DETAILED ACTION
The present application, filed on or after March 16, 2013, is being examined under the first inventor to file provisions of the AIA .
Responsive to the communication dated 6/1/2023.
Claims 1 – 20 are presented for examination.
Priority
ADS dated 8/23/2022 does not claim any domestic or international priority.
Information Disclosure Statement
The IDS dated 6/1/2023 has been reviewed. See attached.
Drawings
The drawings dated 8/23/2022 have been reviewed. They are accepted.
Specification
The abstract has 155 words, 11 lines and no legal phraseology. The abstract is accepted even through it has more than 150 words.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
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.
Claims 1 - 20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Georgiou_2021 (US 2021/0241142 A1) in view of Zapico_2021 (US 2021/0198989 A1) in view of Leonard_2022 (US 2022/0083779 A1)
Claim 1. Georgiou_2021 makes obvious “A system comprising: A processor; and A non-transitory computer-readable medium that includes instructions executable by the processor for causing the processor to perform operations comprising (par 41: “computer-readable medium… non-transitory computer-readable medium… computer can read data or instructions…”; par 42: “the methods described herein can… be performed using computing devices or processor-based devices…”): Receiving,r a query from an entity including a software application for performing tasks Executing, a request to the at least one micro-service for at least one solution parameter for thee operation based on the query (par 6: “… a virtual operations assistant for a processing/manufacturing facility…”; par 7: “… a virtual operation assistant; parsing the question into key words and phrases… identifying one or more queries… to yield data; formulating the data into an answer using the virtual operation assistant; and reporting the answer…”; par 8: “… communicating a command relating to a processing/manufacturing facility… to a virtual operation assistant… to yield the instructions or portions of instructions…”; par 20: [the virtual operating assistant can] receive a command and cause the command to be executed within the processing/manufacturing facility…”) receiving, the at least one solution parameter from the at least one micro-service (Par 15: “… a virtual assistant… analyze data, provide reporting… execute commands relating to the operational parameters of the process and/or hardware, and any combination thereof… and eventually provide a response to the user…”; … provide an answer based on a simple query… provide… additional data…”)”
Georgiou_2021 does not explicitly recite: “via an avatar in a metaverse space” nor “relating to a wellbore operation” nor “the avatar” nor “in the metaverse space, the metaverse space including a computer-generated representation of a location related to the wellbore operation, the metaverse space usable to communicatively couple data from a real-world wellbore operation and at least one micro-service” nor “via the avatar” nor “wellbore” nor “via the metaverse space” nor “and outputting the at least one solution parameter for display in the metaverse space, the at least one solution parameter usable to adjust the wellbore operation”
Zapico_2021; however, makes obvious “relating to a wellbore operation” and “wellbore” (abstract: “… the first VR area may be associated with at least on drilling rig device…”; FIG. 2 VR Area X includes a Drilling Rig Device; FIG. 4 block 410: “… VR area proximate a drilling rig…”) and “in a metaverse space” and “in the metaverse space, the metaverse space including a computer-generated representation of a location related to the wellbore operation, the metaverse space usable to communicatively couple data from a real-world wellbore operation and at least one micro-service” and “via the metaverse space” (FIG. 4: “… a virtual reality (VR) image of a VR area proximate a drilling rig…”; FIG. 5; FIG. 6; FIG. 7) and “and outputting the at least one solution parameter for display in the metaverse space, the at least one solution parameter usable to adjust the wellbore operation” (Par 44: “… the VR manager may provide a virtual reality control cabin offsite from a drilling rig. For example, the VR control cabin may provide a user with an experience of being onsite at the drilling rig and proximate controls and human machine interface that operate the system…” Par 46:”… a simulator… coupled to a VR manager… the simulator may be coupled to various control systems in a drilling management network and the VR manager… the simulator may be used to adjust drilling operations and/or maintenance operations by control systems at a drilling rig…”).
Georgiou_2021 and Zapico_2021 are analogous art because they are from the same field of endeavor called control of facilities including petroleum and/or chemical processing. Before the effective filing date, it would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art to combine Georgiou_2021 and Zapico_2021.
The rationale for doing so would have been that Georgiou_2021 teaches to control the processing and/or manufacturing facilities of preferably a petroleum and/or chemical processing or manufacturing facility (par 2) and Zapico_2021 teaches to use a virtual reality environment for the user in order to reduce the risk to the operator in hazardous environments. Therefore, it would have been obvious to combine Georgiou_2021 and Zapico_2021 for the benefit of being able to control a petroleum manufacturing facility (i.e., oil well) while reducing the danger to the operator to obtain the invention as specified in the claims.
Georgiou_2021 and Zapico_2021 does not explicitly recite “via an avatar” nor “the avatar” nor “via the avatar”
Leonard_2022 however, makes obvious “via an avatar” nor “the avatar” and “via the avatar”
(abstract: “… creating and certifying the “virtual presence” of a user at a location… commonly referred to as an “avatar”…” par 31: “… software bot, image, icon, hologram, augmented reality object, or avatar…”).
Zapico_2021 and Leonard_2022 are analogous art because they are from the same field of endeavor called virtual environments. Before the effective filing date, it would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art to combine Zapico_2021 and Leonard_2022. The rationale for doing so would have been that Zapico_2021 teaches to have a virtual environment for oil wells and to control the oil wells from the virtual environment. and Leonard_2022 teaches to have avatars and to use the avatars to remotely operate/control equipment. Therefore, it would have been obvious to combine Zapico_2021 and Leonard_2022 for the benefit of having entities in the virtual environment that represent the users to obtain the invention as specified in the claims.
Claim 9. The limitations of claim 9 are substantially the same as those of claim 1 and are therefore rejected due to the same reasons as outlined above for claim 1.
Claim 16. The limitations of claim 16 are substantially the same as those of claim 1 and are therefore rejected due to the same reasons as outlined above for claim 1.
Claim 2, 10, 17. Zapico_2021 makes obvious “Wherein the operation of executing, via the avatar, the request to the at least one micro-service for the at least one solution parameter further comprises:
Providing, via the metaverse space, real-time data for the wellbore operation to the at least one micro-service for predicting at least one optimized parameter relating to the wellbore operation; and
Simulating, via the metaverse space, at least one scenario relating to the wellbore operation”
(par 43: “… in real time with no noticeable latency… may be emergency safety responses triggered by sampling performed by the VR manager…” par 46: “… the simulator may be coupled to various control systems… the simulator may be used to adjust drilling operations and/or maintenance operations by control systems at a drilling rig…”)
Claim 3, 11, 18. Zapico_2021 makes obvious “Further comprising the operation of providing access to the metaverse space for the entity by: Providing access to the metaverse space via virtual reality technology or augmented reality technology; and Generating, via the virtual reality technology or the augmented reality technology, a virtual rig or a virtual office, wherein the virtual rig or the virtual office includes at least one avatar” ( par 44: “… may provide a virtual reality control cabin offsite from a drilling rig… may provide a user with an experience of being onsite at the drilling rig and proximate control and human machine interface that operate the system on the drilling rig… may provide an augmented reality experience for an actual control cabin and/or other rooms in a drilling rig…”).
Claim 4, 12, 19 Leonard_2022 makes obvious “Wherein the operation further comprises providing access to the metaverse space for the entity using a blockchain by: Partitioning at least one set of data for access by a particular entity; Generating a particular metaverse space, the particular metaverse space including the at least one set of data; and Providing, via an authentication process, access to the particular metaverse space and the at least one set of data for the particular entity, wherein the authentication process includes the particular entity providing an authorization credential and permitting the particular entity to enter to the particular metaverse space” (par 29: “… the associated representing entity identifier, authorized user identification information or indicia, and agency agreement in a certificate, blockchain record or any other trusted and/or immutable database…”; par 32: “… authority to act could be… record on a digital certificate created by hashing and encrypting the included information, a blockchain ledger…”; par 43: “… agency agreement… digital authenctication certificate… blockchain ledger…” abstract: “… deploying, creating and certifying the virtual presence of a user at a location… avatar… the certifying document or record in a blockchain ledger…”)
Claim 5, 13 Georgiou_2021 makes obvious “Wherein the operation of receiving, via the avatar in the metaverse space, the query further comprises: Performing natural language processing on the query for generating an input ingestible by the avatar in the metaverse space; Transmitting the input ingestible by the avatar from the entity to the avatar in the metaverse space; Transmitting the input ingestible by the avatar from the avatar in the metaverse space to the at least one micro-service; and Determining the at least one micro-service to access based on the input ingestible by the avatar” (par 31 - 33: “… a virtual operating assistant… a command is transmitted 104 to the virtual operation assistant 106. The question 102 may be transmitted 104 by voice, text, typing, or any other suitable communication form… the virtual operating assistant 106 parses the 108… may be nouns, verbs, adjectives, prepositional phrases… and any combination thereof…”; par 36: “… the command 202 may be transmitted 204 by voice, text, typing, or any other suitable communication form…”).
Claim 6, 14 Georgiou_2021 makes obvious “Wherein the operation of executing, via the avatar, the request to the at least one micro-service for the at least one solution parameter further comprises: Transmitting, via an application programming interface, the request from the avatar to the micro-service based on the input ingestible by the avatar; and Receiving the at least one solution parameter based on an output from the micro-service” (Par 42: “… the instructions are executable by the processor to communicate a question relating to a processing/manufacturing facility… to a virtual operation assistant; parse the question into KWP using a KWP model… identify one or more queries/model based on the KWP… configured to answer the question or portions of the questions; execute the queries/model to yield data; formulate the data into an answer using the virtual operation assistant; and report the answer… the queries/model are configured to identify instructions or portions of instructions for executing the command; execute the queries/model to yield the instructions… into digital commands using the virtual operation assistant; and communicate the digital commands to the processing/manufacturing facility, thereby changing an operational parameter of the processing/manufacturing facility…”).
Claim 7, 15 Zapico_2021 makes obvious “Wherein the operation of outputting the at least one solution parameter for display in the metaverse space further comprises displaying, for the entity, the at least one solution parameter proximate to the avatar in the metaverse space” (par 44: “… the VR control cabin may provide a uswer with an experience of being onsite at the drilling rig and proximate controls and human machine interface that operate the system on the drilling rig… VR manager may provide an augmented reality experience for an actual control cabin and/or other rooms in a drilling rig…” par 46: “… the simulator may be coupled to various control systems in a drilling management network and the VR manager (350) such that areas of a drilling rig may be wholly or partially simulated by the simulator…”).
Claim 8, 20 Georgiou_2021 makes obvious “Further comprising the operation of adjusting the wellbore operation autonomously by: Receiving the at least one solution parameter via the metaverse space,
Determining an adjustment to the wellbore operation based on the at least one solution parameter; and Adjusting the wellbore operation based on the adjustment” (Par 42: “… the instructions are executable by the processor to communicate a question relating to a processing/manufacturing facility… to a virtual operation assistant; parse the question into KWP using a KWP model… identify one or more queries/model based on the KWP… configured to answer the question or portions of the questions; execute the queries/model to yield data; formulate the data into an answer using the virtual operation assistant; and report the answer… the queries/model are configured to identify instructions or portions of instructions for executing the command; execute the queries/model to yield the instructions… into digital commands using the virtual operation assistant; and communicate the digital commands to the processing/manufacturing facility, thereby changing an operational parameter of the processing/manufacturing facility…”).
Conclusion
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/BRIAN S COOK/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2187