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 with traverse of Group I, Claims 1-9 in the reply filed on 07/13/26 is acknowledged. The traversal is on the ground(s) that the claims are allowable. This is not found persuasive because the prior arts found and used in the rejection below.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
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 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 1-5 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Li (US 20230136884 A1) in view of Hovanky (US 20020044214 A1), and further in view of Bedard et al. (US 20240103588 A1; hereafter Bedard).
As of Claim 1: Li teaches a system comprising:
a display interfaced with the processor and operable to present the information as visual images (¶0025 and note that FIGS. 3A-3C show perspective views of an example of a camera 232 oriented in a second position with respect to a display surface 242 of a display monitor 234); and
a camera coupled to a perimeter of the display by a bracket and interfaced with the processor (¶¶0028-0030).
Hovanky is a similar or analogous system to the claimed invention as evidenced Hovanky teaches would have prompted a predictable variation of Li by applying Hovanky’s known principal of an information handling system comprising: a processor operable to execute instructions to process information (¶¶0037 and note that FIG. 6, control system 200 comprises a camera position processor 202); the mounting base including a camera actuator coupled to the housing and operable to rotate the housing relative to the bracket (¶¶0024-0027 and note that a video camera 102 or similar article is mechanically coupled to positioning device 100 to enable positioning of camera 102 about vertical (pan) and horizontal (tilt) rotational axes. Camera 102 is fixedly mounted to a carriage 104 for movement therewith. Carriage 104 is rotatably mounted to a yoke 106 to permit rotation of carriage 104 and camera 102 relative to yoke 106 about a horizontal axis generally perpendicular to an optical axis of camera 102 (thereby permitting tilting of camera 102). Yoke 106 is in turn rotatably mounted to a base assembly 108 for rotation relative to base assembly 108 about a vertical axis. The carriage 104 and camera 102 co-rotate with yoke 106 about the vertical axis to produce panning of camera 102. As is discussed in detail hereinbelow, tilting and panning of camera 102 are respectively effected by operation of first and second voice coil actuators 110 and 112, each comprising a pair of permanent magnets and at least one coil to which current is selectively applied to generate a torque vector.).
the camera having a housing coupled to the bracket by a mounting base, the housing containing a lens aligned with an image sensor to capture visual images in a field of view (¶¶0036-0038).
In view of the motivations such as incorporate the automatic camera positioning technique of Hovanky into the display mounted camera system of Li to automatically orient the camera toward a detected user or conference participant thereby avoiding manual adjustment of the camera and maintaining the user within the desired field of view during conferencing one of ordinary skill in the art would have implemented the claimed variation of the prior art system of Li.
Therefore, the claimed invention would have been obvious to a person having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention.
Bedard is a similar or analogous system to the claimed invention as evidenced Bedard teaches would have prompted a predictable variation of Li by applying Bedard’s known principal of a memory interfaced with the processor and operable to store the instructions and information (¶¶0061,0094,0096 and note that System memory 2404 may be configured to store program instructions 2420 accessible by processor 2402. In various embodiments, system memory 2404 may be implemented using any suitable memory technology, such as static random access memory (SRAM), synchronous dynamic RAM (SDRAM), nonvolatile/Flash-type memory, or any other type of memory. Additionally, existing camera control data 2422 of memory 2404 may include any of the information or data structures described above. In some embodiments, program instructions 2420 and/or data 2422 may be received, sent or stored upon different types of computer-accessible media or on similar media separate from system memory 2404 or computer system 2400.);
In view of the motivations such as incorporate the memory of Bedard into the display mounted camera system of Li to use the different memory arrangements for interfacing the computer system thereby providing flexibility in interface and one of ordinary skill in the art would have implemented the claimed variation of the prior art system of Li.
Therefore, the claimed invention would have been obvious to a person having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention.
As of Claim 2: Li in view of Hovanky in view of Bedard further teaches a first printed circuit board coupled in an interior of the bracket; an image processor coupled to the first printed circuit board and interfaced with the image sensor (¶¶0048-0053 of Bedard and note that the circuit board 310 may also be retained at a fixed position in the z-direction while allowing the camera electrical trace(s) 206 to extend from the circuit board 310 (e.g., through an open end of the “U-shape”) and connect (e.g., physically connect, electrically connect) to the display PCB 302. In some aspects, a damping structure 312 positioned between the camera module 202 and the bottom bracket 204b (e.g., between the circuit board 310 and the bottom bracket 204b) may dampen movement of the camera module 202 in the z-direction, for example, in response to a drop event.); and a second printed circuit coupled in the mounting base and interfaced with the camera actuator and the first printed circuit board, the image processor commanding the actuator to rotate the housing so that the field of view is directed at an end user captured in a visual image by the image sensor (¶¶0024, 0028-0030 of Hovanky and note that carriage 104. First and second return plates 132 and 134 are attached to or formed integrally with carriage 104, and are fabricated from steel or suitable equivalent to provide a magnetic return path for first voice coil actuator 110. Arcuate permanent magnets 136 and 138 are fastened to return plate 132 and are adjacently positioned along the circumference of a circle having its center located at the horizontal axis of rotation of positioning device 100.).
As of Claim 3: Li in view of Hovanky in view of Bedard further teaches the camera actuator comprises: a permanent magnet coupled to rotate with the camera housing; and an electromagnet coupled to the second printed circuit board positioned to magnetically interact with the permanent magnet.
As of Claim 4: Li in view of Hovanky in view of Bedard further teaches a rotating member coupling the housing and the mounting base; and the permanent magnet formed with a circular shape to rotate with the rotating member proximate the second printed circuit board (¶¶0033-0035 of Hovanky and note that panning actuator 112 is configured such that coil assembly 142 rotates while return plate 118 and magnets 150 and 152 are static. Because magnets 150 and 152 are considerably more massive than coil assembly 142, this "static magnet" arrangement serves to reduce the inertia of the moving portions of panning actuator 112, thereby reducing torque requirements and permitting more rapid panning of camera 102.).
As of Claim 5: Li in view of Hovanky in view of Bedard further teaches a Hall sensor coupled to the second circuit board and interfaced with the image processor to report a rotational orientation of the permanent magnet to the image processor (Bedard ¶¶0053,0060,0066,0101 and ¶¶0033-0035 of Hovanky).
Claims 6-9 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Li (US 20230136884 A1) in view of Hovanky (US 20020044214 A1), in view of Bedard et al. (US 20240103588 A1; hereafter Bedard), and further in view of CHU et al. (US 20230053202 A1; hereafter CHU).
As of Claim 6: CHU is a similar or analogous system to the claimed invention as evidenced Bedard teaches an acoustic fence is set to be within a given angle of the centerline or on axis angle of the sensing microphone array that would have prompted a predictable variation of Li by applying CHU’s known principal of first and second microphones rotationally coupled to the bracket on opposite sides of the mounting base; a connecting rod coupled between the first and second microphones; and a microphone actuator coupled in the mounting base and operable to rotate the microphones in a synchronized manner with the housing (¶¶0027,0031 and note that FIGS. 3-7, the camera 1116 and the microphone array 1214 are shown rotated from the original centerline, as the camera 1116 has mechanically panned and zoomed, with the axes of rotation of the camera 1116 and the microphone array 1214 being the same. As the microphone array is part of the camera 1116, the microphone array 1214 has also panned. This allows the centerlines of the camera 1116 and the microphone array 1214 to remain identical, simplifying calculations. In FIG. 8, the camera 1116 and the microphone array 1214 remain in their original position, the camera 1116 axis parallel to the axis of the conference table 10 and the microphone array 1214 perpendicular to the axis of the conference table 10. However, the camera centerline CL and FoV have rotated while the physical camera does not pan. This is an example of zooming and panning in an electronic pan, tilt, zoom (FPTZ) camera. The microphone array 1214 centerline Array CL is shown parallel to the axis of the conference table 10 but the centerline CL of the camera 1116 is rotated. The angular difference in the Array CL and camera CL is determined and used to adjust the angles compared when determining if the sound is in the camera FoV).
In view of the motivations such as monitoring lip movement and adjusting microphones and incorporate the acoustic fence system in the camera system of Li to use the different memory arrangements for interfacing the computer system thereby muting and unmuting occurs automatically as the camera zoom and pan angle change, alleviating the need for user control of the sound source localization capture angles of detection.and one of ordinary skill in the art would have implemented the claimed variation of the prior art system of Li.
Therefore, the claimed invention would have been obvious to a person having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention.
As of Claim 7: Li in view of Hovanky in view of Bedard in view of CHU further teaches the microphone actuator comprises: an electromagnet coupled to the second circuit board in the mounting base proximate the connecting rod and interfaced with the image processor; and a permanent magnet coupled to the connecting rod on opposing sides of the electromagnet (Bedard ¶¶0053,0060,0066,0101 and ¶¶0028-0030 of Hovanky).
As of Claim 8: Li in view of Hovanky in view of Bedard in view of CHU further teaches a sensor operable to detect a rotational position of the camera housing, the image processor applying the rotational position to direct the microphones in the direction of the field of view of the camera (¶0037 of Hovanky and note that camera position processor 202 is configured to calculate target pan and tilt angles which will properly frame the image of the speaking participant. Camera position processor 202 may utilize any suitable technique to locate the speaker and determine the target pan and tilt angles for aiming the camera, such as triangularization based on analysis of acoustic signals received by plural spaced-apart microphones.).
As of Claim 9: Li in view of Hovanky in view of Bedard in view of CHU further teaches a non- transient memory storing instructions that when executed on a processor (¶¶0027,0031 and note that FIGS. 3-7, the camera 1116 and the microphone array 1214 are shown rotated from the original centerline, as the camera 1116 has mechanically panned and zoomed, with the axes of rotation of the camera 1116 and the microphone array 1214 being the same. As the microphone array is part of the camera 1116, the microphone array 1214 has also panned. This allows the centerlines of the camera 1116 and the microphone array 1214 to remain identical, simplifying calculations. In FIG. 8, the camera 1116 and the microphone array 1214 remain in their original position, the camera 1116 axis parallel to the axis of the conference table 10 and the microphone array 1214 perpendicular to the axis of the conference table 10. However, the camera centerline CL and FoV have rotated while the physical camera does not pan. This is an example of zooming and panning in an electronic pan, tilt, zoom (FPTZ) camera. The microphone array 1214 centerline Array CL is shown parallel to the axis of the conference table 10 but the centerline CL of the camera 1116 is rotated. The angular difference in the Array CL and camera CL is determined and used to adjust the angles compared when determining if the sound is in the camera FoV)determine the direction to audio detected by the microphones and command the microphone actuator to the direction of the audio independent of the camera rotational orientation (¶0037 of Hovanky and note that camera position processor 202 is configured to calculate target pan and tilt angles which will properly frame the image of the speaking participant. Camera position processor 202 may utilize any suitable technique to locate the speaker and determine the target pan and tilt angles for aiming the camera, such as triangularization based on analysis of acoustic signals received by plural spaced-apart microphones.).
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to MEKONNEN D DAGNEW whose telephone number is (571)270-5092. The examiner can normally be reached on 8:00AM-5:00PM M-Th.
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/MEKONNEN D DAGNEW/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2638
