DETAILED ACTION
Election/Restrictions
Applicant’s election without traverse of Group I claims 1-17 in the reply filed on 12/31/2025 is acknowledged.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
In the event the determination of the status of the application as subject to AIA 35 U.S.C. 102 and 103 (or as subject to pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 102 and 103) is incorrect, any correction of the statutory basis (i.e., changing from AIA to pre-AIA ) for the rejection will not be considered a new ground of rejection if the prior art relied upon, and the rationale supporting the rejection, would be the same under either status.
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, 7, 9-11 and 17 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Cho et al. WO 2022-065684 (via WIPO translation) hereinafter referred to as Cho in view of Cho et al. WO2022-197089 hereinafter referred to as Cho ‘089 (via WIPO translation).
In regards to claim 1, Cho teaches:
“A display device comprising: a mirror display comprising a plurality of blocks”
Cho paragraph [0074] teaches as shown in FIG. 3A, it is assumed that the mirror display 110 includes m × n pixels. In this case, as shown in (b) of FIG. 3, the region 30 May have a size corresponding to a × b pixels. Figures 14-22 teaches regions as well.
“and at least one processor configured to control at least one of a reflectance and display of the plurality of blocks”
Cho paragraph [0060] teaches according to an embodiment of the disclosure, the display apparatus 100 May adjust the reflectance of the area in which the application is displayed on the mirror display 110 based on the reflectance set for each application. Cho paragraph [0119] teaches the processor 130 May adjust the reflectance of the area in which each application is displayed on the mirror display 110 based on the reflectance corresponding to each application.
“wherein the at least one processor is configured to: control first blocks among the plurality of blocks to display a content”
Cho paragraph [0106] teaches the processor 130 May control the mirror display 110 so that the reflectance of the area in which the weather information 51 is displayed is 50%.
“control second blocks among the plurality of blocks to have a first reflectance providing at least a part of a mirror image on a front side of the mirror display”
Cho paragraph [0106] teaches the remaining area except for the area where the weather information 51 is displayed on the mirror display 110 May still have a reflectance of 100%
“identify a second part of the mirror image corresponding to the first blocks …, and control the first blocks to display the second part of the mirror image and the content by overlapping the content with the second part of the mirror image”
Figure 5-8, inter alia, teach overlapping the weather information with the mirror image.
Cho does not explicitly teach:
“a camera” and “[identify a location] based on an image captured by the camera”
Cho ‘089 teaches in [0092] the other first sensor 120 in this revelation may include an image sensor 120, and the processor 140 may acquire a second image corresponding to the user 10 through the image sensor 120. Cho teaches in [0094] the processor 140 can detect the user contained in the second image through the first neural network model and acquire image data for the region containing the user 10. The processor 140 can acquire pose information about the user 10 based on the information about the feature points or skeletons of the user 10 contained in the image data. It would have been obvious for a person with ordinary skill in the art before the invention was effectively filed to have modified Cho in view of Cho’089 to have included the features of “a camera” and “[identify a location] based on an image captured by the camera” because it is necessary to have a technology that improves the visibility of the content/information displayed on the mirror display (Cho ‘089 [0004]).
In regards to claim 7, Cho/Cho ‘089 teach all the limitations of claim 1 and further teach:
“wherein the at least one processor is further configured to: adjust a size of the content displayed on the first blocks such that a boundary of the content corresponds to boundaries among the plurality of blocks”
Cho paragraph [0194] teach the processor 130 May match the display area of the application with at least one of the plurality of areas by changing at least one of the location and size of the display area of the application so as not to overlap the area where another application is displayed on the mirror display 110.
In regards to claim 9, Cho/Cho ‘089 teach all the limitations of claim 1 and further teach:
“wherein the at least one processor is further configured to: control at least one third block, among the first blocks, to display a predetermined image in an area excluding an area in which the at least one third block displays the content”
Cho paragraph [0181] and Figure 14 teaches the display area 1410 of the application does not match at least one of the plurality of areas of the mirror display 110. As another example, the display region 1420 of the application may be regarded as matching a region including two regions 1430 and 1440 among the plurality of regions.
In regards to claim 10, Cho/Cho ‘089 teach all the limitations of claim 1 and further teach:
“wherein the at least one processor is further configured to: control a reflectance of the plurality of blocks in block units, and wherein the plurality of blocks have a same size”
Cho paragraph [0060] teaches the display apparatus 100 May adjust the reflectance of the area in which the application is displayed on the mirror display 110 based on the reflectance set for each application. Cho Figures 14-22 illustrates regions of the same size.
In regards to claim 11, Cho/Cho ‘089 teach all the limitations of claim 1 and claim 11 contains similar limitations. Therefore claim 11 is rejected for similar reasoning as applied to claim 1.
In regards to claim 17, Cho/Cho ‘089 teach all the limitations of claim 11 and claim 17 contains similar limitations as in claim 7. Therefore, claim 17 is rejected for similar reasoning as applied to claim 7.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to MICHAEL E TEITELBAUM, Ph.D. whose telephone number is (571)270-5996. The examiner can normally be reached 8:30AM-5:00PM EST.
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/MICHAEL E TEITELBAUM, Ph.D./ Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2422