DETAILED ACTION
Claims 1-7 are pending.
Notice of Pre-AIA or AIA Status
This Office Action is sent in response to Applicant’s Communication received on 02/28/2025 for application number 19/067,777.
The present application, filed on or after March 16, 2013, is being examined under the first inventor to file provisions of the AIA .
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.
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), second paragraph:
The specification shall conclude with one or more claims particularly pointing out and distinctly claiming the subject matter which the applicant regards as his invention.
Claims 1-3, 5 and 7 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 particularly point out and distinctly claim the subject matter which the inventor or a joint inventor (or for applications subject to pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, the applicant), regards as the invention.
Claim 1 recites the limitation “any object with a certain movement.” There is indefinite scope for this limitation. A “certain movement” is not defined in the claim language and does not have any further limiting language that narrows the definition of a movement that specifically indicates whether a person is present. “Certain movement” will be interpreted as any movement that determines a presence of a human within a predetermined detection range for the purposes of examination. Claims 2-6 are also rejected as incorporating deficiencies of the rejected base claim.
Claim 7 recites the limitation “any object with a certain movement” and is rejected based on the reasonings for claim 1.
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 1-7 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by Kosugi (US 2020/0356154 A1).
Regarding claim 1, Kosugi teaches an information processing apparatus (Figure 5) comprising:
a sensor for detecting an object present within a predetermined detection range (Figure 5, proximity sensor 130 and Figure 4);
a memory which temporarily stores a program of a system (Figure 5, system memory 310 and paragraph 74); and
a processor which executes processing of the system based on the program and processing using the sensor (Figure 5, CPU 302 and GPU 304 and paragraph 73), wherein the processor performs
person detection processing in which, when detecting that any object with a certain movement is not present within the detection range using the sensor over a first time, the processor detects that no person is present within the detection range (“a person detection unit which takes a first time to detect a change from a first detection state in which a person is present within a predetermined detection range to a second detection state in which no person is present,” par 0005 and “the person detection unit 210 takes a predetermined time to detect changes in distance changing according to breathing of the person present within the person detection range in order to detect whether the person is present within the person detection range or not.” Par 0066 and “Based on the detection signal acquired from the proximity sensor 130, the person detection unit 210 detects a person (more specifically, an object estimated to be a person) present within a predetermined detection range.” Par 0063) and sets first information indicating that no person is present before the first time passes (“the person detection unit 210 roughly predicts that the person has left at leave prediction timing (time t15) within or in the middle of the detection time T1 before confirming the detection of the person leaving.” Par 0069 and “the person detection unit 210 outputs a leave-predictive detection signal (Prediction status) to give the notification thereof at timing when it can be roughly predicted that the person has left within or in the middle of the leave detection time.” Par 0040 and “outputs first detection information at timing in the middle of the first time;” Abstract and Figure 9),
timekeeping processing to start measuring a second time by the system processing in response to the first information being set by the person detection processing (“(Step S209) The system processing unit 300 measures the elapsed time since the start of the pre-notification, and proceeds to processing in step S211.” Par 0112 and Figure 9, 11), and
function stop processing to stop at least some of functions by the system processing on conditions that it is detected by the person detection processing that any object with a certain movement is not present within the detection range over the first time (“a person detection step of detecting a change from a first detection state in which a person is present within a predetermined detection range to a second detection state in which no person is present based on detection results in the second detection mode, and … causing an operating state of the system to make a transition to a first operating state, in which at least part of the system processing is limited” par 0015 and paragraphs 8, 93 and Figure 11), and the measurement of the second time by the timekeeping processing ends (“When determining that the elapsed time reaches the pre-notification time T2 (for example, 15 seconds) (the fixed time has elapsed) (YES), the system processing unit 300 outputs the pre-notification complete signal” par 0113 and Figures 9, 11) [the system enters standby state once the first time determines absence of breathing (par. 8) and the second time elapses].
Claim 7 corresponds to claim 1 and is rejected accordingly.
Regarding claim 2, Kosugi teaches the information processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein in the person detection processing, when detecting that an object with a certain movement is present within the detection range before the first time passes, the processor changes the setting from the first information to second information indicating that a person is present (“when the presence of the person within the person detection range is detected during the time from when the leave-predictive detection signal is output to when the pre-notification time T2 has elapsed, the person detection unit 210 outputs, to the system processing unit 300, a presence detection signal (Presence status) indicating that the presence of the person is detected.” Par 0071 and “the person detection unit outputs second detection information indicating that the first detection state is detected, and based on the second detection information output from the person detection unit, the operating state control unit stops the pre-notification processing and cancels the transition of the operating state of the system to the first operating state.” Par 0006 and “when the EC 200 determines that the presence of a person is detected (YES), the EC 200 outputs the presence detection signal to the system processing unit 300 and pauses the leave detection processing” par 0114 and paragraphs 66-67) [if person is detected (via breathing) during pre-notification period, a presence detection signal is set and standby state transition is cancelled].
Regarding claim 3, Kosugi teaches the information processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein in the person detection processing, when detecting that an object with a certain movement is present within the detection range before the first time passes, the processor resets the second time measured by the timekeeping processing (“The system processing unit 300 cancels the pre-notification…Then, the procedure returns to the processing in step S201.” Par 0115 and “when the first detection state in which a person is present within the person detection range … is detected during the time from when the leave-predictive detection signal …is output to when the pre-notification time T2 … has elapsed, the person detection unit 210 outputs the presence detection signal … indicating that the first detection state is detected. Then, based on the presence detection signal output from the person detection unit 210, the operating state control unit 324 stops the pre-notification processing and cancels the transition of the operating state of the system to the standby state” par 0120) [if a person is detected before the pre-notification time period ends, the timer is cancelled (pre-notification is stopped) and returns to the initial monitoring state, effectively resetting the timekeeping measurement (T2)].
Regarding claim 4, Kosugi teaches the information processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein when stopping at least some of the functions by the system processing, the processor controls a display unit to be turned off (“The standby state is an operating state in which at least part of system processing is limited … the standby state includes a state in which at least the display of a display unit appears to be OFF (screen OFF)” par 0033).
Regarding claim 5, Kosugi teaches the information processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein
the first information set by the person detection processing of the processor before the first time passes is a tentative setting to start measuring the second time (“outputs first detection information [leave prediction signal] at a time within the first time … and causes an operating state of the system to make a transition to a first operating state…after a second time has elapsed since the start of the pre-notification processing.” Par 0005 and Figure 9), and
when detecting that any object with a certain movement is not present within the detection range by the person detection processing over the first time, the detection that no person is present indicated by the first information is confirmed (“the person detection unit 210 … detects that the person has left (Leave) at a time point (time t20) at which the human occupancy probability is decreased up to a predetermined threshold value Hth1 (for example, 35%) (confirms the detection of the leave). In other words, the person detection unit 210 takes detection time T1 from time t10 to time t20 to detect the leave of the person” par 0068) [the predictive signal set in the middle of T1 triggers the start of T2; the confirmation of no person present occurs when T1 ends].
Regarding claim 6, Kosugi teaches the information processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein
the first time is a time defined in the person detection processing (“the person detection unit 210 takes a predetermined time (leave detection time) to determine the presence or absence of a person from the presence or absence of a minute distance variation or the like in order to detect the leave of the person.” Par 0040 and “The person detection unit 210 takes the detection time T1 (an example of a first time) to detect a change from a first detection state in which a person is present within the person detection … to a second detection state in which no person is present (that is, the person has left the electronic apparatus 1 (Leave))” par 0118), and
the second time is settable by a user in the system (“the user may be allowed to set the pre-notification time T2 arbitrarily.” Par 0069).
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant’s disclosure.
Onishi (US 2018/0176404 A1) teaches an information processing apparatus that includes a human detection sensor that detects a user and changes between a power-saving mode and a normal operation power mode based on the detection results of the human detection sensor during a first predetermined time frame.
Kosugi et al. (US 2020/0201401 A1) teaches an electronic apparatus that has a detection unit to detect an object within a predetermined detection range, and operation control unit that activates a processor when the object is detected and a detection range control unit that sets a detection range according to the operation state of the processor.
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/AYMAN FATIMA/Examiner, Art Unit 2176
/JAWEED A ABBASZADEH/Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 2176
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