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 .
DETAILED ACTION
This office action is in response to an election filed, without traverse, on 10/30/2025 of a newly filed application in which claims 1-11 of the instant application are pending. Claims 1-5 and 8-9 are being examined while claims 6-7 and 10-11 are considered withdrawn.
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.
Claims 1-5 and 9 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Saito (US 2019/0230269) in view of Ricard (US 2005/0246065) and further in view of Tanaka (US 2010/0265331).
As to claim 1, Saito teaches a system for fence protection, comprising:
a) a first camera being in a configuration being directed to a wide area (see [0019]-[0021], and [0023]-[0030] and FIG. 2 for wide angle camera 101; also see [0034], [0043], and [0048] and FIG. 3 for the operation of wide angle cameras 101a/101b);
b) a second camera connected to said first camera, for informing said first camera about any potential detection performed by said first camera, said second camera having configuration and optics designed with pan and tilt capabilities for allowing scanning and detection operations (see [0019]-[0021], [0023]-[0030], [0034], [0043], and [0048] and FIGs. 2 and 3 for the operation of zoom camera 102);
c) a third inquiring Pan-Tilt-Zoom (PTZ) camera with high zoom capability including visible ranges, said third PTZ camera is operated by said first camera by transmitting, to said third PTZ camera, the location where detection occurred, thereby triggering said third PTZ camera to perform scanning operations in a predetermined area around said location (see [0019]-[0021], [0023]-[0030], [0034], [0043], and [0048] and FIGs. 2 and 3 for the operation of zoom camera 102).
Saito does not teach a first camera in a hybrid stereoscopic configuration, being directed to the area along the lower portion of said fence; a second camera having configuration and optics designed for long ranges, for obtaining in-depth field of view, with pan and tilt capabilities, for allowing scanning and in-depth detection operations; a third inquiring PTZ camera with high zoom capability including IR ranges.
However, Saito does teach wide angle cameras being directed to monitor/capture an entirety of a monitoring region. The plurality of wide-angle cameras acquires images corresponding to an omnidirectional image capturing area by dividing and capturing 360 degrees around an axis in a vertical direction (Saito; see [0019]-[0021], and [0023]-[0030] and FIG. 2 for wide angle camera 101; also see [0034], [0043], and [0048] and FIG. 3 for the operation of wide angle cameras 101a/101b).
In addition, Ricard teaches a scanning mechanism with pan and tilt capabilities comprising a near IR stereo camera to track distant objects in 3D and provide longer range data (Ricard; see [0012]-[0018] and FIG. 2; [0019]-[0034] provides the specification details for the sensor).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the invention to modify Saito’s system with Ricard’s system to show a first camera in a hybrid stereoscopic configuration being directed to a wide area; a second camera having configuration and optics designed for long ranges, for obtaining in-depth field of view, with pan and tilt capabilities, for allowing scanning and in-depth detection operations. Furthermore, Ricard’s disclosure shows sturdy mechanics to provide laser volumetric sensing around 360 degrees and stereo vision on the same platform. The lidar provides short range precision measurements around the platform on which it is mounted and the stereo camera locates and tracks more distant objects (Ricard; [0036]).
The combination of Saito and Ricard does not teach a first camera being directed to the area along the lower portion of said fence; a third inquiring PTZ camera with high zoom capability including IR ranges.
However, Saito does teach a third inquiring PTZ camera with high zoom capability including visible ranges (Saito; see [0019]-[0021], [0023]-[0030], [0034], [0043], and [0048] and FIGs. 2 and 3 for the operation of zoom camera 102) as well as wide angle cameras being directed to monitor/capture an entirety of a monitoring region. The plurality of wide-angle cameras acquires images corresponding to an omnidirectional image capturing area by dividing and capturing 360 degrees around an axis in a vertical direction (Saito; see [0019]-[0021], and [0023]-[0030] and FIG. 2 for wide angle camera 101; also see [0034], [0043], and [0048] and FIG. 3 for the operation of wide angle cameras 101a/101b).
In addition, Tanaka teaches a surveillance apparatus comprising at least one camera with pan, tilt, and zoom capabilities (Tanaka; see [0028]-[0031], [0041], [0046] and FIGs. 1 and 2) in which image sensors having sensitivity in an infrared region may be used as the image sensors for the cameras in the surveillance apparatus so that capturing through infrared cut-off filters can be performed in the daytime and capturing without using the infrared cut-off filters can be performed at night. Thus, surveillance can be performed continuously even at night. The invention can be used effectively not only for surveillance to fortify a coastland or a borderland but also for early detection of a victim, for example, if it is installed in a mountain range (Tanaka; [0067]). According to the surveillance camera apparatus, a wide surveillance area is captured by the wide-angle camera having a large angle of view. When an image of a moving object to be watched is captured within a frame captured by the wide-angle camera, the wide-angle camera records moving image while the aiming direction and aiming angle of the telephotographic camera are calculated based on image data from the wide-angle camera. Thus, the telephotographic camera is aimed at the moving object to be watched. After that, moving image is recorded while the moving object is automatically tracked based on image data from the telephotographic camera. As compared with a system where a telephotographic camera tracks a moving object depending only on image data from a wide-angle camera, the accuracy of automatic tracking can be therefore improved on a large scale once the moving object is captured by the telephotographic camera. At the same time, image data from the wide-angle camera are recorded sequentially. Even if the automatic tracking by the telephotographic camera is interrupted, tracking and capturing can be resumed easily (Tanaka; [0047]).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the invention to modify Saito’s system and Ricard’s system with Tanaka’s system to show a first camera being directed to the area along the lower portion of said fence; a third inquiring PTZ camera with high zoom capability including IR ranges in order to better provide continuous monitoring operations with increased monitoring/capturing ranges around different areas, including an area along a lower portion of a fence, for the purposes of improved and more flexible surveillance methods.
As to claim 2, the combination of Saito, Ricard, and Tanaka teaches wherein upon obtaining intrusion detection by the second camera, a signal is sent to the first camera for raising the sensitivity of said first camera, while upon detecting an intrusion by said second camera, transmitting to the third camera the intrusion location for zooming and inquiring purposes (Saito; see [0019]-[0021], [0023]-[0030], [0034], [0043], and [0048]; Ricard; see [0012]-[0018] and [0036]; Tanaka; [0028]-[0031], [0041], [0046], [0047], and [0067]).
As to claim 3, the combination of Saito, Ricard, and Tanaka teaches wherein the sensitivity of the first camera is raised by using adaptive thresholds, to obtain a higher detection probability (Saito; [0025], [0029], and [0036]).
As to claim 4, the combination of Saito, Ricard, and Tanaka teaches in which target classification capabilities are obtained by target magnification on the sensor of each camera (Saito; see [0019]-[0021], [0023]-[0030], [0034], [0043], and [0048]; Tanaka; [0028]-[0031], [0036], [0041]-[0047], [0062], and [0066]).
As to claim 5, the combination of Saito, Ricard, and Tanaka teaches in which target tracking capability is obtained by slaving the third camera without interrupting any running search and scan processes (Saito; see [0019]-[0021], [0023]-[0030], [0034], [0043], and [0048]; Tanaka; [0028]-[0031], [0041], [0046], [0047], and [0067]).
As to claim 9, the combination of Saito, Ricard, and Tanaka teaches day cameras being sensitive to visible light and/or IR cameras being sensitive to IR radiation in various spectral ranges and/or any combination of such ranges (Tanaka; [0028]-[0031], [0041], [0046], [0047], and [0067]).
Allowable Subject Matter
Claim 8 is 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 ZHIHAN ZHOU whose telephone number is (571)270-7284. The examiner can normally be reached Mondays-Fridays 8:30am-5pm.
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/ZHIHAN ZHOU/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2482