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 .
DETAILED ACTION
2. This is the initial Office Action based on the application filed on June 24, 2025. The Examiner acknowledges the following:
3. Claims 1 – 20 were filed.
4. The drawings filed on 06/24/2025 are accepted by the Examiner.
5. Current claims 1 – 20 are pending. And they are being considered for examination.
Information Disclosure Statement
6. The IDS document filed on 06/24/2025 is acknowledged by the Examiner.
Priority
7. Priority data is based on a previous PCT patent application PCT/CN2024/095135 filed on05/24/2024, which refers to a previous Chinese patent application CN-202310884155.5, filed on 07/17/2023. Certified copies of the documents were filed to the office on 07/16/2025.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 102
8. 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 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)(1) the claimed invention was patented, described in a printed publication, or in public use, on sale or otherwise available to the public before the effective filing date of the claimed invention.
Claims 1, 4 – 6, 12, 15 – 17 and 20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by “Taiqing Wang et al., CN-104463083 (A), hereinafter Wang”. (Note: Wang art is from the IDS document. Applicant provided the translation; however, it does not include the paragraphs, which makes it easier to follow when cited in the rejections. Therefore, the Examiner provided the translation, which is used in the rejections below.)
Regarding Claim 1 – 20:
Wang teaches a non-contact palm print authentication method and device and a portable terminal. The non-contact palm print authentication device is applied to the portable terminal comprising a camera and an illuminating lamp. The non-contact palm print authentication method comprises the steps that the camera is enabled when a palm print authentication process starts, and it is maintained that the working state of the illuminating lamp is set as the illuminating mode when external light is insufficient so that the illuminating lamp can supply supplementary lighting output to the camera; a new image is selected from a video stream output by the camera as a candidate image, a current state parameter set of the camera is obtained specific to the candidate image, whether each state parameter in the set meets the corresponding preset standard is judged, and if yes, the candidate image is used as a comparison palm print image of palm print matching to be output; the comparison palm print image is matched with one or more reference palm print images input in advance for user authentication. The non-contact palm print authentication method and device and the portable terminal can effectively improve the output quality of the comparison palm print image, thereby improving the performance of the non-contact palm print authentication technology.
Regarding Claim 1, 12 and Claim 20:
Wang teaches,
An apparatus (Fig 1 and Fig 2, smartphone with camera 12 and lamp 11. See [0030]), comprising processing circuitry (Fig 2 the smartphone includes a CPU, memory, non-volatile memory, camera 12, light 11 and other hardware with a touch screen. See [0030; 0031]) configured to: (Fig 2 shows the method steps/instructions to be performed as to enable the according to an image collection instruction, set a lamp to an illumination mode (Fig 1, set the lighting the lamp 11. See [0031]) the lamp being configured to provide a supplemental light (Fig 1, Fig 2, the image capturing may be implemented as long as the path range of the image captured by camera 12 intersects the illumination output range of the lighting lamp 11. See [0031]) with a supplementation intensity exceeding a preset intensity threshold in the illumination mode (Wang teaches each state parameter for the candidate image includes a preset standard/threshold, which has to be met. See [0012; 0038; 0063]); adjust a photographing mode of a camera from a fixed exposure mode to an automatic exposure mode (IOS operating system (See [0054]); the operating system allows for applications to control the camera work in any of the following modes: single autofocus AF mode and manual focus mode (See 0054]); similarly, for exposure adjustment, iOS also offers three modes for users to choose from: Fixed Exposure mode, One-time Auto Exposure mode, and Continuous Auto Exposure mode (See [0058; 0061]), the automatic exposure mode using a fixed exposure parameter value of the fixed exposure mode as an initial exposure parameter value (iOS also offers three modes for users to choose from: Fixed Exposure mode. See [0058]); take M shot images by the camera based on the automatic exposure mode with the initial exposure parameter value, M being an integer greater than or equal to 1 (Typically, focus status parameters can represent two states: focus complete and focus in progress. Exposure status parameters can also represent two states: exposure parameter adjustment in progress and exposure adjustment complete (See [0064]); and determine a target shot image from the M shot images, the target shot image having an image quality satisfying a preset image quality requirement (Fig 2, in some implementations, the device is a virtual device at the logic level, mainly including a data acquisition control unit, a filtering output unit and a palmprint matching unit (See [0033]). Step 104: The filtering output unit obtains the current state parameter set of the camera for the candidate/target image and determines whether each state parameter in the set meets the preset standard corresponding to the parameter. If all the standards are met, the candidate image is output as the comparison palmprint image for palmprint matching. If none of the standards are met, the candidate/target image is ignored, and the process returns to step 103 (See [0038]). By eliminating the negative effects of the ambient light, it is possible to ensure that the image output quality range becomes more convergent (See [0052]). In addition to improving the quality of the palm print images by using illumination modes, this invention also filters the multiple frames of images continuously output by the camera (See [0054]). The filtering output unit is used to select a new image frame (Step 103) as a candidate image from the video stream output by the camera, obtain the current state parameter set of the camera for the candidate image, and determine whether each state parameter in the set meets the preset standard corresponding to that parameter. If all are met, the candidate image is output as a comparison palmprint image for palmprint matching. If any state parameter in the set does not meet the corresponding preset standard, the candidate image is ignored, and a new image frame is selected as the candidate image. As discussed above, with this system, it is possible to improve the image quality of each frame in the video stream and further filters images with better quality within the video stream (See [0072]).
As for the method as in claim 1, Wang Fig 3 shows the method steps for operating the apparatus as disclosed in claim 12. It includes step 101: The data acquisition and control unit initiates the palmprint authentication process according to specific instructions (See [0035]); step 102: The acquisition control unit enables the camera when the palmprint authentication process is started, and keeps the lighting in illumination mode at least when there is insufficient external light (See [0036]); step 103: The filtering output unit obtains a new image from the video stream currently output by the camera as a candidate image (See [0037]); step 104: The filtering output unit obtains the current state parameter set of the camera for the candidate image and determines whether each state parameter in the set meets the preset standard corresponding to the parameter. If all the standards are met, the candidate image is output as the comparison palmprint image for palmprint matching. If none of the standards are met, the candidate image is ignored, and the process returns to step 103 (See [0038]); step 105: The palmprint matching unit determines whether the palmprint image being compared matches the baseline palmprint image. If they match, the user's identity is verified as legitimate (See [0039]).
As for claim 20, Wang teaches that the authentication device is based on a computer program which is applied to a smartphone (See [0030]) and as shown in Fig 2, it typically includes, a CPU, a memory, a camera 12, a non-volatile memory, light 11 and various input/output hardware, including a touch screen (See [0030; 0031]). The CPU or the non-volatile memory is understood as the processor and the non-transitory recording medium with a program with the method steps as to operate the apparatus/device as in claim 1.
Regarding Claims 4 – 6:
The rejection of claim 1 is incorporated herein. As for claims 4 – 6 limitations, Wang teaches,
“determining a distance value between a target object and the camera” – See [0028; 0047; 50]; target distance (See [0050]).
“executing image collection instruction when the distance value between the target object and camera is less than a distance threshold” - the camera can detect the distance between the object and the camera; therefore, it is capable to detect a distance that is less that the threshold. See [0069; 0077])
“controlling the camera in the fixed exposure mode when the distance between the target object and camera is larger or equal to the distance threshold” – the system can use automatic or manual clicking to determine a suitable/optimal acquisition range for obtaining high-quality images. See [0076; 0077]).
“acquiring the fixed exposure parameter value” – iOS also offers three modes for users to choose from: Fixed Exposure mode. See [0058]).
“controlling the camera in the fixed exposure mode as the photographing mode according to the fixed exposure parameter value” - the operating system allows applications to control the camera to work in any of the following modes: single autofocus mode, continuous autofocus mode, and manual focus mode (See [0054]). Similarly, for exposure adjustment, iOS also offers three modes for users to choose from: Fixed Exposure mode, One-time Auto Exposure mode, and Continuous Auto Exposure mode (See [0058; 0061])
Regarding Claims 15 – 17:
The rejection of claims 4 -6 and 12 is incorporated herein. Claims 15 – 17 include a similar disclosure as claim 4 – 6 but as applied to claim 12 instead. Therefore, claims 15 – 17 are rejected under a similar rationale as claim 4 – 6. See the rejections of claims 4 – 6 for more details.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
9. 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 2, 3, 7, 8, 13, 14, 18 and 19 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by “Taiqing Wang et al., CN-104463083 (A), hereinafter Wang”, in view of “Yifei Huang et al., CN-116052229 (A), hereinafter Huang”. (Note: both arts are from the IDS. Applicant provided the translation; however, it does not show the paragraphs and other details. The current translations were provided by the Examiner and used in the citations indicated in the rejections below.)
Huang teaches an exposure time calibration method and device for a fingerprint module and a product, and the method comprises the steps: obtaining an exposure time sequence, the exposure time sequence comprises a plurality of input exposure times, and one input exposure time is the exposure time used by the fingerprint module for completing one-time fingerprint input in an automatic exposure mode; determining the exposure time after the calibration according to a plurality of input exposure times in the exposure time sequence; and updating the fixed exposure time used by the fingerprint module for fingerprint acquisition in the fixed exposure mode to the calibrated exposure time. According to the invention, the calibrated exposure time is obtained according to the input exposure time obtained by completing fingerprint input in the automatic exposure mode, and the calibrated exposure time is taken as the fixed exposure time, so that fingerprint acquisition can be completed according to the calibrated exposure time subsequently, and the accuracy of the exposure time is improved.
Regarding Claims 2 and 3:
The rejection of claim 1 is incorporated herein. Wang teaches all the limitations of claim 1 and the fixed exposure parameter value in a fixed exposure mode and acquiring an exposure parameter value used to capture a target shot image; however, it is silent about the “one or more historical exposure parameter value or storing the exposure parameter into a historical exposure parameter database”, which in the same field of endeavor is taught by Huang. Huang teaches the calibration of the apparatus with an exposure time sequence, wherein it determines the exposure time after calibrating according to a plurality of input exposure times after one or more historical calibrations and wherein a historical exposure time acquisition un it is used to acquire the exposure time after one or more historical calibrations, when the current calibration is not the first calibration (See [0013; 0014; 0038; 0039]). As for the storage, Huang Fig 4, includes the structure of the electronic device 100 that includes a memory 110 and a processor 120, which are in communication via a bus communication and memory 110 stores a computer program and it is capable of storing the historical exposure parameters (See [0133])
By modifying Wang with the obtention of a calibration as taught by Huang, it is possible to provide the proper calibration for the exposure time wherein the accuracy of the exposure can be improved.
Regarding Claims 7 and 8:
The rejection of claims 1 – 3 is incorporated herein. As for claims 7 and 8, Huang teaches the obtention of acquiring a plurality of historical exposure parameters with N recording exposure time As for N being an integer greater than 1, Huang teaches is N = 3, the system obtains the three longest recorded exposure times in the exposure time series, and sort them from the longest to the shortest as t1, t2, t3 and then the ratio between t1 and t2 and the ration between t2 and t3 (See [0092]). As for calculating the fixed exposure parameter value, the system is set to a fixed exposure mode as a default (See [0128]). Additionally, Huang teaches that the fingerprint module automatically adjusts the exposure time so that the image code value of the acquired fingerprint image is a fixed target code value (the target code value is an accurate parameter or parameter range), or in other words, the brightness of the acquired fingerprint image remains consistent (See [0068]). Wang teaches (iOS also offers three modes for users to choose from: Fixed Exposure mode.
See [0058]).
By modifying Wang with the obtention of a calibration as taught by Huang, it is possible to provide the proper calibration for the exposure time wherein the accuracy of the exposure can be improved.
Regarding Claims 13, 14, 18 and 19:
The rejections of claim 2 and 3, 7 and 8 and claim 12 is incorporated herein. Claims 13 and 14 include a similar disclosure as claims 2 and 3 and claims 18 and 19 include a similar disclosure as claims 7 and 8 but as applied to claim 12 instead. Therefore, claims 13 and 14, claims 18 and 19 are rejected under a similar rationale as claims 2 and 3 and claims 7 and 8. See the rejections of claims 2 and 3 and claims 7 and 8 for more details.
Allowable Subject matter
10. Claims 10 – 11 are objected because its dependence to a base rejected claim; however, they would be allowed if written in an independent form.
Conclusion
11. The prior art is made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant’s disclosure.
1. X. Hong et al., US 2023/0376120 A1 – it includes the same assignee and different inventor(s). It teaches a gesture information processing method and apparatus, an electronic device, and a storage medium. The method includes: acquiring an electromyography signal sample generated by an electromyography signal collection target object in connection with performing multiple gestures; dividing the electromyography signal sample through a sliding window having a fixed window value and a fixed stride into different electromyography signals of the target object; and applying the different electromyography signals to a first neural network model to determine gesture information matching the multiple gestures performed by the target object.
2. M. Yamada et al., US 2022/0201206 A1 – it teaches an imaging system (100) includes an imaging unit (140) configured to capture an image of a target object while the imaging unit (140) being mounted on a movable apparatus (500); and an exposure condition determination unit (161) configured to determine any one of a fixed exposure condition and an automatic exposure (AE) condition, as an exposure condition, based on a distance detected between the movable apparatus (500) and the target object.
3. S. Wang et al., US 2026/0260443 A1 – it includes the same assignee and 3 common inventor(s). It teaches an ambient light compensation method including: shooting an environment image based on a distance between an object and a distance sensor being less than a preset threshold, determining an original light color and a color cast value of a current ambient light based on color information in the environment image, the color cast value representing a color distribution status of the original light color in a color gamut, determining, based on the original light color and a target light color of a target ambient light, a compensation light color corresponding to the current ambient light, determining a light lightness adjustment parameter based on the compensation light color and the color cast value, and performing light compensation on the current ambient light based on the light lightness adjustment parameter.
Contact
12. Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to MARLY S.B. CAMARGO whose telephone number is (571)270-3729. The examiner can normally be reached on M-F 8:00-5:00 PM.
If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Lin Ye can be reached on 571-272-7372. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300. Information regarding the status of an application may be obtained from the Patent Application Information Retrieval (PAIR) system. Status information for published applications may be obtained from either Private PAIR or Public PAIR. Status information for unpublished applications is available through Private PAIR only. For more information about the PAIR system, see http://pair-direct.uspto.gov. Should you have questions on access to the Private PAIR system, contact the Electronic Business Center (EBC) at 866-217-9197 (toll-free). If you would like assistance from a USPTO Customer Service Representative or access to the automated information system, call 800-786-9199 (IN USA OR CANADA) or 571-272-1000.
/MARLY S CAMARGO/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2638
Prosecution Insights