DETAILED ACTION
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 .
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 1-3, 5-8, 18, 19, 21, and 22 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over US 2021/0101074 to Hemby et al. (hereinafter “Hemby”) in view of SmashWiki website excerpts (collectively “SmashWiki”).
Regarding claims 1, 18, and 19, Hemby teaches a terminal device (e.g., a mobile phone 102 having a touchscreen 104 on which a game display 106 is provided in ¶ 40), comprising a memory and a processor (e.g., processor executing software in ¶ 54 and Fig. 6), with a method and medium therefor, wherein the memory stores a computer program executable by the processor, and the processor, when executing the computer program, implements a character jump control method comprising:
displaying a jump control in a graphical user interface (e.g., user-controlled functions of the character 108 include jumping in ¶ 40), wherein the graphical user interface is provided by the terminal device (e.g., the game display 106 is presented on touchscreen 104, which serves as an exclusive input device to control the character 108 via a graphical user interface in ¶ 41) and the graphical user interface comprises a game scene with a virtual character (e.g., gameplay comprises moving through the virtual three-dimensional world via a player character 108 in ¶ 40).
Further regarding claims 1, 18, and 19, Hembly teaches the invention substantially as described above including a character jumping as a result of a player input to the graphical user interface. However, Hembly lacks in explicitly teaching during a free fall of the virtual character in performing a ground jump, in response to receiving a trigger operation for the jump control, controlling the virtual character to perform a jump operation corresponding to an air jump from a first starting jump height, wherein the first starting jump height is a current height of the virtual character in the game scene when the trigger operation is received, and the ground jump and the air jump are of jump types with different acceleration modes.
In a related disclosure, SmashWiki teaches a variety of jumping and fighting moves to be carried out by characters during a game. SmashWiki teaches that a “jump is an action that moves a character from the ground into the air” as a result of inputs provided by the player, and that “characters can also jump a second time in midair,” with some characters able to perform a mid-air jump as many as “five times.” SmashWiki Jump, p. 1/22. During a midair jump, the characters have already jumped at least one time, and after a short period of time they are in freefall. If another jump input is performed, it is a midair jump. This corresponds to the claimed “air jump.” Assuming the character has not yet landed, the input of a jump command for a midair jump causes the character to jump from its current height, as claimed. Finally, SmashWiki teaches that “[a]ll characters can perform several different types of jumps,” including standing jump, walk jump, full hop, short hop, backward jump, walk jump, etc. SmashWiki Jump, p. 2/22. At least some of the listed jump types have different acceleration modes from the midair jump, such as backward jump. As such, SmashWiki teaches all features lacking from Hembly. It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective date to modify the system of Hembly to include the features discussed in SmashWiki in order to allow users to play a jump fighting game.
Regarding claim 2, the combination of Hembly and SmashWiki teaches or suggests wherein the air jump is any one of the following jump types: a catapult jump type (e.g., a midair jump, as discussed above), a smooth jump type (e.g., a short hop, as discussed above), a floating jump type (e.g., jumps with slow falling speeds are interpreted as floating jumps; SmashWiki Kirby, p. 3/36), and a teleport jump type (e.g., warp causes the character to vanish and then reappear nearby depending on directional input from the player; SmashWiki Warp, p. 1/4).
Regarding claim 3, the combination of Hembly and SmashWiki teaches or suggests wherein in response to determining that the air jump is of the catapult jump type, the step of controlling the virtual character to perform the jump operation corresponding to the air jump from the first starting jump height comprises:
controlling the virtual character to move upward from the first starting jump height to reach a first maximum speed corresponding to the air jump according to a first acceleration and a first acceleration time corresponding to the air jump (e.g., performing a mid-air jump, as described with respect to SmashWiki with regard to claim 1 above);
controlling the virtual character to continue moving upwards, from a height at which the first maximum speed is reached, according to the first maximum speed until an upward motion speed drops to zero (e.g., when the jumping character reaches the maximum height, speed necessarily drops to zero before reversing direction to fall down according to gravity); and
controlling the virtual character to perform a free-fall motion at a preset gravitational acceleration (e.g., when the player no longer enters (or can enter) a jump input, the character falls according to gravity), wherein directions of the first acceleration and the preset gravitational acceleration are opposite (e.g., gravity being in the downward direction), and a value of the first acceleration is greater than a value of the preset gravitational acceleration (e.g., the character jumps upward against gravity, and thus the jumping acceleration is greater than the gravitational acceleration).
Regarding claim 5, the combination of Hembly and SmashWiki teaches or suggests wherein in response to determining that the air jump is of the teleport jump type, the step of controlling the virtual character to perform the jump operation corresponding to the air jump from the first starting jump height comprises:
calculating a motion track of the virtual character from the first starting jump height and an end point of the virtual character according to a preset teleport direction and a teleport distance corresponding to the air jump (e.g., warp causes the character to vanish and then reappear nearby depending on directional input from the player; SmashWiki Warp, p. 1/4);
controlling the virtual character to hide on the motion track before the end point, and controlling the virtual character to appear at the end point (see above); and
controlling the virtual character to perform a free-fall motion at a preset gravitational acceleration from the end point (e.g., when the warp direction is upward, at the end of the warp the character will fall according to gravity).
Regarding claim 6, the combination of Hembly and SmashWiki teaches or suggests during the free fall of the virtual character in performing the air jump, in response to receiving a re-triggering operation for the jump control (e.g., a jump input as taught by SmashWiki), controlling the virtual character to perform the jump operation corresponding to the air jump again for a second time from a second starting jump height, wherein the second starting jump height is the current height of the virtual character in the game scene when the re-triggering operation is received (e.g., a second or subsequent mid-air jump, as discussed with respect to SmashWiki regarding claim 1).
Regarding claims 7-8, the combination of Hembly and SmashWiki teaches or suggests the invention as stated above, but lacks in explicitly teaching updating a display mode of the jump control to indicate a remaining number of jumps of the air jump according to a number of jumps that the virtual character performs the air jump, and updating to a non-interactive state when the number of jumps is zero. However, as stated above, SmashWiki teaches that there are a finite number of jumps available to a given character in a string of jumps (e.g., no more than five, depending on character). As such, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective date to modify the combination of Hembly and SmashWiki to include a display of the remaining number of jumps, or zero jumps being non-interactive, in order to improve players’ ability to understand the limitations of the game characters.
Regarding claim 21, the combination of Hembly and SmashWiki teaches or suggests wherein a switch control is displayed on the graphical user interface (e.g., a control abilities widget 112 in Figs. 1-4 of Hembly), and the jump types (e.g., various jump types taught by SmashWiki Jump discussed above) are switched in response to a trigger operation for the switch control (e.g., a plurality of trigger directions and/or swipe inputs in at least ¶ 60 of Hembly).
Regarding claim 22, the combination of Hembly and SmashWiki teaches or suggests determining, by the terminal device, a current position of the virtual character (e.g., where a given character exists in the virtual world in ¶ 59 of Hembly); and
by taking the current position of the virtual character as a start point and using preset planning rules according to the start point, the teleport direction and the teleport distance, determining the motion track of the virtual character from the first starting jump height and the end point of the virtual character (e.g., warp causes the character to vanish and then reappear nearby depending on directional input from the player; SmashWiki Warp, p. 1/4).
Allowable Subject Matter
Claim 4 is 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. Claims 9-16 are dependent upon claim 4 and are thus objected to for the same reason. The Examiner notes that the prior art of record teaches or suggests some or all of claims 9-16 if severed from claim 4. For this reason, the Examiner does not recommend separating these claims from claim 4.
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure and is listed on the attached Notice of References Cited.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to WILLIAM H MCCULLOCH whose telephone number is (571)272-2818. The examiner can normally be reached M-F 9:30-5:30.
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If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, David Lewis can be reached at 571-272-7673. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/WILLIAM H MCCULLOCH JR/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 3715