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 .
Examiner’s Note
Examiner has cited particular columns and line numbers or figures in the references as applied to the claims below for the convenience of the applicant. Although the specified citations are representative of the teachings in the art and are applied to the specific limitations within the individual claim, other passages and figures may apply as well. It is respectfully requested from the applicant, in preparing the responses, to
fully consider the references in entirety as potentially teaching all or part of the claimed invention, as well as the context of the passage as taught by the prior art or disclosed by the examiner.
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)(2) the claimed invention was described in a patent issued under section 151, or in an application for patent published or deemed published under section 122(b), in which the patent or application, as the case may be, names another inventor and was effectively filed before the effective filing date of the claimed invention.
Claim(s) 141-147 and 151-153 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(2) as being anticipated by Ortiz et al. (US 2024/0403400).
As to claim 141, Ortiz teaches non-transitory computer readable medium containing instructions that when executed by at least one processor cause the at least one processor to perform private voice assistance operations Fig.10, the operations comprising:
receiving signals indicative of specific facial skin micromovements, step 2-3, reflective of a private request to an assistant, wherein answering the private request requires an identification of a specific individual associated with the specific facial skin micromovements (Pars.33-36 “The features can include facial expressions or characteristics (e.g., eye shape), micro-movements (i.e., movements difficult to see with the human eye), auditory features, and combinations thereof. These features can be extracted from images within the video data, depth image data (e.g., 3-D image data), and facial dot projection mapping data, among others. The features may include facial characteristics including at least one of: lateral and medial position coordinates of both eyes; lateral-position coordinates of lips, a forehead curvature, distances between an ear and the eyes, or a height of nose. For example, a pixel mask can be applied to track these features over multiple frames.);
accessing a data structure (registered database) maintaining correlations between the specific individual and a plurality of facial skin micromovements associated with the specific individual (Fig.20, 1360);
searching, step 4, in the data structure for a match indicative of a correlation between a stored identity of the specific individual and the specific facial skin micromovements (Pars.238, 260); in response to a determination of an existence of the match in the data structure, initiating a first action responsive to the request, wherein the first action involves enabling access to information unique to the specific individual, step 5A; and if the match is not identified in the data structure, initiating a second action, step 5B, different from the first action (Figs.5, 7, 10, 17-19; Pars.182, 246-251).
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As to claim 142, according to Ortiz the second action includes using alternative method that include providing the service using information other than the private information (Fig.10.; Pars.232-239, 312-315).
As to claim 143, Ortiz teaches wherein the second action includes a notification that access is denied to information unique to the specific individual (Figs.5, 10, 19).
As to claim 144, it is inherent that in Ortiz teaching that the second action includes blocking access to the information unique to the specific individual (Figs.3-5, 10, 17-18).
As to claim 145, Ortiz teaches wherein the second action includes attempting to authenticate the specific individual using additional data (Figs.2, 4-5).
As to claim 146, Ortiz teaches wherein the additional data includes additional detected facial skin micromovements (Pars.169, 170, 182, 223-225).
As to claim 147, Ortiz teaches wherein the additional data includes data other than facial skin micromovements (Figs.4-5, 17-19; Pars.148, 184).
As to claim 151, Ortiz teaches wherein the private request is for activating software code, the first action is activating the software code, and the second action is preventing activation of the software code (Pars.8-9, 30-34).
As to claims 152-153, Ortiz teaches wherein the private request is for confidential information, and the operations further include determining that the specific individual has permission to access the confidential information (Pars.30-34, 117-121).
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) 155-158 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Ortiz et al. (US 2024/0403400) and in view of Kim et al. (US 2017/0344812).
As to claim 155, Ortiz doesn’t explicitly teach wherein the facial movements are processed by operating at least one coherent light source illuminating a non-lip portion of a face of an individual making the private request, and wherein receiving the signals occurs via at least one detector of coherent light reflections from the non-lip portion of the face. However, Kim teaches a device for recognizing a facial expression comprising at least one light emitting part for emitting infrared rays (IR) to at least one object of a face of a user wearing the wearable headset device; at least one light receiving part for receiving infrared rays related to a correlation with the at least one object; an information collection unit for collecting intensity information from the received infrared rays; a transmission characteristic determination unit for determining transmission characteristic change in the received infrared rays based on the intensity information; a deformation of skin measurement unit for measuring deformation of skin for the at least one object based on the intensity information and the transmission characteristic change; and a facial expression recognition unit for recognizing a facial expression by comparing the deformation of skin with the facial expression information (Figs.4-6; Pars.23-24).
The combination of the analogous arts would be obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the time of applicant’s invention for the purpose of efficiently and conveniently obtaining the facial micromovements from the user.
As to claim 156, Kim teaches wherein the at least one processor, the at least one coherent light source, and the at least one detector are integrated in a wearable housing configured to be supported by an ear of the individual (Figs.1, 6).
As to claims 157-158, Ortiz teaches wherein the operations further include analyzing the received signals to determine prevocalization muscle recruitment, and determining the private request based on the determined prevocalization muscle recruitment and wherein the operations further include determining the private request in an absence of perceptible vocalization of the private request (Figs.17-119).
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 148-150 and 154 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 following is a statement of reasons for the indication of allowable subject matter:
Claims 148-150 are allowable because the prior arts of record do not teach the step including when the match is not identified, the operations further comprise initiating an additional action for identifying another individual other than the specific individual.
Claims 154 is allowable because the prior arts of record do not teach the step including wherein in a first time period during the ongoing session the specific individual is identified and the first action is initiated, and wherein in a second time period during the ongoing session, the specific individual is not identified, and any residual first action is terminated in favor of the second action.
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure.
Harada et al. (US 6,272,466), (Figs.1-10).
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to DANIEL DEMELASH ABEBE whose telephone number is (571)272-7615. The examiner can normally be reached monday-friday 7-4.
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If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Daniel Washburn can be reached at 571-272-5551. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/DANIEL ABEBE/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2657
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