DETAILED ACTION
Notice of Pre-AIA or AIA Status
1. The present application, filed on or after March 16, 2013, is being examined under the first inventor to file provisions of the AIA . It is responsive to the submission dated 07/30/2024. Claims 1-10 and 12-20 are presented for examination, of which, claims 1, 12 and 13 are independent claims.
Information Disclosure Statement
2. The information disclosure statements (IDSs) submitted on 07/30/2024 are in compliance with the provisions of 37 CFR 1.97 and are being considered by the Examiner.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 112
3. 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.
4. Claims 1-10 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 pre-AIA the applicant regards as the invention.
Claim 1 is indefinite for reciting steps written with broadly functional claimed language that only describes the function of the invention as opposed to how it is carried out.
Particularly, claim 1 recites a data display method, comprising: (the steps of):
determining, in response to a display instruction for target display data, candidate positions in a display region according to a preset display mode, and determining a reference position in the display region according to the preset display mode and positions of current display data in the display region;
determining priority values of the candidate positions based on distances between the candidate positions and the reference position; and
determining a target position from the candidate positions based on the priority values and displaying the target display data according to the target position.
These steps, as claimed, appear to merely provide a series of concatenated block box experiments, of which only inputs and outputs are specified. The aforementioned steps in the claim provide no concrete functional or structural features explaining exactly:
What is doing and/or how the candidate positions and the reference position are determined; how the priority values of the candidate positions are calculated; and what is doing and/or how the target position is determined. It also fails to provide the source and/or how the instructions or request for the target display data is originated or performed.
The limitations of claim 1 are not only unduly broad with respect to the description of the embodiments and figures but also render unclear the subject matters for which protection is sought in regard to a technical effect to be achieved. The ordinary skill in the art would not be able to draw a clear boundary between what is and is not covered by the claim. Accordingly, since the functional limitations fail to limit the claim, to make clear the scope of the claim 1, the applicant, in response to this office action, is suggested to amend said claim such that it expressly recites the corresponding structure, or material for performing the claimed function and clearly links or associates the structure, material, or acts to the claimed function, without introducing any new matter(s).
The claims not specifically cited in this rejection are rejected as being dependent upon their rejected base claims. Particularly, none of the limitations found in dependent claims 2-10 cite any corresponding structure(s) for performing the claimed functions.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
5. 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.
6. Claims 1-2, 7-10, 12-14, and 19-21 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Xiao et al. (CN 113596354 A).
Considering claim 1, Xiao discloses a data display method, comprising:
determining, in response to a display instruction (e.g., trigger operation) for target display data, candidate positions in a display region according to a preset display mode (e.g., predicted result or image type), and determining a reference position (e.g., important image areas) in the display region according to the preset display mode and positions of current display data in the display region (for examples, Xiao discloses an image processing method comprises: in response to the trigger operation of adding the expression image in the target image, selecting one or more candidate image regions from the target image; performing important area prediction processing to the target image, and selecting one or more important image areas from the target image according to the prediction result of the important area prediction processing. See abstract and paras. 2-4 in the “content of the invention” section of Xiao. Xiao further teaches: the target image area on the display comprises the region of the object of interest for adding image expressions based on different types of target image. See para. 1 under the “Specific implementation examples” section in Xiao);
determining priority values of the candidate positions based on distances between the candidate positions and the reference position (e.g., determining the position relation (e.g., distance) between any candidate image area and any important image area in the target image … the target image area comprises the candidate image area which does not overlap with the important image area. See abstract and para. 5 of the “content of the invention” section of Xiao, wherein the position relation determined based on importance of image area not overlapping the candidate image area obviously encompasses the determined priority values of the candidate positions. See also par. 18 and steps “S202-S203” and “S401” under the “content of the invention” section of Xiao); and
determining a target position from the candidate positions based on the priority values (e.g., selecting the target image area from one or more candidate image areas according to the position relation; the target image area comprises the candidate image area which does not overlap with the important image area. See abstract and para. 5 of the “content of the invention” section of Xiao and also the detailed description of step “S401”); and
displaying the target display data (e.g., expression image) according to the target position (e.g., adding the expression image to the target image area to improve the reliability of the position of the determined expression image to improve the quality of the image after adding the expression image. See abstract and paras. 1 and 6 in the “content of the invention” section of Xiao. And, rendering and displaying the target image added with the expression image in the target image area through the external display device (such as the user terminal 10), according to the indication of the expression adding information. See paras. 2 and 5 under the “Specific implementation examples” section in Xiao).
The Xiao reference slightly differs from the invention of claim 1 in that Xiao is explicit as to the determined positions in the display region for target display data being based on a preset display mode.
However, considering that in Xiao, it is provided that the region of interest in the display region for adding image expressions is determined according to different types of target images, image classification, image size, image landscape and display aspect ratio of user interface, based on predicted visual importance image areas on the target image display region to display the added expression (See paras. 1-10 and steps ”S201-S203” under the “Specific implementation examples” section in Xiao), it is obvious that the predicted visual importance areas on the target image display area to add the image impression would be based on collecting configuration information for target image types in the form of a preset display mode.
Additionally, Xiao further teaches that predicted visual importance image areas on the target image display region to display the added expression is performed by a computer device that can adopt visual importance extraction mechanism to extract the importance area in the target image, wherein the visual importance extraction mechanism can be pre-built in visual importance area prediction model (Visual Importance Prediction), that is to say, the computer device can invoke the visual importance area prediction model to extract the importance area in the target image, so as to realize the applicability and popularization of the computer device when detecting the candidate image area for determining the target image region to be added in the expression image in the target image, so that the computer device can directly output visible rendering result through the HTTP protocol to the user terminal 10, so as to directly display the added expression image of the target image in the user terminal 10. See para. 5 under the “Specific implementation examples” section in Xiao.
Therefore, it would have been obvious to a person having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have further modified the teachings of Xiao by implementing the conventional method of collecting configuration information for added target image types on a display region in the form of a preset display mode. The motivation would have been to realize the applicability and popularization of the computer device when detecting the candidate image area for determining the target image region to be added in the expression image in the target image, so that the computer device can directly output visible rendering result through the HTTP protocol to the user terminal 10, so as to directly display the added expression image of the target image in the user terminal 10; and also to use the known technique to improve similar devices (methods, or products) in the same way. Furthermore, modifying the Xiao reference as such would further provide the benefit of improving the visual quality of the resulted image composition and maintaining the corresponding relation between each expression image and the video frame of the expression image added in the target display area after the computer device processes and transmits the composited image to remote user terminals for the user to display and use. See paras. 9-16 including the detailed descriptions of steps “S203 and S204” under the “Specific implementation examples” section in Xiao.
As per claim 2, Xiao discloses the preset display mode comprises a data distribution method, a data distribution position, and a data overlap degree (see the detailed descriptions of steps “S202” of Xiao); and wherein the candidate positions and the reference position are determined based on the following; determining the candidate positions in the display region according to the data distribution method; and determining the reference position in the display region according to the data distribution position, the data overlap degree, and the positions of the current display data in the display region. See paras. 9-16 including the detailed descriptions of steps “S203 and S204” under the “Specific implementation examples” section in Xiao.
As per claim 7, Xiao discloses after displaying the target display data according to the target position, updating the current display data according to the target display data, and maintaining array elements in a two-dimensional array according to the updated current display data; the array elements corresponding to pixel points in the display region, and when the array elements are preset values, it representing that the corresponding pixel points belong to the current display data; and in response to a display instruction for new target display data, determining positions of the current display data in the display region according to the two-dimensional array. See paras. 9-16 including the detailed descriptions of steps “S203 and S204” and step “S401” under the “Specific implementation examples” section in Xiao.
As per claim 8, Xiao discloses the display instruction is generated by sending or receiving the target display data. See paras. 5-9 including the detailed descriptions of and step “S201” under the “Specific implementation examples” section in Xiao.
As per claim 9, Xiao discloses a display interface to which the display region belongs further comprises a deployment region for preset interface elements; and the display region is determined based on the deployment region, and the deployment region is determined by attributes of the preset interface elements. See paras. 9-16 including the detailed descriptions of steps “S202-203”, “S401-S402” and the detailed descriptions of figs. 3b, 4 and 6 under the “Specific implementation examples” section in Xiao.
As per claim 10, Xiao discloses setting the target position as a position parameter for a preset feature point of the interactive emoji, and rendering the interactive emoji according to the position parameter, wherein the target display data comprises an interactive emoji; and displaying the target display data according to the target position. See the detailed descriptions of figs. 3b, 4 and 6 under the “Specific implementation examples” section in Xiao.
The subject-matters of claims 12 and 13 correspond in terms of a device and non-transitory storage medium, respectively, to that of independent method claim 1. The features of claims 12-13 are substantially the same as those of claim 1 except the invention category. Accordingly, the same reasonings applied for the rejections of claim 1 above also apply to claims 12-13. In addition, Xiao discloses an electronic device (see fig. 1a), comprising: one or more processors (item 10 or 11); and a storage means (integral to item 10) configured to store one or more programs to be executed by the one or more processors. See paras. 2-9 and the detailed descriptions of fig. 1a under the “Specific implementation examples” section in Xiao.
Claim 14 is rejected under the same rationale as claim 2.
Claim 19 is rejected under the same rationale as claim 7.
Claim 20 is rejected under the same rationale as claim 8.
Claim 21 is rejected under the same rationale as claim 9.
Allowable Subject Matter
7. Claims 3-6, and 15-18 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, because the prior art of record fail to teach the method according to claim 2 and the electronic device according to claim 14, wherein determining the reference position in the display region according to the data distribution position, the data overlap degree, and the positions of the current display data in the display region comprises:
determining at least one first reference position in the display region according to the data distribution position; and determining at least one second reference position from the positions of the current display data according to the data overlap degree, the data overlap degree being in inverse correlation with a number of second reference positions; and wherein determining the priority values of the candidate positions according to the distances between the candidate positions and the reference position comprises: determining the priority values of the candidate positions based on a relationship between the candidate positions and the first reference positions and between the candidate position and the second reference position.
Conclusion
8. The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure.
Lan (US 11750876) discloses a method and apparatus for determining an object adding mode, an electronic device and a medium. A specific implementation of the method includes: obtaining a target video and a to-be-added object set to be added to a target video; determining time periods corresponding to storyboards of the target video; determining a presentation period of a to-be-added object in the to-be-added object set in the target video based on the time periods corresponding to the storyboards; generating object adding indication information based on the determined presentation period, where the object adding indication information includes time prompt information used to indicate the presentation period of the to-be-added object in the to-be-added object set in the target video. According to this implementation, automatic selection of time for adding the to-be-added object to the target video is realized.
9. Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to WESNER SAJOUS whose telephone number is (571) 272-7791. The examiner can normally be reached on M-F 10:00 TO 7:30 (ET).
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If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Said Broome can be reached on 571-272-2931. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/WESNER SAJOUS/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2612
WS
01/24/2026