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 .
Status of claims: claims 1, 5-10, 12-14 are pending below. Claims 2-4 and 11 are cancelled.
Response to Arguments
Applicant's arguments filed August 24th 2026 have been fully considered but they are not persuasive.
Applicant remark – (page 8-10) Applicant argued the lack of teaching due to new claim amendment. Please see Claims for detail.
Examiner response – Examiner respectfully disagree. Update review of the cited prior art, Zhang et al (US 2019/0188460) teaches the newly claim amendment in paragraph 0050-0051, with further detail in 0055-0058 as well as 0058 and 0034. Please see the Office Action below for further details.
Applicant remark – (page 10-11) Applicant argued the lack of teaching due to new claim amendment. Please see Claims for detail for claim 5-9, and 10 and 12.
Examiner response – Examiner respectfully disagree. Update review of the cited prior art, Zhang et al (US 2019/0188460) and TADI et al (US 2020/0193614) teaches the newly claim amendment in paragraph 0050-0051, with further detail in 0055-0058 as well as 0058 and 0034. Please see the Office Action below for further details for claims 5-9. Zhang et al (US 2019/0188460) in view of FREEDMAN et al (US 2017/0193288) teaches 10 and 12. Please see the Office Action below for further details.
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.
Claim 1 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by Zhang et al (US 2019/0188460).
Claim 1:
Zhang et al (US 2019/0188460) anticipated the following subject matter:
An information processing apparatus, comprising:
at least one processor configured to:(0050-0051; 0055-0058, specifically 0058 with previous frame); predict a future hand pose based (0058 next (future) frame) (0058 detail current frame and position of hand) in a current frame based on the predicted future hand pose (0050-0051 detail image-hand gesture mapper, which has undergone shape parameters optimization, to perform rough estimation of positions of the joints on the current frame. Optionally, estimation of the degree of freedom parameters of the joints is performed, where joints having specific threshold (auxiliary information); 0058, 0034 detail previous frame, position and speed of hand, predict coordinate; 0047 detail shape parameter and 0058 motion prediction with depth map).
Regarding claim 13, Zhang et al teaches flowchart/method in figure 1.
Regarding claim 14, Zhang et al teaches non-transitory computer-readable in paragraph 0017-0018, and 0032.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
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.
Claims 5-9 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Zhang et al (US 2019/0188460) in view of TADI et al (US 2020/0193614).
Claim 5:
Zhang et al teaches all the subject matter above, but not the following which is taught by TADI et al (US 2020/0193614):
The information processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the at least one processor is further configured to estimate a human body pose of the human body based on the image, wherein the (0098 detail limited degree of freedom and range for entire body, where paragraph 0103 further detail such position data helpful for determine position orientation of the hands).
Zhang et al and TADI et al are both in the field of image analysis, especially use of the degree of freedom to predict hand pose such that the combine outcome is predictable.
Therefore it would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill before the effective filing date to modify Zhang et al by TADI et al where the use of body provides increases the accuracy of position orientation of the hands as disclosed by TADI in paragraph 0098 and 0103.
Claim 6:
TADI et al further teach:
The information processing apparatus according to claim 5, wherein the at least one processor is further configured to estimate the human body pose based on the image related to the past frame (0098 detail the auxiliary of the body for the degree of freedom, where such data provides hand post estimation in 0103).
Claim 7:
Zhang et al teaches:
The information processing apparatus according to claim 5, wherein the at lease one processor is further configured to predict the future hand pose based on the auxiliary information related to the estimated human body pose (0047 detail using a statistical average obtained according to the sample data set of hands as an initial input of the shape parameters, and the degree of freedom parameters of the joints outputted from the image-hand gesture mapper as an initial input of pose parameters; 0058 detail motion prediction and a kernel correlation filter (KCF), which uses the data set, motion prediction and kernel for further pose, may it be hand or full body).
Claim 8:
TADI et al further teach:
The information processing apparatus according to claim 5, wherein the at least one processor is further configured to integrate the estimated current hand pose and a current human body pose in the current frame (0098 detail the auxiliary of the body for the degree of freedom, where such data provides hand post estimation in 0103).
Claim 9:
Zhang et al teach:
The information processing apparatus according to claim 8, wherein the at least one processor is further configured to determine[[s]] whether the current hand pose and the current human body pose are related to abnormal values ruined-or natural values (0069 and S43 detail estimation body and hand pose/movement to be natural or unnatural (abnormal)).
Claims 10 and 12 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Zhang et al (US 2019/0188460) in view of FREEDMAN et al (US 2017/0193288):
Claim 10:
The information processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the at least one processor is further configured to determine a calculation load related to estimation of the current hand pose, and wherein the determination is based on the auxiliary information reduced (0022 detail binary representation of the hand poses and/or hand motions which further reduces the complexity of computation since binary computation requires considerably less processing resources compared to continuous representations a skeletal hand. Specializing the one or more SSVM functions may reduce even more the computation load at runtime).
Zhang et al and FREEDMAN et al are both in the field of image analysis, especially use of the degree of freedom to predict hand pose such that the combine outcome is predictable.
Therefore it would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill before the effective filing date to modify Zhang et al by FREEDMAN et al such a limited number of pre-defined hand gestures are considered during the optimization process makes the optimization process may become simpler and faster as disclosed by FREEDMAN et al in 0022.
Claim 12:
Zhang et al et al teaches:
The information processing apparatus according to claim 10, wherein the at least one processor is further configured to determine the calculation load based on a high-precision feature quantity OR a lightweight feature quantity, and wherein the high-precision feature quantity and the lightweight feature quantity are related to the auxiliary information (0050-0053 detail estimation (calculation) with higher confidence level than a specific threshold (high precision) parameter (feature quantity), wherein auxiliary is taught above).
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure.
Miller et al (US 2022/0134218) teaches SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR VIRTUAL CHARACTER ANIMATION USING MOTION CAPTURE - inputs information about the hand pose of a person from multiple sensors over a period of time and generates a highly probable hand pose prediction from that information, based on what it learns from a previously captured dataset of high quality sample motion captures (abstract).
Applicant's amendment necessitated the new ground(s) of rejection presented in this Office action. Accordingly, THIS ACTION IS MADE FINAL. See MPEP § 706.07(a). Applicant is reminded of the extension of time policy as set forth in 37 CFR 1.136(a).
A shortened statutory period for reply to this final action is set to expire THREE MONTHS from the mailing date of this action. In the event a first reply is filed within TWO MONTHS of the mailing date of this final action and the advisory action is not mailed until after the end of the THREE-MONTH shortened statutory period, then the shortened statutory period will expire on the date the advisory action is mailed, and any nonprovisional extension fee (37 CFR 1.17(a)) pursuant to 37 CFR 1.136(a) will be calculated from the mailing date of the advisory action. In no event, however, will the statutory period for reply expire later than SIX MONTHS from the mailing date of this final action.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to TSUNG-YIN TSAI whose telephone number is (571)270-1671. The examiner can normally be reached 7am-4pm.
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/TSUNG YIN TSAI/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2656
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