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
2. 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.
3. Claims 1-4, 7-10, 12-16 and 18-19 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Pan et al. (US Patent No. 10,334,208 B2) in view of Wang et al. (US Patent No. 10,187,579 B1).
In considering claim 1, Pan et al. discloses all the claimed subject matter, note 1) the claimed obtaining sensed information from one or more sensors in a physical space, the sensed information including at least one of environmental conditions or detection of a personal computing device associated with a participant of a video conference is met by a plurality of sensors or devices for detecting activity can include a camera, a microphone, a motion sensor, a speed sensor, a position sensor, a light sensor, a heat or temperature sensor, a touch sensor, an image sensor, a video sensor, a voice sensor, a biometric sensor, etc. (Figs. 2A-2B, col. 6, line 9 to col. 7, line 62), 2) the claimed determining one or more configurations specific to the participant based on the sensed information and one or more preferences of the participant is met by the speaker B which becomes the active speaker (Figs. 2A-2B, col. 6, line 9 to col. 7, line 62), and 3) the claimed applying the one or more configurations during the video conference to alter functionality of one or more components in the physical space is met by the graphical conference interface 200A updates to which participant is displayed as an active participant (Figs. 1-5, col. 6, line 9 to col. 7, line 62).
However, Pan et al. explicitly does not disclose the claimed wherein applying the one or more configurations includes adjusting an actuator configured to control an environmental condition to customize the physical space for the participant.
Wang et al. teach that the control module 120 operatively coupled to the audio and video modules 130/140 uses audio and/or video information from these locators 134/144 to send camera commands to the adjustable camera(s) 150 to alter its viewing orientation, for example, these camera commands can be implemented by an actuator or local control unit 152 having motors, servos, and the like that steers the camera 150 mechanically (Fig. 2A, col. 10, line 62 to col. 11, line 47).
Therefore, it would have been obvious before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to incorporate the actuator as taught by Wang et al. into Pan et al.’s system in order to optimize the environment condition of the video conferencing systems.
In considering claim 2, the claimed wherein the sensed information includes environmental information comprising at least one of temperature, ambient light, or carbon dioxide value, and wherein determining the one or more configurations is further based on the environmental information is met by a heat or temperature sensor (Figs. 2A-2B, col. 6, line 9 to col. 7, line 62 of Pan et al.).
The motivation to combine the references has been discussed in claim 1 above.
In considering claim 3, the claimed further comprising: detecting the participant in the physical space using at least beaconing from the personal computing device associated with the participant to identify the participant as at least one of a particular person, a person belonging to a particular group, or a person in a particular geographic region is met by the active participant 202A (Figs. 2A-2B, col. 6, line 9 to col. 7, line 62 of Pan et al.).
The motivation to combine the references has been discussed in claim 1 above.
In considering claim 4, the claimed wherein the one or more components include at least one of a camera, a microphone, a speaker, or a graphical user interface for display at an output interface, and wherein applying the one or more configurations comprises: adjusting functionality of at least one of the camera, the microphone, the speaker, or the graphical user interface based on the one or more preferences of the participant is met by the graphical user interface (GUI) for display at an output interface 200 A (Figs. 1-2A, col. 6, line 9 to col. 7, line 62 of Pan et al.).
The motivation to combine the references has been discussed in claim 1 above.
In considering claim 7, the claimed wherein determining the one or more configurations comprises: accessing a record associated with the participant to determine predetermined preferences for configuring the one or more components; and determining a priority associated with the functionality of the one or more components based on the predetermined preferences, wherein applying the one or more configurations is based on the priority is met by the participant representations 206 and the participant representation of active participant 202A can allow the conference view 200A to display a live or recorded image or video of the conference participants, to allow participants to see each other (Figs. 1-2A, col. 6, line 9 to col. 7, line 62 of Pan et al.).
The motivation to combine the references has been discussed in claim 1 above.
In considering claim 8, the claimed further comprising: detecting a second participant of the video conference in the physical space; and comparing one or more preferences of the participant with one or more preferences of the second participant to determine the one or more configurations, wherein the one or more configurations are applied to accommodate both participants is met by the panel 204 can include participant representations 206A-N (collectively “206” hereinafter) of respective participants in the conference and the active participant 200A that is currently a main participant, an active participant, or a participant of interest (Figs. 1-2A, col. 6, line 9 to col. 7, line 62 of Pan et al.).
The motivation to combine the references has been discussed in claim 1 above.
In considering claim 9, the claimed wherein the sensed information includes detection of the personal computing device associated with the participant, and wherein the one or more configurations include enabling screen sharing functionality through the personal computing device during the video conference is met by the conferencing applications 112 which can communicate or interface with input devices, such as camera and a microphone to capture video and/or audio at the endpoints 106 for the conference (Fig. 1, col. 5, line 36 to col. 6, line 51 and col. 7, lines 35-62 of Pan et al.).
The motivation to combine the references has been discussed in claim 1 above.
Claim 10 is rejected for the same reason as discussed in claim 1 above and further the claimed one or more memories, and one or more processors configured to execute instructions stored in the one or more memories is met by the CPU 604 and the memory 606 (Fig. 6, lines 41-59 of Pan et al.).
Claim 12 is rejected for the same reason as discussed in claim 8 above.
In considering claim 13, the claimed wherein to determine the one or more configurations, the one or more processors further execute instructions stored in the one or more memories to: apply a prioritization matrix to resolve differences in preferences between the preferences of the participant and the preferences of the second participant is met by the active participant 200A that is currently a main participant, an active participant, or a participant of interest (Figs. 1-2A, col. 6, line 9 to col. 7, line 62 of Pan et al.).
The motivation to combine the references has been discussed in claim 1 above.
In considering claim 14, the claimed wherein the one or more processors further configured to execute instructions stored in the one or more memories to: access a prioritization matrix to determine a priority associated with the functionality of the one or more components; and apply the one or more configurations based on the priority, wherein the priority is determined based on at least one of past use by the participant of a software platform or settings applied by other users in a group, department, or geographic region that includes the participant is met by the graphical conference interface 200A updates to which participant is displayed as an active participant (Figs. 1-5, col. 6, line 9 to col. 7, line 62 of Pan et al.).
The motivation to combine the references has been discussed in claim 1 above.
Claim 15 is rejected for the same reason as discussed in claim 1 above.
In considering claim 16, the combination of Pan et al. and Wang et al. disclose all the limitations of the instant invention as discussed in claim 15 above, except for providing the claimed wherein the actuator configured to control a heating, ventilation, and air conditioning system within the physical space. The capability using of the actuator configured to control a heating, ventilation, and air conditioning system within the physical space is old and well-known in the art. Therefore, the Official Notice is taken. It was notoriously well-known in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to incorporate the old and well-known actuator configured to control a heating, ventilation, and air conditioning system within the physical space into the combination of Pan et al. and Wang et al.’s system in order to optimize the environment condition of the video conferencing systems.
In considering claim 18, the claimed wherein the sensed information includes both a detection of the personal computing device and ambient environmental conditions, and wherein the one or more configurations are determined based on a combination of device identification and sensor based environmental values is met by a plurality of sensors or devices for detecting activity can include a camera, a microphone, a motion sensor, a speed sensor, a position sensor, a light sensor, a heat or temperature sensor, a touch sensor, an image sensor, a video sensor, a voice sensor, a biometric sensor, etc. (Figs. 2A-2B, col. 6, line 9 to col. 7, line 62 of Pan et al.).
The motivation to combine the references has been discussed in claim 1 above.
In considering claim 19, the combination of Pan et al. and Wang et al. disclose all the limitations of the instant invention as discussed in claim 15 above, except for providing the claimed wherein determining the one or more configurations further comprises: accessing a lookup table including stored preferences associated with the participant. The capability using of accessing a lookup table including stored preferences associated with the participant is old and well-known in the art. Therefore, the Official Notice is taken. It was notoriously well-known in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to incorporate the old and well-known accessing a lookup table including stored preferences associated with the participant into the combination of Pan et al. and Wang et al.’s system in order to simplify the control process by using lookup table.
4. Claims 5-6 and 17 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Pan et al. (US Patent No. 10,334,208 B2) in view of Wang et al. (US Patent No. 10,187,579 B1) and further in view of Ostap et al. (US Patent No. 11,350,029 B1).
In considering claim 5, Pan et al. disclose the claimed further comprising: using past settings applied to the one or more components during one or more past video conferences attended by the first participant, to predict the one or more preferences, wherein applying one or more settings to the actuator based on the predicted one or more preferences to control the environmental condition in the physical space is met by the conference service 102 can retrieve the state information stored from the previous conference and send some or all of the state information to the endpoint used by participant (Fig. 1, col. 22, line 38 to col. 23, line 58). However, the combination of Pan et al. and Wang et al. explicitly do not disclose the claimed using a machine learning model. Ostap et al. disclose the software algorithms 112 may include one or more algorithms that can be trained to better perform a desired method or function, such as a machine-learning artificial intelligence (AI) algorithm or by use of a convolutional neural network (CNN) (Fig. 2, col. 9, line 48 to col. 10, line 29). Therefore, it would have been obvious before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to incorporate the machine learning model as taught by Ostap et al. into the combination of Pan et al. and Wang et al.’s system in order to accurately predict the setting of components of the video conferencing systems.
In considering claim 6, the claimed wherein the machine learning model is further trained using calendar information associated with the participant, the calendar information including scheduled events indicating equipment or collaboration preferences, and wherein the one or more configurations are determined based on the calendar information to prioritize specific component functionalities is met by the conferencing applications 112 which identifies or suggests for presentation based on a relevance to the conference or a portion of the conference (e.g., relevant to a current topic or discussion, relevant to the current speaker, etc.), set for presentation during a particular point in the conference (e.g., content set for presentation based on a conference agenda or calendar), or selected for presentation in the conference by any mechanism including manual and/or dynamic presentation mechanisms (Fig. 2B, col. 7, line 63 to col. 8, line 56 of Pan et al.).
The motivation to combine the references has been discussed in claim 5 above.
Claim 17 is rejected for the same reason as discussed in claim 5 above.
5. Claims 11 and 20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Pan et al. (US Patent No. 10,334,208 B2) in view of Wang et al. (US Patent No. 10,187,579 B1) and further in view of Blatchley et al. (US Patent No. 8,115,877 B2).
In considering claim 11, the combination of Pan et al. and Wang et al. disclose all the limitations of the instant invention as discussed in claim 10 above, except for providing the claimed wherein the actuator controls at least one of a lighting system, a curtain system, or a heating, ventilation, and air conditioning system in the physical space; and wherein applying the one or more configurations comprises: adjusting the actuator to alter at least one of lighting, shades, or temperature. Blatchley et al. teach that the computing device 14 may determine a viewer adjustment based on the signal from the viewer sensor 35, and may determine a lighting adjustment based on the signal from the light sensor 25 and the determined viewer adjustment (Fig. 1, col. 11, lines 5-48). Therefore, it would have been obvious before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to incorporate the lighting adjustment as taught by Blatchley et al. into the combination of Pan et al. and Wang et al.’s system in order to optimize the environment condition of the video conferencing systems.
Claim 20 is rejected for the same reason as discussed in claim 11 above.
Conclusion
6. The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure.
Nicholson et al. (US Patent No. 12,340,489 B2) disclose object removal during video conferencing.
Rewatkar et al. (US Patent No. 11,863,872 B2) disclose method and system for improving a visual presentation of a user during a video conference.
Patel (US Patent No. 10,167,667 B2) discloses method for preventing false positive occupancy sensor detections caused by motion.
7. Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to TRANG U TRAN whose telephone number is (571)272-7358. The examiner can normally be reached M-F 10:00AM- 6:00PM.
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June 22, 2026
/TRANG U TRAN/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2422
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