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 § 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) 1-9, 17-18, 21-25 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by Yamanashi (US 2016/0148623 A1).
Regarding claim 1, 17, and 18, Yamanashi discloses a video playing method, a non-transitory computer-readable medium having instructions for executing and causing a terminal device to implement instructions and a video playing device, comprising:
in response to a trigger operation on a preset background sound softening control, starting a preset background sound softening mode (See [0035] a user can instruct which mode or ratio of suppression of background sound or voice);
in response to starting of the preset background sound softening mode, triggering a background sound softening process for at least one original video, and acquiring a target video corresponding to the original video based on the background sound softening process (See [0017] user selects a channel for viewing, i.e., acquiring a target video. See [0039-0043] a user selecting content and corresponding audio mode.);
wherein the target video includes background sound softening-result audio data (See [0022-0026] the audio signal includes a voice signal and a background sound signal which may be extracted as acoustic features of the voice signal and background sound signal.), and
the background sound softening-result audio data is obtained by processing original audio data of the original video based on a trained background sound softening model (See [0027] checking the extracted acoustic feature against the already learned voice model and background sound model, the voice likelihood and the background sound likelihood of each frame are calculated); and
playing the target video based on the background sound softening-result audio data (See Fig 4 the changed stream is played back to the user [0036-0045]).
Regarding claim 2, 21 and 24, Yamanashi further discloses the method of claim 1, wherein, in response to a trigger operation on a preset background sound softening control, starting a preset background sound softening mode, comprises: in response to a triggering operation on a preset background sound softening control on a video playing setting interface, starting a preset background sound softening mode (See [0043] GUI for setting the sound mode, Fig 5).
Regarding claim 3, Yamanashi further discloses the method of claim 2, wherein, before in response to a triggering operation on a preset background sound softening control on a video playing setting interface, starting a preset background sound softening mode, the method further comprises:
displaying a background sound softening mode guide window on the video playing interface (See Fig [0039-0046] Fig 5 Sound GUI);
wherein a mode starting control is disposed on the background sound softening mode guide window (See Fig 5 [0039-0046] Sound Mode control option);
in response to a trigger operation on the mode starting control, displaying a video playing setting interface (See Fig 5 [0039-0046] Sound Mode Audio source filtering option selected);
wherein a preset background sound softening control is disposed on the video playing setting interface (See Fig 5 [0039-0046] where each of the modes of standard, music, and movie read on preset modes).
Regarding claim 4, Yamanashi further discloses the method of any one of claims 1 claim 1, wherein, in response to a trigger operation on a preset background sound softening control, starting a preset background sound softening mode, comprises: in response to a triggering operation on a preset background sound softening control on a playing interface for a first video, starting a preset background sound softening mode (See Fig 5 and [0039-0046], see Fig 4 where a volume setting is performed in response to playback and Fig 5 GUI Sound setting).
Regarding claim 5, Yamanashi further discloses the method of claim 4, wherein, in response to a triggering operation on a preset background sound softening control on a playing interface for the first video, starting a preset background sound softening mode, comprises: in response to a triggering operation on a preset background sound softening control on a playing interface for the first video in a clear screen state, starting a preset background sound softening mode (See Fig 5 and [0039-0046], see Fig 4 and Fig 5 GUI Sound setting, where the GUI enveloping the majority of the screen as depicted would suggest a clear screen state).
Regarding claim 6, 22 and 25, Yamanashi further discloses the method claim 1,wherein, before in response to a trigger operation on a preset background sound softening control, starting a preset background sound softening mode, the method further comprises: receiving a softening degree adjustment operation on a preset softening adjustment control, and determining a softening degree adjustment result based on the softening degree adjustment operation; and correspondingly, in response to a trigger operation on a preset background sound softening control, starting a preset background sound softening mode, comprises: in response to a triggering operation on a preset background sound softening control, starting a preset background sound softening mode based on the softening degree adjustment result (See Fig 3 and Fig 5 [0035-0039] “a menu screen (display of the volume adjustment mode based on a plurality of scales shown in FIG. 3)”).
Regarding claim 7 and 23, Yamanashi further discloses the method of claim 1, wherein, the acquiring a target video corresponding to the original video based on the background sound softening process, comprises: inputting original audio data of the original video into a trained background sound softening model, and through a background sound softening processing by the background sound softening model, outputting processing result data; determining background sound softening-result audio data corresponding to the original audio data, based on the processing result data; generating the target video corresponding to the original video based on the background sound softening-result audio data (See Fig 2 and [0022-0034] audio acquisition extracting voice and background sound. “by checking the extracted acoustic feature against the already learned voice model and background sound model, the voice likelihood and the background sound likelihood of each frame are calculated.”. See [0035] “As shown in FIG. 3, the audio source separation module 114A according to the above structure has the function of a normal mode (in which the volume of voice and background sound is equally output), a voice mode (in which background sound is completely suppressed), and a karaoke mode (in which voice is completely suppressed). As described above, because of a volume adjustment mode based on a plurality of scales, the user can instruct which of the modes should be selected or the ratio of the suppressing to the server apparatus 11 through the television apparatus”).
Regarding claim 8, Yamanashi further discloses the method of claim 7, wherein, before determining the background sound softening-result audio data corresponding to the original audio data, based on the processing result data, the method further comprises: mixing the processing result data with the original audio data of the original video in accordance with a preset first ratio, to obtain first mixing result audio data; and correspondingly, the determining background sound softening-result audio data corresponding to the original audio data, based on the processing result data, comprises: determining the first mixing result audio data as the background sound softening-result audio data corresponding to the original audio data (See Fig 3 and [0035] where a first mixing ratio result could be read as a normal mode with equal voice and background sound).
Regarding claim 9, Yamanashi further discloses the method of claim 7,wherein, before the determining background sound softening-result audio data corresponding to the original audio data, based on the processing result data, the method further comprises: based on the original audio data of the original video and the processing result data, acquiring background audio data in the original audio data; mixing the processing result data with the background audio data in accordance with a preset second ratio to obtain second mixing result audio data; correspondingly, the determining background sound softening-result audio data corresponding to the original audio data, based on the processing result data, comprises: determining the second mixing result audio data as the background sound softening-result audio data corresponding to the original audio data (See Fig 3 and [0035] where a second mixing ratio result could be read as a Voice only mode with background sound fully suppressed).
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
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 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.
The factual inquiries for establishing a background for determining obviousness under 35 U.S.C. 103 are summarized as follows:
1. Determining the scope and contents of the prior art.
2. Ascertaining the differences between the prior art and the claims at issue.
3. Resolving the level of ordinary skill in the pertinent art.
4. Considering objective evidence present in the application indicating obviousness or nonobviousness.
Claim(s) 13 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Yamanashi (US 2016/0148623 A1).
Regarding claim 13, Yamanashi discloses the method of claim 1, but does not explicitly disclose wherein the background sound softening model is trained by: acquiring training sample data and training target data having a corresponding relationship; wherein the training sample data can be obtained by mixing pre-collected vocal audio data and background audio data in different ratios, the background audio data includes background environmental audio data and/or background music data, and the training target data is the vocal audio data in the training sample data; training a pre-constructed fully connected convolutional neural network CNN model by using the training sample data and training target data having the corresponding relationship, to obtain a trained background sound softening model.
Nouri discloses that it was known to train models with foreground and background audio including CNN based models for classification (See [0047] [0059] [0064]) training using different mixes (See [0028] [0031-0033] [0047-0048]).
Prior to the effective filing date of the invention it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art to modify the known system of Yamanashi with the known methods of Nouri predictably resulting in acquiring training sample data and training target data having a corresponding relationship; wherein the training sample data can be obtained by mixing pre-collected vocal audio data and background audio data in different ratios, the background audio data includes background environmental audio data and/or background music data, and the training target data is the vocal audio data in the training sample data; training a pre-constructed fully connected convolutional neural network CNN model by using the training sample data and training target data having the corresponding relationship, to obtain a trained background sound softening model by applying the court recognized rational of applying a known technique to a known device (method, or product) ready for improvement to yield predictable results. The modification would have the benefit of improving classification of acoustic features.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 10-12 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 following is a statement of reasons for the indication of allowable subject matter:
The prior art fails to disclose or fairly suggest, alone or in combination, all of the features of dependent claims 10-12.
Conclusion
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FERNANDO . ALCON
Examiner
Art Unit 2425
/FERNANDO ALCON/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2425