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 .
Priority
Acknowledgment is made of applicant's claim for foreign priority under 35 U.S.C. 119(a)-(d). The certified copy has been filed in parent Application No. JP2024-011967, filed on 01/30/2024.
Information Disclosure Statement
The information disclosure statement (IDS) submitted on 01/13/2025 was compliance with the provisions of 37 CFR 1.97. Accordingly, the information disclosure statement is being considered by the examiner.
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 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.
Claim(s) 1-3, 5-6 and 9-18 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by Chono et al. (US 2024/0037990 A1) hereinafter Chono.
Regarding Claim 1, Chono teaches an electronic device (fig.2) comprising: a processor (fig.2; Para.0031; CPU); and a memory storing a program which (fig.2; memory 13 and 14), when executed by the processor (fig.2; Para.0031), causes the electronic device to perform estimating processing to estimate (fig.2; Para.0031), based on eyeball information (Para.0044), which is information related to an eye of a user viewing a picked-up image (fig.1-2; Para.0044; eye of a user), a visual- recognition range of the user in the picked-up image (Para.0041; range of the image and range of the Irish image); perform acquiring processing to acquire a region including an object from the picked-up image (Para.0043; target person T); and perform control processing to perform control such that at least either one of an irradiation range and an irradiation direction of an illuminating unit configured to illuminate a photographing target is set based on the visual-recognition range estimated in the estimating processing and the region including the object acquired in the acquiring processing (fig.1-2; Para. 0053-0056; control illumination apparatuses 41 and 42 and its range for the target object T).
Regarding Claim 2, Chono teaches the electronic device according to claim 1, wherein the eyeball information includes at least any one of line-of-sight position information, a direction of saccade, a speed of the saccade, an occurrence frequency of micro saccade, an amplitude of the micro saccade, a size of a pupil, a change in a pupil diameter, a speed of blinking, and a number of times of blinking (Para.0065; a reflection amount of illumination light at an eyeball or skin is less than that of illumination light at a lens of eyeglass).
Regarding Claim 3, Chono teaches the electronic device according to claim 1, wherein in a case where the user instructs photographing, the eyeball information is acquired in the estimating processing (fig.1-2; Para.0065; a reflection amount of illumination light at an eyeball or skin).
Regarding Claim 5, Chono teaches the electronic device according to claim 1, wherein in the control processing, control is performed such that an entire field of angle of the picked-up image is set to the irradiation range of the illuminating unit, in case where the visual-recognition range is wider than a predetermined range (Para.0043; what kind of light to be irradiated to the target person T).
Regarding Claim 6, Chono teaches the electronic device according to claim 1, wherein in the control processing, information related to the irradiation range and the irradiation direction of the illuminating unit is displayed on a display portion by superposing the information on the picked-up image (fig.2; Para.0043; display 16).
Regarding Claim 9, Chono teaches the electronic device according to claim 1, wherein in the control processing, a change operation for instructing a change in the irradiation range and the irradiation direction of the illuminating unit is accepted (fig.1-2; Para.0043; adjusting 41 and 42).
Regarding Claim 10, Chono teaches the electronic device according to claim 9, wherein in the control processing, the change operation is accepted through an operation portion of an external device (fig.1 and 2).
Regarding Claim 11, Chono teaches the electronic device according to claim 9, wherein in the control processing, at least either one of the irradiation range and the irradiation direction of the illuminating unit is controlled based on the change operation (fig.1-2; Para.0067-0069; illuminating unit 41 and 42 is controlled based on the changes).
Regarding Claim 12, Chono teaches the electronic device according to claim 1, wherein the illuminating unit has: a light emission portion (fig.1 and 2); a zoom drive portion that controls the irradiation range by the light emission portion (fig.1 and 2); and a bounce drive portion that controls the irradiation direction by the light emission portion (fig.1-2; Para.0067-0069; illuminating unit 41 and 42).
Regarding Claim 13, Chono teaches the electronic device according to claim 12, wherein in the control processing, the irradiation range is controlled by controlling the zoom drive portion and the irradiation direction is controlled by controlling the bounce drive portion (fig.1-2).
Regarding Claim 14, Chono teaches the electronic device according to claim 1, wherein the illuminating unit has a plurality of light emission portions having irradiation possible ranges different from one another (fig.1); in the control processing, at least either one of the irradiation range and the irradiation direction of the illuminating unit is controlled by controlling any one of the plurality of light emission portions based on the visual-recognition range and the irradiation possible range of each of the plurality of light emission portions (fig.1 and 2; Para.0065; illuminating units 41 and 42; a reflection amount of illumination light).
Regarding Claim 15, Chono teaches the electronic device according to claim 2, wherein the eyeball information further includes information related to a change in an eyeball position of the user (Para.0065; a reflection amount of illumination light at an eyeball).
Regarding Claim 16, Chono teaches the electronic device according to claim 15, wherein in the estimating processing the visual-recognition range of the user in the picked-up image is estimated based on intensity of a change in the eyeball position (Para.0065; a reflection amount of illumination light at an eyeball or skin).
Regarding Claim 17, Chono teaches same reason as Claim 1.
Regarding Claim 18, Chono teaches same reason as Claim 1.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 4, 7 and 8 are 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.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to FAYEZ A BHUIYAN whose telephone number is (571)270-1562. The examiner can normally be reached on 9:00 - 6:00 M-F.
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If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Lin Ye can be reached on 571-272-7372. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/FAYEZ BHUIYAN/
Examiner, Art Unit 2639
/LIN YE/Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 2638
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