DETAILED 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 .
This action is responsive to the application filed 10/10/2024.
Claims 1-11 are pending with claims 1 and 7 as independent claims.
Information Disclosure Statement
The information disclosure statement (IDS) submitted on 10/16/2024 was filed after the mailing date of the application on 10/10/2024. The submission is in compliance with the provisions of 37 CFR 1.97. Accordingly, the information disclosure statement is being considered by the examiner.
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.
Claims 1-11 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over SEOKCHAN (KR20240087228A, filed 12/12/2022, pages 1-9) in view of Kim et al. (US 2014/0026061, hereinafter as Kim) in view of LEE HYEON SOO (KR102216783B1, pages 1-11, hereinafter as LEE).
Claim 1. A kiosk system utilizing generative artificial intelligence, the kiosk system being installed in a public place for touch screen-type information transmission, and the kiosk system comprising:
a kiosk configured to enable communication with a user in natural language by utilizing a generative artificial intelligence technology, and perform information transmission functions comprising [screen switching, menu selection], and [payment through conversation with the user], SEOKCHAN disclose in [Abstract and claims (9)] “A speech recognition (STD module that recognizes the user's voice utterance through the microphone mounted on the kiosk and converts it into text form; A Natural Language Processing (NLP) module that pre-processes the converted text to classify the correct intention of the user's utterance, outputs the set response, and provides the result in text form; Includes a speech synthesis (TTS) module for synthesizing the response text into voice and transmitting it to the speaker of the kiosk,” (emphasis added) examiner note: a kiosk system configured to receive natural language as speech input and output a response in voice format and transmitted via speaker of the kiosk,
SEOKCHAN does not explicitly disclose screen switching, menu selection. However, Kim, in an analogous art, teaches in [0075] “The cloud service device 200 control change of a content viewing menu corresponding to the extracted user control input, and provides data corresponding to the change of the content viewing menu to the terminal 100 (409). When receiving data with respect to the change in the content viewing menu from the cloud service device 200, the terminal 100 may update the content viewing menu retained by the user and may output the updated content viewing menu (411).” (emphasis added) examiner note: updating the content viewing menu may be screen switching by updating content of the screen.
Accordingly, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine the teaching of SEOKCHAN with the teaching of Kim because “a cloud service is provided to share contents stored in the portable terminal or a specific terminal. The cloud service enables various terminals to upload contents or download the contents through a communication channel. Recently, as the cloud service has been developed to various forms, various demands of users have been increased. Accordingly, there is a need to provide a cloud service environment that is a user-friendly.” [Kim’s background],
SEOKCHAN does not explicitly disclose payment through conversation with the user. However, LEE, in an analogous art, teaches in [Abstract] “The system comprises: a kiosk that recognizes the user's speech, identifies an order object with natural language processing, outputs the same as a voice, and performs a payment process after receiving the voice confirmation of the order object outputted by the voice from a user; a member store terminal that outputs an order sheet including the order object paid at the kiosk and records and stores the order object and a payment amount as sales data”. (emphasis added) examiner note: based on voice command, a payment may be performed in kiosk system, and
a cloud server configured to communicate with the kiosk, and store kiosk information comprising customer information, menu information, and payment information in a database. LEE also teaches in [Page 4] “The order service providing server 300 may be a server that provides a voice recognition-based non-face-to-face and contactless order service web page, an app page, a program, or an application. In addition, the order service providing server 300 may be a server that manages at least one kiosk 400 by assigning a unique code, for example, an ID, and registers in association with at least one affiliated store terminal 500. If the affiliate store terminal 500 is completely removed from the unmanned store, it is also possible to store only the kiosk 400. In addition, the order service providing server 300 generates an order event in the user terminal 100 for 020 service, and when scanned in the kiosk 400, transmits order data to the affiliated store terminal 500 to create an ordered menu.” (emphasis added).
Accordingly, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine the teaching of SEOKCHAN with the teaching of LEE because “The present invention relates to a system for providing a non-face-to-face and non-contact order service based on voice recognition, and provides a system capable of placing an order with a user's voice utterance without contact with a person or a screen.” [LEE’s description].
Claim 2. The rejection of the kiosk system according to claim 1 is incorporated, wherein the kiosk comprises:
a voice input unit configured to operate depending on whether the user selects an artificial intelligence function or not, receive input of a user's voice, convert an input voice into text, and transmit the text to the cloud server; SEOKCHAN disclose in [Abstract and claims (9)] “A speech recognition (STD module that recognizes the user's voice utterance through the microphone mounted on the kiosk and converts it into text form; A Natural Language Processing (NLP) module that pre-processes the converted text to classify the correct intention of the user's utterance, outputs the set response, and provides the result in text form; Includes a speech synthesis (TTS) module for synthesizing the response text into voice and transmitting it to the speaker of the kiosk,” (emphasis added) examiner note: a kiosk system configured to receive natural language as speech input and output a response in voice format and transmitted via speaker of the kiosk,
a cloud server response reception unit configured to receive, from the cloud server, response data obtained by determining what action the generative artificial intelligence should perform on the voice; and SEOKCHAN disclose in [Abstract and claims (9)] “A speech recognition (STD module that recognizes the user's voice utterance through the microphone mounted on the kiosk and converts it into text form; A Natural Language Processing (NLP) module that pre-processes the converted text to classify the correct intention of the user's utterance, outputs the set response, and provides the result in text form; Includes a speech synthesis (TTS) module for synthesizing the response text into voice and transmitting it to the speaker of the kiosk,” (emphasis added) examiner note: a kiosk system configured to receive natural language as speech input and output a response in voice format and transmitted via speaker of the kiosk,
a kiosk artificial intelligence control unit configured to control an operation of the kiosk based on the response data. SEOKCHAN disclose in [Abstract and claims (9)] “A speech recognition (STD module that recognizes the user's voice utterance through the microphone mounted on the kiosk and converts it into text form; A Natural Language Processing (NLP) module that pre-processes the converted text to classify the correct intention of the user's utterance, outputs the set response, and provides the result in text form; Includes a speech synthesis (TTS) module for synthesizing the response text into voice and transmitting it to the speaker of the kiosk,” (emphasis added) examiner note: a kiosk system configured to receive natural language as speech input and output a response in voice format and transmitted via speaker of the kiosk.
Claim 3. The rejection of the kiosk system according to claim 2 is incorporated, wherein the cloud server comprises:
an artificial intelligence response generation unit configured to convert, by a generative artificial intelligence model having learned how to use the kiosk in advance, the text received from the voice input unit into a vector to identify a context, generate the response data for a user's question or kiosk control, and then transmit the response data to the cloud server response reception unit. SEOKCHAN disclose in [Abstract and claims (9)] “A speech recognition (STD module that recognizes the user's voice utterance through the microphone mounted on the kiosk and converts it into text form; A Natural Language Processing (NLP) module that pre-processes the converted text to classify the correct intention of the user's utterance, outputs the set response, and provides the result in text form; Includes a speech synthesis (TTS) module for synthesizing the response text into voice and transmitting it to the speaker of the kiosk,” (emphasis added) examiner note: a kiosk system configured to receive natural language as speech input and output a response in voice format and transmitted via speaker of the kiosk,
Claim 4. The rejection of the kiosk system according to claim 3 is incorporated, wherein the artificial intelligence response generation unit transmits the response data for requesting an additional question to the cloud server response reception unit in a case of identifying the context as one not suitable for the kiosk control. SEOKCHAN disclose in [Abstract and claims (9)] “A speech recognition (STD module that recognizes the user's voice utterance through the microphone mounted on the kiosk and converts it into text form; A Natural Language Processing (NLP) module that pre-processes the converted text to classify the correct intention of the user's utterance, outputs the set response, and provides the result in text form; Includes a speech synthesis (TTS) module for synthesizing the response text into voice and transmitting it to the speaker of the kiosk,” (emphasis added) examiner note: a kiosk system configured to receive natural language as speech input and output a response in voice format and transmitted via speaker of the kiosk.
Claim 5. The rejection of the kiosk system according to claim 2 is incorporated, wherein the kiosk further comprises:
a tip request unit for requesting a tip for a service that provides a result according to the response data. SEOKCHAN disclose in [Abstract and claims (9)] “A speech recognition (STD module that recognizes the user's voice utterance through the microphone mounted on the kiosk and converts it into text form; A Natural Language Processing (NLP) module that pre-processes the converted text to classify the correct intention of the user's utterance, outputs the set response, and provides the result in text form; Includes a speech synthesis (TTS) module for synthesizing the response text into voice and transmitting it to the speaker of the kiosk,” (emphasis added) examiner note: a kiosk system configured to receive natural language as speech input and output a response in voice format and transmitted via speaker of the kiosk.
Claim 6. The rejection of the kiosk system according to claim 1 is incorporated, wherein the kiosk displays an animation of each operation step of the generative artificial intelligence on a screen in order to visually allow the user to know what step the generative artificial intelligence is at.
Claim 7. The claim is directed towards a method to implement the steps of the system of claim 1, therefore, the claim is similarly rejected as claim 1.
Claim 8. The rejection of the method according to claim 7 is incorporated, wherein step e) is performed by branching into:
step e-1) of generating, by the generative artificial intelligence model, a usage method as text in a case where the context is about a usage question; SEOKCHAN disclose in [Abstract and claims (9)] “A speech recognition (STD module that recognizes the user's voice utterance through the microphone mounted on the kiosk and converts it into text form; A Natural Language Processing (NLP) module that pre-processes the converted text to classify the correct intention of the user's utterance, outputs the set response, and provides the result in text form; Includes a speech synthesis (TTS) module for synthesizing the response text into voice and transmitting it to the speaker of the kiosk,” (emphasis added) examiner note: a kiosk system configured to receive natural language as speech input and output a response in voice format and transmitted via speaker of the kiosk, or
step e-2) of loading the response data corresponding to a scenario stored in a database in a case where the context is about a kiosk control command.
Claim 9. The rejection of the method according to claim 8 is incorporated, wherein step e-2) transmits the response data for requesting an additional question to the kiosk in a case where the result of the context identification is the kiosk control command not corresponding to the database. SEOKCHAN disclose in [Abstract and claims (9)] “A speech recognition (STD module that recognizes the user's voice utterance through the microphone mounted on the kiosk and converts it into text form; A Natural Language Processing (NLP) module that pre-processes the converted text to classify the correct intention of the user's utterance, outputs the set response, and provides the result in text form; Includes a speech synthesis (TTS) module for synthesizing the response text into voice and transmitting it to the speaker of the kiosk,” (emphasis added) examiner note: a kiosk system configured to receive natural language as speech input and output a response in voice format and transmitted via speaker of the kiosk.
Claim 10. The rejection of the method according to claim 7 is incorporated, further comprising:
requesting, by the generative artificial intelligence model, a tip for providing a conversational guidance service, after step f). SEOKCHAN disclose in [Abstract and claims (9)] “A speech recognition (STD module that recognizes the user's voice utterance through the microphone mounted on the kiosk and converts it into text form; A Natural Language Processing (NLP) module that pre-processes the converted text to classify the correct intention of the user's utterance, outputs the set response, and provides the result in text form; Includes a speech synthesis (TTS) module for synthesizing the response text into voice and transmitting it to the speaker of the kiosk,” (emphasis added) examiner note: a kiosk system configured to receive natural language as speech input and output a response in voice format and transmitted via speaker of the kiosk.
Claim 11. The rejection of the method according to claim 7 is incorporated, wherein each of the steps further comprises:
displaying a status animation corresponding to each step on the kiosk in order to visually show what step a current operation of the kiosk is at. SEOKCHAN disclose in [Abstract and claims (9)] “A speech recognition (STD module that recognizes the user's voice utterance through the microphone mounted on the kiosk and converts it into text form; A Natural Language Processing (NLP) module that pre-processes the converted text to classify the correct intention of the user's utterance, outputs the set response, and provides the result in text form; Includes a speech synthesis (TTS) module for synthesizing the response text into voice and transmitting it to the speaker of the kiosk,” (emphasis added) examiner note: a kiosk system configured to receive natural language as speech input and output a response in voice format and transmitted via speaker of the kiosk.
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure. See PTO-892.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to AHAMED I NAZAR whose telephone number is (571)270-3174. The examiner can normally be reached 10 am to 7 pm Mon-Fri.
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/AHAMED I NAZAR/Examiner, Art Unit 2178 10/03/2026
/STEPHEN S HONG/Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 2178
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