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 .
Response to Amendment
1. This office action is in response to communications filed 2/5/2026 Claims 1, 6, 7 are amended. Claims 2, 3, 4 and 5 are original.
Response to Arguments
Applicant’s arguments with respect to claim(s) 1-7 have been considered but are moot because the new ground of rejection does not rely on any reference applied in the prior rejection of record for any teaching or matter specifically challenged in the argument.
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.
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.
1. Claim(s) 1-7 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over U.S. Patent Application 2015/0378577, Lum et al. (hereinafter Lum) in view of U.S. Patent 7653896, Herdeg.
2. Regarding Claim 1, Lum discloses A video acquisition support apparatus ([0102], “The interaction recording system 200”) for an operation device (agent device 138 in Figs. 1 and 2) including an operation screen operated by an operator ([0135], “The interaction recording system 200”), comprising:
a control module (Fig. 2: screen recording client 266, [0102]) configured to control the operation device (Fig. 1: agents workstation 126(, [0160]), wherein the control module (Fig. 2: screen recording client 266, [0102]) executes a specific control process (Fig. 1: executes a video capture process to record the contents of the operation screen during the agent’s interaction, see title, ) including:
a video acquisition process configured to acquire a video of an operation of the operation screen when the operator operates the operation screen of the operation device ([0135], “agent interaction recording system 100”); and
a video storage process configured to store the acquired video in a storage device together with the meta information added to the video ([0005]-[0006], “store a video file corresponding to the screen recording session in the memory.” (i.e. stores captured screen video together with metadata). [0140], “An agent interacting with the playback UI 700 using an agent device 138 can utilize the filters to search the recordings stored in the storage device 226 based on the metadata associated with various media communications and stored in the mass storage device 236. For example, a supervisory agent may wish to review all communications occurring between customers and agents in a particular workgroup during a certain time frame to determine performance of the agents in that workgroup or for training of new agents. Thus, the supervisory agent may select workgroup on the workgroup dropdown under the agent and workgroup category, select a data range, and click the apply button 704 to perform the search.”).
Lum teaches metadata (file 560) captures communication level session data, not icon-specific interaction data
However, Lum may not explicitly disclose (b) a meta information addition process configured to add, to the acquired video, meta information including at least one of information on the type of an icon operated by the operator and information on the order of icons operated by the operator
Herdeg teaches (b) a meta information addition process configured to add, to the acquired video (Abstract, “a recording tool receives internal macro data from a GUI-based application as opaque tokens, which are embedded into playback code. A playback tool executes the playback code by passing the embedded tokens back to their original application for playback by the application’s internal recorder.” Col. 11 lines37-41, “add additional layers of data to the recorded step tokens and/or associate the tokens with marking information such as application name, timestamps, index values, etc. so that the steps may be played back by the correct application and in the proper sequence.”), meta information including at least one of information on the type of an icon operated by the operator (Col. 14 lines24-30, “The interface includes buttons for features such as “Record,” Pause,” “Stop,” and “Play,” as well as an area for presenting description of recorded steps when such description is available. For examples of such interfaces, see the U.S. patent application entitled “Recording/Playback Tools for UI-based Applications.””) and information on the order of icons operated by the operator (Col. 6 line 66-Col. 7 line 7, “a series of related macro language instructions are wrapped into one recorded step token. Those tokens maintain the temporal sequencing of the underlying macro language instructions so as to permit them to be played back by the application as they were recorded, while also allowing for interoperation with the generalized, system-wide macro and UI recording tool. After receiving the recorded step token, the tool optionally generates code that reflects the recorded steps.”)
A person of ordinary skill in the art would have been motivated to combine Lum’s screen-recording with metadata system with Herdeg’s icon-type and icon-sequence logging since both reference address recording GUI based operator activity for later review/training. Lum records call center agent screen activity for supervisory review; Herdeg records GUI icon sequences for reliable playback and replication. The combination would yield a screen recording system whose stored metadata identifies not just session level events (Lum) but also the specific icons clicked and their order, making videos far more searchable and useful for operator training.
3. Regarding Claim 2, Lum discloses The video acquisition support apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the control module (Fig. 2: screen recording client 266, [0102]) executes:
the specific control process a plurality of times to store a plurality of the videos in the storage device (screen-recording system that records multiple sessions for each agent; [0119], “the start recording triggering events 408 may include: in operation 416; an agent logging into an agent work station or agent device 138,” [0122], “when any of the start recording trigger events 408 occurs, the web server 402 sends a signal to the screen recording client 400 to initiate or resume a screen recording session. In operation 442, the web server 402 sends metadata information to the metadata storage 406 regarding communications occurring between the agent device 138 and various customers operating an end user device 106”); and
a video display process in which the video related to the operation content is selected from among the plurality of videos stored in the storage device based on the operation content operated by the operator on the operation screen and displayed on a display device ([0145], “The separate audio and video files may be later merged or played simultaneously during playback in synchronization with a clock (e.g., a local clock running on the agent terminal).”.
4. Regarding Claim 3, Lum discloses The video acquisition support apparatus according to claim 2, wherein the display device is configured to allow inputting of word ([0099], users may enter search terms or keywords corresponding to even data stored in the metadata file to locate and replay a specific screen recording. [0101], “speech processing and analytics is performed on communications to enable a tenant user operating an agent terminal (e.g., 138b) to subsequently search and playback recorded communications”),
the meta information includes the word inputted (Metadata includes “tags, event names, or user-supplied keywords associated with sessions” [0099] .” the speech server 256 may store information about the communication (e.g., topics, keywords, agent and customer information, media type, media identification information, etc.) in an index file 258 to facilitate searching operations by the playback user interface 254.”), and
the control module (Fig. 2: screen recording client 266, [0102]) selects the video related to the word inputted and displays on the display device in the video display process (Upon matching the keyword to a stored tag, the system retrieves and plays back the associated screen recording, [0099], [0138], “The agent selects a recording for playback and sends a request to retrieve the recording to the playback UI 602 in operation 616.”).
5. Regarding Claim 4, Lum discloses The video acquisition support apparatus according to claim 2, wherein the display device is configured to allow input of operator identification information for identifying the operator who operates the operation device (Each agent workstation is associated with an agent identifier that is recorded in the session metadata, [0018], [0021]-[0023], and [0025]) ,
the meta information includes the operator identification information (Metadata fields may include agent ID, workstation ID, and interaction ID, [0103], “record information regarding the communications (e.g., start time, end time, media identification, media duration, media type, etc.) as metadata information to store in metadata files in the mass storage device 236”)), and
the control module selects the video related to the operator who operates the operation screen of the operation device based on the operator identification information in the video display process (Supervisors can search for and retrieve sessions by agent identifier or workstation, [0058]-[0060], “Supervising agents of the business or contact center may wish to monitor such communications… Additionally, agent activities may be recorded as a screen capture recording that can later be played back to review what an agent was doing during the course of the agent's work shift, or during the course of a specific media communication session.”) and displays on the display device (Upon selection, the corresponding screen recording for that agent is displayed, [0110], “record content displayed on a computer screen may be used”).
6. Regarding Claim 5, Lum discloses The video acquisition support apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the control module further executes an external video loading process ([0061], “deployed in a remote computing environment”) configured to load an external video as a video of the operation of the operation screen of the operation device by the operator acquired by an external video acquisition device (webcam or remote screen device is the “external video acquisition device”; video is loaded and associated with the agent’s operation session. [0097], “the recording server 250 provides a user interface for access by administrators (e.g., a tenant administrator operating an agent terminal 138b) for uploading and managing certificates for the encryption and decryption of the communication recordings.”).
7. Claim 6 is a method claim, rejected with respect to the same limitation rejected in apparatus claim 1.
8. Claim 7 is a non-transitory storage medium claim, rejected with respect to the same limitation rejected in apparatus claim 1.
Conclusion
Applicant's amendment necessitated the new ground(s) of rejection presented in this Office action. Accordingly, THIS ACTION IS MADE FINAL. See MPEP § 706.07(a). Applicant is reminded of the extension of time policy as set forth in 37 CFR 1.136(a).
A shortened statutory period for reply to this final action is set to expire THREE MONTHS from the mailing date of this action. In the event a first reply is filed within TWO MONTHS of the mailing date of this final action and the advisory action is not mailed until after the end of the THREE-MONTH shortened statutory period, then the shortened statutory period will expire on the date the advisory action is mailed, and any nonprovisional extension fee (37 CFR 1.17(a)) pursuant to 37 CFR 1.136(a) will be calculated from the mailing date of the advisory action. In no event, however, will the statutory period for reply expire later than SIX MONTHS from the mailing date of this final action.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to OMER KHALID whose telephone number is (571)270-5997. The examiner can normally be reached Monday- Friday 9am-7pm.
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If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, John Miller can be reached at (571) 272-7353. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/OMER KHALID/Examiner, Art Unit 2422
/JOHN W MILLER/Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 2422
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