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 .
The following is a Non-Final Office Action in response to communications received on November 14, 2024. Claims 1-12 are pending and addressed below.
Specification
For the record, Examiner acknowledges that the Specification submitted on November 14, 2024 has been accepted.
Drawings
For the record, Examiner acknowledges that the Drawings submitted on November 14, 2024 have been accepted.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 112
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 112(b):
(b) CONCLUSION.—The specification shall conclude with one or more claims particularly pointing out and distinctly claiming the subject matter which the inventor or a joint inventor regards as the invention.
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), second paragraph:
The specification shall conclude with one or more claims particularly pointing out and distinctly claiming the subject matter which the applicant regards as his invention.
Claims 4, 6 and 11 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 112(b) or 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), second paragraph, as being indefinite for failing to particularly point out and distinctly claim the subject matter which the inventor or a joint inventor (or for applications subject to pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, the applicant), regards as the invention.
Claim 4 recites the limitation “the determination result”. There is insufficient antecedent basis for this limitation. Claim 11 is rejected for similar reasons to claim 4.
Claim 6 recites the limitation “the authentication result”. There is insufficient antecedent basis for this limitation.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 1-3, 5, 7-10 and 12 are allowed.
Claim 11 would be allowable if rewritten or amended to overcome the rejection(s) under 35 U.S.C. 112(b) or 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), 2nd paragraph, set forth in this Office action.
Claims 4 and 6 would be allowable if rewritten to overcome the rejection(s) under 35 U.S.C. 112(b) or 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), 2nd paragraph, set forth in this Office action and to include all of the limitations of the base claim and any intervening claims.
Claim 5 recites, inter alia, “wherein when booting the system, the second processor controls whether or not to cause the first processor to execute user registration processing to register information on the face image detected by the face detection processing after booting the system as information on the face image of the authorized user depending on whether or not a booting factor is a fact that the area of the face image is detected by the face detection processing and face authentication by the face authentication processing is successful”.
The closest prior art made of record are:
Reddy et al. (U.S. Patent No. 11,841,785 and hereinafter referred to as Reddy) which discloses waking a device based on biometric authentication and perform enrollment (see Figs. 5 and 8 and corresponding text)
Benkley, III et al. (U.S. Pub. No. 2019/0122089 and hereinafter referred to as Benkley) which discloses enrollment and authenticating biometric data (see Abstract)
While the prior art does generally disclose waking a device for booting based on biometric facial authentication, the prior art was not found to disclose the particular cited limitations including the registration based on the booting factor. Therefore, claim 5 is considered to recite allowable subject matter over the prior art. Claims 1, 4 and 10-12 are considered to recite allowable subject matter over the prior art for similar reasons to claim 5. Dependent claims 2, 3 and 5-9 are considered to recite allowable subject matter over the prior art based on their dependency.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to THADDEUS J PLECHA whose telephone number is (571)270-7506. The examiner can normally be reached M-F 8-4:30.
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/THADDEUS J PLECHA/Examiner, Art Unit 2438
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