DETAILED ACTION
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 §103
1. 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.
Claims 1-20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Ferrara et al (Pub. No. US 2026/0095549 A1; hereinafter Ferrara) in view of HAFSTAD et al (Pub. No. US 2023/0421898 A1; hereinafter HAFSTAD)
Consider claims 1, 11, and 16, Ferrara clearly shows and discloses a method, an apparatus, and a system comprising: a plurality of video cameras configured to capture video with different views in a video conference space during a video conference session (The virtual meeting UI may include one or more regions each corresponding to a video stream provided by a respective client device of the one or more client devices, a system for enhanced integration with cameras for virtual meetings) (paragraphs: 0004,0005, 0010, 0014, 0027; fig. 1, label 116, and fig. 3, label 116); and a central control device configured to be in communication with the plurality of video cameras (the video modification manager 106 can be configured and/or otherwise programmed to establish a data channel that provides metadata for a video stream from a camera 116 to the client application 105A, obtain the metadata from the camera 116, and perform one or more operations using the metadata) (paragraphs: fig. 3, labels , 105A, 106 and 116), and to perform operations including: requesting from a first one or more video cameras one or more snapshots of video (the first data channel 302 may be a data channel used to provide video data from the image capture device (e.g., the camera 116) to the client device 102 in a standardized video format expected by the client device 102. The image capture device may transmit the video data over the first data channel 302 using a USB cable, an HDMI cable, or some other connection between the image capture device and the client device 102) (paragraphs: 0067, claim 20); requesting a second one or more video cameras to analyze video captured by the second one or more video cameras to determine person identity, pose and position and send metadata representing analysis results to the central control device (a second data channel 304 may be a data channel used to provide metadata from the image capture device to the client device 102, The camera can use the second data channel to send real time metadata for the video stream from the camera to the client device; the metadata includes, for each detected participant in the video stream/position transmitted via the first data channel, bounding box data corresponding to the respective detected participant. The bounding box data may include a bounding box around at least a portion of the respective participant (e.g., the participant's head, the participant's head and torso/pose, or the like; the metadata includes an order of the detected participants/position; the metadata includes an indication of an active speaker in the video stream transmitted via the first data channel. The indication of the active speaker may include data identifying which participant appearing/person identity in the video stream is currently speaking) (paragraphs: 0017, 0046- 0047 - 0050, 0068, 0047 and fig. 2, label 220, and fig. 3, label 304; fig. 5); analyzing the one or more of snapshots for person identity, pose and position information obtained from the first one or more video cameras or the metadata from the second one or more video cameras (The video stream frames or the metadata may include data that the client application 105A can use to determine which portion of the metadata pertains to which frame of the video stream; The video modification manager 106 may use the metadata to determine the number of sub-regions to present. The video modification manager may use the metadata to determine which portions of the video stream to present in the respective sub-regions) (paragraphs: 0051, 0054, and fig. 5); and selecting one or more video cameras from which to receive a video stream based on the analyzing to generate an output video stream (The video modification manager 106 may use the metadata to determine the number of sub-regions to present. The video modification manager may use the metadata to determine which portions of the video stream to present in the respective sub-regions) (paragraphs: 0051, 0054 and fig. 2, label 230, fig. 4- fig. 5); however, Ferrara does not disclose another example for requesting from a first one or more video cameras one or more snapshots of video.
In the same field of endeavor, HAFSTAD clearly specifically another example requesting from a first one or more video cameras one or more snapshots of video (one of the plurality of smart cameras is adapted as a main camera and each of the remaining of the plurality is adapted as a peripheral camera; the plurality of smart cameras further comprises at least one peripheral smart camera placed in a separate video conferencing space. The predetermined rule set in the main camera; The main camera's stream selector (205) is connected with each peripheral camera's stream selector (306) and adapted to consume the focus streams from the main camera and all peripheral cameras) (paragraphs: 0007, 0019, 0038, and 0049 and fig. 1)
Therefore, it would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art at the time the invention was made to incorporate the teaching of HAFSTAD into teaching of Ferrara for the purpose using plurality of smart cameras is adapted as a main camera and each of the remaining of the plurality is adapted as a peripheral camera.
Consider claims 2 and 12, Ferrara and HAFSTAD clearly show the system and the method, wherein the central control device is configured to send the output video stream to one or more remote video conference room systems or endpoints that are connected to the video conference session (Ferrara: paragraphs: 0054).
Consider claim 3, Ferrara and HAFSTAD clearly show the system, where the central control device is configured to request the one or more snapshots of video from the first one or more video cameras at time intervals during the video conference session based on processing capabilities of the central control device (Ferrara: paragraphs: 0018, 0020, and 0052).
Consider claims 4, and 13, Ferrara and HAFSTAD clearly show the system and the method, wherein each of the second one or more video cameras are configured to: analyze captured video of its respective view; select a region of interest of the captured video to generate a cropped video stream; and send the cropped video stream of only the region of interest to the central control device (HAFSTAD: paragraphs: 0050 and fig. 2 and fig. 3).
Consider claims 5, and 17, Ferrara and HAFSTAD clearly show the system and the apparatus, wherein the central control device is configured to request the one or more snapshots from the first one or more video cameras based on spatial location of the first one or more video cameras, and the central control device analyzes the one or more snapshots to obtain body identity, pose and position information (HAFSTAD: paragraphs: 0050 and fig. 2 and fig. 3).
Consider claim 6, Ferrara and HAFSTAD clearly show the system, wherein the second one or more video cameras are configured to continuously analyze video to provide metadata of body identity, pose and position of persons detected, of one or more objects detected, to the central control device (Ferrara: paragraphs: 0017, 0046- 0047 - 0050, 0068, 0047 and fig. 2, label 220, and fig. 3, label 304; fig. 5).
Consider claims 7 and 20, Ferrara and HAFSTAD clearly show the system and the apparatus, the computer program product, and the communication device, wherein the central control device is configured to disable video from some of the plurality of video cameras and enable video from others of the plurality of video cameras, based on a maximum number of active video streams (Ferrara: fig. 4 and fig. 5; HAFSTAD: paragraphs: 0050 and fig. 2 and fig. 3).
Consider claims 8, 15, and 18, Ferrara and HAFSTAD clearly show the system, the method, and the apparatus, wherein the central control device, upon determining that a view of a particular video camera of the plurality of video cameras should be cropped, is configured to perform operations including: requesting a video stream from the particular video camera and apply a digital crop for a sub-region of field of view of the particular video camera; or sending to the particular video camera a request that specifies a sub-region of the field of view for the particular video camera to crop and send back to the central control device a cropped video stream for the sub-region (Ferrara: fig. 4 and fig. 5; HAFSTAD: paragraphs: 0050 and fig. 2 and fig. 3).
Consider claim 9, Ferrara and HAFSTAD clearly show the system, wherein the particular video camera is one of the first one or more video cameras, and the central control device is configured to identify the sub-region based on one or more snapshots obtained from the particular video camera (Ferrara: paragraphs: 0053- 0056; HAFSTAD: paragraphs: 0016 and fig. 2 and fig. 3).
Consider claims 10, 14, and 19, Ferrara and HAFSTAD clearly show the system, the method, and the apparatus, wherein the central control device is configured to request from all of the plurality of video cameras one or more snapshots of video for analysis (Ferrara: paragraphs: paragraphs: 0067, claim 20; and fig. 3).
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to Amal Zenati whose telephone number is 571-270-1947. The examiner can normally be reached on 8:00 -5:00 M-F.
If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Ahmad Matar can be reached on 571- 272- 7488. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571- 273-8300.
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/AMAL S ZENATI/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2693
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