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 .
Election/Restrictions
Applicant’s election without traverse of invention I, claims 1-3 and 11-20 in the reply filed on 02/24/2026 is acknowledged.
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.
Claims 1, 3, 11, 12, 14, 15, 19, and 20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by Chen et al. (US Pub. No. 2015/0327800).
Consider claim 1. Chen et al. discloses a camera system, comprising: a camera and a control unit (para. 0019 describes an apparatus, including and image sensor and a vital sign processor), the camera is configured to capture a sequence of successive images of a person of interest within a field of view of the camera (claim 15 describes acquiring a plurality of first video frames of a video of the subject from an image sensor); the camera system is configured to determine an intensity of light upon the person of interest (claim 18 describes detecting whether a brightness in the ROI complies with a control criteria); and the control unit comprises instructions stored in memory that when executed cause the control unit to control camera settings of the camera based on the intensity of light determined by the camera system (claim 4 describes the vital sign processor adjusts the first parameter set for configuring the image sensor by: identifying a region of interest (ROI) of the plurality of first video frames, detecting whether a brightness in the ROI complies with a control criteria, and changing values of the first parameter set to vary the brightness in the ROI when the control criteria is not complied with, or unchanging the values of the first parameter set when the control criteria is complied with), wherein the control unit is configured to change the camera settings of the camera only at defined points in time (tx1, tx2, ...txn) (para. 0025 describes the vital sign processor detects whether brightness in the ROI complies with a control criteria. If the brightness in the ROI does not comply with the control criteria, the vital sign processor changes the values of the first parameter set to vary the brightness. If the brightness in the ROI is complied with the control criteria, the vital sign processor does not change the values of the first parameter set), and, when it is detected that the intensity of light upon an object of interest changes between two defined points in time (txl, tx2, ..., txn), current camera settings are maintained until a next defined point in time (tx1, tx2, ..., txn) (para. 0027 describes the vital sign processor may not immediately adjust the first parameter set once it is detected that the average within ROI does not fall within the adjustment reference range).
Consider claim 3. Chen et al. discloses the camera system of claim 1, wherein the camera settings controlled by the control unit include at least one of an exposure time and a f-number (para. 0024 describes an exposure control parameter to determine an exposure value for the image sensor; claim 6 describes a parameter set comprising contrast parameter, a saturation parameter, a sharpness parameter, a hue parameter, a gamma parameter, a backlight parameter, or a power line frequency parameter).
Consider claim 12. Chen et al. discloses the method of claim 11, further comprising: determining pixel intensity changes at least in defined regions of interest in the plurality of images; and determining one or more physiological parameters of the person of interest based on the pixel intensity changes (claim 23 describes processing one out of every M pixels within a specific video frame of the plurality of first video frames to generate the vital sign signal).
Consider claim 14. Chen et al. discloses the method of claim 12, wherein the one or more physiological parameters include at least one of a heart rate and a heart rate variability (claim 27 describes the vital sign signal indicating blood pressure, heart rate, blood oxygen saturation, or heart rate variability of the subject).
Consider claim15. Chen et al. discloses the camera system of claim 1, wherein the intensity of light is determined via evaluating camera parameters related to one or more of pixel brightness, exposure time, iris, and amplification (claim 18 describes detecting whether a brightness in the ROI complies with a control criteria).
Claims 11, 19, and 20 are rejected using similar reasoning as the corresponding claims above.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 2, 13, and 16-18 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 Mishawn N Hunter whose telephone number is (571)272-7635. The examiner can normally be reached Monday-Friday 7am-4pm.
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/MISHAWN N. HUNTER/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2484