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 § 102
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 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.
(a)(2) the claimed invention was described in a patent issued under section 151, or in an application for patent published or deemed published under section 122(b), in which the patent or application, as the case may be, names another inventor and was effectively filed before the effective filing date of the claimed invention.
Claims 1-2, 5, 7, 9-12, 15, 17-18 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by Dinesh Babu (US 20160378268 A1).
Regarding Claim 11, Dinesh Babu teaches An access management system for visualization of access events across a facility (Abstract: “An apparatus including a security system that protects a secured geographic area, a plurality of card readers along a periphery of the secured geographic area, a memory of the security system that saves a record of each human user admitted by a card reader of the plurality of card readers into the secured area, a user interface of the security system that receives an identifier of a human user and a time frame and a display of the security system that displays a map of the secured area including any entry and exit locations of the identified human user during the time frame from the secured area”),
the system comprising:
at least one processor; a memory comprising instructions that, when executed by the at least one processor causes (Paragraph [0017]: “Included within the control panel, each of the sensors and card readers and the user interface may be one or more processor apparatus (processors) 36, 38 each operating under control of one or more computer programs 40, 42 loaded from a non-transitory computer readable medium (memory) 44. As used herein reference to a step performed by a computer program is also reference to the processor that executed that step”):
a data retriever to (Paragraph [0023]: “Alternatively, a browse button on the user interface may be used to retrieve a list of all authorized users from memory. In this case, the user of the interface may select one of the users from the display and activate the search button”; Paragraph [0025]: “The user tracking processor may retrieve a map 54 of the secured area from memory and display any detected entry and exit records of the identified user on the map”. Notes: A data retriever, in its broadest reasonable interpretation, is an entity that retrieves data, which is inherent to the system of Dinesh Babu since the system retrieves user data):
obtain event data associated with one or more users from one or more access detection units of the facility (Paragraph [0023]: “Alternatively, a browse button on the user interface may be used to retrieve a list of all authorized users from memory. In this case, the user of the interface may select one of the users from the display and activate the search button”; Paragraph [0025]: “The user tracking processor may retrieve a map 54 of the secured area from memory and display any detected entry and exit records of the identified user on the map”; Paragraph [0033]: “In general, the system includes a security system that protects a secured geographic area, a plurality of card readers along a periphery of the secured geographic area, a memory of the security system that saves a record of each human user admitted by a card reader of the plurality of card readers into the secured area, a user interface of the security system that receives an identifier of a human user and a time frame and a display of the security system that displays a map of the secured area including any entry and exit locations of the identified human user during the time frame from the secured area”. Notes: the entry and exit records are necessarily derived from the access points with card readers),
wherein the event data is indicative of an interaction of the one or more users with at least one of the one or more access detection units of the facility (Paragraph [0025]: “The user tracking processor may retrieve a map 54 of the secured area from memory and display any detected entry and exit records of the identified user on the map”; Paragraph [0033]: “In general, the system includes a security system that protects a secured geographic area, a plurality of card readers along a periphery of the secured geographic area, a memory of the security system that saves a record of each human user admitted by a card reader of the plurality of card readers into the secured area”);
access a layout representation of the facility and overlay the one or more access detection units of the facility onto the layout representation (Paragraph [0030]: “The system of FIGS. 1-3 performs a smart analysis using data from the records of the access control system and its floor maps. The benefits of the smart analysis are as follows. First, the system generates a route map based on card access information. On the floor map, the system displays swiped information from each card adjacent each door along with entry and exit times. It shows the time spent between any two or more access points. Entry points and exits points are differentiated using color. The number of entry and exits are provided for cases of multiple entry and exit locations. Where the secured area includes a number of linked sub-areas, the system dynamically pulls the linked maps based on the retrieved access information. The entire process dynamically updates the map with all required information”. Notes: entry and exit locations (access detection units) are marked in color, with corresponding entry and exit times displayed adjacent to each door; the entry and exit times corresponding with the access detection units are necessarily overlayed on the map for them to be displayed alongside the locations, where overlaying its defined in its broadest reasonable interpretation of altering to appear in or on top of);
an event synthesizer (Paragraph [0028]: “In another embodiment, a routing processor may connect entry and exit locations based upon time and superimpose the user's route as a black line superimposed on the map between the entry and exit locations. This may be important where the secured area has a number of different levels of security inside the secured area and a corresponding card reader adjacent the entrances to each”. Notes: An event synthesizer, in its broadest reasonable interpretation, is an entity that utilizes obtained data for synthesizing into a representation or derivation of the data) to:
synthesize the event data associated with the one or more users to determine a path traversed by the one or more users for a first time period (Paragraph [0028]: “In another embodiment, a routing processor may connect entry and exit locations based upon time and superimpose the user's route as a black line superimposed on the map between the entry and exit locations. This may be important where the secured area has a number of different levels of security inside the secured area and a corresponding card reader adjacent the entrances to each”; Paragraph [0030]: “On the floor map, the system displays swiped information from each card adjacent each door along with entry and exit times. It shows the time spent between any two or more access points”), wherein synthesizing the event data includes transforming the event data into a visually dynamic format (Paragraph [0030]: “The system of FIGS. 1-3 performs a smart analysis using data from the records of the access control system and its floor maps. The benefits of the smart analysis are as follows. First, the system generates a route map based on card access information. On the floor map, the system displays swiped information from each card adjacent each door along with entry and exit times. It shows the time spent between any two or more access points. Entry points and exits points are differentiated using color. The number of entry and exits are provided for cases of multiple entry and exit locations. Where the secured area includes a number of linked sub-areas, the system dynamically pulls the linked maps based on the retrieved access information. The entire process dynamically updates the map with all required information”);
generate a visual representation of the event data in the visually dynamic format indicating a movement of the one or more users within the facility for the first time period in correspondence to the layout representation of the facility (Paragraph [0028]: “In another embodiment, a routing processor may connect entry and exit locations based upon time and superimpose the user's route as a black line superimposed on the map between the entry and exit locations. This may be important where the secured area has a number of different levels of security inside the secured area and a corresponding card reader adjacent the entrances to each”); and a display unit (Abstract: “a user interface of the security system that receives an identifier of a human user and a time frame and a display of the security system that displays a map of the secured area including any entry and exit locations of the identified human user during the time frame from the secured area”. Notes: A display unit, in its broadest reasonable interpretation, is an entity that displays, which is inherent to the act of displaying performed by the system of Dinesh Babu) to:
display the visual representation to a personnel for visualization of access events across the facility (Abstract: “a user interface of the security system that receives an identifier of a human user and a time frame and a display of the security system that displays a map of the secured area including any entry and exit locations of the identified human user during the time frame from the secured area”; Paragraph [0031]: “The system allows the operator to rapidly grasp the context of use. It provides an indication of when the identified person first arrived. It provides indication of where the person went. It indicates how much time he/she has spent in each location. The number of events of each type are provided and displayed in the case of multiple entries and exits”).
Claim 1, being similar in scope to Claim 11, is rejected under the same rationale.
Regarding Claim 12, the system of Claim 11 is rejected over Dinesh Babu.
Dinesh Babu teaches the system of claim 11, wherein the event synthesizer is to compress the visual representation to condense the first time period into a second time period (Paragraph [0028]: “In another embodiment, a routing processor may connect entry and exit locations based upon time and superimpose the user's route as a black line superimposed on the map between the entry and exit locations. This may be important where the secured area has a number of different levels of security inside the secured area and a corresponding card reader adjacent the entrances to each”; Paragraph [0032]: “The system also offers the option of exporting the route map with events for a specified time including the time spent between defined entry and exit points, the number of entry and exits points and other required information”).
Claim 2, being similar in scope to Claim 12, is rejected under the same rationale.
Regarding Claim 15, the system of Claim 11 is rejected over Dinesh Babu.
Dinesh Babu teaches the system of claim 11, wherein the event synthesizer is to filter the visual representation based on at least one of a time range, a specific area within the facility, and a type of access event (Paragraph [0028]: “In another embodiment, a routing processor may connect entry and exit locations based upon time and superimpose the user's route as a black line superimposed on the map between the entry and exit locations. This may be important where the secured area has a number of different levels of security inside the secured area and a corresponding card reader adjacent the entrances to each”; Paragraph [0032]: “The system provides the option of saving the route maps in memory. The system also offers the option of exporting the route map with events for a specified time including the time spent between defined entry and exit points, the number of entry and exits points and other required information”).
Claim 5, being similar in scope to Claim 15, is rejected under the same rationale.
Regarding Claim 17, the system of Claim 11 is rejected over Dinesh Babu.
Dinesh Babu teaches the system of claim 11, wherein the visual representation is displayed on a user interface (Abstract: “a user interface of the security system that receives an identifier of a human user and a time frame and a display of the security system that displays a map of the secured area including any entry and exit locations of the identified human user during the time frame from the secured area”), wherein the user interface allows for personnel interaction with the visual representation (Paragraph [0022]: “Associated with the access tracking system is an associated icon displayed on the user interface. In this regard, the user access system may be activated via the icon displayed on the user interface. Upon activating the icon, a search criteria window is displayed for entry of a name and/or other identifying information of human user whose entry and exit history is to be tracked and displayed. Upon entering a name, the user may activate a search button on the display in order to identify any records associated with the identified user”).
Claim 7, being similar in scope to Claim 17, is rejected under the same rationale.
Regarding Claim 18, the system of Claim 11 is rejected over Dinesh Babu.
Dinesh Babu teaches the system of claim 11, wherein the event synthesizer is to perform three- dimensional (3D) mapping of an entity of the facility onto a corresponding position on the layout representation for an immersive visual representation (Paragraph [0032]: “In general, the system allows multiple maps of the secured area to be linked based upon user access. If a person walks across the secured area through multiple areas, the location and route of the user can be tracked using linked maps. The solution is applicable for integrated security systems and BMS. Any type of floor map (e.g., AutoCAD), building information model (BIM), 3D modeling can be used for the mapped display of activity”; Paragraph [0025]: “The user tracking processor may retrieve a map 54 of the secured area from memory and display any detected entry and exit records of the identified user on the map. Under the illustrated embodiment, a window 56 of user information may be displayed adjacent each door activated by the identified user to enter and exit the secured area. Under another illustrated embodiment, the doors may be color coded with one color (e.g., green) for entry points and another color (e.g., red) for exit points”. Notes: The broadest reasonable interpretation of an entity of the facility is any object related to the facility, including elements of the facility itself, or other instances that have been displayed on the map. Considering 3D modeling is utilized for the mapped display of activity, an entity of the facility is necessarily mapped to 3D if it exists within the 3D map, such as when the entity’s associated data is displayed next to an access point the entity entered or exited).
Claim 9, being similar in scope to Claim 18, is rejected under the same rationale.
Regarding Claim 10, the method of Claim 9 is rejected over Dinesh Babu.
Dinesh Babu teaches the method of Claim 9, further comprising obtaining entity data corresponding to the entity being mapped onto the layout representation and displaying the entity data on the visual representation (Paragraph [0025]: “The user tracking processor may retrieve a map 54 of the secured area from memory and display any detected entry and exit records of the identified user on the map. Under the illustrated embodiment, a window 56 of user information may be displayed adjacent each door activated by the identified user to enter and exit the secured area. Under another illustrated embodiment, the doors may be color coded with one color (e.g., green) for entry points and another color (e.g., red) for exit points”. Notes: The broadest reasonable interpretation of an entity of the facility is any object related to the facility, including elements of the facility itself, or other instances that have been displayed on the map. Considering 3D modeling is utilized for the mapped display of activity, an entity of the facility is necessarily mapped to 3D if it exists within the 3D map, such as when the entity’s associated data is displayed next to an access point the entity entered or exited).
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.
The factual inquiries for establishing a background for determining obviousness under 35 U.S.C. 103 are summarized as follows:
1. Determining the scope and contents of the prior art.
2. Ascertaining the differences between the prior art and the claims at issue.
3. Resolving the level of ordinary skill in the pertinent art.
4. Considering objective evidence present in the application indicating obviousness or nonobviousness.
Claims 3 and 13 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Dinesh Babu (US 20160378268 A1), in view of Romero (Get to know Google Maps ‘layers’ – the most useful features on your phone and the web, 2023).
Regarding Claim 13, the system of Claim 11 is rejected over Dinesh Babu.
Dinesh Babu does not teach an anomaly detection unit is to: analyze the synthesized event data to identify anomalies in the movement of the one or more users; and highlight the identified anomalies in the visual representation.
However, Romero teaches an anomaly detection unit is to: analyze synthesized event data to identify anomalies in the movement of the one or more users; and highlight the identified anomalies in the visual representation (Transit, Traffic, and Biking: “The Traffic layer in Google Maps is a real-time representation of how busy roads are at that time and location. The layer will represent busy areas in red and trafficless road sections in green. Sections can be as little as 200 feet and will update as new information is processed through Google Maps”. Notes: Google Maps uses crowd sourcing, or user data, to determine traffic. The broadest reasonable interpretation of an anomaly detection unit is to detect unordinary conditions or occurences).
Dinesh Babu and Romero are considered analogous in the art with respect to tracking the location of a person of interest, as well as a path of the person of interest. A common motivation in security related applications such as those of Dinesh Babu is to identify anomalies regarding user’s and their movement in facilities, as is evident in Dinesh Babu (Paragraph [0027]: “In one embodiment, a camera 58 adjacent each door may capture an image of each user as they access a card reader requesting entry or exit. The captured image may be saved in the corresponding event file. The image of the card user capture when the card is used may be displayed in a third filed 64 adjacent the image of the authorized user of the card. By comparing the images, security personnel may quickly detect unauthorized card use). The concept of identifying anomalies with paths of people of interest on a map is well established in the art, as is evident in Romero. A person having ordinary skill in the art would have been motivated to monitor anomalies in user movement using a user’s paths on a map, as the user paths and information can easily be utilized to identify anomalies and highlighted, as is evident in Romero.
Therefore, it would have been obvious to a person having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine the movement and path tracking system of Dinesh Babu with the anomaly detection and highlighting with regards to user paths of Romero; Doing so would yield the predictable result of being able to easily highlight portions of a visualization where anomalies were detected, increasing the effective security of a facility.
Claim 3, being similar in scope to Claim 13, is rejected under the same rationale.
Claims 4 and 14 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Dinesh Babu (US 20160378268 A1), in view of Barker (Where Am I Right Now? How Google Maps Finds Your Location With Amazing Accuracy, 2024).
Regarding Claim 14, the system of Claim 11 is rejected over Dinesh Babu.
Dinesh Babu teaches the system of Claim 11, wherein the event synthesizer is to obtain event data from the one or more access detection units of the facility and display the visual representation based on the event data (Paragraph [0030]: “The system of FIGS. 1-3 performs a smart analysis using data from the records of the access control system and its floor maps. The benefits of the smart analysis are as follows. First, the system generates a route map based on card access information. On the floor map, the system displays swiped information from each card adjacent each door along with entry and exit times. It shows the time spent between any two or more access points. Entry points and exits points are differentiated using color. The number of entry and exits are provided for cases of multiple entry and exit locations. Where the secured area includes a number of linked sub-areas, the system dynamically pulls the linked maps based on the retrieved access information. The entire process dynamically updates the map with all required information”. Notes: card readers at access points log access times and the person who accessed it).
Dinesh Babu does not explicitly teach that the visual representation is updated in real time with new event data.
However, Barker teaches a visual representation is updated in real time with new data (Sensor Fusion: Putting It All Together: “All these data points feed into sensor fusion algorithms that combine their readings to paint an ultra-precise picture of where you are and where you‘re headed”; Your Location, Your Control: Privacy Protection: “With great location power comes great responsibility, and Google takes privacy seriously with Maps. Your real-time location and location history are kept strictly confidential and are never shared publicly”. Notes: real-time data obtained by the device using Google Maps is utilized to update the map with the user’s location in real-time).
Dinesh Babu and Barker are considered analogous in the art with respect to location tracking. One would be motivated to enable real-time updating of a map or visualization to reflect updates to the location of a user or person of interest, as is evident in Barker.
Therefore, it would have been obvious to a person having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine the system for tracking a person of interest within a facility with access detection units of Dinesh Babu with the real-time acquiring of data and real-time updating of a visual representation of a location of a person on a map of Barker; Doing so would yield the predictable result of a system capable of real-time tracking of a person of interest within a facility with access detection units.
Claim 4, being similar in scope to Claim 14, is rejected under the same rationale.
Claims 6 and 16 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Dinesh Babu (US 20160378268 A1), in view of Aagesen (Animating Spatial Movement in Python, 2023) and Djirdeh (Replace animated GIFs with video for faster page loads, 2018).
Regarding Claim 16, the system of Claim 11 is rejected over Dinesh Babu.
Dinesh Babu teaches the system of Claim 11, wherein the event synthesizer is to create a visual representation displaying the movement of the one or more users within the facility (Paragraph [0028]: “In another embodiment, a routing processor may connect entry and exit locations based upon time and superimpose the user's route as a black line superimposed on the map between the entry and exit locations. This may be important where the secured area has a number of different levels of security inside the secured area and a corresponding card reader adjacent the entrances to each”).
Dinesh Babu does not teach that the event synthesizer is to create a time- lapsed video of the visual representation displaying the movement of the one or more users within the facility.
However, Aagesen teaches synthesizing a time-lapse GIF of a visual representation displaying the movement of one or more users (Animating the movements: “To be able to plot the new point data we create a geodataframe which contain the timestamp, size of the point, and the coordinates for each point… We can now use the list of timestamps that we created before, times, and iterate over each timestamp and run the function plot_minute() to make a map for each of the timestamps of data we have”; Converting to GIF: “The result of running plot_minute() for all our timestamps is that we now have a folder full of .png maps”; Refer to the animated image, which demonstrates a moving path for each user over time).
Dinesh Babu and Aagesen are considered analogous in the art with respect to displaying visual representations of the path taken by users. A common motivation in the art is to animate a path taken by a user, as doing so provides more information such as speed and direction to be accounted for; this is evident in Aagesen.
Therefore, it would have been obvious to a person having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine the synthesizing of a path indicating the movement of one or more persons of interest of Dinesh Babu with the creation of a time-lapse GIF of user movements of Aagesen; Doing so would yield the predictable result of a visualization of the movement of people of interest in a facility over time.
Dinesh Babu as modified does not teach a time-lapse video.
However, Djirdeh teaches deriving a video from a GIF (“Have you ever seen an animated GIF on a service like Imgur or Gfycat, inspected it in your dev tools, only to find out that GIF was really a video? There's a good reason for that. Animated GIFs can be downright huge… Thankfully, this is one of those areas of loading performance where you can do relatively little work to realize huge gains! By converting large GIFs to videos, you can save big on user’s bandwith”; Compare the difference: “The cost savings between a GIF and a video can be pretty significant… In this example the initial GIF is 3.7 MB, compared to the MP4 version, which is 551 KB, and the WebM version, which is only 341 KB”).
Dinesh Babu as modified and Djirdeh are considered analogous in the art with respect to the use of GIFs. A common motivation in the art is to increase efficiency and minimize storage usage when possible, as is evident in Djirdeh. One would be motivated to convert a GIF to a video to reduce the storage space taken.
Therefore, it would have been obvious to a person having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine the time-lapse GIF of the movement of a person of interest in a facility of Dinesh Babu as modified with the conversion of a GIF to a video of Djirdeh; Doing so would yield the predictable result of reducing the space required for storing the time-lapse of the movement of a person of interest in a memory of the system.
Claim 6, being similar in scope to Claim 16, is rejected under the same rationale.
Claim 8 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Dinesh Babu (US 20160378268 A1), in view of Stack Overflow (filter pandas dataframe by time, 2020).
Regarding Claim 8, the method of Claim 1 is rejected over Dinesh Babu.
Dinesh Babu teaches the method of Claim 1, wherein the event data is obtained from one or more access detection units (Paragraph [0030]: “The system of FIGS. 1-3 performs a smart analysis using data from the records of the access control system and its floor maps. The benefits of the smart analysis are as follows…On the floor map, the system displays swiped information from each card adjacent each door along with entry and exit times”).
Dinesh Babu does not explicitly teach that the event data is in a text-based format.
However, Stack Overflow teaches obtained event data that is in a text-based format (Answer by Bob Baxley: “Create dataframe with datetimes in it… Use between_time… You get the times that are not between two times by setting start_time later than end_time”; Refer to the first code block in Bob Baxley’s answer).
Dinesh Babu and Stack Overflow are considered analogous in the art with respect to obtaining event data with corresponding time values. A person having ordinary skill in the art would find it obvious that time-based data is commonly in text-based format, and when displaying time values, they are commonly displayed in text-based format, being the most efficient and precise method of doing so, as is evident in Stack Overflow.
Therefore, it would have been obvious to a person having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine the display of event data obtained from access detection units of Dinesh Babu with the event data in a text-based format of Stack Overflow; Doing so would yield the predictable result of obtaining event data in a format that is commonly known and well-established as an efficient format.
Claim 19 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Dinesh Babu (US 20160378268 A1), in view of Stack Overflow (filter pandas dataframe by time, 2020), Aagesen (Animating Spatial Movement in Python, 2023), Djirdeh (Replace animated GIFs with video for faster page loads, 2018).
Regarding Claim 19, Dinesh Babu teaches A non-transitory computer-readable medium comprising instructions for visualization of access events across a facility (Paragraph [0017] “Included within the control panel, each of the sensors and card readers and the user interface may be one or more processor apparatus (processors) 36, 38 each operating under control of one or more computer programs 40, 42 loaded from a non-transitory computer readable medium (memory) 44. As used herein reference to a step performed by a computer program is also reference to the processor that executed that step”; Paragraph [0025]: “The user tracking processor may retrieve a map 54 of the secured area from memory and display any detected entry and exit records of the identified user on the map. Under the illustrated embodiment, a window 56 of user information may be displayed adjacent each door activated by the identified user to enter and exit the secured area. Under another illustrated embodiment, the doors may be color coded with one color (e.g., green) for entry points and another color (e.g., red) for exit points”),
the instructions being executable by a processor to (Paragraph [0025]: “The user tracking”):
obtain event data associated with one or more users from one or more access detection units of the facility (Paragraph [0025]: “The user tracking processor may retrieve a map 54 of the secured area from memory and display any detected entry and exit records of the identified user on the map”), and
wherein the event data is indicative of an interaction of the one or more users with at least one of the one or more access detection units of the facility (Paragraph [0027]: “In one embodiment, a camera 58 adjacent each door may capture an image of each user as they access a card reader requesting entry or exit. The captured image may be saved in the corresponding event file. The image of the card user capture when the card is used may be displayed in a third filed 64 adjacent the image of the authorized user of the card. By comparing the images, security personnel may quickly detect unauthorized card use”; Paragraph [0025]: “The user tracking processor may retrieve a map 54 of the secured area from memory and display any detected entry and exit records of the identified user on the map. Under the illustrated embodiment, a window 56 of user information may be displayed adjacent each door activated by the identified user to enter and exit the secured area. Under another illustrated embodiment, the doors may be color coded with one color (e.g., green) for entry points and another color (e.g., red) for exit points”);
access a layout representation of the facility overlaid with the one or more access detection units of the facility (Paragraph [0030]: “The system of FIGS. 1-3 performs a smart analysis using data from the records of the access control system and its floor maps. The benefits of the smart analysis are as follows. First, the system generates a route map based on card access information. On the floor map, the system displays swiped information from each card adjacent each door along with entry and exit times. It shows the time spent between any two or more access points. Entry points and exits points are differentiated using color. The number of entry and exits are provided for cases of multiple entry and exit locations. Where the secured area includes a number of linked sub-areas, the system dynamically pulls the linked maps based on the retrieved access information. The entire process dynamically updates the map with all required information”. Notes: entry and exit locations (access detection units) are marked in color, with corresponding entry and exit times displayed adjacent to each door; the entry and exit times corresponding with the access detection units are necessarily overlayed on the map for them to be displayed alongside the locations, where overlaying its defined in its broadest reasonable interpretation of altering to appear in or on top of);
synthesize the event data associated with the one or more users to determine a path traversed by the one or more users for a first time period (Paragraph [0028]: “In another embodiment, a routing processor may connect entry and exit locations based upon time and superimpose the user's route as a black line superimposed on the map between the entry and exit locations. This may be important where the secured area has a number of different levels of security inside the secured area and a corresponding card reader adjacent the entrances to each”),
wherein synthesizing the event data includes transforming the event data into a visually dynamic format (Paragraph [0028]: “In another embodiment, a routing processor may connect entry and exit locations based upon time and superimpose the user's route as a black line superimposed on the map between the entry and exit locations. This may be important where the secured area has a number of different levels of security inside the secured area and a corresponding card reader adjacent the entrances to each”; Paragraph [0030]: “On the floor map, the system displays swiped information from each card adjacent each door along with entry and exit times. It shows the time spent between any two or more access points. Entry points and exits points are differentiated using color. The number of entry and exits are provided for cases of multiple entry and exit locations. Where the secured area includes a number of linked sub-areas, the system dynamically pulls the linked maps based on the retrieved access information. The entire process dynamically updates the map with all required information”);
generate a visual representation of the event data in the visually dynamic format indicating a movement of the one or more users within the facility for the first time period in correspondence to the layout representation of the facility (Paragraph [0028]: “In another embodiment, a routing processor may connect entry and exit locations based upon time and superimpose the user's route as a black line superimposed on the map between the entry and exit locations. This may be important where the secured area has a number of different levels of security inside the secured area and a corresponding card reader adjacent the entrances to each”), and
display the visual representation to a personnel for visualization of access events across the facility (Abstract: “a user interface of the security system that receives an identifier of a human user and a time frame and a display of the security system that displays a map of the secured area including any entry and exit locations of the identified human user during the time frame from the secured area”; Paragraph [0031]: “The system allows the operator to rapidly grasp the context of use. It provides an indication of when the identified person first arrived. It provides indication of where the person went. It indicates how much time he/she has spent in each location. The number of events of each type are provided and displayed in the case of multiple entries and exits”).
Dinesh Babu does not teach wherein the event data is in a text-based format.
However, Stack Overflow teaches event data is in a text-based format (Answer by Bob Baxley: “Create dataframe with datetimes in it… Use between_time… You get the times that are not between two times by setting start_time later than end_time”; Refer to the first code block in Bob Baxley’s answer).
Dinesh Babu and Stack Overflow are considered analogous in the art with respect to obtaining event data with corresponding time values. A person having ordinary skill in the art would find it obvious that time-based data is commonly in text-based format, and when displaying time values, they are commonly displayed in text-based format, being the most efficient and precise method of doing so, as is evident in Stack Overflow.
Therefore, it would have been obvious to a person having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine the display of event data obtained from access detection units of Dinesh Babu with the event data in a text-based format of Stack Overflow; Doing so would yield the predictable result of obtaining event data in a format that is commonly known and well-established as an efficient format.
Dinesh Babu as modified does not teach that the visual representation includes at least one of a video and a Graphics Interchange Format (GIF).
However, Aagesen teaches a visual representation that includes at least a GIF (Animating the movements: “To be able to plot the new point data we create a geodataframe which contain the timestamp, size of the point, and the coordinates for each point… We can now use the list of timestamps that we created before, times, and iterate over each timestamp and run the function plot_minute() to make a map for each of the timestamps of data we have”; Converting to GIF: “The result of running plot_minute() for all our timestamps is that we now have a folder full of .png maps”; Refer to the animated image, which demonstrates a moving path for each user over time).
Dinesh Babu and Aagesen are considered analogous in the art with respect to displaying visual representations of the path taken by users. A common motivation in the art is to animate a path taken by a user, as doing so provides more information such as speed and direction to be accounted for; this is evident in Aagesen.
Therefore, it would have been obvious to a person having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine the synthesizing of a path indicating the movement of one or more persons of interest of Dinesh Babu with the creation of a time-lapse GIF of user movements of Aagesen; Doing so would yield the predictable result of a visualization of the movement of people of interest in a facility over time.
Furthermore, Djirdeh teaches a video derived from a Graphics Interchange Format (GIF) (“Have you ever seen an animated GIF on a service like Imgur or Gfycat, inspected it in your dev tools, only to find out that GIF was really a video? There's a good reason for that. Animated GIFs can be downright huge… Thankfully, this is one of those areas of loading performance where you can do relatively little work to realize huge gains! By converting large GIFs to videos, you can save big on user’s bandwith”; Compare the difference: “The cost savings between a GIF and a video can be pretty significant… In this example the initial GIF is 3.7 MB, compared to the MP4 version, which is 551 KB, and the WebM version, which is only 341 KB”).
Dinesh Babu as modified and Djirdeh are considered analogous in the art with respect to the use of GIFs. A common motivation in the art is to increase efficiency and minimize storage usage when possible, as is evident in Djirdeh. One would be motivated to convert a GIF to a video to reduce the size of the file. Additionally, videos are capable of encompassing audio, contrary to GIFs, allowing for additional user experience.
Therefore, it would have been obvious to a person having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine the time-lapse GIF of the movement of a person of interest in a facility of Dinesh Babu as modified with the conversion of a GIF to a video of Djirdeh; Doing so would yield the predictable result of having a copy of the time-lapse GIF that is stored as a video in a more efficient manner, where the video is able to provide more user experience via audio effects.
Claim 20 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Dinesh Babu (US 20160378268 A1), in view of Stack Overflow (filter pandas dataframe by time, 2020), Aagesen (Animating Spatial Movement in Python, 2023), Djirdeh (Replace animated GIFs with video for faster page loads, 2018), and in further view of Shortcut Keys (YouTube Player Shortcut Keys, 2012).
Regarding Claim 20, the non-transitory computer-readable medium as claimed in Claim 19 is rejected over Dinesh Babu as modified.
Dinesh Babu as modified does not explicitly teach receiving a user input through a user interface; and in response to the user input, perform at least one of pause playback, resume playback, fast forward playback, and rewind playback of the visual representation, and update the display of the visual representation in the user interface based on a performed action.
However, Shortcut Keys teaches receiving a user input through a user interface; and in response to the user input, perform at least one of pause playback, resume playback, fast forward playback, and rewind playback of the visual representation, and update the display of the visual representation in the user interface based on a performed action (Keyboard shortcut: “Left/Right arrow… Jumpback/ahead 10% in current video”; “Spacebar/Left mouse Button … Play/Pause”. Notes: fast forward and rewind playback, in their broadest reasonable interpretation, is to go forward or backward in a video in a fast manner, which is achieved by skipping to certain segment of the video in either direction on demand; Doing the aforementioned actions will result in the video player (which is a user interface) to display the video according to the action performed by the user).
Dinesh Babu as modified and Shortcut Keys are considered analogous in the art with respect to the display of a video. Video playback is commonly manipulated via a video player (interface), as is evident in Shortcut Keys.
Therefore, it would have been obvious to a person having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine the video of visual representation of Dinesh Babu with the playback manipulation options of Shortcut Keys; Doing so would yield the predictable result of playing and controlling the video showing the movement of a person of interest.
Conclusion
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/RAYMOND CHUN LAM LI/Examiner, Art Unit 2614
/KENT W CHANG/Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 2614
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