DETAILED ACTION
I. 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 .
II. Priority
A. Applicant’s claim for the benefit of a prior-filed application under 35 U.S.C. 120 is acknowledged.
B. Acknowledgment is made of applicant’s claim for foreign priority under 35 U.S.C. 119 (a)-(d) as well as of the certified copies of papers required by 37 CFR 1.55.
III. Claim Interpretation
No claim limitations invoke interpretation under 35 U.S.C. 112(f). The functional limitations reciting the generic placeholders, “section” and “unit,” in claims 1 and 9 will not be interpreted under 35 U.S.C. 112(f) because, although they recite a generic placeholder (section, unit) and are followed by an associated function, claims 1 and 9 further require that a processor acts as those sections and unit to perform the associated functions.
IV. Claim Rejections - 35 U.S.C. § 102
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)(2) the claimed invention was described in a patent issued under section 151, or in an application for patent published or deemed published under section 122(b), in which the patent or application, as the case may be, names another inventor and was effectively filed before the effective filing date of the claimed invention.
Claims 1-4,6,7,11, and 12 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(2) as being anticipated by Roebke (US 2023/0171482 A1).
As to claim 1, Roebke teaches an image capturing apparatus (Fig. 1; [0027], lines 7-9, “…single electronic device.”) comprising:
an image capturing section (Fig. 1, camera “120”) configured to perform image capturing ([0025], lines 1 and 2);
at least one processor (Fig. 4, processors “410”); and
a memory (Fig. 4, storage medium “104”) coupled to the at least one processor (Fig. 4), the memory having instructions that, when executed by the processor, perform the operations ([0043], lines 4-15) as:
an image capturing mode-determining section configured to determine an image capturing mode of the image capturing section (Fig. 4, instructions “428”); and
an installation place-identifying section configured to identify an installation place of the image capturing apparatus (Fig. 4, instructions “426”),
wherein in a case where an installation place of the image capturing apparatus, identified by the installation place-identifying section, and an installation place registered in advance match (e.g., Fig. 5, “502”; [0045], lines 1-8), the image capturing mode-determining section determines an image capturing mode registered in advance in association with the identified installation place as an image capturing mode to be used for image capturing ([0046]; {The examiner reads the claimed ‘image capturing mode’ as an entire set of rules (e.g., current rules “272,” previously-defined rules “274,” other user-defined rules “276,” or a combination of user-defined and other user-defined rules ([0017], lines 10-12)) for operating the camera, a specific category of rules (e.g., image/video “250”) or a specific sub-category of a rule (e.g., burst shot “252A”).}),
in a case where a plurality of image capturing modes have been registered in advance in association with one installation place, the image capturing mode-determining section selects one of the plurality of image capturing modes and determines the selected image capturing mode as the image capturing mode to be used for image capturing ([0036], lines 9-20; {As suggested by para. [0036], there may be a previously defined set of rules and another user-defined set of rules.}), and
wherein each of the plurality of image capturing modes is different from other image capturing modes (As the set of rules is customizable by users, a set of rules previously defined by the user can be different in any or all respects than a set of rules defined by another user.), in at least one of moving image/still image selection ([0041], lines 7 and 8, “…video to photo mode, photo to video mode…”), an image capturing repetition period (Fig. 2, burst mode “252A” vs. slow motion recording “252B”), a resolution ([0041], line 7), a frame rate ([0041], line 7), execution/non-execution of panning/tilting, and a driving range of panning/tilting.
As to claim 2, Roebke teaches the image capturing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein in a case where a plurality of image capturing modes have been registered in advance in association with the identified installation place, the image capturing mode-determining section selects the image capturing mode to be used for image capturing from the plurality of image capturing modes, based on one or more of a use frequency, a use time zone, an illuminance value, and an operating state of a device in an area surrounding the image capturing apparatus ([0036], lines 17-20; {Between rules from other users operating a non-similar camera within a threshold range of the user-defined region and rules from other users operating a similar camera within the range, rules from other users operating a similar camera within the range are applied.}).
As to claim 3, Roebke teaches the image capturing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein when selecting one image capturing mode out of the plurality of image capturing modes, the image capturing mode-determining section selects an image capturing mode based on a selection determination condition ([0017], lines 10-12; {For instance, if there is a conflict/contradiction between a user rule and another user-defined rule, the rule is resolved in the favor of the current user. That is, the selection determination condition is to use the current user rule.}), and
wherein the selection determination condition is differentiated according to an installation place registered in advance (Fig. 5, “506” and “508”; [0046]).
As to claim 4, Roebke teaches the image capturing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the installation place-identifying section identifies the installation place of the image capturing apparatus based on mark information for identifying the installation place registered in advance (e.g., Fig. 3; [0038]; {The examiner reads the claimed ‘mark information’ as the user-defined region input with his or her finger.}).
As to claim 6, Roebke teaches the image capturing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the installation place-identifying section identifies the installation place of the image capturing apparatus based on GPS information ([0046], lines 3-6).
As to claim 7, Roebke teaches the image capturing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the installation place-identifying section identifies the installation place of the image capturing apparatus based on surrounding sound information ([0030], lines 20-24, “…the user defines specific areas within the user-defined region to turn on the shutter, such as for example,… in response to an audio command from the user.”).
Claim 11 is a method claim reciting steps corresponding to the memory instructions of claim 1. Therefore, claim 11 is rejected as detailed above.
As Roebke teaches stored, processor-executable instructions for accomplishing the functions of the reference’s device ([0043]), the examiner submits that the limitations of claim 12 are satisfied.
V. Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 5 and 8-10 are objected to as being dependent upon a rejected base claim but would be allowable if rewritten in independent form including all of the limitations of the base claim and any intervening claims. The following is a statement of reasons for the indication of allowable subject matter: As to claim 5, Roebke only discloses use of GPS to determine the installation place. Also, the reference contains no discussion of other registered devices simultaneously being within the vicinity of a user-defined region. As to claim 8, Roebke discloses different modes of camera operation that inherently have different capturing frequencies, but not modes associated with life log or constant capturing. As to claim 9, Roebke does not disclose any type of camera movement that is definable by a rule. Claim 10 is allowable because it depends on claim 9.
VI. Additional Pertinent Prior Art
See parent application, 18/162,006 for discussion of Cudak et al. (US 2015/0296134 A1), Nadeau et al. (US 2020/0092460 A1), McCarthy et al. (US 2016/0205305 A1), Saini et al. (US 2022/0083619 A1), Yu (US 2020/0259994 A1), Topalli (US 2019/0379832 A1), Bostick et al. (US 2016/0301860 A1), and Desai et al. (US 2013/0329111 A1).
VII. Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to ANTHONY J DANIELS whose telephone number is (571)272-7362. The examiner can normally be reached M-F 9:00 AM - 5:00 PM.
Examiner interviews are available via telephone, in-person, and video conferencing using a USPTO supplied web-based collaboration tool. To schedule an interview, applicant is encouraged to use the USPTO Automated Interview Request (AIR) at http://www.uspto.gov/interviewpractice.
If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Sinh Tran can be reached on 571-272-7564. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/ANTHONY J DANIELS/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2637
9/9/2026
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