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 § 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) 1-13, 15 and 17-20 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Zhai (CN 113676592) in view of Farrell (US 2016/0080684).
Regarding claim 1, Zhai teaches A directional sound pickup method, comprising: detecting, by an electronic device (Zhai ¶0026, “electronic device”), a first operation; displaying, by the electronic device in response to the first operation (Zhai ¶0084, “when the electronic device performs video recording operation”), a viewfinder frame corresponding to image shooting, wherein the viewfinder frame comprises a plurality of target shot objects (Zhai figure 3 and ¶0062, “acquire a video frame captured by an image acquisition device when the electronic device performs a video recording operation”), the plurality of target shot objects comprising a first target shot object and a second target shot object (Zhai figure 3, each of the objects 310-340 can be considered a target shot object with BRI); detecting, by the electronic device, a second operation of selecting the first target shot object (Zhai ¶0088, “if the touch gesture is detected, the object corresponding
to the touch position of the touch gesture in the specified interface is taken as the selected
object input by the user, and then the process proceeds to step S650 to take the selected
object as the target object”); shooting, by the electronic device, a video corresponding to the viewfinder frame (Zhai figure 3 and ¶0062, “acquire a video frame captured by an image acquisition device when the electronic device performs a video recording operation”), and obtaining a corresponding audio (Zhai ¶0004, “the focus-tracking recording
operation being used to optimize the audio signal of the target sound source among all sound
sources acquired by the audio acquisition device”), wherein D1 is an intensity of a sound corresponding to the first target shot object at a first moment at which the video is shot (Zhai figure 3, the actual volume of the first sound source), and D2 is an intensity of a sound corresponding to the second target shot object (Zhai figure 3, the actual volume of the second sound sources); and playing the audio when the video is played (Zhai ¶0118, “sound playback function, image playback function”), wherein when the audio is played to a moment corresponding to the first moment, wherein D11 is a sound intensity of the sound corresponding to the first target shot object (Zhai ¶0053-0054, “the optimization process involves increasing the gain and filtering the first audio signal, for example, through gain adjustment processing and frequency processing”) and D21 is a sound intensity of the sound corresponding to the second target shot object (Zhai ¶0055, “the amplitude of the second audio signal can be reduced, thereby reducing the volume of the second audio signal. Specifically, the reduction range can be set according to actual usage needs. For example, the volume of the second audio signal can be reduced to less than a specified volume”), wherein: a ratio of D11 to D1 is greater than a ratio of D21 to D2 (Zhai ¶0053-0055, since the gain/volume of the first object can be increased, D11 will be greater than D1. And since the gain/volume of the second object can be decrease, D21 will be less than D2. Therefore, D11/D1 will be greater than D21/D2. Same applies even if D21=D2), however does not explicitly teach playing the audio when the video is played.
Farrell teaches playing the audio when the video is played (Farrell ¶0043, “the audio segment is indexed to the video segment, such that simultaneous playback of the two segments is synchronized”).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to use the known technique of Farrell to improve the known method of Zhai to achieve the predictable result of a synchronized audio and video playback experience.
Regarding claim 2, Zhai in view of Farrell teaches wherein D11 and D21 are respectively amplified intensities of the sound of the first target shot object and the intensity of the sound of the second target shot object that are obtained by the electronic device (Farrell ¶0055, “the auxel mixer determines what weight, if any, to give to the multiple sound sources based on the location within each auxel that the selection is made. That is, each selected auxel is weighted according to the proximity of the user-selected location to the sound source and/or auxel. Alternatively, the user is provided a user interface for setting the relative weight (of intensity) of a particular auxel from among the selected auxels”).
Regarding claim 3, Zhai in view of Farrell teaches wherein D21 is 0 (Farrell ¶0055, “muting a particular auxel”).
Regarding claim 4, Zhai in view of Farrell teaches wherein in a process in which the electronic device shoots the video, a position of the first target shot object changes (Farrell ¶0055, “the auxel mixer determines what weight, if any, to give to the multiple sound sources based on the location within each auxel that the selection is made. That is, each selected auxel is weighted according to the proximity of the user-selected location to the sound source and/or auxel. Alternatively, the user is provided a user interface for setting the relative weight (of intensity) of a particular auxel from among the selected auxels,”); at a second moment at which the video is shot, an intensity of the sound corresponding to the first target shot object is D1′, an intensity of the sound corresponding to the second target shot object is D2′, and the second moment is after a moment at which the position of the first target shot object changes; and the audio is played when the video is played, wherein when the audio is played to a moment corresponding to the second moment, a sound intensity of the sound corresponding to the first target shot object is D11′, and a sound intensity of the sound corresponding to the second target shot object is D21′, wherein a ratio of D11′ to D1′ is greater than a ratio of D21′ to D2′ (Zhai ¶0053-0055, if the location of the objects slightly change but the priority of the “target sound sources” do not change, the ratio of D11′ to D1′ will be greater than a ratio of D21′ to D2′ like the “moment” before the movement changes).
Regarding claim 5, Zhai in view of Farrell teaches wherein the shot video comprises an image of the first target shot object and an image of the second target shot object (Zhai figure 3).
Regarding claim 6, Zhai in view of Farrell teaches playing, by the electronic device, an audio of the first target shot object and an audio of the second target shot object following selection of the first target shot object and the second target shot object on a video playing interface of the video (Farrell ¶0054, “Auxel selector 408 operates to receive input from pointing devices 418 and determine which auxel is being selected. The Auxel selector works with Auxel mixer 410 to present the selected audio”).
Regarding claim 7, Zhai in view of Farrell teaches detecting, by the electronic device, selection of a directional sound pickup mode (Zhai figure 6, S620-S650 and ¶0089, “if the touch gesture is not detected or the touch position of the touch gesture in the specified interface does not correspond to an object, it is determined that the selected object input by the user from the multiple objects has not been obtained. At this time, the process proceeds to step S630 to determine the distance between each object and the image acquisition device”).
Regarding claim 8, Zhai in view of Farrell teaches wherein the electronic device automatically focuses on first target shot object in the viewfinder frame (Zhai figure 6, S620-S650 and ¶0089, “if the touch gesture is not detected or the touch position of the touch gesture in the specified interface does not correspond to an object, it is determined that the selected object input by the user from the multiple objects has not been obtained. At this time, the process proceeds to step S630 to determine the distance between each object and the image acquisition device,” ¶0093 “Determine the target object based on the distance of each of the objects” and ¶0053 “target beam angle is determined between the audio acquisition device and the target sound source”).
Regarding claim 9, Zhai in view of Farrell teaches wherein the viewfinder frame comprises a first region and a second region, the first target shot object is positioned in the first region, the second target shot object is positioned in the second region (Zhai figure 3), and the second operation is an operation of selecting the first region (Zhai ¶0088, “if the touch gesture is detected, the object corresponding to the touch position of the touch gesture in the specified interface is taken as the selected object input by the user, and then the process proceeds to step S650 to take the selected object as the target object”).
Regarding claim 10, Zhai in view of Farrell teaches displaying, by the electronic device, a plurality of sound pickup partition options (Zhai figure 3 and ¶0091, users 310-340); and displaying, by the electronic device in the viewfinder frame, a first region mark and a second region mark following selecting a first sound pickup partition option from a plurality of sound pickup partition options (Zhai figure 3 and ¶0091, “The user can zoom in on the first user 310’s avatar by tapping it three times in a row”), wherein: the second operation is an operation of selecting a position corresponding to the first region mark (Zhai ¶0091, “The first user 310 will be selected as the selected object”).
Regarding claim 11, Zhai in view of Farrell teaches wherein the plurality of sound pickup partition options comprises one or more of the following: a two-partition option, a four-partition option (Zhai figure 3), a nine-partition option, an intelligent partition option, and an irregular partition option.
Regarding claim 12, Zhai in view of Farrell teaches determining, by the electronic device, the intelligent partition option utilizing a position of a target shot object in the viewfinder frame (Zhai figure 6, S620-S650 and ¶0089, “if the touch gesture is not detected or the touch position of the touch gesture in the specified interface does not correspond to an object, it is determined that the selected object input by the user from the multiple objects has not been obtained. At this time, the process proceeds to step S630 to determine the distance between each object and the image acquisition device,” ¶0093 “Determine the target object based on the distance of each of the objects” and ¶0053 “target beam angle is determined between the audio acquisition device and the target sound source”).
Regarding claim 13, Zhai in view of Farrell teaches wherein the electronic device comprises a first camera, and the shooting, by the electronic device, a video corresponding to the viewfinder frame comprises: shooting, by the electronic device using the first camera (Zhai ¶0028, “video recording can be achieved through a camera application installed on an electronic device”), a single channel of video corresponding to the viewfinder frame (Zhai ¶0028, “video recording can be achieved through a camera application installed on an electronic device,” with BRI, even if the camera is capturing multiple channels, it comprises capturing a single channel.).
Regarding claim 15, Zhai in view of Farrell teaches wherein the electronic device comprises a first camera and a second camera, and the shooting, by the electronic device, a video corresponding to the viewfinder frame comprises: shooting, by the electronic device using the first camera, a first channel of video corresponding to the viewfinder frame; and shooting, using the second camera, a second channel of video corresponding to the viewfinder frame (Zhai ¶0032, “Dual cameras”).
Regarding claim 17, Zhai in view of Farrell teaches wherein: the viewfinder frame is positioned on an image shooting preview interface (Zhai ¶0028, “When an electronic device performs video recording, the camera application installed on the electronic device is activated, and a preview interface of the camera application settings is displayed on the screen of the electronic device)in an image shooting scenario (Zhai ¶0116, “smartphone,” it is known in the art that smartphones video recording function has a preview interface before you press the record button); or the viewfinder frame is located on an image shooting interface in a video call scenario.
Regarding claim 18, Zhai teaches A directional sound pickup method, comprising: detecting, by an electronic device (Zhai ¶0026, “electronic device”), a first operation; displaying, by the electronic device in response to the first operation (Zhai ¶0084, “when the electronic device performs video recording operation”), a viewfinder frame corresponding to image shooting, wherein the viewfinder frame comprises a plurality of target shot objects (Zhai figure 3 and ¶0062, “acquire a video frame captured by an image acquisition device when the electronic device performs a video recording operation”), the plurality of target shot objects comprising a first target shot object and a second target shot object (Zhai figure 3, each of the objects 310-340 can be considered a target shot object with BRI); detecting, by the electronic device, a second operation of selecting the first target shot object by the user (Zhai ¶0088, “if the touch gesture is detected, the object corresponding
to the touch position of the touch gesture in the specified interface is taken as the selected
object input by the user, and then the process proceeds to step S650 to take the selected object as the target object”); and shooting, by the electronic device, a video corresponding to the viewfinder frame (Zhai figure 3 and ¶0062, “acquire a video frame captured by an image acquisition device when the electronic device performs a video recording operation”), and directionally obtaining an audio of the first target shot object (Zhai ¶0051 and ¶0053, “target beam angle”), however does not explicitly teach directionally obtaining an audio of the first target shot object.
Farrell teaches directionally obtaining an audio of the first target shot object (Farrell ¶0058, “the direction of sound collection is quite accurate, establishing an audio line into the 3-D scene. Some embodiments of the present invention describe the use of a model of the 3-D scene to locate the point of intersection of the established microphone line with an object, which is then presumed to be the sound source”).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to use the known technique of Farrell to improve the known method of Zhai to achieve the predictable result of a synchronized audio and video playback experience.
Regarding claim 19, Zhai in view of Farrell teaches when a position of the first target shot object in the viewfinder frame changes (Zhai ¶0048, if the position of the source change, the coordinates will again be determined), a sound pickup direction of the electronic device changes with the first target shot object (Farrell ¶0055, “the auxel mixer determines what weight, if any, to give to the multiple sound sources based on the location within each auxel that the selection is made. That is, each selected auxel is weighted according to the proximity of the user-selected location to the sound source and/or auxel. Alternatively, the user is provided a user interface for setting the relative weight (of intensity) of a particular auxel from among the selected auxels”).
Regarding claim 20, Zhai teaches An electronic device, comprising: a detection unit (Zhai ¶0116), configured to detect a first operation (Zhai ¶0028, “When an electronic device performs video recording, the camera application installed on the electronic device is activated, and a preview interface of the camera application settings is displayed on the screen of the electronic device”) and a second operation (Zhai ¶0088, “if the touch gesture is detected, the object corresponding to the touch position of the touch gesture in the specified interface is taken as the selected object input by the user, and then the process proceeds to step S650 to take the selected object as the target object”); a display unit, configured to display, in response to the first operation, a viewfinder frame corresponding to image shooting (Zhai ¶0028, “When an electronic device performs video recording, the camera application installed on the electronic device is activated, and a preview interface of the camera application settings is displayed on the screen of the electronic device”), wherein the viewfinder frame comprises a plurality of target shot objects (Zhai figure 3 and ¶0062, “acquire a video frame captured by an image acquisition device when the electronic device performs a video recording operation”), the plurality of target shot objects comprising a first target shot object and a second target shot object (Zhai figure 3, each of the objects 310-340 can be considered a target shot object with BRI); a video recording unit, configured to shoot, in response to the second operation of selecting the first target shot object by the user (Zhai ¶0088, “if the touch gesture is detected, the object corresponding to the touch position of the touch gesture in the specified interface is taken as the selected object input by the user, and then the process proceeds to step S650 to take the selected object as the target object”), a video corresponding to the viewfinder frame (Zhai figure 3 and ¶0062, “acquire a video frame captured by an image acquisition device when the electronic device performs a video recording operation”); an audio recording unit, configured to obtain corresponding audio when the video recording unit shoots video corresponding to the viewfinder frame (Zhai ¶0004, “the focus-tracking recording operation being used to optimize the audio signal of the target sound source among all sound sources acquired by the audio acquisition device”), wherein D1 is an intensity of a sound corresponding to the first target shot object at a first moment at which the video is shot (Zhai figure 3, the actual volume of the first sound source), and D2 is an intensity of a sound corresponding to the second target shot object (Zhai figure 3, the actual volume of the second sound sources); and an audio playing unit, configured to play the audio when the video is played (Zhai ¶0118, “sound playback function, image playback function”), wherein D11 is sound intensity of the sound corresponding to the first target shot object when the audio is played corresponding to the first moment (Zhai ¶0053-0054, “the optimization process involves increasing the gain and filtering the first audio signal, for example, through gain adjustment processing and frequency processing”), and D21 is sound intensity of sound corresponding to the second target shot object (Zhai ¶0055, “the amplitude of the second audio signal can be reduced, thereby reducing the volume of the second audio signal. Specifically, the reduction range can be set according to actual usage needs. For example, the volume of the second audio signal can be reduced to less than a specified volume”), wherein: a ratio of D11 to D1 is greater than a ratio of D21 to D2 (Zhai ¶0053-0055, since the gain/volume of the first object can be increased, D11 will be greater than D1. And since the gain/volume of the second object can be decrease, D21 will be less than D2. Therefore, D11/D1 will be greater than D21/D2. Same applies even if D21=D2), however does not explicitly teach obtain corresponding audio when the video recording unit shoots video corresponding to the viewfinder frame, a video playing unit, configured to play the video.
Farrell teaches obtain corresponding audio when the video recording unit shoots video corresponding to the viewfinder frame, a video playing unit, configured to play the video (Farrell ¶0043, “the audio segment is indexed to the video segment, such that simultaneous playback of the two segments is synchronized”).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to use the known technique of Farrell to improve the known method of Zhai to achieve the predictable result of a synchronized audio and video playback experience.
Claim(s) 14 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Zhai (CN 113676592) in view of Farrell (US 2016/0080684) in further view of Bart (US 10893206).
Regarding claim 14 Zhai in view of Farrell teaches wherein the electronic device comprises a first camera, and the shooting, by the electronic device, a video corresponding to the viewfinder frame comprises: shooting, by the electronic device using the first camera (Zhai ¶0028, “video recording can be achieved through a camera application installed on an electronic device,” with BRI, even if the camera is capturing multiple channels, it comprises capturing a single channel.),however does not explicitly teach a plurality of channels of videos corresponding to the viewfinder frame, wherein zoom ratios of the plurality of channels of videos are different.
Bart teaches a plurality of channels of videos corresponding to the viewfinder frame, wherein zoom ratios of the plurality of channels of videos are different (Bart claim 1).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to use the known technique of Bart to improve the known method of Zhai in view of Farrell to achieve the predictable result of video compatibility at different resolutions.
Claim(s) 16 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Zhai (CN 113676592) in view of Farrell (US 2016/0080684) in further view of Wang (US 2022/0053133).
Regarding claim 16, Zhai in view of Farrell does not explicitly teach wherein zoom ratios of the first channel of video and the second channel of video are different.
Wang teaches teach wherein zoom ratios of the first channel of video and the second channel of video are different (Wang ¶0028, “a first transition zoom level for transitioning from video capture using the first camera to video capture using the second camera, and (ii) a second transition zoom level for transitioning from video capture using the second camera to video capture using the first camera, wherein the first transition zoom level is different from the second transition zoom level”).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to use the known technique of Wang to improve the known method of Zhai in view of Farrell to achieve the predictable result of a more stabilized video recording.
Conclusion
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/NORMAN YU/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2693
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