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
Applicant’s claim priority to 10/25/2022.
Information Disclosure Statement
IDS (1449) filed on 10/7/2025 and 2/14/2025 have been considered.
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.
Claim(s) 1-12 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a) (1) as being anticipated by Andreou et al. US 2020/0160046.
Regarding claims 1, 5 and 9, Andreou discloses a system and data generation method implemented by a computer, the data generation method comprising:
the computer acquiring an inference result of skeleton information for each piece of teacher data when a plurality of pieces of teacher data is input to a machine learning model, which includes an error of each part of a skeleton (paragraph 67);
the computer specifying first teacher data in which an error of a first part is greater than an error of the first part of another piece of the teacher data from the plurality of pieces of teacher data based on the inference result (joint errors are compared in paragraph 105);
the computer specifying second teacher data in which an error of a second part is greater than an error of the second part of another piece of the teacher data from the plurality of pieces of teacher data based on the inference result (the steps of comparing errors of joints is repeated for all joints paragraph 107); and
the computer generating third teacher data by replacing information regarding the second part included in the first teacher data with information regarding the second part included in the second teacher data (paragraphs 107, 108 and 112 also note figures 8, 9 and 17).
Regarding claims 2, 6 and 10, Andreou discloses the data generation method further comprising: generating fourth teacher data by replacing information regarding the first part included in the second teacher data with information regarding the first part included in the first teacher data.
Regarding claims 3, 7 and 11, Andreou discloses the data generation method further comprising: executing machine learning on the machine learning model based on the third teacher data. (the steps of comparing errors of joints is repeated for all joints paragraph 107)
As for claims 4, 8 and 12, Andreou discloses the data generation method further comprising: determining whether or not a skeleton that includes the first part and the second part included in the third teacher data is likely, wherein the executing of the machine learning includes executing the machine learning on the machine learning model based on the third teacher data in a case where the skeleton that includes the first part and the second part is likely. (paragraphs 79-80 and 86 show teaching with likelihood estimates).
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.
Claims 1-12 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 specifically claim applicants’ invention properly.
The independent claims 1, 5 and 9 all require “teacher data”. Specifically, first teacher data and second teacher data which each have different data parts. The final step of the independent claims is to replace information regarding the second part “included in the first teacher data”. That language is inconsistent with what the previous steps in the claims teach.
Dependent claims are rejected as they depend on an indefinite independent claim.
Claim 9 is a single means claim which has a single unit as an apparatus which is not specific enough to be definite.
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure. Please note that 2025/0157071, 2022/0309834, 20220207853, 2022/0083768 and 2023/0335016 are cited as teaching skeletal pose determination using a learning system.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to CHRISTOPHER S KELLEY whose telephone number is (571)272-7331. The examiner can normally be reached Mon-Fri 6:30 to 4 pm alternate Fridays off.
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If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Colleen Fauz can be reached at 571-272-1617. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/CHRISTOPHER S KELLEY/Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 2482
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