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 .
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 101
35 U.S.C. 101 reads as follows:
Whoever invents or discovers any new and useful process, machine, manufacture, or composition of matter, or any new and useful improvement thereof, may obtain a patent therefor, subject to the conditions and requirements of this title.
Claim 14 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 101 because the claimed invention is directed to non-statutory subject matter.
The claim recites, inter alia, “A computer-readable storage medium …..” in the absence of a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium on which the program is stored. An Examiner is obliged to give claims their broadest reasonable interpretation consistent with the specification during examination. The broadest reasonable interpretation of a claim drawn to a program in the absence of a computer-readable storage medium (also called machine readable medium and other such variations) typically covers forms of non-transitory tangible media and transitory propagating signals perse in view of the ordinary and customary meaning of computer readable media, particularly when the specification is silent. See MPEP 2111.01. When the broadest reasonable interpretation of a claim covers a signal, perse, the claim must be rejected under 35 U.S.C. § 101 as covering non-statutory subject matter. However, the Examiner respectfully submits a claim drawn to such a computer-readable storage medium that covers both transitory and non-transitory embodiments may be amended to narrow the claim to cover only statutory embodiments to avoid a rejection under 35 U.S.C. § 101 by adding the limitation “non-transitory” to the claim. Such an amendment would typically not raise the issue of new matter, even when the specification is silent because the broadest reasonable interpretation relies on the ordinary and customary meaning that includes signals perse.
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) 1-4, 9-11, 13, 14 and 17-19 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Zhi-wei Li (CN 113765967A) in view of Cheng-huo Xie (CN 106817529A).
[Claim 1]
Li teaches a method for remote photographing, comprising:
determining, by the first terminal (one end of the search initiator), a host internet protocol address range (Page 6, Paragraph 2, request message is sent to all the local network segments one by one i.e. host internet protocol address range) of the second terminal in a local area network corresponding to a wireless network or a hotspot (Page 8, Paragraph 2, The UDP provides a method for sending messages to different target IP addresses without establishing a connection) accessed by the first terminal in response to multicast of the local area network being abnormal (Page 7, Paragraph 4, In this step, the request message is directive, is sent to the second device with the second IP address by the first device, because the IP address in the same network segment is unique, therefore, the request message is unicast. In this way, if the electronic device default turns off broadcast/multicast receiving or sending function, also can receive the request message in the embodiment of the invention; and the unicast is the function of the router necessarily) and
sending, by the first terminal, a unicast message to the second terminal according to the host internet protocol address range of the second terminal, the unicast message being used for requesting acquisition of information of the second terminal in the local area network (Page 6, Paragraph 2, The basic principle of this scheme is: one end of initiating the search obtains the IP address of itself, so as to obtain the network segment information of the IP address, then in a certain time, sending the request message to the device having the IP address in all the local network segments one by one).
Li fails to teach receiving, by a first terminal, a remote photographing request used for instructing the first terminal to search for a second terminal, the second terminal being used for sending a photographing instruction to the first terminal. However Chenghuo teaches at Page 5, Paragraph 7, Step 110: the first terminal sends one or more first remote shooting requests to the remote shooting service device, Page 5, Paragraph 9, Step 120: The remote shooting service device transmits one or more second terminal information to the first terminal in response to the first remote shooting request (searching request); Page 5, Paragraph 11, Step 130: the first terminal selects one to a plurality of second terminals according to the second terminal information, transmits a second remote shooting request and Page 5, Paragraph 13, Step 140: the second terminal captures the image information in response to the second remote shooting request and transmits the image information to the first terminal).
Therefore taking the combined teachings of Li and Chenghuo, it would be obvious to one skilled in the art before the effective filing date of the invention to have been motivated to have receiving, by a first terminal, a remote photographing request used for instructing the first terminal to search for a second terminal, the second terminal being used for sending a photographing instruction to the first terminal in order to autonomously selects the second terminal and the first terminal starts the remote shooting process in real time so as to guarantee the quality of remote shooting.
[Claim 2]
Li teaches wherein the determining, by the first terminal, the host internet protocol address range of the second terminal in the local area network, comprises determining, by the first terminal, the host internet protocol address range of the second terminal according to a local internet protocol address and a subnet mask in the local area network (Page 6, Paragraph 2, The basic principle of this scheme is: one end of initiating the search obtains the IP address of itself, so as to obtain the network segment information of the IP address, then in a certain time, sending the request message to the device having the IP address in all the local network segments one by one. Page 7, Paragraphs 1-3, S201, the first device according to the first IP address, generating a request message, the request message carries the protocol information, the first IP address and the second IP address, wherein the second IP address is the IP address of the second device; the first IP address and the second IP address are located in the same network segment; the protocol information is used for indicating the searched device of the data communication with the first device for point to point and in the same network segment, the value range of the IP address is: 192.168.xxx.255 192.168.xxx.1 total 255 IP address, wherein 192.168.xxx.1 router is the IP address of the router 192.168.xxx.255 is multicast IP address, In this case subnet mask is 255.255.255.252).
[Claim 3]
Li teaches wherein after the sending, by the first terminal, a unicast message to the second terminal, the method further comprises receiving, by the first terminal, a feedback message transmitted by the second terminal, the feedback message comprising information of the second terminal (Page 7, Paragraph 8, In this embodiment, by S202, the searched device obtains the IP address of the first device, through S203, the first device obtains the IP address of the searched device, so as to realize the device discovery of the first device and the searched device).
ChengHuo teaches updating, by the first terminal, a list of second terminals to which the first terminal is connectable according to the feedback message (Page 3, Paragraphs 3-5, Preferably, the first terminal selects the one to a plurality of second terminals according to the second terminal information, sending the second remote shooting request, comprising: shooting by remote service device sending the second remote shooting requirement to the second terminal by the first terminal; and the second terminal in response to the second remote shooting request shooting image information, and sends the image information to the first terminal) in order to give the user freedom to select the terminal of their choice.
[Claim 4]
Chenghuo teaches wherein after the updating, by the first terminal, a list of second terminals to which the first terminal is connectable according to the feedback message, the method further comprises: selecting, by the first terminal, from the list of second terminals, the second terminal that establishes a remote photographing connection with the first terminal according to indication information input by a user (Page 3, Paragraphs 3-5, Preferably, the first terminal selects one to a plurality of second terminals based on the second terminal information and transmits a second remote shooting request, comprising The first terminal transmits a second remote shooting request to the second terminal via the remote shooting service device and the second terminal captures the image information in response to the second remote shooting request and transmits the image information to the first terminal) , the remote photographing connection being used for sharing a photographing screen of the first terminal to the second terminal and sending the photographing instruction input by the user to the first terminal through the second terminal (Page 3, Paragraph 15, remote shooting service device monitoring the state information of the first terminal and the second terminal, said state information comprises but not limited to the first terminal and the second terminal is in the shooting-ready state, playing picture shooting start after the first terminal and the second terminal to shoot picture is in the synchronous state, and network environment supported by the second terminal shoots the play synchronization state with the first terminal) in order to give the user freedom to select the terminal of their choice.
[Claim 9]
Li teaches wherein after the receiving, by a first terminal, a remote photographing request, the method further comprises: searching, by the first terminal, for the second terminal providing a service through a multi- point connection function of a target operating system after the first terminal turns on a wireless network or a hotspot function (Page 7, Paragraph 4, In this step, the request message is directive, is sent to the second device with the second IP address by the first device, because the IP address in the same network segment is unique, therefore, the request message is unicast. In this way, the electronic device default turns off broadcast/multicast receiving or sending function, also can receive the request message in the embodiment of the invention; and the unicast is the function of the router necessarily; receiving, by the first terminal, information of the second terminal sent by the second terminal (Page 8, Paragraph 2, The UDP provides a method for sending messages to different target IP addresses without establishing a connection).
Chenghuo teaches updating, by the first terminal, a list of second terminals to which the first terminal is connectable according to the information of the second terminal (Page 3, Paragraphs 3-5, Preferably, the first terminal selects one to a plurality of second terminals based on the second terminal information and transmits a second remote shooting request, comprising The first terminal transmits a second remote shooting request to the second terminal via the remote shooting service device and the second terminal captures the image information in response to the second remote shooting request and transmits the image information to the first terminal), in order to give the user freedom to select the terminal of their choice.
[Claim 10]
Li teaches wherein the information of the second terminal is carried in a an additional message of the multi-point connection function (Page 9, Paragraph 10, Optionally, the second device sends the response message to the first device multiple times. In this embodiment, considering that connectionless transmission is unreliable data transmission, in order to prevent data loss, the second device can continuously send the same two response messages to the first device, and the sending interval of the two response messages is preset Time, for example 10ms. In this embodiment, multiple responses are used to ensure the effectiveness of transmission).
[Claim 11]
Chenghuo teaches wherein the list of second terminals to which the first terminal is connectable comprises indication information indicating an operating system of the second terminal (Page 8, Paragraph 7, In the present embodiment, it is possible to monitor and respond to the information from the first terminal user by installing the corresponding client operating software at the second terminal or by opening the web page having the operational function so that the second terminal can capture the image information while capturing the video information) in order to make sure they are compatible with each other.
[Claims 13, 14, 17-19]
These are apparatus and computer readable claims corresponding to method claims 1, 1 and 2-4 and are therefore analyzed and rejected based upon method claims 1, 1 ad 2-4 respectively.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 5-8 and 20-23 are 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. The prior art fails to teach or suggest as recited in claim 5, “response to not receiving the feedback message sent by the second terminal within a preset duration, generating, by the first terminal, a two-dimensional code according to a local internet protocol address of the first terminal, so as to enable the second terminal to establish the remote photographing connection with the first terminal according to the local internet protocol address of the first terminal when scanning the two-dimensional code” and as recited in claim 6, “ wherein before the determining, by the first terminal, the host internet protocol address range of the second terminal in the local area network corresponding to the wireless network or the hotspot accessed by the first terminal in response to the multicast of the local area network being abnormal, the method further comprises joining and listening to the multicast by the first terminal; determining, by the first terminal, whether the multicast is normally turned on; and in response to the multicast being normal, sending, by the first terminal, a multicast message to the second terminal in the local area network, the multicast message being used for requesting acquisition of the information of the second terminal in the local area network”. Claims 7 and 8 are dependent from claim 6. Claims 20-23 are apparatus claims corresponding to method claims 5-8.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to YOGESH K AGGARWAL whose telephone number is (571)272-7360. The examiner can normally be reached Monday - Friday 9:30-6.
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If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Sinh Tran can be reached at 5712727564. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/YOGESH K AGGARWAL/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2637