DETAILED ACTION
Notice of Pre-AIA or AIA Status
The present application is being examined under the pre-AIA first to invent provisions.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 102
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 the appropriate paragraphs of pre-AIA 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 –
(e) the invention was described in (1) an application for patent, published under section 122(b), by another filed in the United States before the invention by the applicant for patent or (2) a patent granted on an application for patent by another filed in the United States before the invention by the applicant for patent, except that an international application filed under the treaty defined in section 351(a) shall have the effects for purposes of this subsection of an application filed in the United States only if the international application designated the United States and was published under Article 21(2) of such treaty in the English language.
Claim(s) 1-28 is/are rejected under pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 102€ as being anticipated by US 2009/0123069 by Deng et al.
Regarding claim 1, a method comprising:
determining one or more boundaries of a content item based on a classification algorithm configured to analyze one or more visual elements corresponding to a content type of the content item (paragraph 0028 teaches “The brand exposure monitor 150 of the illustrated example utilizes scene change detection to mark the beginning image frame and the ending image frame corresponding to a scene. In an example implementation, the brand exposure monitor 150 performs scene change detection by creating an image signature for each frame of the media stream 160 (possibly after subsampling) and then comparing the image signatures of a sequence of frames to determine when a scene change occurs.”, paragraph 0036 teaches “If, however, a current image signature corresponding to a current image frame differs sufficiently from the key frames signature(s), the current image frame corresponding to the current image signature is determined to mark the start of a new scene of the media stream 160. Additionally, the most recent previous frame is determined to mark the end of the previous scene.”, paragraph 0039 teaches “Assuming that the detected scene currently being processed (referred to as the "current scene") is not excluded, the example scene recognizer 252 begins classifying the scene into one of the following four categories: a repeated scene of interest, a repeated scene of changed interest, a new scene, or a scene of no interest. For example, a scene of no interest is a scene known or previously identified as including no visible brand identifiers (e.g., logos).”); and
causing output of an updated version of the content item that omits at least a portion of supplemental content from the content item based on the determined one or more boundaries of the content item (in addition to discussion above, fig. 5, paragraph 0022 teaches “The terms "brand exposure" and "exposures to brand identifiers" as used herein refer to the presentation of one or more brand identifiers in media content delivered by a media content stream, thereby providing an opportunity for an observer of the media content to become exposed to the brand identifier(s) (e.g., logo(s)). As used herein, a brand exposure does not require that the observer actually observe the brand identifier in the media content, but instead indicates that the observer had an opportunity to observe the brand identifier, regardless of whether the observer actually did so. Brand exposures may be tabulated and/or recorded to determine the effectiveness of intentional or unintentional product placement, display placement or advertising placement.”, paragraph 0025 teaches “To process (e.g., receive, play, view, record, decode, etc.) and present any number and/or type(s) of content, the example system of FIG. 1 includes any number and/or type(s) of media device(s) 105.”, paragraph 0027 teaches “The example brand exposure monitor 150 then excludes any scenes known not to include any brand identifier information. Next, the example brand exposure monitor 150 compares each non-excluded detected scene to a library of reference scenes to determine whether brand exposure monitoring may be performed automatically. For example, automatic brand exposure monitoring is possible if the detected scene matches information stored in the reference library which corresponds to a repeated scene of interest or a known scene of no interest.”, paragraph 0063 teaches “To report measurements and other information about brand identifiers (e.g., logos) recognized and/or detected in the example media stream 160, the example brand exposure monitor 150 of FIG. 2 includes a report generator 256. The example report generator 256 of FIG. 2 collects the brand identifiers, along with any associated appearance parameters, etc., determined by the brand recognizer 254, organizes the information, and produces a report. The report may be output using any technique(s) such as, for example, printing to a paper source, creating and/or updating a computer file, updating a database, generating a display, sending an email, etc.”, paragraph 0077 teaches “The example key frame 520 corresponds to a scene from a commercial being broadcast during the example broadcasted sporting event. In an example implementation, the scene excluder 355 could be configured to excludes scenes corresponding to a broadcast commercial (e.g., based on a detected audio code in the example media stream 160, based on a detected transition (e.g., blank screen) in the example media stream 160, etc.) if, for example, brand exposure reporting is to be limited to embedded advertisements.”, paragraph 0072, 0074).
Regarding claim 2, the method further comprising: generating the updated version of the content item (in addition to discussion above, paragraph 0096 teaches “As discussed above, a tracker function uses the marked region(s) of interest as a template(s) to track the corresponding region(s) of interest in the adjacent image frames comprising the current detected scene. After the processing at block 737 completes, the media stream 160 is restarted after having been stopped (e.g., paused) (block 738). The example GUI 152 then provides the scene and region(s) of interest to, for example, the example brand recognizer 254 to enable updating of brand identifier characteristics, and/or collection and/or calculation of brand exposure information related to the identified brand identifier(s) (block 740). Execution of the example machine accessible instructions 700 then ends.”, paragraph 0104 teaches “One or more input devices 935 and one or more output devices 940 are connected to the interface circuit 930. For example, the interface circuit 930 may be coupled to an appropriate input device 935 to receive the example media stream 160. Additionally or alternatively, the interface circuit 930 may be coupled to an appropriate output device 940 to implement the output device 270 and/or the GUI 152.”).
Regarding claim 3, the method further comprising: storing the updated version of the content item (in addition to discussion above, paragraph 0033 teaches “For each brand identifier recognized automatically or via information input by the user 170 via the GUI 152, corresponding data and/or reports are stored in an example brand exposure database 155 for subsequent processing. After the scene and/or brand identifier(s) have been identified by the user 170 via the GUI 152, the current scene and/or brand identifier(s) are stored in their respective database(s).”).
Regarding claim 4, the method further comprising:
receiving content comprising the content item and the supplemental content (in addition to discussion above, paragraph 0027 teaches “The example brand exposure monitor 150 of FIG. 1 processes a media stream 160 output by the example media device 105 to identify at least one brand identifier being presented via the media device 105. In general, the example brand exposure monitor 150 operates to identify brand identifiers and report brand exposure(s) automatically using known or previously learned information when possible, and then defaults to requesting manual user input when such automatic identification is not possible.”); and
classifying, based on the classification algorithm applied to a plurality of segments of the content, a subset of the plurality of segments as the content type (in addition to discussion above, paragraph 0039 teaches “Assuming that the detected scene currently being processed (referred to as the "current scene") is not excluded, the example scene recognizer 252 begins classifying the scene into one of the following four categories: a repeated scene of interest, a repeated scene of changed interest, a new scene, or a scene of no interest. For example, a scene of no interest is a scene known or previously identified as including no visible brand identifiers (e.g., logos).”),
wherein the determining the one or more boundaries is based on the subset (paragraph 0028 teaches “The brand exposure monitor 150 of the illustrated example utilizes scene change detection to mark the beginning image frame and the ending image frame corresponding to a scene. In an example implementation, the brand exposure monitor 150 performs scene change detection by creating an image signature for each frame of the media stream 160 (possibly after subsampling) and then comparing the image signatures of a sequence of frames to determine when a scene change occurs.”, paragraph 0036 teaches “If, however, a current image signature corresponding to a current image frame differs sufficiently from the key frames signature(s), the current image frame corresponding to the current image signature is determined to mark the start of a new scene of the media stream 160. Additionally, the most recent previous frame is determined to mark the end of the previous scene.”).
Regarding claim 5, the method wherein the content item comprises one or more of: a news program; a sporting event; a movie; a live stream event; or a public service announcement (in addition to discussion above, paragraph 0023 teaches “For example, the media content may correspond to any type of sporting event, including a baseball game, as well as any television program, movie, streaming video content, video game presentation, etc.”).
Regarding claim 6, the method wherein the at least the portion of the supplemental content comprises advertising content (in addition to discussion above, fig. 5, paragraph 0025 teaches “Example media content includes, but is not limited to, television (TV) programs, movies, videos, websites, commercials/advertisements, audio, games, etc.”).
Regarding claim 7, the method further comprising applying the classification algorithm to a content stream comprising the content item and the supplemental content, wherein the supplemental content comprises at least a portion a second content item before or after the content item in the content stream, and wherein the one or more boundaries comprises a boundary between the content item and the second content item (in addition to discussion above, paragraph 0028 teaches “The brand exposure monitor 150 of the illustrated example utilizes scene change detection to mark the beginning image frame and the ending image frame corresponding to a scene. In an example implementation, the brand exposure monitor 150 performs scene change detection by creating an image signature for each frame of the media stream 160 (possibly after subsampling) and then comparing the image signatures of a sequence of frames to determine when a scene change occurs.”, paragraph 0036 teaches “If, however, a current image signature corresponding to a current image frame differs sufficiently from the key frames signature(s), the current image frame corresponding to the current image signature is determined to mark the start of a new scene of the media stream 160. Additionally, the most recent previous frame is determined to mark the end of the previous scene.”, paragraph 0039 teaches “Assuming that the detected scene currently being processed (referred to as the "current scene") is not excluded, the example scene recognizer 252 begins classifying the scene into one of the following four categories: a repeated scene of interest, a repeated scene of changed interest, a new scene, or a scene of no interest. For example, a scene of no interest is a scene known or previously identified as including no visible brand identifiers (e.g., logos).”).
Claim 8 is rejected for the same reason as discussed in the corresponding claim 1 above.
Claim 9 is rejected for the same reason as discussed in the corresponding claim 2 above.
Claim 10 is rejected for the same reason as discussed in the corresponding claim 3 above.
Claim 11 is rejected for the same reason as discussed in the corresponding claim 4 above.
Claim 12 is rejected for the same reason as discussed in the corresponding claim 5 above.
Claim 13 is rejected for the same reason as discussed in the corresponding claim 6 above.
Claim 14 is rejected for the same reason as discussed in the corresponding claim 7 above.
Claim 15 is rejected for the same reason as discussed in the corresponding claim 1 above.
Claim 16 is rejected for the same reason as discussed in the corresponding claim 2 above.
Claim 17 is rejected for the same reason as discussed in the corresponding claim 3 above.
Claim 18 is rejected for the same reason as discussed in the corresponding claim 4 above.
Claim 19 is rejected for the same reason as discussed in the corresponding claim 5 above.
Claim 20 is rejected for the same reason as discussed in the corresponding claim 6 above.
Claim 21 is rejected for the same reason as discussed in the corresponding claim 7 above.
Claim 22 is rejected for the same reason as discussed in the corresponding claim 1 above.
Claim 23 is rejected for the same reason as discussed in the corresponding claim 2 above.
Claim 24 is rejected for the same reason as discussed in the corresponding claim 3 above.
Claim 25 is rejected for the same reason as discussed in the corresponding claim 4 above.
Claim 26 is rejected for the same reason as discussed in the corresponding claim 5 above.
Claim 27 is rejected for the same reason as discussed in the corresponding claim 6 above.
Claim 28 is rejected for the same reason as discussed in the corresponding claim 7 above.
Conclusion
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/NIGAR CHOWDHURY/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2484
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