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 .
Continued Examination Under 37 CFR 1.114
A request for continued examination under 37 CFR 1.114, including the fee set forth in 37 CFR 1.17(e), was filed in this application after final rejection. Since this application is eligible for continued examination under 37 CFR 1.114, and the fee set forth in 37 CFR 1.17(e) has been timely paid, the finality of the previous Office action has been withdrawn pursuant to 37 CFR 1.114. Applicant's submission filed on 5/26/26 has been entered.
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.
Claim(s) 1, 3-5, 9-13, 15-16, 19, 22-25, 27-29 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Wudtke (US 20180342129) in view of Butler (US 20090276320) Karivaradaswamy (US 20220180798 ) and Deaville (US 20220335402)
Wudtke discloses
1. An automated payment system (The gaming machine 10 includes one or more value input/payment devices and value output/pay-out devices. The value input devices are used to deposit cash or credits onto the gaming machine 10., para20), comprising:
a housing (The gaming machine 10 includes game-logic circuitry 40 securely housed within a locked box inside the gaming cabinet 12 (see FIG. 1) para 23); one or more payment interfaces (Examples of value input devices include, but are not limited to, a coin acceptor, a bill/ticket acceptor accessible through opening 28 in display 24, para 20; also see Fig. 1);
a bezel removably disposed on and extending from a user-facing side of the housing, wherein the bezel is configured to be detached from the housing; (Wudtke is silent to the bezel being removable and configured to detach from the housing; Butler discloses that mounting slots 110a-d may be used to attach the bezel 100 to the section 402. The combination bezel 100 may then be covered with a fascia or overlay. Attached to a back side of the section 402 is a bill recycler frame assembly 404, to which the bill recycler 114 is mounted. An inlet/outlet slot of the bill recycler 114 is aligned with the access slot 106 of the bezel 100 to enable bills to be inserted into and removed from the bill recycler 114 via the access slot 106 on the combination bezel 100; it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective date the invention was made to incorporate the teachings of Butler for a protection of the display in addition to easy and convenient maintenance repair and upgrade of the display and associated electronics); and
a display screen 24 coupled to the bezel (see Fig. 1), the display screen including one or more apertures (28) each formed through a portion of the display screen,
wherein each of the one or more apertures corresponds to one of the one or more payment interfaces (Examples of value input devices include, but are not limited to, a coin acceptor, a bill/ticket acceptor accessible through opening 28 in display 24, a magnetic or smart card reader/writer accessible through opening 30 in display 24, para 20; also see Fig. 1).
at least one processor; and at least one sensor, wherein the at least one sensor is disposed through another aperture formed through another portion of the display screen
(Wudtke, par. 20: reader as sensor for sensing magnetic/smart card;
Wudtke is silent to wherein the at least one sensor is configured to detect one or more conditions related to an environment external to the housing
Karivaradaswamy discloses a sensor 214, 714 through an opening of a display of a variety of electronic devices (par. 25). [0033] FIG. 2 illustrates an implementation of one architecture 218 for a camera sensor 214 (e.g., the camera sensor 114 or rear-facing camera sensor 116 of FIGS. 1-1 and 1-2) including both camera functions 222 and HID sensing function 224. In the illustrated implementation, the camera sensor is a USB camera, but in other implementations, the camera sensor may include one or more integrated camera sensors. The architecture 218 includes the Camera firmware 220 to provide control over the function of the camera sensor 214 hardware. The firmware 220 includes discrete camera function 222 and sensing function 224 sets.
[0055] FIG. 9 is a schematic example of off-axis viewing of an electronic display 710 by a user 762. The camera sensor 714 of the electronic device 700 may operate in a sensing function to detect the presence and location of the user 762. When a user presence is detected at an off-axis viewing angle 764, the camera sensor 714 may provide a HID input to the processor and/or operating system of the electronic device 700 to adjust the color balance and/or brightness of the electronic display 710.
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective date the invention was made to incorporate the teachings of Karivaradaswamy to minimize space consumption by utilizing a camera that performs both functions of sensing ambient level and detecting presence.
Wudtke is silent to wherein the at least one sensor is configured to capture at least one image including one or more negotiable instruments being handled by a user, and wherein the at least one processor is configured to predict a payment intent of the user based the one or more negotiable instruments detected in the at least one image and identify at least one of the one or more payment interfaces associated with the predicted payment intent of the user.
Deaville teaches the at least one sensor (i.e. image sensor 501) is configured to capture at least one image including one or more negotiable instruments handheld by a user (Fig. 4, 11, par. 154, 170); and
wherein the at least one processor is configured to predict a payment intent of the user based the one or more negotiable instruments detected in the at least one image and identify at least one of the one or more payment interfaces associated with the predicted payment intent of the user (Deaville discloses in a pre-scan, the sensor captures an image of the user inserting a payment such as banknote or debit/ credit card into a banknote acceptor inlet such that if the user and banknote are identified, a shutter associated with the inlet is opened to allow access to prevent fraudulent or erroneous insertion; par. 25-27 describe more about banknote, however, it would have also been obvious to extend the teachings to card acceptor since par. 27 states that “payment system can be fitted with a security shutter that can block unauthorized access to the banknote and/or credit card path unless a valid banknote and facial image are recognized”; Deaville describes an exemplary situation in which the user erroneously insert a card into the banknote acceptor but then realizes that the erroneous insertion subsequently when it get stuck in the inlet; par. 148; Deaville further discloses that upon the detection of the user and object, a light 508 is turned to light the dark path of the inlet, see Deaville, Fig. 5-7, 11, par. 25, 27, 148-155; thus, the payment interface(s) are correctly identified when the user and payment object are identified and the action of the user trying to insert a payment is interpreted as an intention to pay; it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective date the invention was made to incorporate the teachings of Deaville by enabling the multifunction camera (of Karivaradaswamy) detecting both the user and card for the purpose of preventing vandalism or erroneous insertion as well as increasing the illumination of the display area as needed for the user to see clearly while saving energy in a sleep mode when not needed. It would have also been obvious that the payment interface (i.e. card reader in Wudtke) on the display is also illuminated as needed or if determined inadequate light for the user.
3.1, wherein the at least one sensor is configured to detect ambient lighting conditions of the environment external to the housing, wherein, based on the detected ambient lighting conditions, the at least one processor adjusts at least one of a color temperature and a brightness of the display screen (Karivaradaswamy, par. 33, 55)
4.3, wherein the at least one sensor is configured to detect a presence of a user, and wherein the at least one processor adjusts at least one of the color temperature the brightness, and a content of the display screen based on the detected presence of the user (Karivaradaswamy, par. 33, 55).
5.1, wherein the at least one processor is configured to cause transmission of a signal to illuminate a light source corresponding to the identified at least one of the one of the one or more payment interfaces corresponding to the detected one or more negotiable instruments (upon detection of user and payment card, the display that surrounds the embedded card reader and bill acceptor 28, 30 receives an increased brightness, and a dark path of the payment acceptor is lighted; Wudtke, Fig. 1, par. 20; Karivaradaswamy, par. 55; Deaville, par. 154)
6.1, wherein the at least one processor is configured to cause transmission of a signal to illuminate a portion of the display screen corresponding the identified at least one of the one or more payment interfaces corresponding to the detected one or more negotiable instruments (see discussion regarding claim 5 above).
9.1, wherein the at least one processor is further configured to cause the automated payment system to receive content including a plurality of images from one or more servers, wherein the display screen is configured to display the plurality of images (Karivaradaswamy, par. 34).
Re claims 10-13, 15-16, 19, 22-25, see discussion regarding claims above.
27.1, wherein each of the one or more payment interfaces extends through and a distance beyond a corresponding one of the one or more apertures (Butler, Figs. 1-4, Deaville, Fig. 5: the payment interface in Deaville is extended beyond the inlet aperture and can be made removable similar to Butler as it is well-understood in the art that parts can be made separable; MPEP 2144.04)
Re claims 28-29, see discussion regarding claims above.
Response to Arguments
Applicant’s arguments have been considered but are moot in view of new ground of rejection.
Applicant argues that
Claim 1, however, recites that the image captured of the one or more negotiable instruments being handled by a user is used to detect a payment intent of the user (what type of payment the user is intended to use) and that one of the one or more payment interfaces associated with the predicted payment intent of the user are identified. Unlike Deaville, which merely detects whether an object is inserted into a payment interface and illuminates a light source of the payment interface, claim 1 recites predicting a type of payment a user will use, and identifies a payment interface associated with that predicted payment type.
However, as also discussed above, Deaville discloses in a pre-scan, the sensor captures an image of the user inserting a payment such as banknote or debit/ credit card into a banknote acceptor inlet such that if the user and banknote are identified, a shutter associated with the inlet is opened to allow access to prevent fraudulent or erroneous insertion; par. 25-27 describe more about banknote, however, it would have also been obvious to extend the teachings to card acceptor since par. 27 states that “payment system can be fitted with a security shutter that can block unauthorized access to the banknote and/or credit card path unless a valid banknote and facial image are recognized”; Deaville describes an exemplary situation in which the user erroneously insert a card into the banknote acceptor but then realizes that the erroneous insertion subsequently when it get stuck in the inlet; par. 148; Deaville further discloses that upon the detection of the user and object, a light 508 is turned to light the dark path of the inlet, see Deaville, Fig. 5-7, 11, par. 25, 27, 148-155; thus, the payment interface(s) are correctly identified when the user and payment object are identified and the action of the user trying to insert a payment is interpreted as an intention to pay.
Conclusion
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/THIEN T MAI/ Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2876
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