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 .
Preliminary Remarks
This is a reply to the application filed on 03/13/2025, in which, claims 1-13 remain pending in the present application with claims 1 and 12 being independent claims.
When making claim amendments, the applicant is encouraged to consider the references in their entireties, including those portions that have not been cited by the examiner and their equivalents as they may most broadly and appropriately apply to any particular anticipated claim amendments.
Information Disclosure Statement
The information disclosure statement (IDS) submitted on March 13, 2025 is in compliance with the provisions of 37 CFR 1.97 and is being considered by the Examiner.
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 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 of this title, 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 1-13 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Sugimori et al. (US 20230137452 A1, hereinafter referred to as “Sugimori”) in view of Hwang et al. (US 20180227609 A1, hereinafter referred to as “Hwang”).
Regarding claim 1, Sugimori discloses an electronic device for managing a video in a scenario including a plurality of sections, the electronic device comprising:
a display that displays information (see Sugimori, paragraph [0203]: “The display unit 77 executes display of images used for various types of image processing, videos to be processed, and the like in a display screen in accordance with instructions from the CPU 71. Moreover, the display unit 77 displays various types of operation menus, icons, messages, or the like, i.e., items as GUI (Graphical User Interface), in response to instructions from the CPU 71”);
an input interface that inputs a user operation (see Sugimori, paragraph [0224]: “The imaging device 2 includes a user interface through which the rating information is input”); and
a controller that controls the display in accordance with the user operation input by the input interface (see Sugimori, paragraph [0243]: “the UI control unit 31 performs a control process for causing the display unit 77 and the audio output unit 78 to execute output to the user, such as display output and audio output, and supply an operation input environment or present information to the user”),
wherein the controller
causes the display to display a rating screen to acquire rating information from the input interface (see Sugimori, paragraph [0357]: “the rating icon 130 and the flag setting icon 131 may be displayed in correspondence with the images even in the state depicted in FIG. 20A”), the rating screen prompting the user to rate the video associated with each section of the plurality of sections, the rating information indicating user rating of the video (see Sugimori, paragraph [0359]: “The rating icon 130 is an operator operated not only to display rating information set as the number of stars, but also to change rating. For example, the number of stars can be changed by tapping or sliding a portion corresponding to the rating icon 130. This operation is defined as a rating change operation”).
Regarding claim 1, Sugimori discloses all the claimed limitations with the exception of generates management data in accordance with the acquired rating information, the management data managing a priority order in which video information is arranged on an edit screen for editing a plurality of videos associated with the plurality of sections, and the video information indicating each of the videos.
Hwang from the same or similar fields of endeavor discloses generates management data in accordance with the acquired rating information, the management data managing a priority order in which video information is arranged on an edit screen for editing a plurality of videos associated with the plurality of sections, and the video information indicating each of the videos (see Hwang, paragraph [0015]: “Video edit module 114 performs the operation, as a function of video content manager program 108A, of reordering the video segments into groups based on user preferences” and paragraph [0029]: “video content manager program 108A constructs individual video segments, via video order module 112, based upon user preferences. For example, video content manager program 108A, via video order module 112, may construct a novel video segment, from individual video frames, according to preferences, such as interest rating, video quality, background color, or time line”).
Therefore it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to utilize the teachings as in Hwang with the teachings as in Sugimori. The motivation for doing so would ensure the system to have ability to use the system and method disclosed in Hwang to reorder the video segments into groups based on user preferences such as video segment rating via video edit module and to construct individual video segments via video order module based upon user preferences thus generating management data in accordance with the acquired rating information wherein the management data managing a priority order in which video information is arranged on an edit screen for editing a plurality of videos associated with the plurality of sections, and the video information indicating each of the videos in order to arrange video segments with rating so that it is possible to facilitate to edit video with a scenario including a plurality of video segments.
Regarding claim 2, the combination teachings of Sugimori and Hwang as discussed above also disclose the electronic device according to claim 1, wherein the controller generates the management data in accordance with the acquired rating information to arrange the video information on the edit screen for each section with a higher priority as the video information indicates the video having a higher rating indicated by the rating information (see Hwang, paragraph [0029]: “Video content manager program 108A ranks the frames on a scale of 1 to 10 based upon the presence of an actor, and the ranking system is scored based upon the length of time that the actor is present. A frame with a top ranking of one indicates that the actor is present the longest in comparison to the other frames. Video content manager program 108A constructs a new set of video frames, constituting a novel video segment, according to this ranking, irrespective of the order that each frame was presented in the original video”).
The motivation for combining the references has been discussed in claim 1 above.
Regarding claim 3, the combination teachings of Sugimori and Hwang as discussed above also disclose the electronic device according to claim 1, wherein the management data includes a plurality of folders indicating the priority order based on the rating information for each section, and defines the video to be stored in each of the plurality of folders (see Hwang, paragraph [0030]: “Video content manager program 108A presents a novel seamless multimedia file, and a catalog of novel multimedia frame files to the user (212). In an embodiment, video content manager program 108A, via video order module 112, presents a new seamless video to the user and a catalog of individual video frames that have similar clips. In an example, video content manager program 108A presents the user the newly constructed video in a single and seamless video file. In addition, video content program 108A presents the user a catalog of a group of unique video segments that share similar video frames with the new video file”).
The motivation for combining the references has been discussed in claim 1 above.
Regarding claim 4, the combination teachings of Sugimori and Hwang as discussed above also disclose the electronic device according to claim 1, wherein
the management data includes sequence information in which the video information is arranged in an order of the plurality of sections in the scenario (see Hwang, paragraph [0025]: “Video content manager program 108A generates a searchable index of multimedia files from the search (206). In one embodiment video content manager program 108A returns all related video files, with start and end positions of the videos in the video files, associated with the user-preference settings”), and
the controller generates the sequence information to arrange the video information in accordance with the priority order for each section (see Hwang, paragraph [0029]: “Video content manager program 108A orders the returned individual multimedia frames based on user preferences”).
The motivation for combining the references has been discussed in claim 1 above.
Regarding claim 5, the combination teachings of Sugimori and Hwang as discussed above also disclose the electronic device according to claim 4, wherein the controller generates the sequence information to align arrangement of the video information for each section, based on a time length of the video for each section (see Hwang, paragraph [0029]: “Video content manager program 108A ranks the frames on a scale of 1 to 10 based upon the presence of an actor, and the ranking system is scored based upon the length of time that the actor is present. A frame with a top ranking of one indicates that the actor is present the longest in comparison to the other frames”).
The motivation for combining the references has been discussed in claim 1 above.
Regarding claim 6, the combination teachings of Sugimori and Hwang as discussed above also disclose the electronic device according to claim 4, wherein the controller
receives a user operation to set a predetermined number by the input interface (see Sugimori, paragraph [0224]: “The imaging device 2 includes a user interface through which the rating information is input”), and generates the sequence information to arrange the predetermined number or less of pieces of the video information for each section (see Hwang, paragraph [0034]: “The number of video segments that video content manager program 108B searches and the number of video frames comprising each video segment is specified in the user preferences that video content manager program 108B receives. Video frame 306 represents an individual unit of a video segment that can be any length (e.g., 0.5 seconds), according to user preferences”).
The motivation for combining the references has been discussed in claim 1 above.
Regarding claim 7, the combination teachings of Sugimori and Hwang as discussed above also disclose the electronic device according to claim 4, wherein the controller
receives the user operation to set a predetermined period by the input interface (see Sugimori, paragraph [0224]: “The imaging device 2 includes a user interface through which the rating information is input”; and paragraph [0029]: “Extraction is allowed on a condition of time information, such as a specific time, a period from a certain time to another time, and a time elapsed from an imaging start”), and
generates the sequence information to arrange the video information with removing the predetermined period in the video (see Hwang, paragraph [0028]: “video content manager program 108A deletes the distorted video frame, via similarity analyzer 110, because the quality of the data does not meet a quality threshold. In another embodiment, video content manager program 108A, via similarity analyzer 110, determines that some of the video frames over the course of a pre-defined time interval are a combination of being redundant, and of low quality, or some of the video frames are low quality, or some of the video frames in the time interval are redundant”).
The motivation for combining the references has been discussed in claim 1 above.
Regarding claim 8, the combination teachings of Sugimori and Hwang as discussed above also disclose the electronic device according to claim 1, wherein the management data includes a data structure that causes an external device for displaying the edit screen to display the edit screen with the video information being arranged in accordance with the priority order (see Hwang, paragraph [0014]: “Video content manager program 108A provides the capability to search for, detect, analyze, and share a video, or multimedia, segment for a user of client device 104 and provide the user of client device 104 with an ordered presentation of the individual video, or multimedia, segments”).
The motivation for combining the references has been discussed in claim 1 above.
Regarding claim 9, the combination teachings of Sugimori and Hwang as discussed above also disclose the electronic device according to claim 1, further comprising a memory that stores management information that manages the video associated with each of the plurality of sections in the scenario, wherein the controller generates the management data, based on the management information and the rating information (see Sugimori, paragraph [0625]: “in a case where the user performs a rating operation for the images displayed in the image region 128, the CPU 71 proceeds from step S705 to step S706 to store rating information. In the case of the CPU 71 of the imaging device 2, the rating information is stored as metadata associated with the images”).
The motivation for combining the references has been discussed in claim 1 above.
Regarding claim 10, the combination teachings of Sugimori and Hwang as discussed above also disclose the electronic device according to claim 1, further comprising a communication interface that communicates data with an imaging apparatus for shooting the video, wherein the controller manages a video shot with the imaging apparatus by data communication via the communication interface (see Sugimori, paragraph [0164]: “The imaging device 2 and the staff terminal 1 (e.g., terminal device 1A) are assumed to communicate with each other by data communication. This data communication is achieved using FTP (File Transfer Protocol) communication, for example”).
The motivation for combining the references has been discussed in claim 1 above.
Regarding claim 11, the combination teachings of Sugimori and Hwang as discussed above also disclose the electronic device according to claim 1, further comprising an image sensor that captures a subject image to generate image data, wherein the controller manages the video including the image data generated by the image sensor (see Sugimori, paragraph [0163]: “the imaging device 2 is any of various types of imaging devices functioning as a video camera or a still camera. It is assumed that the imaging device 2 depicted in the figure is a camera used by the photographer at the site of the wedding”).
The motivation for combining the references has been discussed in claim 1 above.
Claim 12 is rejected for the same reasons as discussed in claim 1 above.
Claim 13 is rejected for the same reasons as discussed in claim 12 above. In addition, the combination teachings of Sugimori and Hwang as discussed above also disclose a non-transitory computer-readable recording medium storing a program that causes the controller to execute the video management method according to claim 12 (see Sugimori, paragraph [0196]: “The CPU (Central Processing Unit) 71 of the information processing device 10 executes various types of processes under a program stored in a ROM (Read Only Memory) 72, or a program loaded from the storage unit 79 to a RAM (Random Access Memory) 73. The RAM 73 also appropriately stores data and the like necessary for the CPU 71 to execute the various types of processes”).
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to NIENRU YANG whose telephone number is (571)272-4212. The examiner can normally be reached Monday-Friday 10AM-6PM EST.
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NIENRU YANG
Examiner
Art Unit 2484
/NIENRU YANG/Examiner, Art Unit 2484
/THAI Q TRAN/Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 2484
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