3DETAILED 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 .
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 102
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) 2-6, 8, 9, 12, 15 and 18-20 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by Jethwa et al. (hereinafter ‘Jethwa’, Pub. No. 2024/0428014).
Regarding claims 2 and 18, Jethwa teaches an individualized media content delivery system (100, Fig. 1) (with respective method), comprising:
one or more processors; and a computer-readable storage media storing computer-executable instructions that, when executed by the one or more processors (0024]-[0033]), cause the individualized media content delivery system to:
receive a user request to provide media content to a user via a user device ([0010]; [0037]);
identify a profile for the user, wherein the profile comprises user values for each of one or more predefined attributes ([0049]-[0052]);
receive the media content, wherein the media content comprises a plurality of portions of a same type of content within the media content, each portion of the plurality of portions is associated with a respective first content value for a predefined attribute of the one or more predefined attributes, and each respective first content value is determined independent of other portions of the plurality of portions ([0010]-[0013]; [0018]-[0020]; [0036]; [0042]-[0049], where same content is composed of different portions that are associated to different metadata, words associated to different age groups or language proficiency, for the portions);
identify a portion of the media content for modification based on a user value for the predefined attribute and the first content value of the portion ([0049]-[0052]);
generate alternative content for the portion based on the user value ([0059]-[0061]);
generate modified media content using the alternative content, wherein generating the modified media content includes replacing the portion of the media content within the plurality of portions with the alternative content or adding the alternative content to the portion of the media content within the plurality of portions while other portions of the plurality of portions remain unmodified ([0062]; [0063]); and
provide the modified media content to the user via an application executing on the user device ([0035]; [0064]-[0070]).
Regarding claim 3, Jethwa teaches wherein identifying the portion of the media content for modification comprises determining that the respective first content value of the portion and the user value are different ([0012]; [0049]; [0050]).
Regarding claim 4, Jethwa teaches further comprising: executing an artificial intelligence (AI) model on the portion of the media content, wherein the AI model is trained to generate content values for portions of media content; and receiving, from the AI model, the respective first content value for the predefined attribute ([0053]-[0058]).
Regarding claims 5 and 20, Jethwa teaches wherein the media content comprises vocal audio content ([0010]-[0012]; [0018]-[0020]; [0036]), the plurality of portions comprises portions of the vocal audio content ([0036]), and the method further comprises:
obtaining a transcription of the vocal audio content; identifying a word or phrase of interest in the transcription of the vocal audio content; and identifying a sample of the vocal audio content that contains the word or phrase of interest as the portion of the media content ([0041]-[0052]).
Regarding claim 7, Jethwa teaches wherein obtaining the transcription comprises inputting the vocal audio content to a speech-to-text conversion machine learning model ([0041]-[0056]).
Regarding claim 8, Jethwa teaches wherein generating the alternative content comprises:
identifying a replacement word or phrase for the word or phrase of interest in a same language as the word or phrase of interest based on a definition of the word or phrase of interest and the user value ([0045]; [0046]; [0048]); and
generating a new audio sample containing the replacement word or phrase, wherein the modified media content is generated by replacing the sample of the vocal audio content with the new audio sample ([0060]-[0063]).
Regarding claim 9, Jethwa teaches wherein generating the new audio sample containing the replacement word or phrase comprises:
inputting the replacement word or phrase and information about a voice that vocalized the word or phrase in the vocal audio content to a generative text-to-speech AI model ([0053]-[0058]; [0060]-[0063]); and
receiving the new audio sample from the generative text to speech AI model ([0053]-[0058]; [0060]-[0063]).
Regarding claim 12, Jethwa teaches wherein:
the predefined attribute is an age attribute ([0011]-[0013]; [0048]-[0051]) ;
the respective first content value for the portion indicates an appropriate age for consumption of the portion ([0010]-[0013]; [0018]-[0020]; [0036]; [0042]-[0049], where same content is composed of different portions that are associated to different metadata, words associated to different age groups or language proficiency, for the portions);
the user value indicates an age of the user ([0011]-[0013]; [0048]-[0051]);
identifying the portion for modification comprises determining that the appropriate age for consumption exceeds the age of the user; and generating the alternative content comprises identifying replacement content for the portion that is appropriate for users having the age of the user ([0048]).
Regarding claim 15, Jethwa teaches wherein:
creating, by the application executing on the user device, an audio recording of speech attributable to the user ([0016]; [0051]);
providing, by the application executing on the user device, the audio recording to a spoken language analysis machine learning model to identify the user values for at least one of an age attribute that indicates appropriate content ratings for the user ([0050]-[0056]), a language attribute that indicates a language spoken by the user, a dialect attribute that indicates a dialect of the language spoken by the user, or a language proficiency attribute that indicates how well the user comprehends the language;
receiving, from the spoken language analysis machine learning model, the user values for the one or more language attributes; and updating the profile of the user to include the user values for the one or more language attributes ([0050]-[0058]).
Regarding claim 19, Jethwa teaches further comprising:
a plurality of content delivery devices comprising the user device ([0024]-[0033]); and
a content provider server system ([0010]; [0024]-[0033]);
wherein the computer-executable instructions cause the content provider server system to:
identify the respective first content value for the portion of the media content from the media content ([0010]-[0013]; [0018]-[0020]; [0036]; [0042]-[0049], where same content is composed of different portions that are associated to different metadata, words associated to different age groups or language proficiency, for the portions);
generate a collection of alternative content for the portion based on possible user values for the predefined attribute, wherein the collection of alternative content comprises the alternative content ([0045]-[0052]); and
transmit the media content, the respective first content value, and the collection of alternative content for the portion to the plurality of content delivery devices ([0041]; [0045]; [0046]);
and
wherein the computer-executable instructions cause the user device to:
identify the portion by comparing the user value with the respective first content value received from the content provider server system ([0049]-[0052]);
select the alternative content from the collection of alternative content based on the user value and a content value associated with the alternative content ([0059]-[0061]); and
replace the portion of the media content with the alternative content or add the alternative content to the portion of the media content ([0062]; [0063]).
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 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Olkha (Pub. No. 2020/0007946) in view of Jethwa et al. (hereinafter ‘Jethwa’, Pub. No. 2024/0428014).
Regarding claim 1, Olkha teaches an individualized media content delivery system (with corresponding method) (500, Fig. 5), comprising:
one or more processors; and a computer-readable storage media storing computer-executable instructions that, when executed by the one or more processors (404, Fig. 4), cause the individualized media content delivery system to:
receiving, by an application executing on a user device, a user request to provide audiovisual content to a user via the user device ([0003]; [0006]; [0045]);
identifying, by the application, a linguistic profile of the user, wherein the linguistic profile comprises user values for each of one or more predefined language attributes, wherein the user values comprise a user language proficiency value indicating the user’s proficiency level in a language, a user dialect value indicating a preferred dialect of the language, or both (604, Fig. 6; [0005]; [0007]; [0010]; [0048]; [0116]);
receiving, by the application, the audiovisual content from a content provider server system via one or more communications networks, wherein the audiovisual content comprises audio of a plurality of words or phrases spoken in the language ([0008]; [0119]);
identifying, by the application, one or more content values for a first word or phrase in a portion of the audio, wherein each of the one or more content values corresponds to a predefined language attribute of the one or more predefined language attributes, and the one or more content values comprise a content language proficiency value indicating a minimum proficiency level needed to understand the first word or phrase, a content dialect value indicating that the first word or phrase is specific to a first dialect, or both (610, Fig. 6; Figs. 14 and 15; [0119]; [0170]-[0174]);
determining, by the application, that the minimum proficiency level indicated by the content language proficiency value is greater than the user’s proficiency level indicated by the user language proficiency value, the first dialect indicated by the content dialect value is not the same as the preferred dialect indicated by the user dialect value, or both ([0046]; [0130]-[0132]; [0168]-[0175]) ;
identifying, by the application, an alternative word or phrase for the first word or phrase based on a meaning of the first word or phrase, as well as the user language proficiency value, the user dialect value, or both ([0046]; [0130]-[0132]; [0168]-[0175]);
generating, by the application, replacement audio including the alternative word or phrase; replacing, by the application, the portion of the audio with the replacement audio in the audiovisual content to produce modified audiovisual content; and presenting, by the application, the modified audiovisual content to the user via the user device in response to the user request (618 and 620, Fig. 6; [0130]-[0134]; [0168]-[0175]).
On the other hand, Olkha does not explicitly teach identifying an alternative word or phrase in the language and replacing audio while retaining other portions of the audio unmodified.
However, in an analogous art, Jethwa teaches a system that modifies portions of an audio based on user’s language proficiency, appropriateness or language translation ([0010]-[0013]; [0044]-[0051]). The system generates the audio for the portions to be replaced and found inappropriate for the viewer ([0062]-[0063]).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have modified Olkha’s invention with Jethwa’s feature of identifying an alternate word/phrase in the language and replacing portions of audio while retaining other portions of the audio unmodified for the benefit of altering portions of the audio “to avoid having it to include words that are complex or sophisticated, that include profanity, etc.” (Jethwa: [0012]).
Claim(s) 6, 10, 13, 16 and 17 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Jethwa et al. (hereinafter ‘Jethwa’, Pub. No. 2024/0428014) in view of Olkha (Pub. No. 2020/0007946).
Regarding claim 6, Jethwa teaches all the limitations of the claim it depends on. On the other hand, Jethwa does not explicitly teach that the media content further comprises closed captions, subtitles, or both; and the transcription of the vocal audio content is obtained from the closed captions, the subtitles, or both.
However, in an analogous art, Olkha teaches a system that modifies media content based on level of proficiency of the viewer (Abstract). The system could determing viewers level of proficiency based on previous requests for subtitles submitted by the user ([0059]). Additionally, the media level of proficiency in the language may be determined by analyzing the words spoken in the media asset and generate a list of most frequently used words and/or phrases in the movie ([0119]). The audio can also be transcribed to obtain the text file ([0119]; [0120]).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have modified Jethwa’s invention with Olkha’s feature of using subtitles of the media as input for replacing the inappropriate parts for the benefit of minimizing processing time by using what is already included in the media.
Regarding claim 10, Jethwa teaches wherein:
the media content comprises text ([0041], when the text is generated after analyzed);
the plurality of portions comprises portions of the text ([0010]-[0013]; [0018]-[0020]; [0036]; [0042]-[0049], where same content is composed of different portions that are associated to different metadata, words associated to different age groups or language proficiency, for the portions);
generating the alternative content comprises identifying a replacement word for a word of interest included in the text in a same language as the word of interest based on a definition of the word of interest and the user value ([0045]; [0046]; [0048]).
On the other hand, Jethwa does not explicitly teach that the media contains text; generating the modified media content comprises replacing the word of interest in the text with the replacement word.
However, in an analogous art, Olkha teaches a system that modifies media content based on level of proficiency of the viewer (Abstract). The system could determing viewers level of proficiency based on previous requests for subtitles submitted by the user ([0059]). Additionally, the media level of proficiency in the language may be determined by analyzing the words spoken in the media asset and generate a list of most frequently used words and/or phrases in the movie ([0119]). The audio can also be transcribed to obtain the text file ([0021]; [0119]; [0120]).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have modified Jethwa’s invention with Olkha’s feature of replacing the word of interest in the text with replacement word for the benefit of using subtitles that targeted to the user.
Regarding claim 13, Jethwa teaches all the limitations of the claim it depends on. On the other hand, Jethwa does not explicitly teach wherein:
the predefined attribute is a language proficiency attribute for a language;
the user value indicates a proficiency with which the user comprehends words or phrases in the language;
the respective first content value for the portion indicates a minimum proficiency needed to comprehend a word or phrase in the language contained in the portion;
identifying the portion for modification comprises determining that the user value is less than the respective first content value for the portion, indicating that a higher language proficiency is needed to comprehend the word or phrase contained in the portion of the media content; and
generating the alternative content comprises identifying a replacement word or phrase in the language that is comprehensible to users having a language proficiency indicated by the user value.
However, in an analogous art, Olkha teaches an individualized media content delivery system (500, Fig. 5). The system receives a user request to provide audiovisual content to a user via the user device ([0003]; [0006]; [0045]) and identifies a linguistic profile of the user, wherein the linguistic profile comprises user values for each of one or more predefined language attributes, wherein the user values comprise a user language proficiency value indicating the user’s proficiency level in a language, a user dialect value indicating a preferred dialect of the language, or both (604, Fig. 6; [0005]; [0007]; [0010]; [0048]; [0116]). Olkha teaches identifying, by the application, one or more content values for a first word or phrase in a portion of the audio, wherein each of the one or more content values corresponds to a predefined language attribute of the one or more predefined language attributes, and the one or more content values comprise a content language proficiency value indicating a minimum proficiency level needed to understand the first word or phrase, a content dialect value indicating that the first word or phrase is specific to a first dialect, or both (610, Fig. 6; Figs. 14 and 15; [0119]; [0170]-[0174]). The system compares the minimum proficiency level indicated by the content language proficiency value is greater than the user’s proficiency level indicated by the user language proficiency value, the first dialect indicated by the content dialect value is not the same as the preferred dialect indicated by the user dialect value, or both ([0046]; [0130]-[0132]; [0168]-[0175]) and identifies an alternative word or phrase for the first word or phrase based on a meaning of the first word or phrase, as well as the user language proficiency value, the user dialect value, or both ([0046]; [0130]-[0132]; [0168]-[0175]). The system replaces audio including the alternative word or phrase; replacing, by the application, the portion of the audio with the replacement audio in the audiovisual content to produce modified audiovisual content; and presenting, by the application, the modified audiovisual content to the user via the user device in response to the user request (618 and 620, Fig. 6; [0130]-[0134]; [0168]-[0175]).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have modified Jethwa’s invention with Olkha’s feature of replacing the word of interest in the text with replacement word for the benefit of using subtitles that targeted to the user.
Regarding claims 16 and 17, Jethwa teaches all the limitations of the claims they depend on. On the other hand, Jethwa does not explicitly teach further comprising:
receiving a history of media content consumption by the user, wherein the history of media content consumption identifies past media content consumed by the user;
analyzing the history of media content consumption to identify at least one of an average content rating for the past media content, a language of speech represented in the past media content, a dialect of the language represented in the past media content, or a minimum language proficiency needed to comprehend the speech in the past media content; and
updating the user values in the profile of the user for at least one of an age attribute based on the average content rating, a language attribute based on the language of the speech, a dialect attribute based on the dialect of the language, or a language proficiency attribute based on the minimum language proficiency.
However, in an analogous art, Olkha teaches a system that modifies media content based on level of proficiency of the viewer (Abstract). The system could determing viewers level of proficiency based on previous requests for subtitles submitted by the user ([0011]-[0017]; [0054]-[0060]). Additionally, the media level of proficiency in the language may be determined by analyzing the words spoken in the media asset and generate a list of most frequently used words and/or phrases in the movie ([0119]). The system analyzes the history of media content consumption to identify at least one of an average content rating for the past media content, a language of speech represented in the past media content, a dialect of the language represented in the past media content, or a minimum language proficiency needed to comprehend the speech in the past media content ([0011]-[0017]; [0054]-[0060]). After the analysis, the user profile is updated ([0011]-[0017]; [0054]-[0060]).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have modified Jethwa’s invention with Olkha’s feature of analyzing previous content consumption to identify user’s preferences/patterns and update his/her profile for the benefit of making sure a child is not pretending being an adult with input information.
Claim(s) 11 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Jethwa et al. (hereinafter ‘Jethwa’, Pub. No. 2024/0428014) in view of Nair et al. (hereinafter ‘Nair’, Patent No. 11,514,948).
Regarding claim 11, Jethwa teaches all the limitations of the claim it depends on. On the other hand, Jethwa does not explicitly teach wherein:
the media content comprises visual content;
an image in the visual content is identified as the portion;
generating the alternative content comprises modifying the image based on the user value; and
generating the modified media content comprises replacing the image in the visual content with the modified image.
However, in an analogous art, Nair teaches a system that translates video content by analyzing the audiovisual content and translating the audio/text. Nair uses artificial intelligence models to analyze and translate in real-time the portions of the audio (i.e. audio to audiotext models; col. 8 lines 43-67; text-to-audio model to generate new audio, col. 9 line 1 to col. 10 line 52; generator models modify video to show characters lip-synched while speaking the generated the audio, col. 9 line 1 to col. 10 line 52). In addition, the system also modifies facial images of the speaker to sync the lip movement to the newly generated audio content (Abstract; col. 9 line 1 to col. 10 line 63).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing of the claimed invention to have modified Jethwa’s invention with Nair’s feature of executing artificial intelligence models to modify the video with generated portions of video syncing the audio to the movement of the speaker’s lips for the benefit of allowing real-time translation of live content while making the translation seamless.
Claim(s) 14 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Jethwa et al. (hereinafter ‘Jethwa’, Pub. No. 2024/0428014)in view of Su et al. (hereinafter ‘Su’, Patent No. 12,278,99).
Regarding claim 14, Jethwa teaches all the limitations of the claim it depends on. On the other hand, Jethwa does not explicitly teach wherein:
the predefined attribute is a regional language attribute for a language;
the user value indicates a first dialect of the language that is understood by the user;
the respective first content value indicates whether a word or phrase contained in the portion is common to all dialects of the language or is derived from a particular dialect of the language;
identifying the portion for modification comprises determining, based on the respective first content value and the user value, that the word or phrase contained in the portion is specific to a second dialect of the language that is different from the first dialect, indicating that a different word or phrase is used for the word or phrase in the portion of the media content by users having the user value; and
generating the alternative content comprises identifying the different word or phrase for the user value.
However, in an analogous art, Su teaches a system that translates the audio of content and modifies it along with the lips of the speaker, while considering the peculiarities of the dialects/languages (words, phrases, etc.; col. 8 line 50 to col. 9 line 16; col 9 line 58 to col. 10 line 45). Using tags, the system generates new audio and video for syncing the dialect words to the shown lips of the speaker.
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have modified Jethwa’s invention with Su’s feature of modifying words/phrases of the audio/video that correspond to a dialect of the language for the benefit of helping a user comprehend the content by using the words/phrases that he/she is familiar with.
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 nonprovisional extension fee (37 CFR 1.17(a)) 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 mailing date of this final action.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to OMAR S PARRA whose telephone number is (571)270-1449. The examiner can normally be reached M-F: Mostly 10-6PM.
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/OMAR S PARRA/ Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2421
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