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 .
Election/Restrictions
Applicant’s election without traverse of 1-12 in the reply filed on 12/8/2025 is acknowledged.
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 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.
Claim(s) 1-8, 12, 21-25, 27, 28 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by Emami et al. Pub. No. US 20200273235 A1.
Regarding Claim 1, Emami teaches a method (Abstract, a computing device configured to capture, via the camera, first image data imaging a first physical world location, create a first spatial representation of the first physical world location based on the first image data, receive a user input defining a pose of a first virtual spatial anchor point relative to a feature imaged in the first image data, track user movement to a second physical world location, capture second image data imaging the second physical world location, receive a user input defining a pose of a second virtual spatial anchor point relative to a feature imaged in the second image data, and send, to a remote computing device, data representing the first spatial representation, the pose of first spatial anchor point, the second spatial representation, the pose of second spatial anchor point, and a positional relationship between first and second spatial anchor points), comprising:
at each position of a plurality of positions (Fig. 1 and Para 15, a user 110 uses a mobile device 112 to create spatial anchors 114A, 114B, 114C, 114D, etc. at various physical world locations throughout the environment) along a trajectory of a first electronic device within an area (Para 15, environment 100 may be a museum or gallery i.e., area containing physical works of art, and user 110 refer to as first electronic device may provide a virtual tour by adding spatial anchors to specific works of art i.e., trajectory of a first electronic device within an area):
determining a range value corresponding to a distance between the first electronic device and a second electronic device (Para 17 and 18, The connectivity data allows other users to inquire and learn whether there are spatial anchors located nearby, and the direction and distance to those anchors i.e., determining a range value corresponding to a distance between the first electronic device and a second electronic device);
determining a pose of the first electronic device with respect to a reference coordinate system (Para 26, This procedure returns a pose between the device and these anchors, wherein the term pose may indicate a position and orientation of the anchors relative to the device. As the end user moves between spatial anchors, the end-user application may periodically calculate a new pose between the device and the destination anchor i.e., determining a pose of the first electronic device with respect to a reference coordinate system); and
setting and storing an anchor point corresponding to the determined range value and pose (Para 18, 38 and 56, the method includes sending, from the mobile device to a network-accessible service, data representing the first spatial representation, the pose of the first virtual spatial anchor, the pose of the first hologram if defined), and one or more of the first hologram and/or an identifier of the first hologram if defined). The network-accessible service stores this data in a relationship graph, which may be made accessible to the mobile device across multiple sessions and to other devices i.e., setting and storing an anchor point corresponding to the determined range value and pose);
receiving an update to an anchor point set for a current position of the first electronic device (Para 57, receiving data representing perspective-dependent poses of first and second virtual spatial anchors from the network-accessible service that are based on a perspective of the mobile device as identified by the service from the spatial representation of the request i.e., receiving an update to an anchor point set for a current position of the first electronic device;
updating the determined pose corresponding to one or more of the set anchor points based on the update to the anchor point set for the current position of the first electronic device (Para 62, displaying updated information regarding locations of the first and/or second virtual spatial anchors based on image data captured via the camera of the mobile device. Continuing with the example above, as the mobile device is further moved within range of the second virtual spatial anchor at a second physical world location, the operations described at 410, 412, 414, and 416 may be performed for this location to receive data representing an updated perspective-dependent pose for the second virtual spatial anchor. In contrast to the perspective-dependent pose for the second virtual spatial anchor that was received at 416 while the anchor was not within the camera view i.e., updating the determined pose corresponding to one or more of the set anchor points based on the update to the anchor point set for the current position of the first electronic device); and
estimating a location of the second electronic device based on the range values and poses corresponding to the set anchor points (Para 62, the updated perspective-dependent pose may be more accurate due to the inclusion of image data. The information displayed regarding the location of the second virtual spatial anchor may be updated at 424 to reflect this more accurate pose i.e., estimating a location of the second electronic device based on the range values and poses corresponding to the set anchor points).
Regarding Claim 2, Emami teaches wherein estimating the location of the second electronic device comprises re-estimating a location of the second electronic device estimated based on range values and poses corresponding to the set anchor points before the determined pose corresponding to one or more of the set anchor points was updated (Para 44).
Regarding Claim 3, Emami teaches wherein the pose comprises a location and an orientation of the first electronic device, and wherein updating the determined pose comprises updating the determined location of the first electronic device (Para 26 and 61).
Regarding Claim 4, Emami teaches further comprising: determining that a current position along the trajectory of the first electronic device matches a previous position along the trajectory of the first electronic device, wherein the determined location of the first electronic device is updated based on a difference between the location of the first electronic device corresponding to the anchor point set for the current position and the location of the first electronic device corresponding to the anchor point set for the previous position (Para 62).
Regarding Claim 5, Emami teaches further comprising: determining a location corresponding to the anchor point set for the current position of the electronic device in a saved map of the area, wherein the update to the anchor point set for the current position of the electronic device comprises changing the reference coordinate system to a new coordinate system associated with the saved map of the area (Para 29).
Regarding Claim 6, Emami teaches wherein the saved map of the area comprises one or more saved anchor points with corresponding range values and poses, and wherein the location of the second electronic device is estimated based on range values and poses corresponding to the saved anchor points (Para 29).
Regarding Claim 7, Emami teaches further comprising: determining a position of the first electronic device relative to a third electronic device in the area, wherein the update to the anchor point set for the current position of the electronic device comprises changing the reference coordinate system to a new coordinate system associated with the third electronic device (Para 42).
Regarding Claim 8, Emami teaches further comprising: receiving one or more anchor points with corresponding range values and poses from the third electronic device, wherein the location of the second electronic device is estimated based on the range values and poses corresponding to the anchor points received from the third electronic device (Para 42).
Regarding Claim 12, Emami teaches further comprising: comparing a difference between range values determined at successive points along the trajectory of the first electronic device with a difference between locations from the poses determined at the successive points along the trajectory of the first electronic device; and providing, for display on the first electronic device, an arrow oriented in a direction based on the locations from the poses determined at the successive points along the trajectory if the difference between range values matches the distance between locations (Para 77).
Regarding Claim 21, it has been rejected for the same reasons as claim 1 and further teaches a non-transitory computer-readable medium (Fig. 5 Unit 512, storage machine) storing instructions (Para 68, Storage machine 512 may hold other data 522) which, when executed by one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to perform operations (Para 72, a module, program, or engine may be instantiated via logic machine 510 executing instructions held by storage machine 512).
Regarding Claim 22, it has been rejected for the same reason as claim 2.
Regarding Claim 23, it has been rejected for the same reason as claim 3.
Regarding Claim 24, it has been rejected for the same reason as claim 4.
Regarding Claim 25, it has been rejected for the same reason as claim 5.
Regarding Claim 27, it has been rejected for the same reason as claim 12.
Regarding Claim 28, it has been rejected for the same reason as claim 1 and further teaches a device comprising: a memory; and at least one processor.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claim 9-10 and 26 in combination of claim 11 are 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.
The following is a statement of reasons for the indication of allowable subject matter: The prior art reference fail to teach the limitation of “determining a subset of positions from the plurality of positions along the trajectory of the first electronic device that are within a pre-defined distance from one another; determining a single range value and a single pose from the range values and the poses determined for the positions of the subset of positions; and setting and storing an anchor point corresponding to the single range value and the single pose; and wherein the location of the second electronic device is estimated using a least-squares estimator that provides a confidence metric associated with the estimated location of the second electronic device, and wherein the method further comprises: comparing the confidence metric with a threshold; and providing, for display on the first electronic device, an arrow oriented towards the estimated location of the second electronic device if the confidence metric satisfies the threshold”. These limitation in combination of other elements are neither found nor disclosed in prior art as a whole.
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure.
Narendra et al. Pub. No. US 20230356966 A1 - Systems and Methods for Optimized Container Loading Operations
Sabripour et al. Pub. No. US 20210358252 A1 - DEVICE, METHOD AND SYSTEM FOR CONTROLLING AN ACCESS POINT BASED ON MOVEMENT TRENDS OF A MOVER
O’Connor et al. Pub. No. US 20200100064 A1 - CONSTRUCTING A MAP OF A PHYSICAL SPACE
Hassan Pub. No. US 20190268796 A1 - POSITIONING MOVABLE ACCESS POINTS IN A WIRELESS NETWORK BASED ON SPHERE OF ERROR INFORMATION
Turato et al. Pub. No. US 20190027043 A1 - CONNECTED USER COMMUNICATION AND INTERFACE SYSTEM WITH MOBILE SECURITY AND WIRELESS ACCESS POINT DEVICES
Fan et al. Pub. No. US 20170302363 A1 - EXTENDING WIRELESS SIGNAL COVERAGE WITH DRONES
Disatnik Pub. No. US 20170215164 A1 - GEOPOSITIONING TECHNIQUES FOR LOCATIONS WITH OBSCURED SATELLITE SIGNALS
Mittal et al. Pub. No. US 20160381660 A1 - MOBILE DEVICE WITH USER INDICATION OF PENDING RADIO COVERAGE LOSS
Hirose Pub. No. US 20150131639 A1 - SCHEMES FOR PROVIDING WIRELESS COMMUNICATION
Zhang et al. Pub. No. US 20150109983 A1 - Control Method and Apparatus for Wireless Fidelity Device in Terminal, and Terminal
Iiu et al. Pub. No. US 20140335887 A1 - GPS AND WLAN HYBRID POSITION DETERMINATION
Westerberg et al. Pub. No. US 20140247807 A1 - Moving Access Point Indication
Hwang et al. Pub. No. US 20110215969 A1 - GPS-BASED CE DEVICE WIRELESS ACCESS POINT MAPPING
Huang Pub. No. US 20110177831 A1 - DETERMINING A LOCATION OF A MOBILE DEVICE USING A LOCATION DATABASE
Globally Consistent Range Scan Alignment for Environment Mapping – 1997
Multi-Modal Probabilistic Indoor Localization on a Smartphone - 2019
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to NIZAR N SIVJI whose telephone number is (571)270-7462. The examiner can normally be reached Monday-Friday 7-4.
Examiner interviews are available via telephone, in-person, and video conferencing using a USPTO supplied web-based collaboration tool. To schedule an interview, applicant is encouraged to use the USPTO Automated Interview Request (AIR) at http://www.uspto.gov/interviewpractice.
If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Alison Slater can be reached at (571) 270-0375. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
Information regarding the status of published or unpublished applications may be obtained from Patent Center. Unpublished application information in Patent Center is available to registered users. To file and manage patent submissions in Patent Center, visit: https://patentcenter.uspto.gov. Visit https://www.uspto.gov/patents/apply/patent-center for more information about Patent Center and https://www.uspto.gov/patents/docx for information about filing in DOCX format. For additional questions, contact the Electronic Business Center (EBC) at 866-217-9197 (toll-free). If you would like assistance from a USPTO Customer Service Representative, call 800-786-9199 (IN USA OR CANADA) or 571-272-1000.
NIZAR N. SIVJI
Primary Examiner
Art Unit 2647
/NIZAR N SIVJI/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2647