DETAILED ACTION
Notice of 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 § 101
35 U.S.C. 101 reads as follows:
Whoever invents or discovers any new and useful process, machine, manufacture, or composition of matter, or any new and useful improvement thereof, may obtain a patent therefor, subject to the conditions and requirements of this title.
Claims 17 – 24 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 101 because the claimed invention is directed to non-statutory subject matter. The claims do not fall within at least one of the four categories of patent eligible subject matter because Claims 17 – 24 are drawn to a non-transitory computer readable storage medium, where the claimed non-transitory computer readable storage medium is not explicitly disclosed as excluding signals, transmission, fields, waves, etc. In other words, the Specification states that a non-transitory computer readable storage medium can be one example of a medium excluding a signal (Paragraph [0037], Line 12 “any medium (e.g. excluding a signal)”), but does not define that all examples exclude a signal. Also, the wording “can be” allows the non-transitory computer readable storage medium to be cable of being any medium that can tangibly contain or store, but not strictly defining its inability to be interpreted as a signal. Furthermore, lines 16 – 17 describe where the non-transitory computer-readable storage medium can include, but is not limited to, magnetic, optical, and/or semiconductor storages where the medium is capable of (“can be”) including but not explicitly defined as excluding signal, transmission, fields, waves, etc.
Allowable Subject Matter
In the prior art of record, namely Takamoto et al. (WO 2021/005742 A1), it has been shown to detect a gaze point in an image that has an occlusion removed by using a difference image in which an occluded part is replaced with the corresponding part in a past image that has been stored in an image storage unit 104 (Page 8 of provided English translation, Lines 27 – 32). However, it has not been shown in the prior of record to store first and second optical captures of an object in a physical environment and in accordance with user input directed to the physical objection and satisfaction of criteria that a first region of the physical object is occluded in a second optical capture, represent the first region of the physical object without occlusion based on a first optical capture and the start an operation based on the user input directed to the first region without occlusion based on the first optical capture. Therefore, the subject matter of Claims 1 – 16 is allowable over the prior art of record.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to BRIAN M BUTCHER whose telephone number is (571)270-5575. The examiner can normally be reached on Monday – Friday from 6:30 AM to 3:00 PM.
If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner's supervisor, Ke Xiao, can be reached at (571) 272 - 7776. 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).
/BRIAN M BUTCHER/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2627 July 11, 2026
Prosecution Insights