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 9/23/2024 was filed after the mailing date of the application on 9/23/2024. The submission is in compliance with the provisions of 37 CFR 1.97. Accordingly, the information disclosure statement is being considered by the examiner.
Claim Interpretation
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 112(f):
(f) Element in Claim for a Combination. – An element in a claim for a combination may be expressed as a means or step for performing a specified function without the recital of structure, material, or acts in support thereof, and such claim shall be construed to cover the corresponding structure, material, or acts described in the specification and equivalents thereof.
The following is a quotation of pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, sixth paragraph:
An element in a claim for a combination may be expressed as a means or step for performing a specified function without the recital of structure, material, or acts in support thereof, and such claim shall be construed to cover the corresponding structure, material, or acts described in the specification and equivalents thereof.
This application includes one or more claim limitations that use the word “means” or “step” but are nonetheless not being interpreted under 35 U.S.C. 112(f) or pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, sixth paragraph because the claim limitation(s) recite(s) sufficient structure, materials, or acts to entirely perform the recited function. Such claim limitation(s) is: “computer program code means for” in claim 20.
Because this/these claim limitation(s) is/are not being interpreted under 35 U.S.C. 112(f) or pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, sixth paragraph, it/they is/are not being interpreted to cover only the corresponding structure, material, or acts described in the specification as performing the claimed function, and equivalents thereof.
If applicant intends to have this/these limitation(s) interpreted under 35 U.S.C. 112(f) or pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, sixth paragraph, applicant may: (1) amend the claim limitation(s) to remove the structure, materials, or acts that performs the claimed function; or (2) present a sufficient showing that the claim limitation(s) does/do not recite sufficient structure, materials, or acts to perform the claimed function.
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 (i.e., changing from AIA to pre-AIA ) 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)(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(s) 1-22 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by Saripalle (US Patent 10,311,286).
As per claims 1, 9, 14 and 20: (Original) Saripalle discloses a system for providing privacy measures for a computing device comprising (see abstract):
a memory (Col 20, lines 60-67; User device 500 may include an image sensor 530, a processor 540, memory 550);
a display configured to display images and/or data which may be subject to privacy concerns (Col 23, lines 5-12; the server transmits data (eg, an HTML page) to a client device (eg, for the purpose of displaying the data to a user interacting with the client device and receiving user input therefrom));
at least one image sensor configured to provide image data of a person comprising a user operating the computing device and image data of the environment surrounding the user within an image sensor field of view (Col 20, lines 60-67; User device 500 may include an image sensor 530, a processor 540, memory 550, biometric hardware and / or software 560, and a system bus that couples various system components including memory 550 to processor 540);
at least one processor configured to (Col 20, lines 60-67; User device 500 may include an image sensor 530, a processor 540, memory 550):
receive the image data to segment the image data to isolate the facial features of the user (Col 3, lines 12-16; receiving an image of a user's face area, wherein the face area includes an eye and an area surrounding the eye) and
generate a user facial vector representative of characteristics of the segmented facial image data (Col 3, lines 22-25; generating a feature descriptor based on the combination of feature descriptors and storing the generated feature descriptor in a biometric template); and
compare the user facial vector with facial vector data associated with one or more authorised device users stored in the memory (Col 18, lines 45-53; local image descriptors are matched using distance measurements to find matching point pairs between registration and matching templates for both the eyeball and periocular area. As an example, the Euclidean distance between the descriptor focus points can be calculated separately between the eyeball and the surrounding eyeball registration and matching descriptor vectors, and pairs below a certain distance threshold are reserved as matching point pairs); and
a privacy controller module configured to determine a privacy threat alert based on the facial vector comparison; wherein, on receipt of a privacy threat alert from the privacy controller, the processor is configured to modify the display of the electronic device to preserve the privacy of the displayed image and/or data (Col 21, lines 10-23; the image processing module 562 may perform segmentation and enhancement on images of the user 510's eyes and surrounding facial area to assist in isolating vasculature and other features of interest. The template module 564 can create a biometric template based on the vasculature image and perform various obscuring and scrambling operations on the template).
As per claim 2: (Original) A system as claimed in Claim 1, wherein the memory is configured for storing facial recognition data (Col 1, lines 28-35; biometric data captured from an individual, such as one captured, can be stored as a template that is later used to verify the identity of the individual).
As per claim 3: (Original) A system as claimed in Claim 2, wherein the facial recognition data comprises facial vector data (Col 7, lines 19-20; facial features can complement eye features for an eye-based biometric matcher).
As per claims 4, 15 and 21: (Currently Amended) A system as claimed in Claim 1, wherein the processor is configured to further segment the image data forming further segmented image data, to identify either, a further person, and/or an object within the field of view of the image sensor from the further segmented image data (Col 21, lines 10-23; the image processing module 562 may perform segmentation and enhancement on images of the user 510's eyes and surrounding facial area to assist in isolating vasculature and other features of interest).
As per claims 5, 11, 16 and 22: (Original) A system as claimed in Claim 4, wherein the object comprises an image and/or video recording device (Col 21, lines 10-23; Biometric hardware and / or software 560 includes an image processing module 562 for performing operations on images captured by the image sensor 530).
As per claims 6, 10 and 17: (Currently Amended) A system as claimed in Claim 4, wherein the privacy controller is configured to determine a privacy threat on the basis of the further segmented image data, such that, in use, on identification of a privacy threat, the privacy controller causes the processor to modify the display of the electronic device to preserve the privacy of the data previously being shown on the display (Col 21, lines 16-23; The template module 564 can create a biometric template based on the vasculature image and perform various obscuring and scrambling operations on the template. A matching module 566 verifies the identity of the user 510 by performing a matching operation between a biometric matching template formed in response to capture of the biometric reading and a previously stored registration template).
As per claim 7, 12 and 18: (Currently Amended) A system as claimed in Claim 1, wherein modification of the display comprises displaying an image or message at least partially obscuring the displays image or data (Col 21, lines 10-23; the image processing module 562 may perform segmentation and enhancement on images of the user 510's eyes and surrounding facial area to assist in isolating vasculature and other features of interest. The template module 564 can create a biometric template based on the vasculature image and perform various obscuring and scrambling operations on the template).
As per claim 8, 13 and 19: (Currently Amended) A system as claimed in Claim 1, wherein modification of the display comprises either blacking out the display or turning the display to an 'off' state (Col 21, lines 10-23; the image processing module 562 may perform segmentation and enhancement on images of the user 510's eyes and surrounding facial area to assist in isolating vasculature and other features of interest. The template module 564 can create a biometric template based on the vasculature image and perform various obscuring and scrambling operations on the template).
Relevant Prior Art References
The following prior art is cited as being of interest to the claimed invention but has not been applied in any of the current rejections.
Resudek et al.- US Patent Publication 2019/0114060- the prior art teaches techniques for user interface customization based on facial recognition.
Murphy et al.- US Patent Pub. 2020/0193053 - the prior art teaches techniques for automated privacy protection in distributed images.
Gilbertson et al.- US Patent Pub. 2020/0159864 - the prior art teaches techniques for serving content for simultaneous multi-users for shared device.
Santos et al.- US Patent Pub. 2020/0236539 - the prior art teaches techniques for protecting user privacy when using a mobile device.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to ANTHONY D BROWN whose telephone number is (571)270-1472. The examiner can normally be reached 730-330pm.
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/ANTHONY D BROWN/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2408