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 .
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 101
35 U.S.C. 101 reads as follows:
Whoever invents or discovers any new and useful process, machine, manufacture, or composition of matter, or any new and useful improvement thereof, may obtain a patent therefor, subject to the conditions and requirements of this title.
the claimed invention is directed to an abstract idea without significantly more. Claims 1-6 and 8-11 recite mental processes. This judicial exception is not integrated into a practical application because the claims simply collect information but does not apply the information to any application. The claims does/do not include additional elements that are sufficient to amount to significantly more than the judicial exception because the claims are not carried out by anything more than a generic computer. Claims 1, 10 and 11 provide steps in which a human is capable of recognizing a range of a user, specifying an object and collecting information from the object by having a user communicate the information that they are seeing. Claims 2-6 and 9 specify what type of information is collected and how objects are displayed, which do not amount to anything more than which information the mental process utilizes and what is seen on a display while doing the mental process. Claim 8 only specifies the attribute information in certain cases, which is also a process that can be mentally performed.
Claim 7 is considered eligible subject matter because the claim specifies that the visually recognized range is estimated based on data that cannot be reasonably be performed by a human mind, and therefore does not amount to a mental process/ abstract idea.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 112
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 112(b):
(b) CONCLUSION.—The specification shall conclude with one or more claims particularly pointing out and distinctly claiming the subject matter which the inventor or a joint inventor regards as the invention.
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), second paragraph:
The specification shall conclude with one or more claims particularly pointing out and distinctly claiming the subject matter which the applicant regards as his invention.
Claims 2-6 and 9 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 112(b) or 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), second paragraph, as being indefinite for failing to particularly point out and distinctly claim the subject matter which the inventor or a joint inventor (or for applications subject to pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, the applicant), regards as the invention.
Claims 2-5 and 9 recite the limitation “the information related to the visually recognized object”, in lines 2, 4, 5, 5, and 3-4, respectively. It is unclear as to which information the applicant is referring to, because claim 1 claims two separate “information related to the/a visually recognized object”.
Claim 6 recite the limitation “the attribute information” in line 2. It is unclear as to which attribute information the application is referring to, because claim 1 claims “attribute information specified…” and “pieces of attribute information”.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 102
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 1-6 and 9-11 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being unpatentable by U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 20210409356 (Luo et al).
Regarding claim 10, Luo et al discloses a control method (fig. 7) for an electronic device (fig. 1), the control method comprising: estimating a visually recognized range of a user by estimating the area that is selected in the user-interface in the of fig. 7, item 702, page 16, paragraph 128; specifying an object that is visually recognized by the user, based on the visually recognized range by specifying the matched product in the server based on the selection of the user (fig. 7, item 702, 704), wherein, in the specifying, attribute information, i.e. information about the product (page 16, paragraph 129) that is visually recognized by the user in fig. 7, step 706 because it is displayed to the user, is specified among pieces of attribute information displayed together with the visually recognized object, (fig. 8 item 802); and collecting information related to a visually recognized object, which is the object specified in the specifying by capturing video data on the object (fig. 7, item 708, 710), wherein, in the collecting, information related to the visually recognized object is collected based on the attribute information specified in the specifying, because the video data in step 708 is based on the attribute information provided in fig. 7, item 706.
Claims 1 and 11 are ejected for the same reasons as claim 10. Thus, the arguments analogous to that presented above for claim 10 are equally applicable to claims 1 and 11. Claims 1 and 11 distinguish from claim 10 only in that they are a device claim comprising: a processor; and a memory storing a program, which, when executed by the processor, causes the electronic device to perform the steps of claim 10, and a non-transitory computer readable medium that stores a program that causes the program to cause a computer to execute the control method of claim 10, respectively. Luo et al teaches further this feature, i.e. a device (fig. 1) comprising: a processor (fig. 1, item 102); and a memory storing a program (fig. 1, item 104), which, when executed by the processor, causes the electronic device to perform the steps of claim 10, and a non-transitory computer readable medium that stores a program that causes the program to cause a computer to execute the control method of claim 10 (page 15, paragraph 118).
Regarding claim 2, Luo et al discloses in the collection processing, the information related to the visually recognized object is collected, based on a type of the visually recognized object, because the information is collected based on the type of product that a user is interested in (fig. 7, item 708, page 16, paragraph 130).
Regarding claim 3, Luo et al discloses the visually recognized object is displayed together with attribute information corresponding to a type of the visually recognized object, a type of object the user is interested in (fig. 8, item 802, page 16, paragraph 129), and in the collection processing, the information related to the visually recognized object is collected, based on the type of the visually recognized object and the attribute information specified in the specifying processing, because in step 708 is based on the attributes of fig. 7, item 706 and type of object being an object of interest (page 16, paragraph 130).
Regarding claim 4, Luo et al discloses in the collection processing, among a plurality of pieces of the attribute information specified in the specifying processing. i.e. the information of the product including video content of page 16, paragraph 129, information related to a classification having a highest proportion, i.e. highest level of interest of video content, based on attribute information representing a classification, the video content (page 16, paragraph 129), is collected as the information related to the visually recognized object (fig. 8, item 802 is prioritized and collected as the prioritized product info (fig. 8, page 17, paragraph 132).
Regarding claim 5, Luo et al discloses wherein in the collection processing, among a plurality of pieces of the attribute information specified in the specifying processing, information related to an average value, a median value, or a mode value of attribute information represented by a numerical value is collected as the information related to the visually recognized object, i.e. the rating of the product which is an average rating among users (fig. 8).
Regarding claim 6, Luo et al discloses the attribute information displayed together with the visually recognized object is displayed in a size that allows the user to recognize the attribute information (fig. 8).
Regarding claim 9, Luo et al discloses presenting, to the user, the information related to the visually recognized object collected in the collection processing (fig. 8, the information is displayed in fig. 7, item 706).
Claims 1, 7 and 8 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being unpatentable by U.S. Patent Application Publication NO. 20140002352 (Jacob et al).
Regarding claim 1, Jacob et al discloses an electronic device (fig. 4) comprising: a processor (fig. 4, item 406); and a memory (fig. 4, item 306, 408) storing a program which, when executed by the processor, causes the electronic device to: perform estimation processing for estimating a visually recognized range of a user by finding the visual range of what the user is viewing (fig. 1, item 1150, fig. 2, item 204, 206); perform specifying processing for specifying an object, a display (fig. 1, item 150) that is visually recognized by the user (fig. 2, item 206), based on the visually recognized range (fig. 2, item 204); wherein, in the specifying processing, attribute information that is visually recognized by the user is specified among pieces of attribute information displayed together with the visually recognized object (fig. 1, item 150 is among other attribute information), and perform collection processing for collecting information related to a visually recognized object by recording the focus area selections (page 7, paragraph 82), which is the object specified in the specifying processing (fig. 1), and wherein, in the collection processing, information related to the visually recognized object is collected, based on the attribute information specified in the specifying processing, i.e. the information that is being accentuated (fig. 2, item 208, fig. 1, item 150).
Regarding claim 7, Jacob et al discloses in the estimation processing, the visually recognized range is estimated based on at least any of line-of-sight position information (fig. 1, item 130, fig. 1, item 204), a saccade direction, a saccade speed, a microsaccade occurrence frequency, a microsaccade amplitude, a pupil size, a change in a pupil diameter, a blink speed, and a number of blinks.
Regarding claim 8, Jacob et al discloses in the specifying processing, in at least any of (1) a case where an area difference between a display range of attribute information present in the visually recognized range and the visually recognized range is smaller than a predetermined threshold and (2) a case where a duration, during which a line-of-sight of the user is directed toward the attribute information present in the visually recognized range, is longer than a predetermined duration, i.e. the fixation is at a certain point for an amount of time (page 3, paragraph 25), the attribute information present in the visually recognized range is specified as the attribute information visually recognized by the user, because the eye tracking of fig. 2, item 204 detects fixations for the region of interest (page 3, paragraph 25, fig. 2, item 204, 206).
Conclusion
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/KATHLEEN Y DULANEY/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2666 6/25/2026
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