+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 .
Information Disclosure Statement
The information disclosure statement (IDS) document submitted on August 4, 2023 are in compliance with the provisions of 37 CFR 1.97. Accordingly, the information disclosure statement is being considered by the examiner.
Priority
1. Acknowledgment is made of applicant's claim for foreign priority under 35 U.S.C. 119(a)-(d). Receipt is acknowledged of papers submitted under 35 U.S.C. 119(a)-(d), which papers have been placed of record in the file.
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 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)(2) the claimed invention was described in a patent issued under section 151, or in an application for patent published or deemed published under section 122(b), in which the patent or application, as the case may be, names another inventor and was effectively filed before the effective filing date of the claimed invention.
2. Claims 1,2,3,7 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a) (2) as being anticipated by Mahbub et al. (US Patent. No.: US 11,381,743 B1).
Regarding claim 1, Mahbub et al. discloses an image capturing apparatus (Fig. 1; electronic device 100 ; Col 14, lines 58-60) comprising:
a first image capturing section configured to include a first image sensor and to capture an image of an object in a first direction (Col 15, lines 25-30; the electronic device 100 can include one or more image sensors, such as image sensors 102A, 102B, 102C, and 102N (collectively “image sensors 102” hereinafter); ) ;
a second image capturing section configured to include a second image sensor and to capture an image of an object in a second direction which is opposite to the first direction ( Col 15, lines 25-30; the electronic device 100 can include one or more image sensors, such as image sensors 102A, 102B, 102C, and 102N (collectively “image sensors 102” hereinafter); Col 16, lines 30-42; the image sensors 102 can include multiple image sensors, such as rear and front sensor devices, and can be part of a dual-camera or other multi-camera assembly ) ;
at least one processor ( Col 16, lines 3-10; central processing unit (CPU) 112) ; and a memory coupled to the at least one processor (Claim 1, An apparatus for capturing at least one image, comprising: a memory; and one or more processors coupled to the memory), the memory having instructions that, when executed by the at least one processor, cause the at least one processor to set,
based on an image captured by the second image capturing section ( Col 2, lines 15-35; The apparatus can include memory and one or more processors configured to: initialize a plurality of image sensors of an electronic device, each image sensor of the plurality of image sensors being initialized in a first lower-power mode associated with a first lower power consumption that is lower than a higher-power mode supported by one or more image sensors of the plurality of image sensors; obtain a plurality of images captured by the plurality of image sensors in the first lower-power mode; determine, based on the plurality of images, that a region-of-interest (ROI) in a scene is within a field-of-view (FOV) of a first image sensor from the plurality of image sensors; based on determining that the ROI is within the FOV of the first image sensor, decrease the first lower-power mode of one or more second image sensors from the plurality of image sensors to one of a power-off mode or a second lower-power mode associated with a second lower power consumption that is lower than the first lower-power mode. The first image sensor in the prior art can be considered as the “second image capturing section” in the claim of the instant application) , the first image capturing section to a first state or a second state which is larger in power consumption than the first state (Col 2, lines 15-35; based on determining that the ROI is within the FOV of the first image sensor, decrease the first lower-power mode of one or more second image sensors from the plurality of image sensors to one of a power-off mode or a second lower-power mode associated with a second lower power consumption that is lower than the first lower-power mode; wherein in the first lower-power mode has higher power consumption than the second lower power consumption mode; the mode of the second image sensor (corresponding to the first image capturing section of the claim in the instant application) is switched based on the images captured by the first image sensor (corresponding to the second image capturing section” in the claim of the instant application).
Regarding claim 2, Mahbub et al. discloses the image capturing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the second direction is a rear direction of the image capturing apparatus (Col 16, lines 30-42; the image sensors 102 can include multiple image sensors, such as rear and front sensor devices, and can be part of a dual-camera or other multi-camera assembly ; therefore, one of the image sensors can capture images from rear direction (rear sensor devices) ) .
Regarding claim 3, Mahbub et al. discloses the image capturing apparatus according to claim 2, further comprising a display provided on a rear surface of the image capturing apparatus (Col 15, lines 5-25; the electronic device 100 can be an XR device (e.g., a head-mounted display, a heads-up display device, smart glasses, etc.) configured to provide XR functionalities, and implement the systems and techniques described herein; the display is facing the user’s eyes for head-mounted display wherein the display can be considered to be located on a rear surface of the device).
Regarding claim 7, the subject matter of claim 7 is similar to the subject matter disclosed in claim 1; therefore, claim 7 is rejected for the same reasons as set forth in claim 1.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
3. 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 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 of this title, 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 4 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable by Mahbub et al. (US Patent. No.: US 11,381,743 B1), in view of Mizobuchi (US Pub. No.: US 2021/0099640 A1).
Regarding claim 4, Mahbub et al. discloses the image capturing apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising
an operation section configured to include at least one of a switch, button, or a touch panel and to receive an operation input by a user (Col 44, lines 28-44; an input device 1045 can represent any number of input mechanisms, such as a microphone for speech, a touch-sensitive screen for gesture or graphical input, keyboard, mouse, motion input, speech and so forth.
However, Mahbub et al. does not disclose wherein the instructions causes the at least one processor to, upon no operation being performed on the operation section, shift the second image capturing section which is in a state in which an image capturing operation is stopped to another state in which an image capturing operation is performed.
Mizobuchi discloses the instructions causes the at least one processor to, upon no operation being performed on the operation section, shift the second image capturing section which is in a state in which an image capturing operation is stopped to another state in which an image capturing operation is performed ( Para 47; The driving control unit 307 as an automatic capturing control means executes a variety of processing for automatic capturing without intervention of operations by a user; therefore, the device can start to capture images without operation being performed (no user intervention/operation on the operation /input device or input unit )).
It would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify Mahbub et al. with the teaching of Mizobuchi to start image capture automatically (transition from no image capture state to image capture state) without user intervention in order to record images of certain interesting subjects or user emotions without requiring manual user operation to avoid missing precious moments.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 5,6 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.
The following is a statement of reasons for the indication of allowable subject matter:
Regarding claim 5, prior art on record Mizobuchi (US Pub. No.: US 2021/0099640 A1) discloses the instructions causes the at least one processor to, upon no operation being performed on the operation section, shift the second image capturing section which is in a state in which an image capturing operation is stopped to another state in which an image capturing operation is performed ( Para 47; The driving control unit 307 as an automatic capturing control means executes a variety of processing for automatic capturing without intervention of operations by a user; therefore, the device can start to capture images without operation being performed (no user intervention/operation on the operation /input device or input unit )).
However, none of the prior art discloses wherein while a time period in which no operation is performed on the operation section does not exceed a predetermined time period, the instructions cause the at least one processor to, upon no operation being performed on the operation section, shift the second image capturing section which is in a state in which an image capturing operation is stopped to another state in which an image capturing operation is performed.
Regarding claim 6, prior art on record Mahbub et al. (US Patent. No.: US 11,381,743 B1 ) discloses the image capturing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein a face is detected (Col 1, lines 30-50; an electronic device can process images to detect objects, faces, events, and/or any other items captured by the images),
However, none of the prior art discloses “wherein in a case where a user’s face is not included in the image captured by the second image capturing section, the instructions cause the at least one processor to set the first image capturing section to the first state” in combination of other limitation in the claim.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to XI WANG whose telephone number is (469)295-9155. The examiner can normally be reached on 9:00 am-5:00 pm.
If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, SINH TRAN can be reached on 571-272-7564. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
Information regarding the status of an application may be obtained from the Patent Application Information Retrieval (PAIR) system. Status information for published applications may be obtained from either Private PAIR or Public PAIR. Status information for unpublished applications is available through Private PAIR only. For more information about the PAIR system, see http://pair-direct.uspto.gov. Should you have questions on access to the Private PAIR system, contact the Electronic Business Center (EBC) at 866-217-9197 (toll-free). If you would like assistance from a USPTO Customer Service Representative or access to the automated information system, call 800-786-9199 (IN USA OR CANADA) or 571-272-1000.
/XI WANG/ Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2637