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 .
In the response to this Office Action, the Examiner respectfully requests that support be shown for language added to any original claims on amendment and any new claims. That is, indicate support for newly added claim language by specifically pointing to page(s) and line numbers in the specification and/or drawing figure(s). This will assist the Examiner in prosecuting this application.
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 of this title, 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 1-3 and 5-15 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Foreign Publication JP 2010-141843 A to Nakamura (hereinafter "Nakamura", included in IDS provided by Applicant) in view of U.S. Patent Application Publication 2013/0120522 A1 to Lian et al. (hereinafter "Lian"), and further in view of U.S. Patent Application Publication 2021/0225185 A1 to Liu (hereinafter "Liu").
Regarding Claims 1, 11, and 15, Nakamura teaches an information processing device (Abstract; Figs. 2-3; Para. 45-55 of Nakamura; apparatus main body 110 is a computer device to which a general-purpose computer can be applied and includes a CPU 111… CPU 111 performs basic control as a computer of the conference terminal device 100 according to the conference control program stored in the storage unit 112. As a result, the control unit 116 includes display control means for controlling the display unit 150, stimulus control means for performing stimulus control on the own user, concentration level determining means for determining the concentration level of the own user), an information processing method, and a non-transitory computer-readable medium having stored thereon computer-executable instructions that, when executed by a computer, cause the computer to execute operations comprising: a Central Processing Unit (CPU) configured to: determine, based on a situation of content, an estimation method to estimate a degree of interest of a viewer of the content (Abstract; Figs. 2-3; Para. 45-57 of Nakamura; CPU 111 performs basic control as a computer of the conference terminal device 100 according to the conference control program stored in the storage unit 112. As a result, the control unit 116 includes display control means for controlling the display unit 150, stimulus control means for performing stimulus control on the own user, concentration level determining means for determining the concentration level of the own user… As shown in FIG. 6, the display unit 150 includes presentation material or the like… used in the conference input from the image data input unit or video data transmitted by the conference terminal device 100 as the communication partner); and estimate the degree of interest on based on the estimation method (Abstract; Figs. 2-8; Para. 45-78 of Nakamura; CPU 111 executes concentration degree determination processing for determining the degree of concentration of the user in the meeting… CPU 111 controls the communication IF 113 to transmit the concentration level information of the own user to the conference terminal device 100 of the communication partner, thereby notifying the concentration level of the own user. A notification process is executed).
Nakamura does not explicitly disclose that the situation of the content includes: one of presence or absence of display of a sentence, and a state of a provider of the content; estimating the degree of interest based on a plurality of parameters including a parameter regarding a line-of-sight of the viewer.
However, Lian teaches that situation of content includes: one of presence or absence of display of a sentence, and a state of a provider of the content (Fig. 1-2; Para. 21-35 of Lian; when the active speaker stops speaking with a questioning tone, with his head and eyes directed at a target location on a target screen for a certain time interval, then the target participant (whose image is positioned at the target location) may be notified via an appropriate notification (e.g., blinking icon on display, beep, text message, etc.)… system 10 can empower an administrator to control notifications and images (to be rendered on a given set of screens) based on the active speaker's physical cues (e.g., eye gaze, speaker behavior, etc.)).
Therefore, at the time when the invention was filed, it would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art to include that the situation of the content includes: one of presence or absence of display of a sentence, and a state of a provider of the content using the teachings of Lian in order to modify the device taught by Nakamura. The motivation to combine these analogous arts would have been to provide a system and a method for alerting a participant in a video conference (Para. 1 of Lian).
The combination of Nakamura and Lian does not explicitly disclose estimating the degree of interest based on a plurality of parameters including a parameter regarding a line-of-sight of the viewer.
However, Liu teaches estimating a degree of interest of a viewer on a basis of a plurality of parameters including a parameter regarding a line-of-sight of the viewer (Figs. 2-3; Para. 37-61 of Liu; user's actual face orientation and actual viewpoint position at this stage are used as the learning feature data at this stage, and a first judgment result is obtained by judging whether the actual face orientation is perpendicular to the playback interface of the online learning application; a second judgment result is obtained by judging whether the actual viewpoint position falls within the playback interface region of the online learning application).
Therefore, at the time when the invention was filed, it would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art to include estimating the degree of interest based on a plurality of parameters including a parameter regarding a line-of-sight of the viewer using the teachings of Liu in order to modify the device taught by the combination of Nakamura and Lian. The motivation to combine these analogous arts would have been to determine that an online learner does not concentrate on in the learning process, and provide a targeted relearning scheme (Para. 3-4 of Liu).
Regarding Claim 2, the combination of Nakamura, Lian, and Liu teaches that the CPU is further configured to determine the estimation method based on a characteristic of the viewer (Figs. 2-3; Para. 37-61 of Liu; user's actual face orientation and actual viewpoint position at this stage are used as the learning feature data at this stage, and a first judgment result is obtained by judging whether the actual face orientation is perpendicular to the playback interface of the online learning application; a second judgment result is obtained by judging whether the actual viewpoint position falls within the playback interface region of the online learning application).
Regarding Claim 3, the combination of Nakamura, Lian, and Liu teaches that the CPU is further configured to determine one parameter of the plurality of parameters based on the situation of the content; and estimate the degree of interest based on the determined at least one parameter (Figs. 2-3; Para. 37-61 of Liu; in the watching stage, the user usually only needs to directly watch the playback interface of the online learning application; therefore, some facial information (such as face orientation and eye viewpoints) of the user can be used as the learning feature data that characterizes user's learning concentration at this stage. The online answering stage refers to a stage at which the user is required to answer some given questions in various forms, so time information (such as delay of answering and time length consumed by answering each question) or accuracy information is used as the learning feature data that characterizes user's learning concentration at this stage… analyzing learning feature data corresponding to an interactive learning stage by using a preset analysis mode corresponding to each interactive learning stage, to obtain an actual learning concentration corresponding to the interactive learning stage. On the basis of step 201, this step 202 is intended to determine the actual learning concentration corresponding to the learning feature data acquired at each interactive learning stage).
Regarding Claim 5, the combination of Nakamura, Lian, and Liu teaches that the CPU is further configured to determine the estimation method based on a change in the situation of the content (Fig. 1-2; Para. 21-35 of Lian; when the active speaker stops speaking with a questioning tone, with his head and eyes directed at a target location on a target screen for a certain time interval, then the target participant (whose image is positioned at the target location) may be notified via an appropriate notification (e.g., blinking icon on display, beep, text message, etc.)… system 10 can empower an administrator to control notifications and images (to be rendered on a given set of screens) based on the active speaker's physical cues (e.g., eye gaze, speaker behavior, etc.)… Figs. 2-3; Para. 37-61 of Liu; analyzing learning feature data corresponding to an interactive learning stage by using a preset analysis mode corresponding to each interactive learning stage, to obtain an actual learning concentration corresponding to the interactive learning stage. On the basis of step 201, this step 202 is intended to determine the actual learning concentration corresponding to the learning feature data acquired at each interactive learning stage. Due to the difference between different interactive learning stages, the actual learning concentrations of different interactive learning stages are not determined based on a unified analysis mode in this step, but an analysis mode in accordance with the characteristics of each interactive learning stage is formulated in advance for each interactive learning stage according to different characteristics represented by the user at different interactive learning stages and related to the learning concentrations, so that the accurate actual learning concentration is determined through the matching analysis mode).
Regarding Claim 6, the combination of Nakamura, Lian, and Liu teaches that the CPU is further configured to determine the estimation method at specific intervals (Figs. 1-3; Para. 30-61 of Liu; learning feature data of the user at different interactive learning stages of the online learning may be obtained in real time from the online learning terminal 101, 102, or 103… Due to the difference between different interactive learning stages, the actual learning concentrations of different interactive learning stages are not determined based on a unified analysis mode in this step, but an analysis mode in accordance with the characteristics of each interactive learning stage is formulated in advance for each interactive learning stage according to different characteristics represented by the user at different interactive learning stages and related to the learning concentrations, so that the accurate actual learning concentration is determined through the matching analysis mode).
Regarding Claim 7, the combination of Nakamura, Lian, and Liu teaches the CPU is further configured to make a notification to the provider of the content based on the degree of interest (Fig. 7; Para. 59 of Nakamura; CPU 111 displays an icon indicating the degree of concentration of other users in the sub display area).
Regarding Claim 8, the combination of Nakamura, Lian, and Liu teaches that the CPU is further configured to make the notification for reconfirmation of the degree of interest to the viewer whose degree of interest is less than a threshold (Fig. 9; Para. 79-81 of Nakamura; CPU 111 displays a screen that prompts the user to operate the stimulus control setting unit 118 that selects whether or not to perform wake-up control for urging the user when the user is in a sleep state during the meeting. 150, and the user is allowed to operate the stimulus control setting unit 118. Based on the operation of the stimulus control setting unit 118 by the own user, the CPU 111 determines whether or not to perform the awakening control of the own user).
Regarding Claim 9, the combination of Nakamura, Lian, and Liu teaches that the CPU is further configured to make the notification of the degree of interest to the provider (Fig. 7; Para. 59 of Nakamura; CPU 111 displays an icon indicating the degree of concentration of other users in the sub display area).
Regarding Claim 10, the combination of Nakamura, Lian, and Liu teaches that the CPU is further configured to separately make a notification of the viewer whose degree of interest is equal to or greater than a threshold and the viewer whose degree of interest is less than the threshold Fig. 7; Para. 59 of Nakamura; CPU 111 displays an icon indicating the degree of concentration of other users in the sub display area).
Regarding Claim 11, the combination of Nakamura, Lian, and Liu teaches that the CPU is further configured to display an icon corresponding to the degree of interest of the viewer (Fig. 7; Para. 59 of Nakamura; CPU 111 displays an icon indicating the degree of concentration of other users in the sub display area).
Regarding Claim 12, the combination of Nakamura, Lian, and Liu teaches that the CPU is further configured to display an icon corresponding to the parameter of the viewer (Fig. 7; Para. 59 of Nakamura; CPU 111 displays an icon indicating the degree of concentration of other users in the sub display area).
Regarding Claim 13, the combination of Nakamura, Lian, and Liu teaches that the CPU is further configured to: make a voice notification at a volume corresponding to the degree of interest (Fig. 12; Para. 109-111 of Nakamura; CPU 111 executes a wake-up control process for performing a wake-up control that prompts the user to wake up. That is, the CPU 111 controls the display unit 150 to control the speaker 122 of the headset 120 while blinking the display screen or displaying a screen (for example, blinking display) prompting awakening… speaker 122 increases the output of the speaker 122 or outputs a message prompting awakening, and the process proceeds to step S7 of the main process. Thereby, since the self-user who is a sleep state can be awakened and a self-user can be returned to a meeting).
Allowable Subject Matter
Claim 4 is 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.
Any comments considered necessary by applicant must be submitted no later than the payment of the issue fee and, to avoid processing delays, should preferably accompany the issue fee. Such submissions should be clearly labeled “Comments on Statement of Reasons for Allowance.”
Response to Arguments
Applicant’s arguments have been fully considered but are believed to be answered by and therefore moot in view of new grounds of rejection presented above.
Conclusion
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 extension fee 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 date of this final action.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to ABHISHEK SARMA whose telephone number is (571)272-9887. The examiner can normally be reached on Mon - Fri 8:00-5:00.
If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Amr Awad can be reached on 571-272-7764. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
Information regarding the status of an application may be obtained from the Patent Application Information Retrieval (PAIR) system. Status information for published applications may be obtained from either Private PAIR or Public PAIR. Status information for unpublished applications is available through Private PAIR only. For more information about the PAIR system, see http://pair-direct.uspto.gov. Should you have questions on access to the Private PAIR system, contact the Electronic Business Center (EBC) at 866-217-9197 (toll-free). If you would like assistance from a USPTO Customer Service Representative or access to the automated information system, call 800-786-9199 (IN USA OR CANADA) or 571-272-1000.
/ABHISHEK SARMA/
Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2621
Prosecution Insights