DETAILED ACTION
Notice of AIA Status
1. The present application, filed on or after March 16, 2013, is being examined under the first inventor to file provisions of the AIA .
2. “A computer-readable storage media” is not assessed under 35 USC 101 because the spec explicitly defines: “computer-readable media 1014, such as one or more memory devices that enable persistent and/or non-transitory data storage (i.e., in contrast to mere signal transmission)…”
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
3. 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 of this title, 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.
4. Claims 1-7, 9-10, and 12-19 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Van Os et al (US Pub: 2019/0080071) and in further view of Mostafa et al (US Pub: 2019/0213394).
Regarding claim 1, Van Os et al teaches: A method comprising: presenting a preview image, captured by a camera, via a display device of a user device, the presenting to initiate an enrollment process for face authentication [p0011]; responsive to a determination that a user’s face is positioned at an approximate orientation relative to the camera [p0016], presenting a three-dimensional (3D) tracking window as an overlay over the preview image, the 3D tracking window having a plurality of segments; tracking an approximate direction that the user’s face is facing relative to the camera; and based on the tracking: highlighting one or more segments of the plurality of segments of the 3D tracking window that correspond to the approximate direction that the user’s face is facing [p0392, p0478], and capturing one or more enrollment images of the user’s face facing the approximate direction; generating one or more embeddings based on the one or more enrollment images; and responsive to generation of the one or more embeddings, providing an indication that enrollment of the one or more segments is completed [p0479]. Van Os et al’s plurality of progress elements in p0392 could be incorporated into the 3D orientation tracking interface of p0478 so that both directional guidance and visual indication of enrollment progress for orientation of a face is provided.
For a redundant teaching in the same field of endeavor, Mostafa et al further teaches: capturing one or more enrollment images of the user’s face facing the approximate direction; generating one or more embeddings based on the one or more enrollment images; and responsive to generation of the one or more embeddings, providing an indication that enrollment of the one or more segments is completed [p0060-p0063]. Therefore, given Mostafa et al ‘s teaching on processing captured enrollment images into feature vector representations for facial authentication , it would have been obvious for an ordinary skilled in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine the teaching of the two to convert captured images into compact biometric representation for later authentication.
Regarding claim 2, the rationale applied to the rejection of claim 1 has been incorporated herein. Van Os et al further teaches: The method of claim 1, wherein the providing of the indication that the enrollment of the one or more segments is completed comprises changing an opacity of the one or more segments to indicate progress [p0036, p0476].
Regarding claim 3, the rationale applied to the rejection of claim 1 has been incorporated herein. Van Os et al and Mostafa et al further teach: The method of claim 1, further comprising, responsive to completing the enrollment: presenting a confirmation of completion of the enrollment; and enabling the one or more embeddings to be used to unlock the user device via the face authentication [Van: p0493-p0495; Mostafa: p0064, p0066, p0079].
Regarding claim 4, the rationale applied to the rejection of claim 1 has been incorporated herein. Van Os et al further teaches: The method of claim 1, wherein the 3D tracking window is shaped to direct the user to roll or rotate their face [p0478].
Regarding claim 5, the rationale applied to the rejection of claim 1 has been incorporated herein. Van Os et al further teaches: The method of claim 1, wherein the 3D tracking window comprises a hemisphere [p0475, p0478 (Curvature of lines covering face/head represents a shape of hemisphere.)].
Regarding claim 6, the rationale applied to the rejection of claim 1 has been incorporated herein. Van Os et al further teaches: The method of claim 1, wherein the preview image is a live preview [p0011-p0014].
Regarding claim 7, the rationale applied to the rejection of claim 1 has been incorporated herein. Van Os et al further teaches: The method of claim 1, further comprising: responsive to presenting the 3D tracking window, initiating a timer; resetting the timer upon completion of a respective segment of the plurality of segments; and responsive to the timer expiring without enrollment of one or more new segments of the plurality of segments being completed, providing an additional indication to direct the user to face a new direction corresponding to at least one of the one or more new segments [p0467, p0470, p0471].
Regarding claim 9, the rationale applied to the rejection of claim 1 has been incorporated herein. Van Os et al further teaches: The method of claim 1, wherein the plurality of segments each correspond to a pose of the user’s face [p0016, p0479].
Regarding claim 10, the rationale applied to the rejection of claim 1 has been incorporated herein. Van Os et al further teaches: The method of claim 1, further comprising: responsive to presenting the preview image, overlaying a two-dimensional (2D) object over the preview image, the 2D object having a region indicating the approximate orientation for the user to position the user’s face relative to the camera; and responsive to the determination that the user’s face is positioned at the approximate orientation, removing the 2D object [p0011, p0468, p0469, p0475].
Regarding claim 12, the rationale applied to the rejection of claim 1 has been incorporated herein. Van Os et al further teaches: The method of claim 1, wherein the indication that the enrollment of the one or more segments is completed comprises haptic feedback [p0497].
Regarding claim 13, the rationale applied to the rejection of claim 1 has been incorporated herein. Van Os et al further teaches: The method of claim 1, wherein the indication that the enrollment of the one or more segments is completed comprises audible feedback [p0493, p0497].
Regarding claim 14, the rationale applied to the rejection of claim 1 has been incorporated herein. Van Os et al in view of Mostafa et al further teaches: The method of claim 1, wherein: the camera comprises one or more color cameras and one or more near-infrared cameras; the one or more color cameras are used to capture the preview image; and the capturing of the one or more enrollment images of the user’s face comprises capturing, using the one or more near-infrared cameras, one or more near-infrared images usable to generate the one or more embeddings [Van: p0011; Mostafa: p0043, p0059, p0062, p0064].
Claim 15 has been analyzed and rejected with regard to claim 1 and in accordance with Van Os et al’s further teaching on: A user device comprising: a camera system configured to capture images of a face of a user for face authentication; a display device configured to display a preview image including the user’s face; and a processor and memory configured to implement an enrollment module configured to [p0011, p0012].
Regarding claim 16, the rationale applied to the rejection of claim 15 has been incorporated herein. Van Os et al further teaches: The user device of claim 15, wherein the 3D tracking window is shaped as a hemisphere and is overlaid over the preview image such that the user’s face in the preview image is displayed within the hemisphere [p0475, p0478 (Curvature of lines covering face/head represents a shape of hemisphere.)].
Regarding claim 17, the rationale applied to the rejection of claim 15 has been incorporated herein. Claim 17 has been analyzed and rejected with regard to claim 7.
Regarding claim 18, the rationale applied to the rejection of claim 15 has been incorporated herein. Claim 18 has been analyzed and rejected with regard to claim 9.
Claim 19 has been analyzed and rejected with regard to claim 1 and in accordance with Van Os et al’s further teaching on: A computer-readable storage media comprising instructions that, when executed, configure at least one processor of a user device to [p0007].
5. Claim 11 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Van Os et al (US Pub: 2019/0080071) and Mostafa et al (US Pub: 2019/0213394); and in further view of Hinckley et al (US Pub: 20050275637).
Regarding claim 11, the rationale applied to the rejection of claim 1 has been incorporated herein. Van Os et al further teaches: The method of claim 1, wherein: the highlighting of the one or more segments comprises: fading in a first segment corresponding to the approximate direction that the user’s face is facing relative to the camera [p0478, p0481-p0484].
Van Os et al does not specify fading in/out speed. In the same field of endeavor, Hinckley et al teaches: fading out the first segment when the approximate direction that the user’s face is facing changes and no longer corresponds to the first segment; and a first animation speed corresponding to the fading in is greater than a second animation speed corresponding to the fading out [p0166]. Therefore, it would have been obvious for an ordinary skilled in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine the teaching of all to control fading speed for indication and reminding purpose.
6. Claim 20 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Van Os et al (US Pub: 2019/0080071) and Mostafa et al (US Pub: 2019/0213394); and in further view of Kanaujia et al (US Pub: 20150178554).
Regarding claim 20, the rationale applied to the rejection of claim 19 has been incorporated herein. Van Os et al in view of Mostafa et al does not specify storing paired 2D and 3D facial embedding. In the same field of endeavor, Kanaujia et al teaches: The computer-readable storage media of claim 19, wherein: the embeddings include a pair of 2D and 3D embeddings for the pose of the user’s face facing the approximate direction; and the at least one processor is configured to store the embeddings in a fixed grid of pose cells, which are characterized by pan angle and tilt angle [p0031, p0032, p0065, p0066, p0069, p0073]. Therefore, it would have been obvious for an ordinary skilled in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine the teaching of all to store 2D and 3D facial embedding according to head orientation for facial data retrieving based on user’s pose.
Allowable Subject Matter
7. Claim 8 is objected to as being dependent upon a rejected base claim, but would be allowable if rewritten in independent form including all of the limitations of the base claim and any intervening claims.
Contact
8. Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to FAN ZHANG whose telephone number is (571)270-3751. The examiner can normally be reached on Mon-Fri 9:00-5:00.
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/Fan Zhang/
Patent Examiner, Art Unit 2682
