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 .
Drawings
The drawings are objected to because in FIG. 3A the labels indicated by two red arrows should read as the labels as specified by the green ones below, respectively.
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Corrected drawing sheets in compliance with 37 CFR 1.121(d) are required in reply to the Office action to avoid abandonment of the application. Any amended replacement drawing sheet should include all of the figures appearing on the immediate prior version of the sheet, even if only one figure is being amended. The figure or figure number of an amended drawing should not be labeled as “amended.” If a drawing figure is to be canceled, the appropriate figure must be removed from the replacement sheet, and where necessary, the remaining figures must be renumbered and appropriate changes made to the brief description of the several views of the drawings for consistency. Additional replacement sheets may be necessary to show the renumbering of the remaining figures. Each drawing sheet submitted after the filing date of an application must be labeled in the top margin as either “Replacement Sheet” or “New Sheet” pursuant to 37 CFR 1.121(d). If the changes are not accepted by the examiner, the applicant will be notified and informed of any required corrective action in the next Office action. The objection to the drawings will not be held in abeyance.
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.
Claims 1-15 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Eom et al. (KR 10-2021-0146095, hereinafter “Eom”) in view of Jang (US 2005/0265460 A1, hereinafter “Jang”). A machine-translated English version for Eom is attached.
Regarding claim 1, Eom discloses An electronic device comprising:
a first housing;
a driving module including a driving motor
a second housing provided to be movable with respect to the first housing (page 10, lines 11-16, “the electronic device 100 may include a housing structure 110 that forms a partial exterior of the electronic device 100 . In an embodiment, the second housing structure 112 may be movably coupled to the first housing structure 111 . 3A and 3B , as the second housing structure 112 moves with respect to the first housing structure 111 , the size of the housing structure 110 of the electronic device 100 may increase or decrease”). Note that: (1) the electronic device 100 is an electronic device; (2) the first housing structure 111 is mapped to a first housing and the second housing structure 112 is mapped to a second housing, while they are combined into a housing 110; and (3) the second housing structure 112 (the second housing) moves with respect to the first housing structure 111 (the first housing).
at least one processor
memory operatively connected to the at least one processor; and (page 9, lines 7-10, “the electronic device 100 may include at least one processor 130 . The at least one processor 130 may be electrically or operatively connected to the display 120 … and the memory 170 .”)
a flexible display at least partially mounted on a surface of the second housing and at least partially exposed to an outside of the electronic device, wherein a portion of the flexible display is inserted into the first housing or withdrawn out of the first housing according to a driving of the driving motor, (page 1, lines 15-19, “The electronic device may include a flexible display that naturally expands or contracts according to a change in size of the electronic device. A portion of the flexible display may be inserted into the housing when the housing is reduced, and may be pulled out of the housing when the housing is expanded”; page 2, lines 14-16, “the electronic device may measure the number of rotations of a motor that expands the display using an encoder, and may determine the extended length of the display based on this”; page 5, lines 32-35, “the electronic device 100 may include a rollable display 120 . In an embodiment, the rollable display 120 may include a first portion 121 that is always exposed to the outside and a second portion 122 that is selectively exposed to the outside. In an embodiment, the second portion 122 of the rollable display 120 may be rolled in or rolled out into the housing structure 110”). Note that: (1) the flexible display is partially exposed to an outside of the device and partially mounted on a surface of the second housing when the housing is expanded; and (2) the second housing can be driven to expend or withdraw by the motor to make a portion of the flexible display is inserted into the first housing or withdrawn out of the first housing,
wherein the memory is configured to store one or more computer programs, wherein the one or more computer programs include computer-executable instructions that, when executed by the at least one processor, cause the electronic device to: (page 27, lines 10-, “The processor 1020, for example, executes software (eg, a program 1040) to execute at least one other component … the processor 1020 converts commands or data received from other components (eg, the sensor module 1076 or the communication module 1090) to the volatile memory 1032 . may be loaded into the volatile memory 1032 , and may process commands or data stored in the volatile memory 1032”). Note that: the processor executes software and command (programs) loaded and stored in the memory.
display at least one image in a first area of the flexible display, wherein the at least one image includes a second area in which content of the at least one image is displayed, and a third area represented in a first color, (page 24, lines 12-20, “Referring to FIG. 8 , according to the reduction and/or expansion of the display 120 , the size of the image 801 displayed on the display 120 may be enlarged/reduced according to an embodiment. In the illustrated embodiment, as the display 120 is expanded, the image 801 may be enlarged. As the difference between the aspect ratio of the image 801 and the aspect ratio of the display 120 increases, the size of the letter box 802 excluding the image 801 among the entire area of the screen increases. can grow As the display 120 expands, if the aspect ratio difference between the display 120 and the image 801 is reduced, the image 801 may be enlarged and the size of the letter box 802 excluding the image 801 may be reduced.”: FIG. 8: “
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”). Note that: when the image 801 is displayed on flexible display 120, on the left side of FIG. 8 above, there are three areas: a first area for the display 120 at the moment including a second area as the contents area of image 801, and a third area (the letter box 802) in a first color (i.e., black color).
identify an occurrence of an event for controlling a size of the first area of the flexible display to correspond to a size of the second area, (page 24, lines 21-25, “the second part 122 of the electronic device 100 may be exposed to the outside while the display 120 is changed from the reduced state to the expanded state. In an embodiment, the electronic device 100 includes an image 801 corresponding to a size obtained by adding the first part 121 and the second part 122 to the first part 121 and the second part 122 . can be enlarged and displayed.”; page 26, lines 12-15, “when a user applies a force to extend the display 120 by a predetermined distance or when a user input for extending the display 120 is received through a touch sensor provided in the electronic device 100, the electronic device 100 can drive the motor by supplying current to the motor.”). Note that: (1) the user applies a force as a touch, the touch sensor receives the touch as an occurrence of an event for controlling a size of the first area; and (2) since the first area’s aspect ratio is different from the second area’s, the size of first area may be enlarged o reduced (controlled) corresponding to the size of the second area as shown on the right side of FIG. 8 above.
control the driving module to change the size of the first area to correspond to the size of the second area, based on the identified size of the third area. (page 11, lines 5-9, “the driving unit 140 may include a motor and mechanical elements operated by the motor (eg, a rolling gear). The motor may be connected to the processor 130 of the electronic device 100 and driven to reduce or expand the housing structure 110 in response to a signal from the processor 130”; page 25, lines 13-15, “the electronic device 100 may determine how much the display 120 is expanded through the distance sensor 150 . In an embodiment, the electronic device 100 may reduce and/or expand the housing structure 110 by a target length by actively adjusting a motor control value using the distance sensor 150”). Note that: the electronic device 100 determines a target length to reduce or expand the housing structure 110, and adjust or control the motor driving module to change the size of the first area to match the aspect ratio of the second area based on the identified size of the third area (letter-box).
However, Eom fails to disclose, but in the same art of computer graphics, Jang discloses
based on identifying the event, identify a size of the second area by scanning the memory, and (Jang, page 2, para. [0025], “a letter-box detection unit for extracting a processing area of the decoded image, and determining whether the corresponding line belongs to a letter box area by calculating a change level of pixels of the image and a change level of a line of the image in unit of a plurality of macroblocks included in the extracted processing area”; page 7, claim 1, “1. A method for detecting a letter box, comprising the steps of: performing processing area filtering for selecting a processing area of an image used to detect the letter box; performing intra-macroblock filtering for determining the letter box area based on a change level of pixels in macroblocks in one line of the image from the processing area; performing impulse data filtering for excluding the line being detected a high frequency component from the determined letter box area; performing inter-macroblock filtering for determining the letter box area based on a change level of lines between macroblocks of the image; performing inter-line filtering for determining a boundary of the letter box based on an average of the pixel values of the lines; and performing inter-picture filtering for outputting a boundary value of the letter box that has the highest frequency number”; FIG.2: “Letter-Box Detection Unit” 60; FIGs. 4-5: row-by-row or column-by-column pixel detection / processing to form the closed sections for letter-box areas). Note that: (1) all pixels in the three areas (i.e., the first, second, and third areas) are stored in the memory of the processing system for processing; (2) in response to the event, the letter-box detection operation reads and processes pixels on a line-by-line basis, calculates the degree of change in line-specific pixels of an image within multiple macroblocks included in the image, and determines a boundary of a letter box, resulting in the third area (the letter-box area); and (3) accordingly, the second area (the content area of the image) can be determined or identified by subtracting the third area from the first area, and the corresponding size can be determined or identified.
Eom and Yang are in the same field of endeavor, namely computer graphics. Before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, it would have been obvious to apply detecting letter-box section or area by scanning the pixels in the memory, as taught by Jang into Eom. The motivation would have been “determining whether the corresponding line belongs to a letter box area by calculating a change level of pixels of the image and a change level of a line of the image in unit of a plurality of macroblocks included in the extracted processing area” (Jang, page 2, para. [0025]). The suggestion for doing so would allow to determine the second area and its size by detecting the letter-box out of the first area. Therefore, it would have been obvious to combine Eom and Jang.
Regarding claim 2, Eom in view of Jang discloses The electronic device of claim 1, wherein the computer-executable instructions, when executed by the at least one processor, cause the electronic device to identify a closed section corresponding to the third area by sequentially identifying pixel data stored in the memory. (Jang, page 2, para. [0025], “a letter-box detection unit for extracting a processing area of the decoded image, and determining whether the corresponding line belongs to a letter box area by calculating a change level of pixels of the image and a change level of a line of the image in unit of a plurality of macroblocks included in the extracted processing area”; page 7, claim 1, “1. A method for detecting a letter box, comprising the steps of: performing processing area filtering for selecting a processing area of an image used to detect the letter box; performing intra-macroblock filtering for determining the letter box area based on a change level of pixels in macroblocks in one line of the image from the processing area; performing impulse data filtering for excluding the line being detected a high frequency component from the determined letter box area; performing inter-macroblock filtering for determining the letter box area based on a change level of lines between macroblocks of the image; performing inter-line filtering for determining a boundary of the letter box based on an average of the pixel values of the lines; and performing inter-picture filtering for outputting a boundary value of the letter box that has the highest frequency number”; FIG.2: “Letter-Box Detection Unit” 60; FIGs. 4-5: row-by-row or column-by-column pixel detection / processing to form the closed sections for letter-box areas). Note that: (1) all pixels in the three areas (i.e., the first, second, and third areas) of the display can be stored in the memory of the processing system for processing; and (2) the electronic device with the letter-box detection unit for a closed section corresponding to the third area by sequentially line-by-line processing and analyzing pixel data stored in the memory.
The motivation to combine Eom and Jang given in claim 1 is incorporated here.
Regarding claim 3, Eom in view of Jang discloses The electronic device of claim 1, wherein the event includes at least one of an event of a touch input on a visual object displayed on the flexible display or an event of the size of the third area being changed. (Eom, page 28, lines 16-21, “The display device 1060 may visually provide information to the outside (eg, a user) of the electronic device 1001. The display device 1060 may include, for example, a display, a hologram device, or a projector and a control circuit for controlling the corresponding device. the display device 1060 may include a touch circuitry configured to sense a touch or a sensor circuit (eg, a pressure sensor) configured to measure the intensity of a force generated by the touch”; FIG. 8: the letter-box area 802 in black color can be regarded as a visual object displayed on the flexible display). Note that: when a user touches the letter-box 802 (the third area) as a visual object in the display, it can be regarded an event to change the size of the third area.
Regarding claim 4, Eom in view of Jang discloses The electronic device of claim 1, wherein the computer-executable instructions, when executed by the at least one processor, cause the electronic device to, based on a ratio of the content being less than a ratio of the first area, change the size of the first area by controlling the driving module to reduce a horizontal length of the flexible display corresponding to the third area. (Eom, FIG. 8: “
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”); Note that: (1) in FIG. 8 on the left side, the third area (letter-box 802) is located at the top and bottom of the second area (the image content area) when the aspect ratio (width/height) of the second area (the image content area) is larger than the aspect ratio of the first area. Expanding the horizontal width of the flexible display to an extent so that the aspect ratio of the first area is equal to the aspect ratio of the content area so that the third area (letter-box 802) can be minimized by controlling the driving module to draw a proper portion of the display out of the housing structure; and (2) however, although now shown in FIG. 8, it is obvious to one having ordinary skills in the art that an opposite scenario in which the second area (letter-box 802 in black) is located on the left and right sides of the second area when the aspect ratio of the second area is smaller than the aspect ratio of the first area, can happen. In this case, reducing the horizontal width of the flexible display to an extent so that the aspect ratio of the first area is equal to the aspect ratio of the content area so that the third area (letter-box 802) can be minimized by controlling the driving module to insert a proper portion of the display into the housing structure.
Regarding claim 5, Eom in view of Jang discloses The electronic device of claim 1, wherein the computer-executable instructions, when executed by the at least one processor, cause the electronic device to, based on a ratio of the content being larger than a ratio of the first area, change the size of the first area by controlling the driving module to increase a horizontal length of the flexible display corresponding to the third area. (Eom, FIG. 8: “
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”). Note that: in FIG. 8 on the left side, the aspect ratio (width/height) of the content (the second area) is larger than the aspect ratio of the first area. Expanding the horizontal width of the flexible display to an extent so that the aspect ratio of the first area is equal to the aspect ratio of the content area so that the third area (letter-box 802) can be minimized by controlling the driving module to draw a proper portion of the display out of the housing structure.
Regarding claim 6, Eom in view of Jang discloses The electronic device of claim 1, wherein the computer-executable instructions, when executed by the at least one processor, cause the electronic device to, based on the second area including the first color, control the driving module to display an image included in a remaining area except for an area including the first color. (Eom, FIG. 8: “
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”;
In addition, Yang discloses the letter-box detection unit (Jang, page 2, para. [0025], “a letter-box detection unit for extracting a processing area of the decoded image, and determining whether the corresponding line belongs to a letter box area by calculating a change level of pixels of the image and a change level of a line of the image in unit of a plurality of macroblocks included in the extracted processing area”; page 7, claim 1, “1. A method for detecting a letter box, comprising the steps of: performing processing area filtering for selecting a processing area of an image used to detect the letter box; performing intra-macroblock filtering for determining the letter box area based on a change level of pixels in macroblocks in one line of the image from the processing area; performing impulse data filtering for excluding the line being detected a high frequency component from the determined letter box area; performing inter-macroblock filtering for determining the letter box area based on a change level of lines between macroblocks of the image; performing inter-line filtering for determining a boundary of the letter box based on an average of the pixel values of the lines; and performing inter-picture filtering for outputting a boundary value of the letter box that has the highest frequency number”; FIG.2: “Letter-Box Detection Unit” 60; FIGs. 4-5: row-by-row or column-by-column pixel detection / processing to form the closed sections for letter-box areas); Note that: (1) the second area (the content area) itself may contain the black pixels along its 4 boundaries and corresponding boundary areas; (2) the letter-box detection unit can determine a closed and refined letter-box area by having the boundaries and corresponding boundary areas, resulting in an image included in a refined and remaining area except the excluded boundaries and corresponding boundary; and (3) in FIG. 8 on the left side, the third area (letter-box 802) with the refined letter-box area and the image in a remaining area and is located at the top and bottom of the second area (the image content area) when the aspect ratio (width/height) of the second area (the image content area) is larger than the aspect ratio of the first area. Expanding the horizontal width of the flexible display to an extent so that the aspect ratio of the first area is equal to the aspect ratio of the content area so that the third area (letter-box 802) can be minimized by controlling the driving module to draw a proper portion of the display out of the housing structure to display the image.
The motivation to combine Eom and Jang given in claim 1 is incorporated here.
Regarding claim 7, Eom in view of Jang discloses The electronic device of claim 1, wherein the memory is configured to store pixel data of a black color corresponding to the first color. (Eom, FIG. 8: “
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”, and pixels of black color (the first color) in letter-box 802). Note that: as explained in the rejection for claim 6, it is obvious to one having ordinary skills in the art that the memory is used to store pixel data of a black color corresponding to the first color (e.g., black color).
Regarding claim 8, Eom in view of Jang discloses The electronic device of claim 1, wherein the computer-executable instructions, when executed by the at least one processor, cause the electronic device to identify a length of the flexible display corresponding to the size of the third area. (Eom, FIG. 8: “
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”); Note that: in FIG. 8 on the left side, the third area (letter-box 802) is located at the top and bottom of the second area (the image content area) when the aspect ratio (width/height) of the second area (the image content area) is larger than the aspect ratio of the first area. Expanding the horizontal width of the flexible display to an extent so that the aspect ratio of the first area is equal to the aspect ratio of the content area so that the third area (letter-box 802) can be minimized by controlling the driving module to draw a proper portion of the display out of the housing structure;
Regarding claim 9, Eom in view of Jang discloses The electronic device of claim 8, wherein the computer-executable instructions, when executed by the at least one processor, cause the electronic device to calculate a movement distance of the driving module based on the length of the flexible display corresponding to the size of the third area. (Eom, FIG. 8: “
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”; page 2, lines 14-16, “the electronic device may measure the number of rotations of a motor that expands the display using an encoder, and may determine the extended length of the display based on this.”); Note that: (1) in FIG. 8 on the left side, the third area (letter-box 802) is located at the top and bottom of the second area (the image content area) when the aspect ratio (width/height) of the second area (the image content area) is larger than the aspect ratio of the first area. Expanding the horizontal width of the flexible display to an extent so that the aspect ratio of the first area is equal to the aspect ratio of the content area so that the third area (letter-box 802) can be minimized by controlling the driving module to draw a proper portion of the display out of the housing structure; and (2) with the utilization of the number of rotations of a motor that expands the display using an encoder, it is obvious to one having ordinary skills in the art that the electronic device to calculate a movement distance of the driving module based on the length of the flexible display corresponding to the size of the third area.
Regarding claim 10, Eom in view of Jang discloses The electronic device of claim 1, wherein the computer-executable instructions, when executed by the at least one processor, cause the electronic device to display first content by scaling up the displayed first content in the changed first area. (Eom, FIG. 8: “
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”). Note that: in FIG. 8, the image the electronic device to display first content by scaling up the displayed first content (content area 801) in the changed first area (combined 121 and 122) following the arrows.
Regarding claim 11, Eom in view of Jang discloses A method for controlling an electronic device, the method comprising:
displaying at least one image in a first area of a flexible display of the electronic device, wherein the at least one image includes a second area in which content of the at least one image is displayed, and a third area represented in a first color; (Eom, page 24, lines 12-20, “Referring to FIG. 8 , according to the reduction and/or expansion of the display 120 , the size of the image 801 displayed on the display 120 may be enlarged/reduced according to an embodiment. In the illustrated embodiment, as the display 120 is expanded, the image 801 may be enlarged. As the difference between the aspect ratio of the image 801 and the aspect ratio of the display 120 increases, the size of the letter box 802 excluding the image 801 among the entire area of the screen increases. can grow As the display 120 expands, if the aspect ratio difference between the display 120 and the image 801 is reduced, the image 801 may be enlarged and the size of the letter box 802 excluding the image 801 may be reduced.”: FIG. 8: “
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”). Note that: when the image 801 is displayed on flexible display 120, on the left side of FIG. 8 above, there are three areas: a first area for the display 120 at the moment including a second area as the content area of image 801, and a third area (the letter box 802) in a first color (i.e., black color).
identifying an occurrence of an event for controlling a size of the first area of the flexible display to correspond to a size of the first area; (Eom, page 24, lines 21-25, “the second part 122 of the electronic device 100 may be exposed to the outside while the display 120 is changed from the reduced state to the expanded state. In an embodiment, the electronic device 100 includes an image 801 corresponding to a size obtained by adding the first part 121 and the second part 122 to the first part 121 and the second part 122 . can be enlarged and displayed.”; page 26, lines 12-15, “when a user applies a force to extend the display 120 by a predetermined distance or when a user input for extending the display 120 is received through a touch sensor provided in the electronic device 100, the electronic device 100 can drive the motor by supplying current to the motor.”). Note that: (1) the user applies a force as a touch, the touch sensor receives the touch as an occurrence of an event for controlling a size of the first area; and (2) since the first area’s aspect ratio is different from the second area’s, the size of first area may be enlarged o reduced (controlled) corresponding to the size of the second area as shown on the right side of FIG. 8 above.
controlling a driving module of the electronic device to change the size of the first area to correspond to the size of the first area, based on the identified size of the third area. (Eom, page 11, lines 5-9, “the driving unit 140 may include a motor and mechanical elements operated by the motor (eg, a rolling gear). The motor may be connected to the processor 130 of the electronic device 100 and driven to reduce or expand the housing structure 110 in response to a signal from the processor 130”; page 25, lines 13-15, “the electronic device 100 may determine how much the display 120 is expanded through the distance sensor 150 . In an embodiment, the electronic device 100 may reduce and/or expand the housing structure 110 by a target length by actively adjusting a motor control value using the distance sensor 150”). Note that: the electronic device 100 determines a target length to reduce or expand the housing structure 110, and adjust or control the motor driving module to change the size of the first area to match the aspect ratio of the second area based on the identified size of the third area (letter-box).
based on identifying the event, identifying a size of the third area by scanning memory of the electronic device, and (Jang, page 2, para. [0025], “a letter-box detection unit for extracting a processing area of the decoded image, and determining whether the corresponding line belongs to a letter box area by calculating a change level of pixels of the image and a change level of a line of the image in unit of a plurality of macroblocks included in the extracted processing area”; page 7, claim 1, “1. A method for detecting a letter box, comprising the steps of: performing processing area filtering for selecting a processing area of an image used to detect the letter box; performing intra-macroblock filtering for determining the letter box area based on a change level of pixels in macroblocks in one line of the image from the processing area; performing impulse data filtering for excluding the line being detected a high frequency component from the determined letter box area; performing inter-macroblock filtering for determining the letter box area based on a change level of lines between macroblocks of the image; performing inter-line filtering for determining a boundary of the letter box based on an average of the pixel values of the lines; and performing inter-picture filtering for outputting a boundary value of the letter box that has the highest frequency number”; FIG.2: “Letter-Box Detection Unit” 60; FIGs. 4-5: row-by-row or column-by-column pixel detection / processing to form the closed sections for letter-box areas). Note that: (1) all pixels in the three areas (i.e., the first, second, and third areas) are stored in the memory of the processing system for processing; (2) in response to the event, the letter-box detection operation reads and processes pixels on a line-by-line basis, calculates the degree of change in line-specific pixels of an image within multiple macroblocks included in the image, and determines a boundary of a letter box, resulting in the third area (the letter-box area); and (3) accordingly, the second area (the content area of the image) can be determined or identified by subtracting the third area from the first area, and the corresponding size can be determined or identified.
The motivation to combine Eom and Jang given in claim 1 is incorporated here.
Claims 12-15 are corresponding to the electronic device of claims 2-5, respectively. Therefore, claims 12-15 are rejected for the same rationale for claims 2-5, respectively.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to BIAO CHEN whose telephone number is (703)756-1199. The examiner can normally be reached M-F 8am-5pm ET.
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If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Kee M Tung can be reached at (571)272-7794. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/Biao Chen/
Patent Examiner, Art Unit 2611
/KEE M TUNG/Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 2611