N O N - F I N A L A C T I O N
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) submitted on 10/09/24 and 4/15/25 complies with the provisions of 37 CFR 1.97. Accordingly, the information disclosure statement is being considered by the examiner.
Specification
The title of the invention is not descriptive. A new title is required that is clearly indicative of the invention to which the claims are directed. Examiner notes that the current title “AUTOMATIC PHOTOGRAPHING METHOD AND ELECTRONIC DEVICE” is a good starting point, but recommends adding analogous language to “BASED ON SEMANTIC MEANING AND IMAGE QUALITY” into the current title. For example, Examiner recommends the following amended new title:
“ELECTRONIC DEVICE AND METHOD FOR AUTOMATIC PHOTOGRAPHING BASED ON SEMANTIC MEANING AND IMAGE QUALITY”
Claim Rejections – 35 USC § 112(b) – Definiteness Requirement
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 1-2 and 4-20 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.
Claim 1 (lines 19-21) recites the underlined limitation (with emphasis in bold):
“invoking, in response to a operation performed by the user on the photographing button, a preset photographing algorithm to process the current image frame to generate a second photographing result”. There is insufficient antecedent basis for the bolded limitation “the user on the photographing button” in the claim. Correction is required.
Claim 11 (lines 19-21) recites the underlined limitation (with emphasis in bold):
“invoking, in response to a operation performed by the user on the photographing button, a preset photographing algorithm to process the current image frame to generate a second photographing result”. There is insufficient antecedent basis for the bolded limitation “the user on the photographing button” in the claim. Correction is required.
Claim 20 (lines 16-18) recites the underlined limitation (with emphasis in bold):
“invoking, in response to a operation performed by the user on the photographing button, a preset photographing algorithm to process the current image frame to generate a second photographing result”. There is insufficient antecedent basis for the bolded limitation “the user on the photographing button” in the claim. Correction is required.
Claims 2, 4-10, and 12-19 are also rejected under 35 U.S.C. 112(b) or 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), second paragraph for reasons discussed above and for respectively depending from rejected claim 1 or 11.
Closest Prior Art
The prior art (cited on PTO-892) is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure. Among these, the following references are considered to be the closest, collectively disclosing the state of the art concerned with an electronic device comprising a camera sensor, user interface display with camera application, and method for automatic photographing based on semantic meaning and image quality score in order to obtain an image(s) that meets a user’s preference / quality standard.
HUANG (US 20230283878) – see Abstract, Fig. 5D, Fig. 6: steps 620-625 & steps 630-650, automatically generates highlight image files that satisfy a user quality standard, wherein step 625 determines points of interest based on scene and sematic understanding in view of para [0048-50, 0064, 0067, 0074, 0100, 0104].
JI (US 20200077017) – see Abstract, Fig. 1-3, and para [0079-0141], discloses an automatic capture method that includes: obtaining an image for an image capture area, and obtaining an image quality assessment value of the image, where the image quality assessment value is configured to characterize a quality of the image; and when the image quality assessment value is determined to satisfy a preset quality condition, generating a photograph-capture instruction, executing the photograph-capture instruction, taking the image as a target image, and saving the target image. Also disclosed are a photograph-capture apparatus and a terminal.
LV (US 20220094846) – see Abstract, Fig. 1-10, discloses a method and an electronic device for selecting images on a burst basis. In some embodiments, every time one image captured by the camera 153 is acquired by the electronic device, the electronic device determines whether the image satisfies the image quality screening condition. The electronic device discards the image when the image does not satisfy the image quality screening condition. Helping to improve utilization of storage space in electronic devices. The electronic device buffers the image when the image satisfies the image screening condition (equivalent to if the image frame image quality satisfies the buffer condition). For example, as illustrated in FIG. 5C, the image content screening condition includes a plurality of conditions such as facial expression, motion spreading, image composition, and the like, and the electronic device determines M images satisfying the plurality of conditions such as facial expression, motion spreading, image composition, and the like from among Q images satisfying the image quality screening condition (corresponding to semantic and image quality satisfying conditions of the image frame). In some embodiments, the electronic device may automatically store the
determined M images to the gallery, thereby facilitating user lookup. The electronic device may also delete other images than the M images among the Q images, thereby helping to improve utilization of the storage space. The image quality is a condition of caching and that semantics and image quality are conditions of eventually saving an image.
LEE (US 20220038621) – see Abstract, Fig. 1, and para [0006, 0011-13, 0061, 0073, 0128, 0136, 0143, 0151, 0157, 0161, 0180], discloses a device and a method of operating the device for automatically creating photos or videos of a certain moment that the user does not want to miss from a plurality of image frames sequentially captured through a camera attached to the device and storing the photos or videos.
DONSBACH (US 20210303968) – see Abstract, and Fig. 3, Fig. 7, Fig. 9, discloses systems and methods that provide feedback to a user of an image capture device that includes an artificial intelligence system that analyzes incoming image frames to, for example, determine whether to automatically capture and store the incoming frames. An example system can also, in the viewfinder portion of a user interface presented on a display, a graphical intelligence feedback indicator in association with a live video stream. The graphical intelligence feedback indicator can graphically indicate, for each of a plurality of image frames as such image frame is presented within the viewfinder portion of the user interface, a respective measure of one or more attributes of the respective scene depicted by the image frame output by the artificial intelligence system.
Examiner notes that the closest/related prior art (cited/discussed in this Office Action), when taken alone or in reasonable combination, does not appear to teach the entirety of the subject matter within Applicant’s claimed invention as recited in each independent claim (1, 11, and 20).
Contact Information
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the EXAMINER should be directed to AKSHAY TREHAN whose telephone number is (571) 270-5252. The examiner can normally be reached between the hours of 10am – 6pm during the weekdays Monday – Friday.
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If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, TWYLER HASKINS can be reached on (571) 272-7406. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is (571) 273-8300.
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/AKSHAY TREHAN/
Examiner, Art Unit 2639
/TWYLER L HASKINS/Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 2639
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