DETAILED ACTION
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 and 8-9 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Eno, US 2018/0280791, in view of Ni et al., US 2024/0020917, and Youtube.com video titled “Pokemon Go Apple Watch App Demo! PokeStops, Wild Pokemon Notifications and Workout” describing functionality of the Pokemon Go App software for the Apple Watch (hereinafter Pokemon Go).
In Reference to Claim 1
A method, comprising after a somatosensory game in the somatosensory game application is started (Par. 20 which teaches a game played among players of smart watches which is based on activity from onboard activity trackers like a pedometer), by the watch application, dynamically displaying a virtual key on a screen (Par. 37 which teaches “Examples of applicable communication devices include” “smart watches;” Fig. 6O-7A and Par. 107-108 which teaches that in response to the steps determined by the pedometer a player’s game interface is updates with poker cards and where the player is able to select poker games in order to form a hand the game. See also the “wildcard” button which can select an optimum hand. Examiner thus considers the selectable card icons as well the wildcard button to constitute “dynamically displaying a virtual key on a screen” ) and by the terminal, obtaining somatosensory data and key data of the virtual key, and generating a game operation instruction according to the somatosensory data and the key data; and by the terminal, sending the game operation instruction to the somatosensory game to perform a corresponding game operation (6O-7A and Par. 105, 107-108 which teach that players obtain poker cards based on steps and then select five of the obtain card to form a poker hand to play against other players in the game to determine a winner).
Further, Eno teaches where smart phone and smart watches can both be used as a device for the somatosensory game application (Par. 20 and 37) and further teaches where a smart watch can be paired to a smart phone for the game (Fig. 6F and 6G and Par. 106). However, Eno does not teach when a first application is started, by a terminal, sending wake-up information to a bound smart watch by the terminal; after the smart watch receives the wake-up information, starting a watch application associated with the first application on the smart watch, where the terminal obtains key data of the virtual key from the smart watch, or explicitly where dynamically displaying a virtual key is dynamically displaying a virtual key on a screen of the smart watch.
Ni et al. teaches when a first application is started, by a terminal, sending wake-up information to a smart watch by the terminal; after the smart watch receives the wake-up information, starting a watch application associated with the first application on the smart watch (Par. 129 “For example, when the first VR application starts, the mobile phone may send a VR start instruction to the watch, to instruct the watch to switch from the normal running mode to the VR mode. After receiving the VR start instruction, the watch switches from the normal running mode to the VR mode.”), and where the terminal obtains key data of the virtual key from the smart watch (Par. 133 “the watch in the VR mode may provide a VR basic operation interface for the user on a watch face. The user may perform an operation such as tap or slide on the VR basic operation interface provided by the watch. The watch may send a corresponding operation instruction to a mobile phone in response to the operation performed by the user on the VR basic operation interface. The mobile phone may control, based on the received operation instruction, a first VR application to perform a corresponding function.”).
It would be desirable to modify the method of the somatosensory game application of Eno to include waking the game application on the watch via the application on the phone, as well as accepting virtual key inputs from the watch at the phone as taught by Ni et al. in order to allow the user to easily begin playing the steps based poker game via the smart watch conveniently located on their wrist and provide game inputs via the smart watch, while retaining the game computation and network connection functionality necessary to operate the poker game on a more powerful device with a larger battery such as a smart phone.
Pokemon Go teaches an apple watch application which includes dynamically displaying a virtual key is dynamically displaying a virtual key on a screen of the smart watch by the watch application (See time 1:12 – 1:25 which shows the user operating buttons on their apple watch to interaction with a “pokestop” functionality of the Pokemon Go app on their watch. Including pressing buttons to open various screens and manually “spinning” an animated pokestop icon in order to receive game items. Examiner considers such items to constitute “dynamically displayed” virtual keys).
It would be desirable to modify the method of Eno to explicitly provide game interface and interaction with dynamically displayed virtual keys on the smart watch as taught by Pokemon Go in order to allow the user to more easily interact with the game via their watch as they are walking around rather than always having to pull out their phone in order to press virtual keys or interact with the game.
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time of filing of the invention to modify the method of the somatosensory game application of Eno to include waking the game application on the watch via the application on the phone, as well as accepting virtual key inputs from the watch at the phone as taught by Ni et al., and to modify the method of Eno to explicitly provide game interface and interaction with dynamically displayed virtual keys on the smart watch as taught by Pokemon Go.
In Reference to Claim 2
Eno as modified by Ni et al. and Pokemon Go teach by the watch application, obtaining game-associated data of the somatosensory game sent by the terminal to the smart watch, the game-associated data comprising preset key data and game scene data; by the watch application, dynamically generating a virtual key corresponding to the preset key data and game scene data on the screen according to the game-associated data (Eno 6O-7A and Par. 105, 107-108 which teaches generating game icons of the poker cards in the game interface as the player performs steps in the somatosensory game. And Pokemon Go which teaches dynamically generation virtual keys for the game on the Apple Watch screen as described above).
In Reference to Claim 3
Eno as modified by Ni et al. and Pokemon Go teach where the preset key data comprises a display parameter of the virtual key on the screen, and the display parameter is selected from a group consisting of: quantity, size, color and layout (Eno 6O-7A and Par. 105, 107-108. Where examiner considers display of the selectable cards to be at least parameters and quantity and layout. Where Pokemon Go which teaches dynamically generation virtual keys for the game on the Apple Watch screen as described above)
In Reference to Claims 8 and 9
Eno as modified by Ni et al. and Pokemon Go teaches An smart watch-based somatosensory game operating device, comprising a memory, a processor and an smart watch-based somatosensory game operating program stored on the memory and executable on the processor, wherein when the processor executes the smart watch-based somatosensory game operating program, the method according to claim 1 is implemented and A computer-readable storage medium, having an smart watch-based somatosensory game operating program stored thereon, wherein when the smart watch-based somatosensory game operating program is executed by a processor, the smart watch-based somatosensory game operating method according to claim 1 is implemented (Eno, Ni et al. and Pokemon Go as described above in reference to Claim 1 and Eno Fig. 2 and Par. 39-65 “processor” “memory”).
Claim 7 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Eno, US 2018/0280791, Ni et al., US 2024/0020917, Pokemon Go, further in view of Wang et al., US 2025/0147778.
In Reference to Claim 7
Eno, Ni et al., and Pokemon Go teach a method as described above in reference to Claim 1. However, they do not teach according to a requirement of a game scene, calling a vibration module of the smart watch to provide vibration feedback.
Wang et al. teaches a smart watch running smart watch applications which includes according to a requirement of a game scene, calling a vibration module of the smart watch to provide vibration feedback (Fig. 1 and Par. 297 “Different application scenarios (for example, a time reminder, information receiving, an alarm clock, and a game) may also correspond to different vibration feedback effects.”).
It would be desirable to modify the method of Eno, Ni et al., and Pokemon Go to include vibration effects in the game application on the smart watch as taught by Wang et al. in order to increase the enjoyment of the player by using vibration effects to provide additional information about the game. For example vibrating each time the player earns a new card in the game of Eno. So the player is informed that they can now adjust and perhaps better their poker hand even if they are not looking at the watch or phone display at the time.
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time of filing of the invention to modify the method of Eno, Ni et al., and Pokemon Go to include vibration effects in the game application on the smart watch as taught by Wang et al.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 4-6 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.
Response to Arguments
Applicant's arguments filed 10/29/2025 have been fully considered. In light of applicant’s amendments to the claims, rejection under 35 U.S.C. 112 and 35 U.S.C. 101 have been withdrawn.
Regarding applicant’s arguments against rejection under 35 U.S.C. 103, they are not persuasive. Applicant argues that the rejection is not proper because a device cannot send wake up information to itself. However, in the combination of Eno, Ni, and Pokemon Go proposed by the examiner the watch is not sending wake up information to itself. Rather in combination, a phone operating the game software wakes a watch that can operate the game software. Eno teaches where smart phone and smart watches can both be used as a device for the somatosensory game application (Par. 20 and 37) and further teaches where a smart watch can be paired to and operate with a smart phone for the game (Fig. 6F and 6G and Par. 106. See “Power on your watch” in Fig. 6F for example). However, Eno does not teach where a smart watch can be awoken by the smart phone application. Ni et al. is then used in combination with Eno to address this missing functionality as described above. Thus the combination of claims teaches where a smart phone device wakes a smart watch device. Applicant’s arguments are therefore not persuasive and rejection of claim 1 over Eno, Ni et al. and Pokemon Go is considered proper.
Conclusion
Applicant's amendment necessitated the new ground(s) of rejection presented in this Office action. Accordingly, THIS ACTION IS MADE FINAL. See MPEP § 706.07(a). Applicant is reminded of the extension of time policy as set forth in 37 CFR 1.136(a).
A shortened statutory period for reply to this final action is set to expire THREE MONTHS from the mailing date of this action. In the event a first reply is filed within TWO MONTHS of the mailing date of this final action and the advisory action is not mailed until after the end of the THREE-MONTH shortened statutory period, then the shortened statutory period will expire on the date the advisory action is mailed, and any nonprovisional extension fee (37 CFR 1.17(a)) pursuant to 37 CFR 1.136(a) will be calculated from the mailing date of the advisory action. In no event, however, will the statutory period for reply expire later than SIX MONTHS from the mailing date of this final action.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to CARL V LARSEN whose telephone number is (571)270-3219. The examiner can normally be reached Monday through Friday; 10:00 am - 6:30 pm.
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/CARL V LARSEN/Examiner, Art Unit 3715