor, a sixth plurality of frames associated with the scene at the second frame rate, wherein the sixth plurality of frames are associated with the second region of the image sensor and have the second resolution (paragraph 76 of Katz where the ROI can be moved based on gaze which would create the claimed fifth and sixth regions as it moves and the frame rate updates as discussed above).
With respect to claim 13 Katz discloses, in Fig. 1A-5B, the apparatus of claim 1, wherein the at least one processor is configured to: obtain, from the image sensor, a third plurality of frames associated with the scene, wherein the third plurality of frames are associated with a third region of the image sensor and have a third resolution that is different from the first resolution, wherein the third region is larger than the first region and smaller than the second region (paragraph 53; where the size of the ROI is variable along with the pixel counts of that area).
With respect to claim 14 Katz in view of Yu teaches the apparatus of claim 1 the first plurality of frames and the second plurality of frames are combined to generate combined output frames including the first combined frame for output at the first frame rate; and the first plurality of frames and the third plurality of frames are combined to generate combined output frames including the second combined frame for output at the first frame rate (paragraph 81 of Katz and paragraph 103 of Yu; where the first frame rate first images that correspond to areas outside of the regions of interest are always incorporated in the combined images with the current higher frame rate region of interest which would then create the combined images of the claim as the frame rate changes within the region of interest as discussed above).
Claims 15-20 are rejected for similar reasons as the apparatus claims above. Specifically, claim 15 is a corresponding method claim to apparatus claim 1, claim 16 to apparatus claim 2, claim 17 to apparatus claims 3, 6 and 4, claim 18 to apparatus claim 7, claim 19 to apparatus claim 8 and claim 20 to apparatus claim 9.
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 DANIEL M PASIEWICZ whose telephone number is (571)272-5516. The examiner can normally be reached M-F 9 AM - 5:30 PM EST.
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/DANIEL M PASIEWICZ/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2699
May 20, 2026
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