DETAILED ACTION
1. This is a first Office Action in response to application no. 19/143,770 filed on June 26, 2025 in which claims 1-9, 13-14, 16-24 are presented for examination. Claims 10-12 and 15 were canceled with a preliminary amendment filed on June 26, 2025.
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
2. 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.
3. 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.
4. Claims 1-3, 5, 7-9, 13-14, 16-18, 20 and 22-24 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Siminoff (US Patent Application Publication no. 2018/0341835) in view of Morita et al (US Patent Application Publication no. 2018/0019996).
Regarding claim 1, Siminoff discloses a method of signal processing, comprising: capturing, using a camera, a first image for a first portion of a user (See Siminoff [0006] and [0008]), the first image having a first precision; performing biometric-based identity verification on the user using information of the first portion comprised in the first image (See Siminoff [0189]); and in response to the identity verification being passed, obtaining at least one second image for a second portion of the user (See Siminoff [0008]), the at least one second image having a second precision (See Siminoff [0185] “Note that the improved precision is considered as a second precision”).
It is noted that although Siminoff discloses a precision (See Siminoff [0179]), it is silent about second precision different from as first.
However, Morita teaches the at least one second image having a second precision different from the first precision (See Morita [0048], [0079] and [0084]).
Therefore, it is considered obvious that one skilled in the art, before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, would recognize the advantage of modifying Siminoff to incorporate Morita to teach at least one second image having a second precision different from the first precision. The motivation for performing such a modification in Siminoff is to perform an authentication with higher precision using the biometric information as taught by Morita (See Morita [0092]).
As per claim 13, Siminoff discloses a device, comprising: a camera (See Siminoff [0004]); and a controller configured (See Siminoff [0163] and processor 370 of Fig. 21) to: capture, using a camera, a first image for a first portion of a user (See Siminoff [0006] and [0008]), the first image having a first precision (See
Siminoff [ 0179], [0189]); perform biometric-based identity verification on the user using information of the first portion comprised in the first image (See Siminoff [0189]); and in response to the identity verification being passed, obtain at least one second image for a second portion of the user (See Siminoff [0190] “Note that the improved precision is considered as a second precision”), the at least one second image having a second precision (See Siminoff [0185]).
It is noted that although Siminoff discloses a precision (See Siminoff [0179]), it is silent about second precision different from as first.
However, Morita teaches the at least one second image having a second precision different from the first precision (See Morita [0048], [0079] and [0084]).
Therefore, it is considered obvious that one skilled in the art, before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, would recognize the advantage of modifying Siminoff to incorporate Morita to teach at least one second image having a second precision different from the first precision. The motivation for performing such a modification in Siminoff is to perform an authentication with higher precision using the biometric information as taught by Morita (See Morita [0092]).
It is also noted that Siminoff is silent about a wearable device.
However, Morita teaches a wearable device (See Morita [0056]).
Therefore, it is considered obvious that one skilled in the art, before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, would recognize the advantage of modifying Siminoff to incorporate Morita’s teaching of a wearable device. The motivation for performing such a modification in Siminoff is to provide a wearable fingerprint authentication platform to perform authentication based on a user's fingerprint in order to provide a device to successfully authenticates the user.
As per claim 14, Siminoff discloses an electronic device, comprising: at least one processing unit; and at least one memory coupled to the at least one processing unit and storing instructions for execution by
at least one processing unit, the instructions, when executed by the at least one processing unit (See Siminoff [0034] and [0038]), causing the electronic device to perform acts comprising: capturing, using a camera (See Siminoff [0004]), a first image for a first portion of a user (See Siminoff [0006] and [0008]), the first image having a first precision (See Siminoff [ 0179], [0189]); performing biometric-based identity verification on the user using information of the first portion comprised in the first image (See Siminoff [0189]); and in response to the identity verification being passed, obtaining at least one second image for a second portion of the user (See Siminoff [0190] “Note that the improved precision is considered as a second precision”), the at least one second image having a second precision (See Siminoff [0185] “Note that the improved precision is considered as a second precision”).
It is noted that although Siminoff discloses a precision (See Siminoff [0179]), it is silent about second precision different from as first.
However, Morita teaches the at least one second image having a second precision different from the first precision (See Morita [0048], [0079] and [0084]).
Therefore, it is considered obvious that one skilled in the art, before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, would recognize the advantage of modifying Siminoff to incorporate Morita to teach at least one second image having a second precision different from the first precision. The motivation for performing such a modification in Siminoff is to perform an authentication with higher precision using the biometric information as taught by Morita (See Morita [0092]).
As per claims 2-3 and 17-18, the combination of Siminoff and Morita further teaches wherein information of a predetermined type is present in one of the first image and the second image, and information of the predetermined type is absent in the other one of the first image and the second image (See Siminoff [0189] where different types of biometric verification are taught).
As per claims 5 and 20, the combination of Siminoff and Morita further teaches wherein obtaining the at least one second image for the second portion of the user comprises: configuring the camera to capture the at least one second image with the second precision (See Siminoff [0216]-[0217] where the quality of the image will be considered as relating to the image precision, as suggested in [0179] and [0185] with low and enhanced precision).
As per claims 7, 16 and 22, the combination of Siminoff and Morita further teaches in response to the identity verification being passed, deleting the first image (See Siminoff [0213]-[0214]).
As per claims 8 and 23, the combination of Siminoff and Morita further teaches a wearable device arranged as claimed (See Morita [0056]).
As per claims 9 and 24, the combination of Siminoff and Morita further teaches wherein the second precision is lower than the first precision (See Morita [0104], [0107]).
5. Claims 4, 6, 19 and 21 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Siminoff (US Patent Application Publication no. 2018/0341835) in view of Morita et al (US Patent Application Publication no. 2018/0019996) as applied to claims 1 and 14 above, and further in view of Kim et al. (US Patent Application Publication no. 2020/0311305).
Regarding claims 4 and 19, most of the limitations of these claims have been noted in the above rejection of claims 1 and 14. It is noted that the combination of Siminoff and Morita is silent about
generating the at least one second image by sampling the at least one original image to change a precision of the at least one original image.
However, Kim teaches generating the at least one second image by sampling the at least one original image to change a precision of the at least one original image (See Kim [0115]).
Therefore, it is considered obvious that one skilled in the art, before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, would recognize the advantage of modifying the combination of Siminoff and Morita to incorporate Kim’s teachings to generate the at least one second image by sampling the at least one original image to change a precision of the at least one original image. The motivation for performing such a modification in the combination of Siminoff and Morita is for proper adjustment of the image resolution.
As per claims 6 and 21, the combination of Siminoff, Morita and Kim further teaches wherein the first image and the second image have different resolutions (See Kim [0048]-[0049]).
6. The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure.
See the Notice of References Cited (PTO-892).
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to GIMS S PHILIPPE whose telephone number is (571)272-7336. The examiner can normally be reached Maxi Flex.
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/GIMS S PHILIPPE/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2424
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