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 .
Information Disclosure Statement
The IDS dated 1/16/2025 has been considered and placed in the application file.
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, 6, 8 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 101 because the claimed invention is directed to an abstract idea without significantly more.
Claim 1 recites:
“extract an image feature from a character image” which can be reasonably interpreted as a human observer mentally extracting a feature from a character image.
“And estimate a character string from the image feature and a number of characters” which can be reasonably interpreted as a human observer mentally estimating a character string and the number of characters in an image.
Claim 3 recites “wherein the processing circuitry is further configured to estimate the number of characters from the image feature, output the number of characters, and then estimate the character string”. A person can mentally determine the number of characters in an image feature, output the number of characters with the aid of pen and paper, and estimate the number of character strings.
Claim 6 corresponds to claim 1, and thus is analyzed similarly and rejected for the same reasons of being directed towards an abstract idea.
Claim 8 corresponds to claim 1, additionally reciting a non-transitory computer-readable recording medium. These parts are adding the words “apply it” (or an equivalent) with the judicial exception, or mere instructions to implement an abstract idea on a computer, or merely uses a computer as a tool to perform an abstract idea. Thus, claim 8 is rejected for the same reasons of being directed towards an abstract idea.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 102
In the event the determination of the status of the application as subject to AIA 35 U.S.C. 102 and 103 is incorrect, any correction of the statutory basis 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 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.
Claims 1, 3, 6, 8 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by Chae (US 20240362938 A1).
Regarding claim 1, Chae discloses an information processing apparatus comprising: processing circuitry (Chae, paragraph [0023], "The user terminal 10 is a computer of a user. For example, the user terminal 10 is a smartphone, a tablet terminal, a personal computer, or a wearable terminal. A control unit 11 includes at least one processor") configured to:
extract an image feature from a character image (Chae, paragraph [0050], Fig. 4 below, " FIG. 4 is a view for illustrating an example of the character string regions detected from the health insurance ID card image I"),
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And estimate a character string from the image feature and a number of characters (Chae, paragraph [0063], Fig. 6 below, "FIG. 6 is a table for showing an example of an execution result of the character recognition applied to the character string regions R. In this embodiment, a plurality of recognizable characters can be recognized through use of the character recognition. The character recognition module 103 calculates, for each character, the score of each of the plurality of recognizable characters", as shown in the table, the number of characters are recognized in the first row).
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Regarding claim 3, Chae discloses the information processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the processing circuitry is further configured to estimate the number of characters from the image feature, output the number of characters, and then estimate the character string (Chae, paragraph [0063], Fig. 6 above, "FIG. 6 is a table for showing an example of an execution result of the character recognition applied to the character string regions R. In this embodiment, a plurality of recognizable characters can be recognized through use of the character recognition. The character recognition module 103 calculates, for each character, the score of each of the plurality of recognizable characters").
Claim 6 corresponds to claim 1. Thus, claim 6 is rejected for the same reasons of anticipation as claim 1.
Claim 8 corresponds to claim 1, additionally reciting a non-transitory computer-readable recording medium (Chae, paragraph [0025], “The user terminal 10 or the server 20 may include a reading unit (for example, an optical disc drive or a memory card slot) for reading a computer-readable information storage medium, or an input/output (for example, a USB port) for data input from/output to an external device”). Thus, the remaining limitations are rejected for the same reasons of anticipation as claim 1.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to WAYNE ZHANG whose telephone number is (571) 272-0245. The examiner can normally be reached Monday-Friday 10:00-6:00 EST.
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If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Ms. Sumati Lefkowitz can be reached on (571) 272-3638. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/WAYNE ZHANG/Examiner, Art Unit 2672
/SUMATI LEFKOWITZ/Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 2672
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