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 .
Status of Claims
Claims 1-20 are pending in this application.
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)(1) the claimed invention was patented, described in a printed publication, or in public use, on sale, or otherwise available to the public before the effective filing date of the claimed invention.
Claim(s) 1-9,11-19 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by Choudhari et al(US 2021/0303737).
Claim 1: Choudhari disclose a processor; and a memory coupled to the processor, the memory having program instructions stored thereon that, upon execution by the processor in (page 1[0002]: a memory and a processor coupled to the touch-sensitive display, the audio output interface and the memory in which the processor may be configured with processor-executable instructions to perform operations). Choudhari disclose receive a typed character string and obscure the character string on a display in (page 4[0037];page 10[0089]: the touch-sensitive display may be a touch screen display for displaying text, data, information, images etc and receiving user inputs through touch interactions, the touch sensitive display section may be configured to display an input section that includes an input keypad. After determining portions of the received information that is sensitive and that sensitive information should not be displayed, the processor perform operations including blocking display of sensitive information on the touch sensitive display with a blank field or placeholder characters in response to determining that sensitive information should not be displayed). Choudhari disclose present an audio icon on the display in (page 10[0090]: the processor perform outputting the audio description of the sensitive information via the personal audio output device in response to a user touch on the blank field or placeholder characters). Choudhari disclose convert the character string to spoken characters when the audio icon is selected by a user and play the spoken characters to the user via a privacy-focused audio device in (page 4[0035]; page 7[0061]: the audio description output module configured to output an audio description of the character or value associated with a user-selected key of the keys on the data input keypad displayed by the data input keypad display module. The audio description output module may use text to speech or text to audio application that converts text or other recorded elements into an audio speech equivalent that describes the elements. The personal audio output device is worn by user in order to ensure that the output from the personal audio output device configured to be heard only by the user).
Claim 2: Choudhari disclose the privacy-focused audio device is one or more of headphones or earbuds that are coupled to the IHS via a wired or wireless connection in (fig.1).
Claim 3: Choudhari disclose he privacy-focused audio device is configured to broadcast audio signals only to the user, and wherein the IHS is configured to not broadcast audio signals publicly when the privacy-focused audio device is coupled to the HIS in (page 3[0026]).
Claim 4: Choudhari disclose the character string is a password in (page 9[0081]).
Claim 5: Choudhari disclose the IHS is configured to obscure the character string by replacing the character string with one or more placeholder characters in (page 10[0089]).
Claim 6: Choudhari disclose the placeholder characters are asterisks, number signs, punctuation marks, or special characters in (page 3[0025]).
Claim 7: Choudhari disclose audio icon is selected from: a headphones icon, an ear icon, and a speaker icon in (page 2[0021]).
Claim 8: Choudhari disclose present a visual icon on the display; and display the character string as readable text when the visual icon is selected by the user in (page 1[0005]).
Claim 9: Choudhari disclose the visual icon is selected from: an eye icon, a glasses icon, and a text icon in (page 2[0021]).
Claim 11: Choudhari disclose present the audio icon on the display only if the privacy-focused audio device is coupled to the HIS in (page 4[0035]).
Claim 12: Choudhari disclose receiving a typed character string from a user at an Information Handling System (IHS) and obscuring the character string on a display so that the user cannot see one or more items within the character string in (page 4[0037];l page 10[0089]: the touch-sensitive display may be a touch screen display for displaying text, data, information, images etc and receiving user inputs through touch interactions, the touch sensitive display section may be configured to display an input section that includes an input keypad. After determining portions of the received information that is sensitive and that sensitive information should not be displayed, the processor perform operations including blocking display of sensitive information on the touch sensitive display with a blank field or placeholder characters in response to determining that sensitive information should not be displayed). Choudhari disclose providing an audio icon on the display in (page 10[0090]: the processor performs outputting the audio description of the sensitive information via the personal audio output device in response to a user touch on the blank field or placeholder characters). Choudhari disclose converting the character string to spoken characters when the audio icon is selected by a user; and playing the spoken characters to the user via a privacy-focused audio device in (page 4[0035]; page 7[0061]: the audio description output module configured to output an audio description of the character or value associated with a user-selected key of the keys on the data input keypad displayed by the data input keypad display module. The audio description output module may use text to speech or text to audio application that converts text or other recorded elements into an audio speech equivalent that describes the elements. The personal audio output device is worn by user in order to ensure that the output from the personal audio output device configured to be heard only by the user).
Claim 13: Choudhari disclose the privacy-focused audio device is one or more of headphones or earbuds that are coupled to the IHS via a wired or wireless connection in (fig.1).
Claim 14: Choudhari disclose he privacy-focused audio device is configured to broadcast audio signals only to the user, and wherein the IHS is configured to not broadcast audio signals publicly when the privacy-focused audio device is coupled to the HIS in (page 3[0026]).
Claim 15: Choudhari disclose the character string is a password, and wherein the items comprise one or more of uppercase letters, lowercase letters, numbers, and special characters in (page 3[0025];page 9[0081]).
Claim 16: Choudhari disclose replacing one or more items in the character string with one or more placeholder characters in (page 10[0089]).
Claim 17: Choudhari disclose the placeholder characters are asterisks, number signs, punctuation marks, or special characters in (page 10[0089]).
Claim 18: Choudhari disclose determining whether the privacy-focused audio device is coupled to the IHS; and presenting the audio icon on the display only if the privacy-focused audio device is coupled to the HIS in (page 2[0020-0021]).
Claim 19: Choudhari disclose presenting a visual icon on the display; and displaying all of the items in the character string as readable text when the visual icon is selected by the user in (page 4[0035-0036).
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 10,20 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.
USPTO Contact Information
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to HOSUK SONG whose telephone number is (571)272-3857. The examiner can normally be reached Mon-Fri: 7:30AM-5:00PM.
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/HOSUK SONG/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2435