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 .
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.
Claims 1-11 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Chen et al. (US 20240365002 A1;hereinafter Chen) in view of Horigome et al. (US 20160127626 A1; hereinafter Horigome).
As of Claim 1: Chen teaches in FIG. 4 ,FIG. 5A to FIG. 5D a control apparatus for controlling a plurality of terminals (¶¶0190,0191), comprising: an association unit configured to associate a controlled terminal serving as a control target and a terminal different from the controlled terminal as an associated terminal, from among the plurality of terminals (¶0191 and note that the user interface 21 includes a “HyperTerminal” option 211. The “HyperTerminal” option 211 may be configured to trigger the master device 100 to enter the user interface shown in FIG. 5B. The interface receives an operation of a user, triggers the master device 100 to search for the slave device 200 and establish a communication connection with the slave device 200, and then obtains and displays an image captured by the slave device 200.); a storage unit configured to store control information to control the plurality of terminals, the control information including information indicating the associated terminal associated by the association unit; a reception unit configured to receive an instruction on controlling a terminal from among the plurality of terminals; a determination unit configured to determine a terminal to be controlled, based on the association unit and the control information; and a control unit configured to control the plurality of terminals, based on the instruction on controlling the terminal received by the reception unit and the control information (¶0194 and note that As shown in FIG. 5C, the user interface 31 further includes a device selection region 312. The device selection region 312 is for displaying device options corresponding to a plurality of devices found by the master device 100. The device selection region 312 may include a first selection region 312A and a second selection region 312B. The first selection region 312A is for displaying a trusted device that can establish a communication connection with the master device 100. The trusted device may refer to a device that has established the communication connection with the master device 100, a device that logs in to a same system account as the master device 100, a device with a system account belonging to a same account group as a system account of the master device 100, or the like. The second selection region 312B is for displaying an untrusted device that can establish a communication connection with the master device 100. The untrusted device may be a device that has not established the communication connection with the master device 100, or a device that has logged in to a different system account from the master device 100.).
Horigome is a similar or analogous system to the claimed invention as evidenced Horigome teaches a master camera device and a plurality of slave camera devices are directly connected through a network, and form one network segment that would have prompted a predictable variation of Chen by applying Horigome’s known principal of wherein in a case where the reception unit receives a predetermined instruction, the determination unit determines to control both the controlled terminal and the associated terminal, based on the control information (Chen ¶¶0012,0036 and note that a master camera device is directly connected to one or a plurality of slave camera devices through a network to form one network segment, and the master camera device comprises: one or a plurality of encoders, each of which having a priority, forming and transmitting encoded data obtained by performing predetermined encoding process on a captured image; a detection unit detecting a transmission condition of the encoded data, and forming transmission condition information; a transmission condition acquisition unit, acquiring the transmission condition information from the one or the plurality of slave camera devices by communicating with the one or the plurality of slave camera devices, and acquiring the transmission condition information detected by the detection unit of the master camera device; and a control unit configured to control an encoding level representing a degree of the encoding process, sequentially from an encoder having a lower priority, including the encoders of the master camera device, to improve the transmission condition, by performing communication with the one or the plurality of slave camera devices upon detection of a worsening transmission condition relative to a predetermined threshold in the transmission condition information).
In view of the motivations such as multicast communication with each slave camera device, and controls an encoding level representing a degree of encoding process thereby an efficient communication, the transmission condition is improved from an initial stage having an unstable transmission condition, to obtain a preferable real-time image and one of ordinary skill in the art would have implemented the claimed variation of the prior art system of Chen.
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: Chen in view of Horigome further teaches in a case where the instruction on controlling the terminal received by the reception unit is information on the associated terminal in the storage unit (Chen ¶0136 and note that a memory configured to store instructions and data may be further disposed in the processor 110. In some embodiments, the memory in the processor 110 is a cache. The memory can store instructions or data that is just used or cyclically used by the processor 110. If the processor 110 needs to use the instructions or data again, the processor may directly call the instructions or data from the memory. This avoids repeated access and reduces waiting time of the processor 110, thereby improving system efficiency.), the determination unit determines to control the associated terminal, wherein in a case where the instruction on controlling the terminal is information for the controlled terminal and the associated terminal in the storage unit, the determination unit determines to control both the controlled terminal and the associated terminal, and wherein in a case where the instruction on controlling the terminal is information on the controlled terminal in the storage unit, the determination unit determines to control the controlled terminal (Chen ¶¶0114-0116 and note that the slave device 200 is configured to turn on a camera and capture an image by using the camera, then send the captured image to the master device 100, receive an instruction for adjusting display effect sent by the master device 100, adjust the display effect of the image according to the instruction, and send the adjusted image to the master device 100. In addition, the slave device 200 may further perform compatibility processing on the instruction sent by the master device 100 to obtain an instruction that can be recognized or responded by the slave device 200.).
As of Claim 3: Chen in view of Horigome further teaches the control apparatus receives an operation performed by a user, and wherein the user selects the controlled terminal and the associated terminal to be associated with the controlled terminal, from among the plurality of terminals (Chen ¶¶0113 and note that the master device 100 is configured to establish a communication connection with the slave device 200, obtain and display an image captured by a camera of the slave device 200 or obtain and display an image adjusted by the slave device 200, and change, when receiving a control operation of a user for the image captured by the slave device 200, display effect of the image in response to the control operation. In addition, the display effect may be all or partially adjusted by the master device 100.).
As of Claim 4: Chen in view of Horigome further teaches the control information to control the plurality of terminals includes information set by a user (Chen ¶¶0147,0152 and note that the master device 100 may implement a display function by using the GPU, the display screen 194, the application processor, and the like. Specifically, the electronic device may display, by using the display screen 194, an image or the like captured by the camera 193. In addition, an image that is sent by the slave device 200 and that is received by the master device 100 may also be displayed by using the display screen 194 and the like. By using the touch sensor 180K, that is, the “touch panel”, the master device 100 may respond to a user operation performed on a user interface control.).
As of Claim 5: Chen in view of Horigome further teaches an association unit configured to associate the controlled terminal and a plurality of terminals different from the controlled terminal as associated terminals, from among the plurality of terminals (Chen ¶¶0111,0304 and note that each of the master device 100 and the slave device 200 is an electronic device with a camera configured. A quantity of cameras of the master device 100 and a quantity of cameras of the slave device 200 are not limited in embodiments of this application. For example, the slave device 200 may be configured with five cameras (two front-facing cameras and three rear-facing cameras).).
As of Claim 6: Chen in view of Horigome further teaches an acquisition unit configured to acquire information about functions of the plurality of terminals, wherein the control information is set based on the information acquired by the acquisition unit (Chen ¶¶0196,0208 and note that as shown in FIG. 5D, after the master device 100 receives feedback information indicating that the slave device 200 allows establishment of the communication connection, the master device 100 completes the establishment of the communication connection with the slave device 200, and displays a connection flag 313. The connection flag 313 indicates that the master device 100 establishes the communication connection with the slave device 200.).
As of Claim 7: Chen in view of Horigome further teaches a determination unit configured to determine a connection state between the associated terminal and the control unit, wherein in a case where the determination unit determines that the associated terminal and the control unit are not connected, the control unit controls the controlled terminal (Chen ¶¶0208 and note that the master device 100 may skip the prompt step shown in FIG. 6B. To be specific, in a case that the master device 100 has established the communication connection with the slave device 200, when the master device 100 detects a user operation of enabling a camera function by the user, the master device 100 directly initiates a request for obtaining the image captured by the slave device 200 to the slave device 200, without displaying prompt information to prompt the user whether to obtain the image captured by the slave device 200.).
As of Claim 8: Chen in view of Horigome further teaches a display unit configured to display information about a state of the controlled terminal (Chen ¶¶0219,0220); and a display control unit configured to cause, in a case where the storage unit stores the associated terminal, the display unit to display the information to be displayed on the display unit and information about a state of the associated terminal (Chen ¶¶0182,0223 and note that as shown in FIG. 8F, when the master device 100 has established the communication connection with the slave device 200, the device switching notification bar 712 in the user interface 71 displays a connection status of the master device 100, indicating that the master device 100 is calling the camera of the slave device 200. In this case, the device switching notification bar 712 further includes an “end hopping” control 712B. The “end hopping” control 712B may be configured to end the communication connection between the master device 100 and the slave device 200. When the master device 100 receives a touch operation performed by the user on the “end hopping” control 712B, in response to the operation, the master device 100 displays a user interface 51 shown in FIG. 8G, no longer obtains the image captured by the slave device 200, and replaces the image B that is captured by the slave device 200 and that is displayed on a video call interface with the image A captured by the master device 100.).
As of Claim 9: Chen in view of Horigome further teaches a display unit configured to display information about a state of the controlled terminal (Chen ¶¶0259,0284); and a display control unit configured to cause, in a case where the storage unit stores the associated terminal (Chen ¶¶0222-0224), the display unit to display the information to be displayed on the display unit and information about a state of the associated terminal acquired by the acquisition unit (Horigome ¶¶0058,0070 and note that the master camera device 21 and the slave camera devices 22 detect transmission condition of the encoded data. The master camera device 21 performs multicast communication with each slave camera device 22, and acquires the information representing the transmission condition from each slave camera device 22. In a case where the master camera device 21 detects a worsening transmission condition from transmission conditions of the slave camera devices 22 and a transmission condition of the master camera device 21 itself, the master camera device 21 performs multicast communication with the slave camera devices 22, and controls the encoding level representing the degree of encoding to improve the transmission condition, sequentially from the encoder having a lower priority, including the encoder of the master camera device 21.).
As of Claim 10: A control method of controlling a plurality of terminals for claim 1 and all limitations are addressed in Claim 1.
As of Claim 11: A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium storing a computer program for causing a computer to function as the units of the control apparatus according to claim 1(Chen ¶0357).
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
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