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 .
Priority
Receipt is acknowledged of certified copies of papers required by 37 CFR 1.55.
Information Disclosure Statement
The information disclosure statement (IDS) submitted on 11/15/2024 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 § 101
35 U.S.C. 101 reads as follows:
Whoever invents or discovers any new and useful process, machine, manufacture, or composition of matter, or any new and useful improvement thereof, may obtain a patent therefor, subject to the conditions and requirements of this title.
Claims 1-3 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 101 Abstract Idea.
35 U.S.C. 101 requires that a claimed invention must fall within one of the four eligible categories of invention (i.e. process, machine, manufacture, or composition of matter) and must not be directed to subject matter encompassing a judicially recognized exception as interpreted by the courts. MPEP 2106. Three categories of subject matter are found to be judicially recognized exceptions to 35 U.S.C. § 101 (i.e. patent ineligible) (1) laws of nature, (2) physical phenomena, and (3) abstract ideas. MPEP 2106(II). To be patent-eligible, a claim directed to a judicial exception must as whole be directed to significantly more than the exception itself. See 2014 Interim Guidance on Patent Subject Matter Eligibility, 79 Fed. Reg. 74618, 74624 (Dec. 16, 2014). Hence, the claim must describe a process or product that applies the exception in a meaningful way, such that it is more than a drafting effort designed to monopolize the exception. Id
Claims 1-3 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 101 because the claimed invention is directed to a judicial exception (i.e., an abstract idea) without significantly more. Claim(s) are directed to recognize facial expression of a user captured in the camera image and execute a different program according to the recognized expression which is similar to mental process of recognizing facial expressions of human being in images and select an option of programs. The mere recognition of facial expression can be performed by human being using pen and paper and further executing a different program based on recognized program with use of computer does not significantly add more than familiar mental steps (steps previously done mentally) and therefore ineligible. Implementation of routing acts by generic computer not enough. (SmartGene, Inc. v. Advanced Biological Laboratories, SA (U.S. Patent No. 6081786).
The dependent claims not include additional elements that are sufficient to amount to significantly more than the judicial exception.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 101
35 U.S.C. 101 reads as follows:
Whoever invents or discovers any new and useful process, machine, manufacture, or composition of matter, or any new and useful improvement thereof, may obtain a patent therefor, subject to the conditions and requirements of this title.
Claims 1-3 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 101. (Claims directed to a program).
35 U.S.C. 101 requires that a claimed invention must fall within one of the four eligible categories of invention (i.e. process, machine, manufacture, or composition of matter) and must not be directed to subject matter encompassing a judicially recognized exception as interpreted by the courts. MPEP 2106. The four eligible categories of invention include: (1) process which is an act, or a series of acts or steps, (2) machine which is an concrete thing, consisting of parts, or of certain devices and combination of devices, (3) manufacture which is an article produced from raw or prepared materials by giving to these materials new forms, qualities, properties, or combinations, whether by hand labor or by machinery, and (4) composition of matter which is all compositions of two or more substances and all composite articles, whether they be the results of chemical union, or of mechanical mixture, or whether they be gases, fluids, powders or solids. MPEP 2106(I).
Claims 1-3 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 101 as not falling within one of the four statutory categories of invention because the claimed invention is directed to computer program per se. See MPEP 2106(I). A claim directed toward a non-transitory computer-readable medium having the program encoded thereon establishes a sufficient functional relationship between the program and a computer so as to remove it from the realm of “program per se”. MPEP 2111.05(III). Hence, adding the limitation of “stored on a non-transitory computer-readable medium” would resolve this issue.
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)(1) the claimed invention was patented, described in a printed publication, or in public use, on sale, or otherwise available to the public before the effective filing date of the claimed invention.
(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.
Claims 1-3 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102 (a)(1)/(a)(2) as being anticipated by Zhu et al. (CN-115471639-A).
Regarding Claim 1,
A program executed in a system, comprising: a computer, a display device, and an imaging device that captures an image of a face of a user, wherein the program is executed by the computer in a different manner depending on facial expression of the user which is recognized with reference to the image captured by the imaging device. (Zhu, Specific Implementation Examples, discloses logic and/or steps described in the flow chart or described in other ways, for example, can be considered as a sequence table of executable instructions for realizing logic function, can be embodied in any computer readable medium, for instruction execution system, device or device (such as a computer-based system, A system comprising a processor or other system capable of executing the system from the instruction, device or device instruction and executing instruction, or combining the instruction execution system, device or device for use. In this specification, the computer-readable recording medium can be any may include, storage, communication, propagation or transmission program for instruction execution system, device or device or combined with the instruction execution system, device or device for using the device. A more specific example of a computer-readable recording medium (non-exhaustive list) includes the following: an electrical connection part (electronic device) having one or more wirings, a portable computer disk cartridge (magnetic device), a random access memory (RAM), a read only memory (ROM), an erasable programmable read only memory (EPROM or flash memory), an optical fibre device, and a portable optical disc read-only memory (CDROM). In addition, a computer-readable recording medium can even be paper or other suitable medium on which the program can be printed, because it can be optically scanned by paper or other medium, and then editing, interpreting or otherwise processing in other suitable means to obtain the program in an electronic manner, and then storing it in the computer memory; a virtual reality display device, comprising the following modules: a receiving module, for receiving the user face image data, specifically for realizing the method in the step S1, a pre-processing module, the pre-processing module is used for performing facial expression image pre-processing for the facial image data, specifically for realizing the method in the step S2, an expression characteristic extraction module, the expression characteristic extraction module is used for extracting the expression characteristic of the facial expression image after the pre-processing, specifically for realizing the method in the step S3, expression classification module, the expression classification module is used for judging expression classification of facial image in facial image according to the extracted expression characteristic, determining facial expression recognition result, specifically for realizing the method in the step S4, a processing module, the processing module is used for inputting the facial expression recognition result into the virtual reality scene, the target object in the virtual reality scene executes specific action according to the facial expression recognition result, specifically for realizing the method in the step S5; image data is captured by head worn device camera sensor and processed to detect facial expressions of human and based on the detected facial expressions (or emotions) of human a function is executed specific to the facial expression (program is executed in different manner based on expression of human being detected).
Regarding Claim 2,
Zhu further discloses wherein the recognized facial expression of the user is classified into a plurality of emotions by a convolutional neural network. (Zhu, Claim 2, discloses wherein in the step S3, using the optimized neural network model for expression feature extraction, the optimized after the neural network inputting the matching layer, expanding and sharing the learning layer and the adaptive feedback output layer, the input matching layer specifically comprises: mapping the facial expression image from the high-dimensional information space to the low-dimensional characteristic sub-space by using the main component analysis method; in order to enhance the control of the output, using the local sensing of the convolutional neural network as the basis of different scale image judgment, so as to provide feedback capability; combining the local features collected in the previous layer together to obtain local information of the image; the extended and shared learning layer specifically comprises: converting the facial feature into color, light, and shape, using time offset factor to replace the threshold value of the original implication layer; using weight sharing, obtaining characteristic convolution operation independent of characteristic position; The adaptive feedback output specifically includes: performing weighted summation to the output of the node in the extended and shared learning layer, using the activation function sigmoid to convert the result of the weighted summation, and as the final output result; convolutional neural network classifies the facial expressions).
Regarding Claim 3,
Zhu further discloses wherein the program is a game program which accepts the recognized facial expression of the user as an input. (Zhu, Specific Implementation Examples, discloses existing technology when realizing virtual reality scene interaction, generally needs the user wearing additional sensor device, the sensor device collected user action information as input, realizing the change of the target object in the virtual reality scene. In order to enhance the immersive feeling of virtual reality scene interaction, at the same time, considering that the disabled may not wear additional sensor device, the application uses facial expression of the user as input, realizing the control of the target object in the virtual reality scene. For example, when the virtual reality scene of the user is playing in the park, the smile expression of the user as a command to trigger the user walking in the park, the happy expression of the user as a command triggering user running in the park, and the user of the eyebrow expression as a command to trigger the user to stop moving in the park. or when the virtual reality scene of the user is the fighting type game, the neutral expression of the user as the command triggering the user to move in the scene, the excitation expression of the user as the command triggering the user in the scene and the opponent battle, the fear expression of the user as a command triggering the user away from the scene; depending on facial expressions as input to game, the output function (program) is performed in different manner).
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure:
US-11182976-B2 (Komissarov et al., The invention refers to devices, intended for impact on
virtual objects, namely to devices for impact on virtual objects of augmented reality. The device comprising a one or more video camera, SONAR module, infrared camera, display, connected to the computational module, processing device, the device has a database storage of actions virtual objects of facial expressions, gestures of the user, recognized objects of the real world and distance to such objects. All modules of the device are connected to the computing module that has an electronic unit adapted to select commands stored in the database based upon the information received through various modules of the device. As a result certain actions of virtual objects of augmented reality are activated, and the resulting video stream is shown to the user. According to the invention, the command recognition block further comprises a module for determining heart rate of the user)
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/Pinalben Patel/Examiner, Art Unit 2673
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