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 .
Double Patenting
The nonstatutory double patenting rejection is based on a judicially created doctrine grounded in public policy (a policy reflected in the statute) so as to prevent the unjustified or improper timewise extension of the “right to exclude” granted by a patent and to prevent possible harassment by multiple assignees. A nonstatutory double patenting rejection is appropriate where the conflicting claims are not identical, but at least one examined application claim is not patentably distinct from the reference claim(s) because the examined application claim is either anticipated by, or would have been obvious over, the reference claim(s). See, e.g., In re Berg, 140 F.3d 1428, 46 USPQ2d 1226 (Fed. Cir. 1998); In re Goodman, 11 F.3d 1046, 29 USPQ2d 2010 (Fed. Cir. 1993); In re Longi, 759 F.2d 887, 225 USPQ 645 (Fed. Cir. 1985); In re Van Ornum, 686 F.2d 937, 214 USPQ 761 (CCPA 1982); In re Vogel, 422 F.2d 438, 164 USPQ 619 (CCPA 1970); In re Thorington, 418 F.2d 528, 163 USPQ 644 (CCPA 1969).
A timely filed terminal disclaimer in compliance with 37 CFR 1.321(c) or 1.321(d) may be used to overcome an actual or provisional rejection based on nonstatutory double patenting provided the reference application or patent either is shown to be commonly owned with the examined application, or claims an invention made as a result of activities undertaken within the scope of a joint research agreement. See MPEP § 717.02 for applications subject to examination under the first inventor to file provisions of the AIA as explained in MPEP § 2159. See MPEP § 2146 et seq. for applications not subject to examination under the first inventor to file provisions of the AIA . A terminal disclaimer must be signed in compliance with 37 CFR 1.321(b).
The filing of a terminal disclaimer by itself is not a complete reply to a nonstatutory double patenting (NSDP) rejection. A complete reply requires that the terminal disclaimer be accompanied by a reply requesting reconsideration of the prior Office action. Even where the NSDP rejection is provisional the reply must be complete. See MPEP § 804, subsection I.B.1. For a reply to a non-final Office action, see 37 CFR 1.111(a). For a reply to final Office action, see 37 CFR 1.113(c). A request for reconsideration while not provided for in 37 CFR 1.113(c) may be filed after final for consideration. See MPEP §§ 706.07(e) and 714.13.
The USPTO Internet website contains terminal disclaimer forms which may be used. Please visit www.uspto.gov/patent/patents-forms. The actual filing date of the application in which the form is filed determines what form (e.g., PTO/SB/25, PTO/SB/26, PTO/AIA /25, or PTO/AIA /26) should be used. A web-based eTerminal Disclaimer may be filled out completely online using web-screens. An eTerminal Disclaimer that meets all requirements is auto-processed and approved immediately upon submission. For more information about eTerminal Disclaimers, refer to www.uspto.gov/patents/apply/applying-online/eterminal-disclaimer.
Claim 1 (and by dependency claims 2-8) are rejected on the ground of nonstatutory double patenting as being unpatentable over claim 1 of U.S. Patent No. 12165432. Although the claims at issue are not identical, they are not patentably distinct from each other because the US 12165432 B2 is the more specific version of the claim, and the “in response to a trigger operation” in the current claim is interpreted as implied in U.S. Patent No. 12165432.
Current Application
1. A method for processing a face image performed by an electronic device, the method comprising: acquiring a face image of a human being using a camera component coupled to the electronic device in response to a trigger operation; acquiring identification information from a memory of the electronic device, the identification information uniquely corresponding to a quantity of all face images acquired by the camera component during a predefined time period; embedding the identification information into the face image to obtain the face image carrying the identification information, the identification information not being visible in the face image; and transmitting the face image carrying the identification information to a remote server for authenticating the human being using the identification information.
US 12165432 B2
1. A face image transmission method performed by a processor of a camera component, the method comprising: reading a target list from a buffer of a memory of the camera component for a face image acquired by the camera component, wherein: a plurality of values are stored in the target list, each of the plurality of values corresponds to a respective quantity of face images, a maximum value in the target list is updated as a quantity of all face images the camera component has ever acquired since being first activated increases; determining the maximum value in the target list as face image information, wherein the face image information is used for indicating the quantity of all face images the camera component has ever acquired since being first activated; embedding identification information in the face image to obtain the face image carrying the identification information, the identification information being used for indicating the face image information and the identification information in the face image not being perceivable by a human being; and transmitting the face image carrying the identification information to a remote server for authenticating the face image using the identification information.
Claim 9 (and by dependency claims 10-16) are rejected on the ground of nonstatutory double patenting as being unpatentable over claim 8 of U.S. Patent No. 12165432. Although the claims at issue are not identical, they are not patentably distinct from each other because the US 12165432 B2 is the more specific version of the claim, and the “in response to a trigger operation” in the current claim is interpreted as implied in U.S. Patent No. 12165432.
Current Application
9. An electronic device, comprising one or more processors and one or more memories, the one or more memories storing at least one program code, the at least one program code being loaded and executed by the one or more processors to implement the following operations: acquiring a face image of a human being using a camera component coupled to the electronic device in response to a trigger operation; acquiring identification information from a memory of the electronic device, the identification information uniquely corresponding to a quantity of all face images acquired by the camera component during a predefined time period; embedding the identification information into the face image to obtain the face image carrying the identification information, the identification information not being visible in the face image; and transmitting the face image carrying the identification information to a remote server for authenticating the human being using the identification information.
US 12165432 B2
8. An electronic device, comprising a camera component including one or more processors and one or more memories, the one or more memories storing at least one program code, the at least one program code being loaded and executed by the one or more processors to implement a plurality of operations comprising: reading a target list from a buffer of the one or more memories for a face image acquired by the camera component, wherein: a plurality of values are stored in the target list, each of the plurality of values corresponds to a respective quantity of face images, a maximum value in the target list is updated as a quantity of all face images the camera component has ever acquired since being first activated increases; determining the maximum value in the target list as face image information, wherein the face image information is used for indicating the quantity of all face images the camera component has ever acquired since being first activated; embedding identification information in the face image to obtain the face image carrying the identification information, the identification information being used for indicating the face image information and the identification information in the face image not being perceivable by a human being; and transmitting the face image carrying the identification information to a remote server for authenticating the face image using the identification information.
Claim 17 (and by dependency claims 18-20) are rejected on the ground of nonstatutory double patenting as being unpatentable over claim 15 of U.S. Patent No. 12165432. Although the claims at issue are not identical, they are not patentably distinct from each other because the US 12165432 B2 is the more specific version of the claim, and the “in response to a trigger operation” in the current claim is interpreted as implied in U.S. Patent No. 12165432.
Current Application
17. A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium, storing at least one program code, the at least one program code being loaded and executed by a processor of an electronic device to implement the following operations: acquiring a face image of a human being using a camera component coupled to the electronic device in response to a trigger operation; acquiring identification information from a memory of the electronic device, the identification information uniquely corresponding to a quantity of all face images acquired by the camera component during a predefined time period; embedding the identification information into the face image to obtain the face image carrying the identification information, the identification information not being visible in the face image; and transmitting the face image carrying the identification information to a remote server for authenticating the human being using the identification information.
US 12165432 B2
15. A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium, storing at least one program code, the at least one program code being loaded and executed by a processor of an electronic device comprising a camera component to implement a plurality of operations comprising: reading a target list from a buffer of a memory of the camera component for a face image acquired by the camera component, wherein: a plurality of values are stored in the target list, each of the plurality of values corresponds to a respective quantity of face images, a maximum value in the target list is updated as a quantity of all face images the camera component has ever acquired since being first activated increases; determining the maximum value in the target list as face image information, wherein the face image information is used for indicating the quantity of all face images the camera component has ever acquired since being first activated; embedding identification information in the face image to obtain the face image carrying the identification information, the identification information being used for indicating the face image information and the identification information in the face image not being perceivable by a human being; and transmitting the face image carrying the identification information to a remote server for authenticating the face image using the identification information.
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure:
US 20160261911 A1 (from 17/528079 OA) The audience measurement system maintains a people count for each frame of image data to reflect a number of people in the environment at a time corresponding to a respective frame. Examples disclosed herein store the determined number of unique individuals as a people count for the period of time. In the example of FIG. 6, if media identifying information is detected in the environment 100 (block 608), the media detector 306 provides the media identifying information (e.g., a code detected in the audio information and/or an identifier extracted from the audio information by the media detector 306) the time stamper 302, which time stamps the media identifying information and provides the time-stamped data to the memory 304 (block 610).
US 8199979 B2 FIG. 12(a) shows a face class which has grown over time to incorporate a relatively large number of Faceprints [12010] which exhibit localized clustering. In this example, there are three obvious clusters of Faceprints. FIG. 12(b) illustrates explicitly how these Faceprints are clustered. For example the cluster, C.sub.3 [12150] is comprised of three constituent Faceprints, [12152, 12154, and 12156]. By applying a conventional clustering algorithm, FIG. 12(c) shows how each local cluster can be replaced by a single Clustered Face Class which is composed of a centre faceprint location in face space and a cluster radius, R.sub.n. An operation list may be created for the digital image based on values of the one or more parameters. The operation list may be embedded within the digital image or may be external to the digital image.
US 20200302159 A1 The two lists are coupled/linked together, and can be maintained as a coupled list. Each entry in “list_of_people” has a corresponding entry in “times_of_attn_start”. “list_of_people” maintains a list of bounding boxes of previously-detected people or previously-detected bounding boxes. “times_of_attn_start” maintains a list of times or time indicators (e.g., frame number) of when a given person (i.e., a bounding box) started paying attention (e.g., has a frontal face detected).
US 20170083753 A1 Each entry in the local_tracks table includes the following fields, or columns: (1) local_track ID 3803, a unique, generally numeric, identifier for the track; (2) video_ID 3804, a unique identifier for the video in which the face track occurs; (3) local_track_profile_ID 3805, a unique identifier for a track profile that includes attributes assigned to the track; (4) first_frame 3806, the sequence number of the first frame of the video in which the face corresponding to the face track occurs; (5) last_frame 3807, the sequence number of the last frame of the track; (6) start time 3808, an indication of the starting time relative to the total time required to display the video at its specified frame rate; (7) end_time 3809, the relative ending time of the track; (8) num_frames 3810, the number of frames in the video
US 20110033113 A1 The video processor 111 further outputs time stamp information (TS) indicative of the point in time when each of the extracted face images appears in the video content data 401. The time stamp information corresponding to each face image may be, for example, elapsed time from the start of the video content data 401 until the face image appears or the number of the frame from which the face image has been extracted.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to MICHELLE ENTEZARI whose telephone number is (571)270-5084. The examiner can normally be reached 10-7 M-F.
Examiner interviews are available via telephone, in-person, and video conferencing using a USPTO supplied web-based collaboration tool. To schedule an interview, applicant is encouraged to use the USPTO Automated Interview Request (AIR) at http://www.uspto.gov/interviewpractice.
If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Vincent M Rudolph can be reached at (571) 272-8243. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
Information regarding the status of published or unpublished applications may be obtained from Patent Center. Unpublished application information in Patent Center is available to registered users. To file and manage patent submissions in Patent Center, visit: https://patentcenter.uspto.gov. Visit https://www.uspto.gov/patents/apply/patent-center for more information about Patent Center and https://www.uspto.gov/patents/docx for information about filing in DOCX format. For additional questions, contact the Electronic Business Center (EBC) at 866-217-9197 (toll-free). If you would like assistance from a USPTO Customer Service Representative, call 800-786-9199 (IN USA OR CANADA) or 571-272-1000.
/MICHELLE M ENTEZARI HAUSMANN/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2671
Prosecution Insights