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 .
Priority
Receipt is acknowledged of certified copies of papers required by 37 CFR 1.55.
Information Disclosure Statement
The information disclosure statement (IDS) was submitted on . The submission is in compliance with the provisions of 37 CFR 1.97. Accordingly, the information disclosure statement is being considered by the examiner.
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.
Claims 1-5, 8-9, 13, and 15-16 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by Takeyuki et al. ( JP 2011165056 A – Cited IDS).
Regarding claim 1: Takeyuki teaches an information processing apparatus comprising:
at least one processor (Fig. 1: Control Unit 7 includes a processor and para [0042]); and
at least one memory including computer program code (Fig. 1: Storage Unit 4 includes a memory storing program and para [0034] and [0124]), where the at least one memory and the computer program code are configured, with the at least one processor, to cause the apparatus to at least:
acquire information indicating a direction of a sound source with respect to at least one multi-microphone device (Fig. 1: Voice input unit 1 includes a plurality microphones to input sounds from sound sources; Fig. 1: Sound source localization separation unit 2 specifies sounds corresponding to sound sources and sound source locations based on phase difference between sound signals input to the plurality of microphones which reads on the claimed information indicating a direction of a sound source; also para [0031]-[0032]);
acquire information regarding content of a speech emitted from the sound source and collected by the multi-microphone device (Fig. 1: Voice analysis unit 3 and para [0033]);
generate a map image in which information regarding the content of the speech is arranged at a position corresponding to a direction of the sound source of the speech with respect to the multi-microphone device (Fig. 3, Fig. 7, and Fig. 8; and para [0039] and [0071]-[0072]); and
output the map image (Fig. 3, Fig. 7, and Fig. 8; and para [0039] and [0071]-[0072]).
Regarding claim 2: Takeyuki teaches the information processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the at least one memory and the computer program code are configured, with the at least one processor, to cause the apparatus to: identify a sound source existing around the multi-microphone device based on the information indicating the direction of the sound source; and set sound source information regarding the identified sound source in accordance with a user instruction (Fig. 1: Operation input unit 5 and para [0040]; and Fig. 16 and para [0108]: sound source locations and sound source registered identification information 91-94 are displayed).
Regarding claim 3: Takeyuki teaches the information processing apparatus according to claim 2, wherein the at least one memory and the computer program code are configured, with the at least one processor, to cause the apparatus to set at least one of a name of the identified sound source, a language used by the sound source, and a target language of machine translation applied to text regarding content of speech uttered from the sound source (Fig. 16: Name fields 91- 94 and para [0108]; and Text messages corresponding to sound sources via voice to text conversion 1-9 and para [0039]).
Regarding claim 4: Takeyuki teaches the information processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the at least one memory and the computer program code are configured, with the at least one processor, to cause the apparatus to: generate minutes based on the information regarding the content of the speech; and output the minutes together with the map image (Fig. 17: Map image display 101, Minutes display 102, and para [0117]).
Regarding claim 5: Takeyuki teaches the information processing apparatus according to claim 4, wherein the at least one memory and the computer program code are configured, with the at least one processor, to cause the apparatus to generate the minutes by arranging the information regarding the content of the speech in chronological order (para [0118]).
Regarding claim 8: Takeyuki teaches the information processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the map image includes a microphone icon representing the multi-microphone device and a sound source icon representing the sound source, and wherein the sound source icon is arranged at a position corresponding to a direction of the sound source corresponding to the sound source icon with respect to the multi-microphone device on a circumference around the microphone icon (Fig. 16: The mobile device/Plurality Microphone device icon placing in the center of the map image Sound source Icons 91-94 and para [0108]).
Regarding claim 9: Takeyuki teaches the information processing apparatus according to claim 8, wherein the map image highlights an icon representing the sound source or information about the content of the speech while the sound source is emitting the speech (para [0065]).
Regarding claim 13: Takeyuki teaches the information processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein a plurality of texts regarding speeches uttered from a same sound source are arranged on the map image so as to be away from a center of a coordinate system of the map image in order of older corresponding speech date and time (para [0069]-[0070]).
Regarding claims 15 and 16: The information processing apparatus discussed in claim 1 above also supports these corresponding method claim and non-transitory computer-readable recording medium claim.
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.
This application currently names joint inventors. In considering patentability of the claims the examiner presumes that the subject matter of the various claims was commonly owned as of the effective filing date of the claimed invention(s) absent any evidence to the contrary. Applicant is advised of the obligation under 37 CFR 1.56 to point out the inventor and effective filing dates of each claim that was not commonly owned as of the effective filing date of the later invention in order for the examiner to consider the applicability of 35 U.S.C. 102(b)(2)(C) for any potential 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(2) prior art against the later invention.
Claim 6 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Takeyuki et al. ( JP2011165056 A – Cited IDS) in view of Takeshi (JP2011067830 A – Cited IDS).
Regarding claim 6: Takeyuki teaches the information processing apparatus according to claim 4 but does not explicitly teach the at least one memory and the computer program code are configured, with the at least one processor, to cause the apparatus to edit arranged texts in the minutes in accordance with a user instruction.
Takeshi, in the same field of technology, teaches a system comprising:
a processor (Fig. 5: CPU 110 and para [0032]); and
a memory storing program code (Fig. 5: Memory 120 and para [0033]); where the memory and the program code are configured, with the at least one processor, to cause the system to:
acquire information regarding content of a speech emitted from sound sources and collected by plurality of microphones (Fig. 1: Microphones 270, para [0047], and [0050]-[0056]),
generate minutes based on the information regarding the content of the speech (para [0057]-[0061]), and
edit arranged texts in the minutes in accordance with a user instruction (Fig. 4 and para [0068]-[0069]).
It would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art at the time before the effective filling date of the claimed invention to modify Takeyuki in view of Takeshi to provide users with editing tool to edit the created minutes directly from the content of the speech. The motivation is to provide users with minutes editing tool for the benefit of generating a more official like language minute in compared to a directed speech to text minutes.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 7, 10-12, and 14 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.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to DAVID L TON whose telephone number is (571)270-7839. The examiner can normally be reached Monday - Friday 8:00 AM - 6:00 PM (EST).
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/DAVID L TON/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2695