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 .
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 112
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 112(b):
(b) CONCLUSION.—The specification shall conclude with one or more claims particularly pointing out and distinctly claiming the subject matter which the inventor or a joint inventor regards as the invention.
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), second paragraph:
The specification shall conclude with one or more claims particularly pointing out and distinctly claiming the subject matter which the applicant regards as his invention.
Claims 1-20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 112(b) or 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), second paragraph, as being indefinite for failing to particularly point out and distinctly claim the subject matter which the inventor or a joint inventor (or for applications subject to pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, the applicant), regards as the invention.
Claim 1 in part recites… “determining whether the voice command was spoken by a child or an adult…”
in response to determining that the voice command was spoken by a child, causing the media playback system to play media content that is (i) associated with the request and (ii) complies with one or more age-based content restrictions; and
in response to determining that the voice command was spoken by an adult, causing the media playback system to play media content associated with the request without regard to whether the media content complies with the one or more age-based content restrictions.
The (highlighted) “OR” requires a consideration on either “a child” or “an adult” (not both) WHILE the (highlighted) “AND” requires both options to be performed. Both options are entirely different and apposite to one another on how to carry an age-based action pending “whether the voice command was spoken by a child or an adult…”.
Clarification is respectfully requested. For now examiner presents rejection based on best mode analysis by considering the “child” option.
Similar analysis is applicable to claim 12. All dependent claims are either recite or inherit the deficiency.
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.
Claim(s) 1-20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as anticipated by or, in the alternative, under 35 U.S.C. 103 as obvious over Kosseifi et al (US 2016/0112760) and if necessary in view of Richman et al (US 2016/0189222), McCarty et al (US 8,312,484), Witzman (US 8,099,278) OR Lombardi et al (US 2015/0086034).
Claims 1 and 12. Kosseifi teaches a non-transitory computer-readable media and a method comprising:
receiving a voice command via a network microphone device, wherein the voice command includes a request for a media playback system to play media content; (Kosseifi, [0017]: The media device 102 is configured to receive information from the one or more sensors 104. The information may include sensor data 114 indicating that a viewer 116 is located within an area 118 that is associated with the media device 102. For example, the viewer 116 may be determined to be located within the area 118 when the viewer 116 is in a room with the display device 106 or is located proximate to the display device 106…)
Here examiner notices that Kosseifi utilizes multiple methods/techniques (i.e. voice or facial recognition) to identify viewer/user (an adult or a child) being present in the room to display alternative age-appropriate content for the viewer. This suggests, or alternatively by obviousness, a child can request, by voice and being verified by voice recognition software, for any certain media content that include content rating, [0020-0030, 0033-0037] pending the determination of age-(in)appropriateness, the specific request will be played.
To support this obviousness, examiner wishes to provide several secondary references:
Richman teaches, “A user can interact with the media application at a media device, for example using the user interface, and issue requests to access media content, such as the playing of a selected music or video item at their media device or at a controlled device, or the streaming of a media channel or video stream to their media device or to a controlled device, [0232, 0280, 0330, 0382, 0395] wherein the interaction can be voice interaction via microphones, [0362]),
McCarty teaches, “the user may choose to block all commercials with a particular content, such as commercials advertising alcohol. When a child (or anyone else) requests to view a media content, the media content and commercials to be displayed with the media content are analyzed to determine if they violate the parental control restrictions, col. 2, lines 48-53. Wherein the request is subjected to verified by voice/speech or audio recognition software, col. 10, lines 4-8 or spoken words/audio, col. 2, lines 34-35 via speaker 314.
Witzman: The age verification score may be used to grant or deny access to requested content or services, col. 10, line 23-24 and claim 13.
Lombardi: a user may speak a command such as "shuffle music" in proximity of a kitchen audio unit. In that case, the mobile device would start playing music through the kitchen audio unit, [0033].
determining whether the voice command was spoken by a child or an adult based at least in part on a voice recognition analysis of the voice command, wherein the voice recognition analysis is based at least in part on one or more voice samples previously obtained from a child; (Kosseifi: In some cases, the media device 102 may identify the viewer 116 using image recognition software and/or voice recognition software, [0018] and voice recognition may be performed by comparing voice information received from the one or more microphones 408 to the one or more voice profiles 416 stored in the memory 206, [0040]);
in response to determining that the voice command was spoken by a child, causing the media playback system to play media content that is (i) associated with the request and (ii) complies with one or more age-based content restrictions; (Kosseifi: the media device may estimate an age (or an age range) of the viewer based on one or more user characteristics (e.g., a size, shape, voice, face), and the media device may determine whether a particular advertisement includes age-appropriate content based on the estimated age (or an age range) of the viewer and a rating associated with the particular advertisement 0014. When the advertisement module 410 determines, based on voice recognition and/or facial recognition that the viewer 116 is a child (or a child with an age in a certain age range), the media device 102 may inhibit display of the advertisement 402 in the event that the advertisement 402 includes age-inappropriate content, [0041] Also see [0014]), and
in response to determining that the voice command was spoken by an adult, causing the media playback system to play media content associated with the request without regard to whether the media content complies with the one or more age-based content restrictions. (This suggestion…..).
It would have been obvious to the ordinary artisan before the effective filing date to make a minor modification to the teaching of Kosseifi to include the teaching of Richman for the purpose of explicitly identify the request/command of a specific user to better suit his/her situation.
In providing Richman, McCarty, Witzman OR Lombardi examiner by no means suggests, implies or insinuates that Kosseifi does not teach the feature, rather to avoid any future contention or litigation unnecessary to the prosecution process.
Claims 2 and 13. The method of claim 1, further comprising: obtaining the one or more voice samples from the child via a computing device associated with the media playback system; and associating the one or more voice samples spoken by the child with a user account associated with the child. (Kosseifi: voice profile 416 where voice recognition may be performed by comparing voice information received from the one or more microphones 408 to the one or more voice profiles 416 stored in the memory 206, Fig. 4, [0040-0042]).
Claims 3 and 14. The method of claim 1, further comprising: comparing one or more characteristics of the voice command received via the network microphone device to the one or more voice samples previously obtained from the child; and determining whether the voice command received via the network microphone device was spoken by a child based on the comparing of the one or more characteristics of the voice command received via the network microphone device to the one or more voice samples previously obtained from the child. (Kosseifi: voice profile 416 where voice recognition may be performed by comparing voice information received from the one or more microphones 408 to the one or more voice profiles 416 stored in the memory 206, Fig. 4, [0040-0042]).
Claim 4 and 15. The method of claim 1, further comprising: maintaining a set of one or more media sources that provide media content that complies with the one or more age-based content restrictions. (Kosseifi: In this example, determining whether an advertisement is appropriate for a particular viewer may include accessing a viewer profile associated with the particular viewer and determining whether a particular advertisement includes age-appropriate content based on the viewer profile and a rating associated with the particular advertisement, [0014, 0015, 0018, 0021, 0028, 0029, 0035, 0036]).
Claims 5 and 16. The method of claim 4, wherein causing the media playback system to play media content that is (i) associated with the request and (ii) complies with one or more age-based content restrictions comprises: causing the media playback system to play media content from a media source selected from the set of one or more media sources that provide media content that complies with the one or more age-based content restrictions. (Kosseifi: In this example, determining whether an advertisement is appropriate for a particular viewer may include accessing a viewer profile associated with the particular viewer and determining whether a particular advertisement includes age-appropriate content based on the viewer profile and a rating associated with the particular advertisement, [0014, 0015, 0018, 0021, 0028, 0029, 0035, 0036]).
Claim 6 and 17. The method of claim 1, wherein causing the media playback system to play media content that is (i) associated with the request and (ii) complies with the one or more age-based content restrictions comprises: exchanging metadata between (i) a voice control system configured to process voice commands received via the network microphone device and (ii) a playback control system configured to control playback of media content by the media playback system, wherein the metadata comprises information about media content currently-playing or previously-played by the media playback system; selecting the media content to be played by the media playback system based on (i) the request for the media playback system to play media content and (ii) the metadata exchanged between the voice control system and the playback control system; obtaining a resource identifier corresponding to the selected media content; and causing the media playback system to use the resource identifier to obtain the selected media content from a media source for playback by the media playback system. (see claims 4-5 above and in addition…the adult viewer 404 may provide identifying information, such as a personal identification number (PIN) or a fingerprint, among other alternatives to identify herself as an adult, [0040, 0043, 0049, 0051] and Fig. 5).
Claim 7 and 18. The method of claim 6, wherein exchanging metadata between (i) a voice control system configured to process voice commands received via the network microphone device and (ii) a playback control system configured to control playback of media content by the media playback system comprises: establishing a metadata exchange channel between the voice control system and the playback control system. (McCarty: Fig. 1, col. 5, line 28-47 and col. 7, lines 26-45).
Claim 8 and 19. The method of claim 1, wherein the one or more age-based content restrictions are based on content restrictions configured in a user account associated with the child. (McCarty: a user is first provided with the ability to set parental control restrictions for media content and commercials, col. 2, lines 42-60).
Claim 9. The method of claim 1, wherein determining whether the voice command was spoken by a child or an adult based at least in part on the voice recognition analysis of the voice command is performed by a cloud-based computing system configured to communicate with the network microphone device and the media playback system over at least one data network. (See claim 1 or Richman: a plurality of client media devices and media servers can communicate with one another using a network, for example the Internet 190, [0083, 0237, 0426], McCarty: Non-linear programming may include content from different media sources including on-demand media content (e.g., VOD), Internet content (e.g., streaming media, downloadable media, etc.), col. 5, lines 51-54).
Claim 10. The method of claim 1, wherein determining whether the voice command was spoken by a child or an adult based at least in part on the voice recognition analysis of the voice command is performed by the network microphone device. (See claim 1 or Kosseifi: the sensor(s) 104 may include camera(s) and/or microphone(s) that provide information (e.g., size, shape, voice, face information) to the media device 102, and the media device 102 may identify the viewer 116 based on the information (as described further herein with respect FIG. 4), [0018]).
Claim 11. The method of claim 1, wherein determining whether the voice command was spoken by a child or an adult based at least in part on the voice recognition analysis of the voice command is performed by a computing device configured to control one or more aspects of one or both of the network microphone device and the media playback system. (See claim 1 or Kosseifi: The media device 102 is further configured to determine whether the advertisement 108 includes age-inappropriate content for the viewer 116 based on the rating 110 and an age (or estimated age or age range) of the viewer 116, [0019]).
Claim 20. The tangible, non-transitory computer-readable media of claim 12, wherein the computing system comprises (i) the network microphone device, (ii) the media playback system, (iii) a cloud-based computing system configured to communicate with the network microphone device and the media playback system over at least one data network, and (iv) a computing device configured to control one or more aspects of one or both of the network microphone device and the media playback system, and wherein: determining whether the voice command was spoken by a child or an adult based at least in part on the voice recognition analysis of the voice command is performed by one of (i) the cloud-based computing system, (ii) the network microphone device, or (iii) the computing device. (See claim 1 or Richman: a plurality of client media devices and media servers can communicate with one another using a network, for example the Internet 190, [0083, 0237, 0426]. McCarty: Non-linear programming may include content from different media sources including on-demand media content (e.g., VOD), Internet content (e.g., streaming media, downloadable media, etc.), col. 5, lines 51-54).
Inquiry
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to PHUNG-HOANG J. NGUYEN whose telephone number is (571)270-1949. The examiner can normally be reached Reg. Sched. 6:00-3:00.
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If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Duc Nguyen can be reached at 571-272-7503. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/PHUNG-HOANG J NGUYEN/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2691
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