DETAILED ACTION
This is a Final Office Action on the Merits in response to communications filed by applicant on March 10th, 2026. Claims 1-11 are currently pending and examined below.
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 .
Response to Amendment
The amendments to the Claims filed on March 10th, 2026 have been entered. Claims 1-8 are as previously presented and pending, claims 9 is currently amended and pending, and claims 10 and 11 are new and pending.
Information Disclosure Statement
The Information Disclosure Statement(s) filed on 03/10/2026 is/are being considered by the examiner.
Claim Interpretation
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 112(f):
(f) Element in Claim for a Combination. – An element in a claim for a combination may be expressed as a means or step for performing a specified function without the recital of structure, material, or acts in support thereof, and such claim shall be construed to cover the corresponding structure, material, or acts described in the specification and equivalents thereof.
The following is a quotation of pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, sixth paragraph:
An element in a claim for a combination may be expressed as a means or step for performing a specified function without the recital of structure, material, or acts in support thereof, and such claim shall be construed to cover the corresponding structure, material, or acts described in the specification and equivalents thereof.
This application includes one or more claim limitations that do not use the word “means,” but are nonetheless being interpreted under 35 U.S.C. 112(f) or pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, sixth paragraph, because the claim limitation(s) uses a generic placeholder that is coupled with functional language without reciting sufficient structure to perform the recited function and the generic placeholder is not preceded by a structural modifier. Such claim limitation(s) is/are:
Claim 1 – display unit, character data storage unit, operation determination unit, operation instruction transmission unit
Claim 5 – object identification unit
Claim 6 – sound data reception unit
Claim 7 – game generation unit
Claim 8 – robot operation reception unit
Claim 9 – operation instruction reception unit, operation determination unit, drive control unit,
Because this/these claim limitation(s) is/are being interpreted under 35 U.S.C. 112(f) or pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, sixth paragraph, it/they is/are being interpreted to cover the corresponding structure described in the specification as performing the claimed function, and equivalents thereof.
If applicant does not intend to have this/these limitation(s) interpreted under 35 U.S.C. 112(f) or pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, sixth paragraph, applicant may: (1) amend the claim limitation(s) to avoid it/them being interpreted under 35 U.S.C. 112(f) or pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, sixth paragraph (e.g., by reciting sufficient structure to perform the claimed function); or (2) present a sufficient showing that the claim limitation(s) recite(s) sufficient structure to perform the claimed function so as to avoid it/them being interpreted under 35 U.S.C. 112(f) or pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, sixth paragraph.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
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 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.
The factual inquiries for establishing a background for determining obviousness under 35 U.S.C. 103 are summarized as follows:
1. Determining the scope and contents of the prior art.
2. Ascertaining the differences between the prior art and the claims at issue.
3. Resolving the level of ordinary skill in the pertinent art.
4. Considering objective evidence present in the application indicating obviousness or nonobviousness.
Claim(s) 1, 4, and 9 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over WO 2020/045658 A1 ("Atsuya") in view of US 20170076194 A1 ("Versace").
Regarding claim 1, Atsuya teaches an entertainment system comprising:
a user terminal including a display unit (Atsuya: Figures 11, 12A-D, ¶ 0131, “To give this instruction, an information terminal (for example, a smartphone or a personal computer) on which a control application is installed may be used. This information terminal receives instructions using a control application as a user interface, and transmits the received instructions to the robot 100 via a network or a relay server as necessary. The instruction receiving unit 132 of the robot 100 can receive the instruction transmitted in this manner.”. As can be seen from the cited passages and figures, the information terminal clearly has a display unit.);
a robot (Atsuya: Figure 1 robot 100, ¶ 0056, “The robot 100 in this embodiment is an autonomous robot that determines its behavior, gestures, and voice based on external environmental information and its internal state.”);
and a control device including a character data storage unit (Atsuya: ¶ 0075, “FIG. 4 is a diagram showing the hardware configuration of the robot 100. The robot 100 includes, within its housing 101 , a display device 110 , an internal sensor 111, a speaker 112 , a communication unit 113 , a storage device 114 , a processor 115, a drive mechanism 116 , and a battery 117.”, ¶ 0079, “The storage device 114 is made up of a non-volatile memory and a volatile memory, and stores various programs including a voice generation program described below, and various setting information.”, ¶ 0081, “The processor 115 has the function of controlling the drive mechanism 116, speaker 112, display device 110, etc., based on sensor information obtained by the internal sensor 111 and various information obtained through the communication unit 113, to operate the robot 100.”, ¶ 0099, “The personality forming section 135 updates and stores personality parameters representing the personality. The personality creation section 135 may handle multiple types of personality parameters. In this embodiment, the personality created by the personality creating section 135 includes "voice quality." In addition, the individuality may include personality (lonely, active, short-tempered, easy-going, etc.), physical ability (maximum movement speed, etc.), and the like.”. The cited passages clearly shows a control device (the processor) and a storage unit that stores data relating to the character of the robot.),
an operation determination unit (Atsuya: Figure 5 speech determining unit 1362, ¶ 0102, “The standard voice determining unit 1362 determines whether to generate a voice and determines the content of the voice to be generated.”),
and an operation instruction transmission unit (Atsuya: ¶ 0131, “To give this instruction, an information terminal (for example, a smartphone or a personal computer) on which a control application is installed may be used. 1149 This information terminal receives instructions using a control application as a user interface, and transmits the received instructions to the robot 100 via a network or a relay server as necessary. The instruction receiving unit 132 of the robot 100 can receive the instruction transmitted in this manner.”. The user terminal clearly transmits instructions to the robot.),
the character data storage unit is configured to store character data including parameters defined to match an assigned characteristic for each one of a plurality of characters (Atsuya: ¶ 0099, “The personality forming section 135 updates and stores personality parameters representing the personality. The personality creation section 135 may handle multiple types of personality parameters. In this embodiment, the personality created by the personality creating section 135 includes "voice quality." In addition, the individuality may include personality (lonely, active, short-tempered, easy-going, etc.), physical ability (maximum movement speed, etc.), and the like.”),
the parameters including data related to physical movement of the robot (Atsuya: ¶ 0099. The individuality parameters can clearly include physical parameters such as movement speed.),
upon selection of one of the plurality of characters at the display unit by a user, the operation determination unit is configured to determine an operation mode of the robot to generate operation instructions (Atsuya: Figures 11 and 12A, ¶ 0131, “To give this instruction, an information terminal (for example, a smartphone or a personal computer) on which a control application is installed may be used. 1149 This information terminal receives instructions using a control application as a user interface, and transmits the received instructions to the robot 100 via a network or a relay server as necessary. The instruction receiving unit 132 of the robot 100 can receive the instruction transmitted in this manner.”, ¶ 0145, “In addition, in the above embodiment, the user can specify the personality through the control application, but instead of or in addition to this, the configuration may be such that the user can instruct the robot 100 to cancel the personality and return it to its initial value through the control application.”, ¶ 0179, “As described above, the personality formation unit 135 may form (set) a personality for a voice based on instructions from the instruction receiving unit 132, and below, an example of setting personality parameters based on user instructions will be described. In this case, an information terminal (e.g., a smartphone or a personal computer) on which a control application is installed may be used as a device that issues instructions to the instruction receiving unit 132 . This information terminal receives instructions using a control application as a user interface, and transmits the received instructions to the robot 100 via a network or a relay server as necessary. The instruction receiving unit 132 of the robot 100 can receive the instruction transmitted in this manner.”, ¶ 0181, “The icon 291 indicates the state of the voice of the robot 100, and in the example of FIG. 11, it is indicated that a "gentle voice" is selected as the voice of the robot 100.”, ¶ 0182, “FIG. 12A shows an example of an application screen for configuring audio settings. When the user presses a button 281 labeled "Choose a voice," individuality parameters for randomly generating a plurality of types of individual voices (four types in this embodiment) are automatically generated. The generated individual parameters are all individual parameters that do not overlap with the individual parameters being set in the other robots 100.”. As can be seen from the cited passages, the system is clearly able to generate operation instructions for the robot upon the selection of a character at the user terminal. Furthermore, the instructions clearly include parameters that define a “character” (the individuality parameters). As can be seen from ¶ 0099, these parameters change of the robot talks, personality traits, and physical properties such as movement speed.),
the operation instruction transmission unit is configured to transmit the operation instructions so generated to the robot such that the robot exhibits movements in accordance with the parameters corresponding to the character so selected (Atsuya: ¶ 0099, “The personality forming section 135 updates and stores personality parameters representing the personality. The personality creation section 135 may handle multiple types of personality parameters. In this embodiment, the personality created by the personality creating section 135 includes "voice quality." In addition, the individuality may include personality (lonely, active, short-tempered, easy-going, etc.), physical ability (maximum movement speed, etc.), and the like.”, ¶ 0179, “As described above, the personality formation unit 135 may form (set) a personality for a voice based on instructions from the instruction receiving unit 132, and below, an example of setting personality parameters based on user instructions will be described. In this case, an information terminal (e.g., a smartphone or a personal computer) on which a control application is installed may be used as a device that issues instructions to the instruction receiving unit 132 . This information terminal receives instructions using a control application as a user interface, and transmits the received instructions to the robot 100 via a network or a relay server as necessary. The instruction receiving unit 132 of the robot 100 can receive the instruction transmitted in this manner.”, ¶ 0181, “The icon 291 indicates the state of the voice of the robot 100, and in the example of FIG. 11, it is indicated that a "gentle voice" is selected as the voice of the robot 100.”. As can be seen from the cited passages, the user terminal sends operational instructions to the robot. Furthermore, the individuality parameters defined by the user can include parameters that control the movements of the robot, such as maximum movement speed. One of ordinary skill in the art would see that the instruction sent to the robot would change of the robot exhibits movements.),
the robot further includes at least one camera configured to image a periphery (Atsuya: ¶ 0064, “A spherical camera is attached to horn 109, making it possible to capture the entire upper area of robot 100 at once.”, ¶ 0088, “As described above, the camera 1113 is provided on the horn 109 and captures an image of the entire upper area of the robot 100 at once. The camera 1113 outputs the captured image as sensor information. The microphone 1114 converts sound into an electrical signal and outputs the electrical signal as sensor information.”, ¶ 0139, “For example, when the robot 100 is surrounded by users and detects lots of smiles and laughter through the camera 1113 and microphone 1114, the robot 100 begins to feel a surge of emotion that is "fun."”. The cited passages clearly shows that the robot includes at least one camera configured to image a periphery.).
Atsuya does not teach and data related to physical movement of the robot includes parameters defining manners in which the robot reacts to an object seen in the at least one camera in accordance with the parameters corresponding to the character so selected.
Versace, in the same field of endeavor, teaches and data related to physical movement of the robot includes parameters defining manners in which the robot reacts to an object seen in the at least one camera in accordance with the parameters corresponding to the character so selected (Versace: ¶ 0056, “As shown in FIG. 3A, a behavior 10 may comprise at least one stimulus 20 and at least one response 30, but can comprise a plurality of stimuli 10 and a plurality of responses 30. In some implementations, a behavior 10 may comprise a set of external responses 20 (e.g., movement of the robot via activating a motor) and/or internal responses 20 (e.g., change in the state of the robot which is not manifested externally to a human user) triggered by one or more external stimuli 30 ( e.g., visual or auditory stimuli as”, ¶ 0057, “FIGS. 4A and 4B show that a collection of behaviors 10 so defined constitutes a "brain" 40 A brain and its constituent behaviors 10 can be implemented in any suitable manner, including as a deep neural network running locally on a computer, tablet, or smartphone or remotely on a server. The brain may be stored locally on the electronic device used to define the brain, on a robot, and/or in a cloud-based storage system (a server). In some implementations the cloud computing and storage system may provide the brain to the robot; in other implementations the electronic device (e.g., mobile phone, tablet, a single-board computer on board of the robot, and/or the like) may provide the brain to the robot. In another implementation, a combination of local (on the robot), controller (e.g., a user cell phone, tablet, laptop, or desktop), and cloud (e.g., a remote server) jointly provide computing power for the brain.”, ¶ 0058, “In some implementations, a robot brain may also include one or more robot personalities 45, each of which may comprise one or more behaviors ( e.g., a brain may include a personality comprising four behaviors, and/or the like) as shown in FIG. 4B. For example, a subset of the collection of behaviors ( e.g., a subset attributed to certain types of stimuli, certain types of responses, and/or the like) may be associated with each other, forming a personality component of the brain. A brain may comprise a plurality of personality and behavior components. Personality components may allow for a faster and more streamlined process of adding and/or removing sets of behaviors in a robot brain, and/or the like, and could be used to build "brains" out of "personalities". Examples of personalities include, but are not limited to: (1) a "friendly" personality, composed of the following two behaviors: •=dance when a person is seen; •=ask "hello, what is your name" when a person is seen; and (2) a "suspicious" personality, composed of the following three behaviors: e=take a picture when a person is seen; •=say "who is there" when a person is seen; •=follow a person which enters the camera focus.”, ¶ 0062, “FIG. 5B shows an example of how behaviors (neurons) in a brain can be connected to each other or "chained together." In this case, a first behavior 510a produces a particular output (e.g., motion in a particular direction or to particular GPS coordinates) that serves as a stimulus 520a for a second behavior 510b. If the second behavior's other stimulus 520b (e.g., recognition of a particular object in imagery acquired by a camera) is present, then the second behavior 510b produces its own response 530, which in tum may stimulate another behavior. Thus, triggering of the first behavior 510a is a stimulus for a second behavior Slob.”, ¶ 0106, “Additionally, responses can be controlled by an AI/ANN/DNN. For example, a response 10 may be "Go to the kitchen," where the knowledge of the spatial configuration of the environment is given by the robot mapping system (e.g., a DNN). Similarly, for the response "Find Bob", the knowledge of Bob is given by an AI/ ANN/DNN system. And for the response "Grasp the can of coke", finding the object, reaching, and grasping can be given by an AI/ANN/DNN system.”. The cited passages clearly teaches that the defined personality of the robot changes how the robot reacts to stimuli, such as detecting an object using a camera. Additionally, these reactions clearly include parameters that affect a physical movement of the robot. Furthermore, the cited passages clearly teach that the user is capable of selecting the personality of the robot.).
Atsuya teaches an entertainment system comprising: a user terminal including a display unit; a robot; and a control device including a character data storage unit, an operation determination unit, and an operation instruction transmission unit, the character data storage unit is configured to store character data including parameters defined to match an assigned characteristic for each one of a plurality of characters, the parameters including data related to physical movement of the robot, upon selection of one of the plurality of characters at the display unit by a user, the operation determination unit is configured to determine an operation mode of the robot to generate operation instructions, the operation instruction transmission unit is configured to transmit the operation instructions so generated to the robot such that the robot exhibits movements in accordance with the parameters corresponding to the character so selected, the robot further includes at least one camera configured to image a periphery. Atsuya does not teach data related to physical movement of the robot includes parameters defining manners in which the robot reacts to an object seen in the at least one camera in accordance with the parameters corresponding to the character so selected. Versace teaches data related to physical movement of the robot includes parameters defining manners in which the robot reacts to an object seen in the at least one camera in accordance with the parameters corresponding to the character so selected. A person of ordinary skill in the art would have had the technological capabilities required to have modified the entertainment system taught in Atsuya with data related to physical movement of the robot includes parameters defining manners in which the robot reacts to an object seen in the at least one camera in accordance with the parameters corresponding to the character so selected taught in Versace. Furthermore, the system taught in Atsuya is already configured with a personality selectable by the user, a camera configured to image a periphery, and is configured to change its behaviors based on sensory input (Atsuya: ¶ 0139, “For example, when the robot 100 is surrounded by users and detects lots of smiles and laughter through the camera 1113 and microphone 1114, the robot 100 begins to feel a surge of emotion that is "fun.". At that timing, the voice generating unit 136 selects parameters for when the user is having fun from the voice content database 1361 and generates a voice. For example, when the robot 100 is being rocked up and down while being held on the robot's lap, the robot 100 interprets this as causing waves of a "happy" emotion and generates a voice expressing the "happy" emotion. At this time, since the acceleration sensor value indicates a periodic fluctuation, a vibrato that matches the period begins to be applied to the vocalization.”, ¶ 0140, “The influence may be a quantitative condition, such as sensor information exceeding a predetermined value, or the degree of the influence may vary qualitatively depending on the internal state, such as emotions, at the time. In this way, by generating sounds by the sound generation unit 136 based on the sensor information, the robot 100 does not always generate the same sound, but generates sounds that reflect the sensor information and the internal state in a composite manner.”, ¶ 0148, “Furthermore, the robot 100 may learn the user's reaction when it outputs a voice, and the learned reaction may be reflected in the formation of a personality in the personality formation section 135. Here, as the user's reaction, for example, it is possible to detect that the user is smiling by performing image recognition on the image from the camera 1113, and it is possible to detect that the user is stroking the robot 100 based on the sensor information from the touch sensor 1111.”). As such, the system taught in Atsuya teaches the necessary components and methods required to effect a physical movement based on a detected object and the selected personality and is readily configurable with the methods taught in Versace. Such a modification would not change or introduce new functionality, as the system taught in Atsuya already allows a user to select and edit a personality of a robot. No inventive effort would have been required. The combination would have yielded the predictable result of an entertainment system comprising: and data related to physical movement of the robot includes parameters defining manners in which the robot reacts to an object seen in the at least one camera in accordance with the parameters corresponding to the character so selected.
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filling date of the claimed invention, to have combine the entertainment system taught in Atsuya with and data related to physical movement of the robot includes parameters defining manners in which the robot reacts to an object seen in the at least one camera in accordance with the parameters corresponding to the character so selected taught in Versace with a reasonable expectation of success. One of ordinary skill in the art would have been motivated to make this modification because the combination would have yielded predictable results.
Regarding claim 4, Atsuya in view of Versace teaches wherein the parameters include data related to an operation speed as exhibited by the robot (Atsuya: Figure 12D, ¶ 0099, “The personality forming section 135 updates and stores personality parameters representing the personality. The personality creation section 135 may handle multiple types of personality parameters. In this embodiment, the personality created by the personality creating section 135 includes "voice quality." In addition, the individuality may include personality (lonely, active, short-tempered, easy-going, etc.), physical ability (maximum movement speed, etc.), and the like.”, ¶ 0192, “In the example of FIG. 12D, speed, pitch, pitch range, brightness, lip vibration, and vocal cord length are set as user-selectable parameters.”, ¶ 0193, “Speed is the speaking speed per unit of sound. In language, the unit of sound is the syllable. The larger this value, the faster the speech rate.”. The individuality parameters clearly teach operational speeds such as maximum movement speed. Furthermore, one of ordinary skill in the art would see that the speed at which the robot talks is an operation speed of said robot and would be exhibit by the robot when speaking.).
Regarding claim 9, Atsuya teaches a robot comprising (Atsuya: Figure 1 robot 100, ¶ 0056, “The robot 100 in this embodiment is an autonomous robot that determines its behavior, gestures, and voice based on external environmental information and its internal state.”):
an operation instruction reception unit configured to receive operation instructions from an operation determination unit (Atsuya: Figure 1 communication unit 113, ¶ 0079, “The communication unit 113 is a communication module that performs wireless communication with various external devices such as a server, an external sensor, another robot, and a mobile device owned by the user.”, ¶ 0179, “As described above, the personality formation unit 135 may form (set) a personality for a voice based on instructions from the instruction receiving unit 132, and below, an example of setting personality parameters based on user instructions will be described. In this case, an information terminal (e.g., a smartphone or a personal computer) on which a control application is installed may be used as a device that issues instructions to the instruction receiving unit 132 . This information terminal receives instructions using a control application as a user interface, and transmits the received instructions to the robot 100 via a network or a relay server as necessary. The instruction receiving unit 132 of the robot 100 can receive the instruction transmitted in this manner.”),
and a drive control unit for executing the operation instructions according to an operation mode (Atsuya: ¶ 0075, “FIG. 4 is a diagram showing the hardware configuration of the robot 100. The robot 100 includes, within its housing 101 , a display device 110 , an internal sensor 111, a speaker 112 , a communication unit 113 , a storage device 114 , a processor 115, a drive mechanism 116 , and a battery 117.”, ¶ 0077, “The driving mechanism 116 is an actuator that controls the internal mechanism. The driving mechanism 116 has a function of driving the front wheels 102 and the rear wheels 103 to move and change the direction of the robot 100. Furthermore, the driving mechanism 116 controls the hand 105 via the wire 118 to perform actions such as lifting the hand 105, waving the hand 105, or vibrating the hand 105. The driving mechanism 116 also has a function of controlling the head to change the direction of the head.”),
wherein: the operation instructions are generated by the operation determination unit based on character data including parameters defined to match an assigned characteristic for each one of a plurality of characters (Atsuya: ¶ 0099, “The personality forming section 135 updates and stores personality parameters representing the personality. The personality creation section 135 may handle multiple types of personality parameters. In this embodiment, the personality created by the personality creating section 135 includes "voice quality." In addition, the individuality may include personality (lonely, active, short-tempered, easy-going, etc.), physical ability (maximum movement speed, etc.), and the like.”, ¶ 0131, “To give this instruction, an information terminal (for example, a smartphone or a personal computer) on which a control application is installed may be used. 1149 This information terminal receives instructions using a control application as a user interface, and transmits the received instructions to the robot 100 via a network or a relay server as necessary. The instruction receiving unit 132 of the robot 100 can receive the instruction transmitted in this manner.”, ¶ 0145, “In addition, in the above embodiment, the user can specify the personality through the control application, but instead of or in addition to this, the configuration may be such that the user can instruct the robot 100 to cancel the personality and return it to its initial value through the control application.”, ¶ 0179, “As described above, the personality formation unit 135 may form (set) a personality for a voice based on instructions from the instruction receiving unit 132, and below, an example of setting personality parameters based on user instructions will be described. In this case, an information terminal (e.g., a smartphone or a personal computer) on which a control application is installed may be used as a device that issues instructions to the instruction receiving unit 132 . This information terminal receives instructions using a control application as a user interface, and transmits the received instructions to the robot 100 via a network or a relay server as necessary. The instruction receiving unit 132 of the robot 100 can receive the instruction transmitted in this manner.”. The instructions clearly include parameters that define a “character” (the individuality parameters), wherein these parameters change of the robot talks, personality traits, and physical properties such as movement speed.),
the parameters including data related to physical movement of the robot (Atsuya: ¶ 0099, “The personality forming section 135 updates and stores personality parameters representing the personality. The personality creation section 135 may handle multiple types of personality parameters. In this embodiment, the personality created by the personality creating section 135 includes "voice quality." In addition, the individuality may include personality (lonely, active, short-tempered, easy-going, etc.), physical ability (maximum movement speed, etc.), and the like.”),
the operation mode of the robot is determined on a basis of the parameters corresponding to one of the plurality of characters selected by a user (Atsuya: ¶ 0131, “To give this instruction, an information terminal (for example, a smartphone or a personal computer) on which a control application is installed may be used. 1149 This information terminal receives instructions using a control application as a user interface, and transmits the received instructions to the robot 100 via a network or a relay server as necessary. The instruction receiving unit 132 of the robot 100 can receive the instruction transmitted in this manner.”, ¶ 0145, “In addition, in the above embodiment, the user can specify the personality through the control application, but instead of or in addition to this, the configuration may be such that the user can instruct the robot 100 to cancel the personality and return it to its initial value through the control application.”, ¶ 0179, “As described above, the personality formation unit 135 may form (set) a personality for a voice based on instructions from the instruction receiving unit 132, and below, an example of setting personality parameters based on user instructions will be described. In this case, an information terminal (e.g., a smartphone or a personal computer) on which a control application is installed may be used as a device that issues instructions to the instruction receiving unit 132 . This information terminal receives instructions using a control application as a user interface, and transmits the received instructions to the robot 100 via a network or a relay server as necessary. The instruction receiving unit 132 of the robot 100 can receive the instruction transmitted in this manner.”. One of ordinary skill in the art would see that the robot is clearly configured to operate based on the individuality parameters that define the character chosen by the user.),
the drive control unit further comprises a travel drive unit and a head drive unit (Atsuya: ¶ 0075, “FIG. 4 is a diagram showing the hardware configuration of the robot 100. The robot 100 includes, within its housing 101 , a display device 110 , an internal sensor 111, a speaker 112 , a communication unit 113 , a storage device 114 , a processor 115, a drive mechanism 116 , and a battery 117.”, ¶ 0077, “The driving mechanism 116 is an actuator that controls the internal mechanism. The driving mechanism 116 has a function of driving the front wheels 102 and the rear wheels 103 to move and change the direction of the robot 100. Furthermore, the driving mechanism 116 controls the hand 105 via the wire 118 to perform actions such as lifting the hand 105, waving the hand 105, or vibrating the hand 105. The driving mechanism 116 also has a function of controlling the head to change the direction of the head.”).
Atsuya does not teach and defining manner in which the robot reacts to an object seen in a camera imaging a periphery of the robot,
and the drive control unit controls the travel drive unit and the head drive unit, in accordance with the operation instructions such that the robot autonomously searches a periphery of the robot in accordance with the character data.
Versace, in the same field of endeavor, teaches and defining manner in which the robot reacts to an object seen in a camera imaging a periphery of the robot (Versace: ¶ 0056, “As shown in FIG. 3A, a behavior 10 may comprise at least one stimulus 20 and at least one response 30, but can comprise a plurality of stimuli 10 and a plurality of responses 30. In some implementations, a behavior 10 may comprise a set of external responses 20 (e.g., movement of the robot via activating a motor) and/or internal responses 20 (e.g., change in the state of the robot which is not manifested externally to a human user) triggered by one or more external stimuli 30 ( e.g., visual or auditory stimuli as”, ¶ 0057, “FIGS. 4A and 4B show that a collection of behaviors 10 so defined constitutes a "brain" 40 A brain and its constituent behaviors 10 can be implemented in any suitable manner, including as a deep neural network running locally on a computer, tablet, or smartphone or remotely on a server. The brain may be stored locally on the electronic device used to define the brain, on a robot, and/or in a cloud-based storage system (a server). In some implementations the cloud computing and storage system may provide the brain to the robot; in other implementations the electronic device (e.g., mobile phone, tablet, a single-board computer on board of the robot, and/or the like) may provide the brain to the robot. In another implementation, a combination of local (on the robot), controller (e.g., a user cell phone, tablet, laptop, or desktop), and cloud (e.g., a remote server) jointly provide computing power for the brain.”, ¶ 0058, “In some implementations, a robot brain may also include one or more robot personalities 45, each of which may comprise one or more behaviors ( e.g., a brain may include a personality comprising four behaviors, and/or the like) as shown in FIG. 4B. For example, a subset of the collection of behaviors ( e.g., a subset attributed to certain types of stimuli, certain types of responses, and/or the like) may be associated with each other, forming a personality component of the brain. A brain may comprise a plurality of personality and behavior components. Personality components may allow for a faster and more streamlined process of adding and/or removing sets of behaviors in a robot brain, and/or the like, and could be used to build "brains" out of "personalities". Examples of personalities include, but are not limited to: (1) a "friendly" personality, composed of the following two behaviors: •=dance when a person is seen; •=ask "hello, what is your name" when a person is seen; and (2) a "suspicious" personality, composed of the following three behaviors: e=take a picture when a person is seen; •=say "who is there" when a person is seen; •=follow a person which enters the camera focus.”, ¶ 0062, “FIG. 5B shows an example of how behaviors (neurons) in a brain can be connected to each other or "chained together." In this case, a first behavior 510a produces a particular output (e.g., motion in a particular direction or to particular GPS coordinates) that serves as a stimulus 520a for a second behavior 510b. If the second behavior's other stimulus 520b (e.g., recognition of a particular object in imagery acquired by a camera) is present, then the second behavior 510b produces its own response 530, which in tum may stimulate another behavior. Thus, triggering of the first behavior 510a is a stimulus for a second behavior Slob.”, ¶ 0106, “Additionally, responses can be controlled by an AI/ANN/DNN. For example, a response 10 may be "Go to the kitchen," where the knowledge of the spatial configuration of the environment is given by the robot mapping system (e.g., a DNN). Similarly, for the response "Find Bob", the knowledge of Bob is given by an AI/ ANN/DNN system. And for the response "Grasp the can of coke", finding the object, reaching, and grasping can be given by an AI/ANN/DNN system.”. The cited passages clearly teaches that the defined personality of the robot changes how the robot reacts to stimuli, such as detecting an object using a camera. Additionally, these reactions clearly include parameters that affect a physical movement of the robot, which include searching a periphery. Furthermore, the cited passages clearly teach that the user is capable of selecting the personality of the robot.),
and the drive control unit controls the travel drive unit and the head drive unit, in accordance with the operation instructions such that the robot autonomously searches a periphery of the robot in accordance with the character data (Versace: ¶ 0056, “As shown in FIG. 3A, a behavior 10 may comprise at least one stimulus 20 and at least one response 30, but can comprise a plurality of stimuli 10 and a plurality of responses 30. In some implementations, a behavior 10 may comprise a set of external responses 20 (e.g., movement of the robot via activating a motor) and/or internal responses 20 (e.g., change in the state of the robot which is not manifested externally to a human user) triggered by one or more external stimuli 30 ( e.g., visual or auditory stimuli as”, ¶ 0057, “FIGS. 4A and 4B show that a collection of behaviors 10 so defined constitutes a "brain" 40 A brain and its constituent behaviors 10 can be implemented in any suitable manner, including as a deep neural network running locally on a computer, tablet, or smartphone or remotely on a server. The brain may be stored locally on the electronic device used to define the brain, on a robot, and/or in a cloud-based storage system (a server). In some implementations the cloud computing and storage system may provide the brain to the robot; in other implementations the electronic device (e.g., mobile phone, tablet, a single-board computer on board of the robot, and/or the like) may provide the brain to the robot. In another implementation, a combination of local (on the robot), controller (e.g., a user cell phone, tablet, laptop, or desktop), and cloud (e.g., a remote server) jointly provide computing power for the brain.”, ¶ 0058, “In some implementations, a robot brain may also include one or more robot personalities 45, each of which may comprise one or more behaviors ( e.g., a brain may include a personality comprising four behaviors, and/or the like) as shown in FIG. 4B. For example, a subset of the collection of behaviors ( e.g., a subset attributed to certain types of stimuli, certain types of responses, and/or the like) may be associated with each other, forming a personality component of the brain. A brain may comprise a plurality of personality and behavior components. Personality components may allow for a faster and more streamlined process of adding and/or removing sets of behaviors in a robot brain, and/or the like, and could be used to build "brains" out of "personalities". Examples of personalities include, but are not limited to: (1) a "friendly" personality, composed of the following two behaviors: •=dance when a person is seen; •=ask "hello, what is your name" when a person is seen; and (2) a "suspicious" personality, composed of the following three behaviors: e=take a picture when a person is seen; •=say "who is there" when a person is seen; •=follow a person which enters the camera focus.”, ¶ 0062, “FIG. 5B shows an example of how behaviors (neurons) in a brain can be connected to each other or "chained together." In this case, a first behavior 510a produces a particular output (e.g., motion in a particular direction or to particular GPS coordinates) that serves as a stimulus 520a for a second behavior 510b. If the second behavior's other stimulus 520b (e.g., recognition of a particular object in imagery acquired by a camera) is present, then the second behavior 510b produces its own response 530, which in tum may stimulate another behavior. Thus, triggering of the first behavior 510a is a stimulus for a second behavior Slob.”, ¶ 0106, “Additionally, responses can be controlled by an AI/ANN/DNN. For example, a response 10 may be "Go to the kitchen," where the knowledge of the spatial configuration of the environment is given by the robot mapping system (e.g., a DNN). Similarly, for the response "Find Bob", the knowledge of Bob is given by an AI/ ANN/DNN system. And for the response "Grasp the can of coke", finding the object, reaching, and grasping can be given by an AI/ANN/DNN system.”. The cited passages clearly teaches that the defined personality of the robot changes how the robot reacts to stimuli, such as detecting an object using a camera. Additionally, these reactions clearly include parameters that affect a physical movement of the robot, which include searching a periphery. Furthermore, the cited passages clearly teach that the user is capable of selecting the personality of the robot.).
Atsuya teaches a robot comprising: an operation instruction reception unit configured to receive operation instructions from an operation determination unit, and a drive control unit for executing the operation instructions according to an operation mode, wherein: the operation instructions are generated by the operation determination unit based on character data including parameters defined to match an assigned characteristic for each one of a plurality of characters, the parameters including data related to physical movement of the robot, the operation mode of the robot is determined on a basis of the parameters corresponding to one of the plurality of characters selected by a user, the drive control unit further comprises a travel drive unit and a head drive unit. Atsuya does not teach and defining manner in which the robot reacts to an object seen in a camera imaging a periphery of the robot, and the drive control unit controls the travel drive unit and the head drive unit, in accordance with the operation instructions such that the robot autonomously searches a periphery of the robot in accordance with the character data. Versace teaches and defining manner in which the robot reacts to an object seen in a camera imaging a periphery of the robot, and the drive control unit controls the travel drive unit and the head drive unit, in accordance with the operation instructions such that the robot autonomously searches a periphery of the robot in accordance with the character data. A person of ordinary skill in the art would have had the technological capabilities required to have modified the robot taught in Atsuya with and defining manner in which the robot reacts to an object seen in a camera imaging a periphery of the robot, and the drive control unit controls the travel drive unit and the head drive unit, in accordance with the operation instructions such that the robot autonomously searches a periphery of the robot in accordance with the character data taught in Versace. Furthermore, the robot taught in Atsuya is already configured with a personality selectable by the user, a camera configured to image a periphery, and is configured to change its behaviors based on sensory input (Atsuya: ¶ 0139, “For example, when the robot 100 is surrounded by users and detects lots of smiles and laughter through the camera 1113 and microphone 1114, the robot 100 begins to feel a surge of emotion that is "fun.". At that timing, the voice generating unit 136 selects parameters for when the user is having fun from the voice content database 1361 and generates a voice. For example, when the robot 100 is being rocked up and down while being held on the robot's lap, the robot 100 interprets this as causing waves of a "happy" emotion and generates a voice expressing the "happy" emotion. At this time, since the acceleration sensor value indicates a periodic fluctuation, a vibrato that matches the period begins to be applied to the vocalization.”, ¶ 0140, “The influence may be a quantitative condition, such as sensor information exceeding a predetermined value, or the degree of the influence may vary qualitatively depending on the internal state, such as emotions, at the time. In this way, by generating sounds by the sound generation unit 136 based on the sensor information, the robot 100 does not always generate the same sound, but generates sounds that reflect the sensor information and the internal state in a composite manner.”, ¶ 0148, “Furthermore, the robot 100 may learn the user's reaction when it outputs a voice, and the learned reaction may be reflected in the formation of a personality in the personality formation section 135. Here, as the user's reaction, for example, it is possible to detect that the user is smiling by performing image recognition on the image from the camera 1113, and it is possible to detect that the user is stroking the robot 100 based on the sensor information from the touch sensor 1111.”). As such, the robot taught in Atsuya teaches the necessary components and methods required to effect a physical movement based on a detected object and the selected personality and is readily configurable with the methods taught in Versace. Such a modification would not change or introduce new functionality, as the robot taught in Atsuya already allows a user to select and edit a personality of a robot. No inventive effort would have been required. The combination would have yielded the predictable result of an entertainment system comprising: and defining manner in which the robot reacts to an object seen in a camera imaging a periphery of the robot, and the drive control unit controls the travel drive unit and the head drive unit, in accordance with the operation instructions such that the robot autonomously searches a periphery of the robot in accordance with the character data.
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filling date of the claimed invention, to have combine the entertainment system taught in Atsuya with and defining manner in which the robot reacts to an object seen in a camera imaging a periphery of the robot, and the drive control unit controls the travel drive unit and the head drive unit, in accordance with the operation instructions such that the robot autonomously searches a periphery of the robot in accordance with the character data taught in Versace with a reasonable expectation of success. One of ordinary skill in the art would have been motivated to make this modification because the combination would have yielded predictable results.
Claim(s) 2 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over WO 2020/045658 A1 ("Atsuya") in view of US 20170076194 A1 ("Versace") in further view of JP 5869712 B1 ("Kurihara").
Regarding claim 2, Atsuya in view of Versace does not teach wherein the user terminal further includes an imaging unit that images a periphery,
and wherein the display unit is configured to display an augmented reality image including the periphery and the one of the plurality of characters so selected exhibiting parameters corresponding the one of the plurality of characters so selected.
Kurihara teaches further includes an imaging unit that images a periphery (Kurihara: ¶ 0012, “FIG. 2 is an overall schematic diagram of an HMD system 100 that uses a head-mounted display (hereinafter referred to as “HMD”) to implement a computer program according to an embodiment of the present invention. As illustrated, the HMD system 100 includes an HMD main body 110, a computer (control circuit unit) 120, a position tracking camera 130, and a real-time camera 140.”, ¶ 0019, “Returning to FIG. 2 again, the real-time camera 140 included in the HMD system 100 captures and generates a real-time peripheral image of the user's real space, and stores the generated image in real time or at regular intervals. The real-time camera may be a stereo camera that can record information in the depth direction by simultaneously photographing the surrounding environment from a plurality of different directions.”),
and wherein the display unit is configured to display an augmented reality image including the periphery and the one of the plurality of characters so selected exhibiting parameters corresponding the one of the plurality of characters so selected (Kurihara: Figures 10-12, ¶ 0037, “10 to 12, when a person is detected using a real-time camera, the character image is superimposed on the virtual space image and displayed on the HMD so that the character corresponding to the person is placed in the three-dimensional virtual space.”, ¶ 0038, “FIG. 11 and FIG. 12 are examples of displaying two “Kuma” characters reflected while moving in this way on the HMD, and the HMD user is in the vicinity of two people in the vicinity of himself / herself. Changes in the environment can be detected with the HMD attached. 11 shows a front view of the “Kuma” character, and FIG. 12 shows a rear view.”).
The only difference between the prior art and the claimed invention is that the prior art does not combine the entertainment system and the user terminal further includes an imaging unit that images a periphery, and wherein the display unit is configured to display an augmented reality image including the periphery and the one of the plurality of characters so selected exhibiting parameters corresponding the one of the plurality of characters so selected into a single system. Kurihara teaches the user terminal further includes an imaging unit that images a periphery, and wherein the display unit is configured to display an augmented reality image including the periphery and the one of the plurality of characters so selected exhibiting parameters corresponding the one of the plurality of characters so selected. Modifying the method to superimpose the character over the robot instead of a person would have required no inventive effort and would have been within the technological capabilities of a person of ordinary skill in the art. Furthermore, a person of ordinary skill in the art would have had the technological capabilities to have incorporated the method of superimposing a character in a virtual space and a user terminal with a camera with the entertainment system into a combined system. No inventive effort would have been required. The combination would have yielded the predictable result of an entertainment system wherein the user terminal further includes an imaging unit that images a periphery, and wherein the display unit is configured to display an augmented reality image including the periphery and the one of the plurality of characters so selected exhibiting parameters corresponding the one of the plurality of characters so selected.
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filling date of the claimed invention, to have combine the entertainment system taught in Atsuya in view of Versace with the user terminal further includes an imaging unit that images a periphery, and wherein the display unit is configured to display an augmented reality image including the periphery and the one of the plurality of characters so selected exhibiting parameters corresponding the one of the plurality of characters so selected taught in Kurihara with a reasonable expectation of success. One of ordinary skill in the art would have been motivated to make this modification because the combination would have yielded predictable results.
Claim(s) 3 and 6 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over WO 2020/045658 A1 ("Atsuya") in view of US 20170076194 A1 ("Versace") in further view of US 2002/0098879 A1 ("Rheey")
Regarding claim 3, Atsuya in view of Versace does not teach wherein the parameters include data related to route search behavior as exhibited by the robot.
Rheey, in the same field of endeavor, teaches wherein the parameters include data related to route search behavior as exhibited by the robot (Rheey: ¶ 0075, “The pet robot 100 moves over a black track on the floor at the Racing mode. The black track can be made in various manners, for instance, by marking a track on the paper using a water-proof marker in black color, by attaching a black tape on the floor, etc.”, ¶ 0085, “The Escape mode is a game wherein a pet robot that escape first from a predetermined space marked with a black band wins. At the Escape mode, the pet robot makes turn movements to a direction at random upon clapping of hands. Here, the pet robot can also make movements evading any obstacle it confronts”, ¶ 0108, “Aside the singing, various other dating behaviors can also be designed, e g. the male pet robot 100 follows the female pet robot 100. If the female pet robot moves to a S540, direction at step the male pet robot 100 detects the female pet robot using its infrared ray generator/sensor part 130 and follows it”. As can be seen from the cited passages, the pet robot changes its route search method in each operation mode, ranging from detecting and following another robot to moving randomly until it detects a marker.).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filling date of the claimed invention, to have combine the entertainment system taught in Atsuya in view of Versace with wherein the parameters include data related to route search behavior as exhibited by the robot taught in Rheey with a reasonable expectation of success. One of ordinary skill in the art would have been motivated to make this modification because in order for the robot to be able to perform various games, different methods of movement would be required for each game. Such a method of allowing the robot to move in different ways thus facilitating different games would result in the user being less likely to lose interest (Rheey: ¶ 0006, “In addition, since the above mentioned toy allows a simple raising game of a virtual pet animal, not allowing any other games, one may easily lose interest in it.”, ¶ 0011, “The present invention aims further to provide a pet robot capable of performing various games.”).
Regarding claim 6, Atsuya in view of Versace teaches wherein the control device further includes a sound data reception unit (Atsuya: Figure 5 microphone 1114, ¶ 0078, “The internal sensor 111 is a collection of various sensors built into the robot 100. The internal sensor 111 may be, for example, a camera (a spherical camera), a microphone, a distance measurement sensor (an infrared sensor), a thermosensor, a touch sensor, an acceleration sensor, an odor sensor, and the like.”, ¶ 0085, “The internal sensor 111 detects various physical quantities in the external environment of the robot 100 (i.e., external environmental information) and outputs sensor information (i.e., sensor detection values) indicating the environmental information. The internal sensor 111 includes a touch sensor 1111, an acceleration sensor 1112, a camera 1113 , and a microphone 1114 .”).
Atsuya in view of Versace does not teach and the operation determination unit is further configured to take into consideration any sound received at the sound data reception unit in generating the operation instructions.
Rheey, in the same field of endeavor, teaches and the operation determination unit is further configured to take into consideration any sound received at the sound data reception unit in generating the operation instructions (Rheey: ¶ 0062, “In the Basic mode, the pet robot moves to the left upon one clapping, to the right upon two clapping, and can move evading any obstacle it confronts.”, ¶ 0085, “The Escape mode is a game wherein a pet robot that escape first from a predetermined space marked with a black band wins. At the Escape mode, the pet robot makes turn movements to a direction at random upon clapping of hands. Here, the pet robot can also make movements evading any obstacle it confronts”, ¶ 0091, “At the Sing-and-run mode the pet robot starts to sing at an initial tone by a clapping of the hands and the pet robot's singing tone ascends higher and higher. After the singing is terminated, the pet robot waits for a clapping, during the waiting time, however, the tone ascends without producing any sound from the initial tone, at the same speed as before. If a clapping is perceived in this state, the pet robot moves a distance in proportion to the scale of the tone.”, ¶ 0102, “With commencement of the Dating mode, the pet robot 100 waits for a clapping (step S510). If a clapping is perceived, the control part 110 proceeds to exchange data with a pet robot 100 in the neighborhood using the data communication interface 180 (step S520).”. As can be seen from the cited passages, the pet robot behaves differently in response to sound in each mode. This behavior ranges from changing how it sings to starting to “date” another pet robot.).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filling date of the claimed invention, to have combine the entertainment system taught in Atsuya in view of Versace with and the operation determination unit is further configured to take into consideration any sound received at the sound data reception unit in generating the operation instructions taught in Rheey with a reasonable expectation of success. One of ordinary skill in the art would have been motivated to make this modification because allowing user interaction such as the use of sound facilitates the exchange of feelings between the user and the robot, increasing user interest (Rheey: ¶ 0008, “However, the merits of these toys are limited in that the pet animal exists only in a cyber space, thus, no real exchange of feelings between the users and the pet animal is possible, and that the game the toys provide is very limited.”, ¶ 0006, “In addition, since the above mentioned toy allows a simple raising game of a virtual pet animal, not allowing any other games, one may easily lose interest in it.”).
Claim(s) 5 and 7 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over WO 2020/045658 A1 ("Atsuya") in view of US 20170076194 A1 ("Versace") in further view of US 8632376 B2 ("Dooley").
Regarding claim 5, Atsuya in view of Versace does not teach the entertainment system further includes an object identification unit that identifies an object imaged by the at least one camera of the robot,
and the operation determination unit is further configured to take into consideration the object so identified in generating the operation instructions.
Dooley, in the same field of endeavor, teaches the entertainment system further includes an object identification unit that identifies an object imaged by the at least one camera of the robot (Dooley: Column 3 lines 61-67, “The sensor or sensors used by the system may be any component, set of components or an integrated system that helps provide the identification and/or any related position information of the various game objects. These sensor components and/or systems may include but are not limited to: (1) infrared sensors; (2) cameras, (3) imagers or other visual sensors;”, Column 4 lines 41-47, “Passive methods of sensing ( or the sensing process) may involve any approach where the sensors can detect a game object without the need for a signal to originate from the game object. These methods may include, but are not limited to: (1) visual recognition of the object or a pattern on the object; (2) reflected light detection of the object; (3) recognition of the physical shape or construction of the object; ( 4) recognition of motion of the object or part of the object, or any combination thereof.”. The cited passages shows that the sensor used by the system are used to identify the game objects and can include cameras. Furthermore, the cited passages show that the objects can be identified through visual recognition.),
and the operation determination unit is further configured to take into consideration the object so identified in generating the operation instructions (Dooley: Column 13 lines 56-67, “FIG. 4 B illustrates an outdoor line of sight chasing embodiment according to an embodiment of the invention. In the embodiment of the invention illustrated in FIG. 4B, the first game object 210 is a target car, the second game object 220 is the chase car, the signal generator 230 is a Line of Sight IR 60 Beacon and the sensing system 240 is an IR Localization sensor.”, Column 21 lines 21-67, “FIG. SC illustrates a line of sight vehicle racing game application according to an embodiment of the invention. In the embodiment of the invention illustrated in FIG. SC, the second game object 520 is the integrated racing car. The integrated racing car 520 includes a 30 sensing device 540, which in this illustration is a sensor 540 which is placed on its side or such that its field of view points in a forward direction.”, “In FIG. SC, the stationary game object 552 is a cone with an LED Beacon. In an embodiment of the invention, the LED Beacon is a 360 degree beacon which may contain 3 or 4 LEDs.”, “In an embodiment of the invention, multiple cones may be added to expand the course, where each cone is set to its own ID by means of different frequencies and/or messaging within the same frequencies.”. The cited passages shows that the robot car is configured to identify and chase after another robot car in one game mode and in another the robot car is configured to identify and race against the other. Furthermore, in the second game mode, the robot car is configured to identify the cones that define the course.).
The only difference between the claimed invention and the prior art is that the prior art does not incorporate the entertainment system and the entertainment system further includes an object identification unit that identifies an object imaged by the at least one camera of the robot, and the operation determination unit is further configured to take into consideration the object so identified in generating the operation instructions. A person of ordinary skill in the art would have had the technological capabilities to the entertainment system further includes an object identification unit that identifies an object imaged by the at least one camera of the robot, and the operation determination unit is further configured to take into consideration the object so identified in generating the operation instructions into a combine system. The entertainment system taught in Atsuya in view of Versace includes a camera and methods of object identification and designating targets of interest from images taken by a camera are known within the art. Therefore, no inventive effort would be required. The combination would have yielded the predictable result of an entertainment system
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filling date of the claimed invention, to have combine the entertainment system taught in Atsuya in view of Versace with the entertainment system further includes an object identification unit that identifies an object imaged by the at least one camera of the robot, and the operation determination unit is further configured to take into consideration the object so identified in generating the operation instructions taught in Dooley with a reasonable expectation of success. One of ordinary skill in the art would have been motivated to make this modification because the combination would have yielded predictable results.
Regarding claim 7, Atsuya in view of Versace does not teach and the entertainment system further includes a game generation unit that generates a game for displaying an augmented reality space including the object in the periphery as imaged by the imaging unit of the robot and a virtual object corresponding to the object.
Dooley, in the same field of endeavor, and the entertainment system further includes a game generation unit that generates a game for displaying an augmented reality space including the object in the periphery as imaged by the at least one camera of the robot and a virtual object corresponding to the object (Dooley: Column 9 lines 26-40, “The second game object may include the car chasing game application program 260, which may run on the CPU 270 ( or CPUs) on the robot control board (280.)”, Column 25 lines 37-45, “In an embodiment of the invention, the technology may be utilized in augmented reality. This may be defined as merging elements from a real world game with the capabilities of virtual games. Illustratively, a robot game may include augmented reality where the user can control the robot utilizing their video game system, view what the robot is seeing on a television screen, and have graphical elements overlaid onto the video based on position information provided by the robot's navigation system.”. The first cited passage shows that the game application program uses the CPU to generate a game. The second passage shows that the system is readily configurable to run in augmented reality, in which virtual elements will be overlaid onto what is seen by the robot.).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filling date of the claimed invention, to have combine the entertainment system taught in Atsuya in view of Versace with and the entertainment system further includes a game generation unit that generates a game for displaying an augmented reality space including the object in the periphery as imaged by the at least one camera of the robot and a virtual object corresponding to the object taught in Dooley with a reasonable expectation of success. One of ordinary skill in the art would have been motivated to make this modification because the use of augmented reality allows for a connection to the physical world, further increasing the stimulation of the users senses and imagination by physically involving the user (Dooley: Column 1 lines 10-30, “However, one lacking element in video games for many of these experiences is a connection with the physical world. The connection to the physical world does more than stimulate the audience senses and imagination, it actually involve them physically in the game.”, “This approach has been hugely successful, however, it is still limited to games that are mainly represented in a virtual world on a two dimensional screen. Accordingly, a need exists to merge worlds of the video games, toys and physical play in a real-world robotic game system.”).
Claim(s) 8 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over WO 2020/045658 A1 ("Atsuya") in view of US 20170076194 A1 ("Versace") in further view of US 2021/0024102 A 1 ("Kim") in further view of US 2019/0099675 A1 (“Khan”).
Regarding claim 8, Atsuya in view of Versace teaches further comprising: a robot operation reception unit that receives, from a device of the user, operation information relating to an operation input (Atsuya: Figure 1 communication unit 113, ¶ 0079, “The communication unit 113 is a communication module that performs wireless communication with various external devices such as a server, an external sensor, another robot, and a mobile device owned by the user.” ¶ 0181, “The icon 291 indicates the state of the voice of the robot 100, and in the example of FIG. 11, it is indicated that a "gentle voice" is selected as the voice of the robot 100.”, ¶ 0182, “FIG. 12A shows an example of an application screen for configuring audio settings. When the user presses a button 281 labeled "Choose a voice," individuality parameters for randomly generating a plurality of types of individual voices (four types in this embodiment) are automatically generated. The generated individual parameters are all individual parameters that do not overlap with the individual parameters being set in the other robots 100.”, ¶ 0192, “In the example of FIG. 12D, speed, pitch, pitch range, brightness, lip vibration, and vocal cord length are set as user-selectable parameters.”. The selectable voice personalities define the operation information and input. As shown, each voice as different control parameters.),
the operation determination unit is further configured to take into consideration the operation input in generating the operation instructions (Atsuya: Figure 5 speech determining unit 1362, ¶ 0102, “The standard voice determining unit 1362 determines whether to generate a voice and determines the content of the voice to be generated.”, ¶ 0192, “In the example of FIG. 12D, speed, pitch, pitch range, brightness, lip vibration, and vocal cord length are set as user-selectable parameters.”. One of ordinary skill in the art would see that the process of determining an operation mode of the robot would remain the same.).
Atsuya in view of Versace does not teach further comprising: a robot operation reception unit that receives, from a device of a friend of the user, operation information relating to an operation input by the friend,
wherein the plurality of characters include a character representing the friend,
and upon selection at the display unit of the character representing the friend, the operation determination unit is further configured to take into consideration the operation input by the friend in generating the operation instructions.
Kim, in the same field of endeavor, teaches a robot operation reception unit that receives, from a device of a friend of the user, operation information relating to an operation input by the friend (Kim: ¶ 0065, “The user terminal (200) of FIG. 1 may be configured to perform a user application on a smartphone, tablet PC, PC or the like, or to drive software on technical hardware for a terminal.”, ¶ 0070, “The game server (100) is capable of transmitting and receiving data to and from a user terminal of each participant through a network communication means.”, ¶ 0145, “In the racing game, the attack rights enable each team to interfere with the opposing team's driving by adjusting the route information of the opposing team in a manner of stopping the opposing team for a certain time, having them to encounter a virtual obstacle while driving, adding a specific target point, or the like.”. As can be seen from the cited passages, each user has their own device in which the users must input various information, and allows the users to change the route information of the other user’s vehicle.).
The only difference between the claimed invention and the prior art is that the prior art does not incorporate the entertainment system and a robot operation reception unit that receives, from a device of a friend of the user, operation information relating to an operation input by the friend into a single system. A person of ordinary skill in the art would have had the technological capabilities to incorporate both the entertainment system taught in Atsuya in view of Versace and a robot operation reception unit that receives, from a device of a friend of the user, operation information relating to an operation input by the friend taught in Kim into a combined system before the effective filling date of the claimed invention. No inventive effort would have been required. Furthermore, even though the operation input from a device of a friend is implemented in the control of an autonomous vehicle, using the method with a robot would not change the functionality of the method or introduce new functionality from such a combination. The resulting combined system would still yield the same predictable results.
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filling date of the claimed invention, to have combine the entertainment system taught in Atsuya in view of Versace with a robot operation reception unit that receives, from a device of a friend of the user, operation information relating to an operation input by the friend taught in Kim with a reasonable expectation of success. One of ordinary skill in the art would have been motivated to make this modification because the combination of the entertainment system taught in Atsuya in view of Versace with the method of receiving operation information relating to operation input from a device of a friend taught in Kim would have yielded predictable results.
Atsuya in view of Versace in further view of Kim does not teach wherein the plurality of characters include a character representing the friend,
and upon selection at the display unit of the character representing the friend, the operation determination unit is further configured to take into consideration the operation input by the friend in generating the operation instructions.
Khan, in the same field of endeavor, teaches wherein the plurality of characters include a character representing the friend (Khan: ¶ 0030, “That is, the friend avatars 112 and 114 appear as the associated friends would in the real world. In other embodiments, friend avatars need not resemble the associated friend, but may take on any form of the associated friend's choosing. For example, the associated friend may choose a character they like to be their friend avatar, or may render their own friend avatar.”, ¶ 0067, “Moreover, in the embodiment shown, player 720 is able to choose how to place friend avatars. For example, player 720 is shown to place friend avatar 728 on magic carpet 730 in scene 722. In the resulting scene 726, friend avatar 728 is shown to be riding on magic carpet 730, allowing the player 720 to maintain a consistent view of friend avatar 728 throughout their video game experience if they so choose.”. The cited passages teach the fired having a character representing them. One of ordinary skill in the art would see that such a character representing a friend could be easily added to the already existing list of characters.),
and upon selection at the display unit of the character representing the friend, the operation determination unit is further configured to take into consideration the operation input by the friend in generating the operation instructions (Khan: ¶ 0067, “Moreover, in the embodiment shown, player 720 is able to choose how to place friend avatars. For example, player 720 is shown to place friend avatar 728 on magic carpet 730 in scene 722. In the resulting scene 726, friend avatar 728 is shown to be riding on magic carpet 730, allowing the player 720 to maintain a consistent view of friend avatar 728 throughout their video game experience if they so choose.”. One of ordinary skill in the art would see that the character representing the friend remaining static or following the player would represent an operation mode, as the operation mode is how the friend character is displayed.).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filling date of the claimed invention, to have combine the entertainment system taught in Atsuya in view of Versace in further view of Kim with wherein the plurality of characters include a character representing the friend, and upon selection at the display unit of the character representing the friend, the operation determination unit is further configured to take into consideration the operation input by the friend in generating the operation instructions taught in Khan with a reasonable expectation of success. One of ordinary skill in the art would have been motivated to make this modification because it allows for a greater level of engagement for the user and their friend and adds a level of social connectivity (Khan: ¶ 0027, “As a result, a layer of social connectivity may be provided as a result of the methods and system presented here, which ultimately provide for a greater level of engagement and entertainment for the player and the player's friends.”).
Claim(s) 10 and 11 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over WO 2020/045658 A1 ("Atsuya") in view of US 20170076194 A1 ("Versace") in further view of JP 2019217122 A ("Kadosawa").
Regarding claim 10, Atsuya in view of Versace teaches wherein the parameters comprise movement speed (Atsuya: Figure 12D, ¶ 0099, “The personality forming section 135 updates and stores personality parameters representing the personality. The personality creation section 135 may handle multiple types of personality parameters. In this embodiment, the personality created by the personality creating section 135 includes "voice quality." In addition, the individuality may include personality (lonely, active, short-tempered, easy-going, etc.), physical ability (maximum movement speed, etc.), and the like.”. The individuality parameters clearly teach operational speeds such as maximum movement speed.).
Atsuya in view of Versace does not teach wherein the parameters comprise one or more of a gap to an obstacle, smoothness of route during a route search, stopover frequency during the route search, a prioritized goal position during the route search, movement acceleration, head swing speed, detection range for target of interest, and prioritization of targets of interest.
Kadosawa, in the same field of endeavor, teaches wherein the parameters comprise one or more of a gap to an obstacle, smoothness of route during a route search(Kadosawa: Abstract, “To provide a robot that can express various emotions more than before to a predetermined object depending on favorability rating, and to provide a method for controlling a robot and a program. SOLUTION: A robot 100 includes: a user recognition unit 111 for recognizing a predetermined object; and a response control unit 116 for determining an approaching mode during approaching the predetermined object on the basis of favorability rating to the predetermined object recognized by the user recognition unit 111, and controlling the own device to express an emotion to the predetermined object depending on the determined approaching mode during approaching the predetermined object.”, ¶ 0029, “In addition, the response control unit 116 determines whether the target user satisfies a preset approach condition when the user activity recognition unit 114 recognizes the user activity, and determines that the target user satisfies the approach condition, The approach mode as the response mode is determined according to the favorable impression. The approach condition includes that the target user has called for the robot 100 to approach the robot 100 in the vicinity of the user (for example, “come”, “come here”, etc.). In this case, the response control unit 116 may determine whether or not the approach condition is satisfied, based on the speech recognition result by the voice recognition unit 113. In the following description, a target user satisfying the approach condition is referred to as an “approach target user”. When it is determined that the approach condition is satisfied, the response control unit 116 refers to, for example, the approach mode determination table illustrated in FIG. 5 and determines, as the approach mode, the moving route (approach route) and the moving speed approaching the approach target user. At least one of (approach speed), an opposing distance (approach distance) to the approach target user at the end of the approach, and an opposing posture (approaching posture) at the time of approaching or at the end of approaching the user is determined. Thus, the response control unit (approach control unit) 116 functions as the control unit and the determination unit of the present invention.”, ¶ 0032, “More specifically, in the case of the moving path “straight”, as shown in FIG. 6, the robot 100 approaches the approach target user UR along the linear moving path MR. In addition, in the case of the moving path “curved (large)” or “curved (small)”, as illustrated in FIG. 7, the robot 100 approaches the approach target user UR along the curved moving path MR. Note that “curved (large)” indicates that the curvature is smaller than “curved (small)”. In the case of the moving route “meandering (large)” or “meandering (small)”, as shown in FIG. 8, the robot 100 approaches the approaching user UR along the meandering moving route MR. Note that “meandering (large)” indicates that the meandering width is larger than “meandering (small)”. As described above, the “moving route” is set such that the moving distance becomes longer as the likability decreases. The response control unit 116 determines a specific moving route based on the position of the target user recognized by the user recognizing unit 111, the distance to the target user, and the route pattern indicated by the “moving route”.”, ¶ 0034, “The “opposite distance (approach distance)” is set so that the distance between the robot 100 and the approach target user becomes shorter at the end of the movement as the liking is higher. The distance from the user is set to be long. For example, the favorable sensitivity “A” is “short” which is a distance (for example, 0.3 m) shorter than a preset standard distance (for example, 0.5 m), and the favorable sensitivity “B” is more than the standard distance. "Slightly short" which is a slightly shorter distance (for example, 0.4 m), "Medium" which is a standard distance for the favorable sensitivity "C", and a slightly longer distance (for example, 0 for the favorable sensitivity "D") than the standard distance .6m), and "Length", which is a distance longer than the standard distance (for example, 0.7m), is set for the favorable sensitivity "E". As described above, the “facing distance” is set so as to end the approaching movement and face the approaching target user at a position apart from each other as the favorable impression decreases.”. The cited passages clearly teaches that the robot has parameters that include its movement speed, the distance at which the robot will stop when approaching an object (this clearly is a “gap” to the object), and the smoothness of the route (i.e. Figure 6, the robot takes a straight direct route to the target, Figure 7, the robot takes a wider, curved route to the target, and Figure 8, the robot takes a winding, meandering route to the target, which is not smooth.)).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filling date of the claimed invention to have combine the system taught in Atsuya in view of Versace with wherein the parameters comprise one or more of a gap to an obstacle, smoothness of route during a route search taught in Kadosawa with a reasonable expectation of success. One of ordinary skill in the art would have been motivated to make this modification because such a method allows for the robot to express familiarity with a predetermined object and express richer emotions (Kadosawa: ¶ 0002, “For devices such as robots to be widely used, it is important how to express familiarity with a predetermined object. At present, there is known a technique for changing a distance between a robot and a predetermined target according to a favorable sensitivity to the predetermined target.”, 0005, “Therefore, the present invention has been made in view of the above-described circumstances, and provides a robot, a robot control method, and a program that can express richer emotions than ever before in accordance with a favorable sensitivity to a predetermined target.”, ¶ 0006, “In order to achieve the above object, one embodiment of the robot according to the present invention includes a recognition unit for recognizing a predetermined target, and a recognition target for the predetermined target, which is recognized by the recognition unit. Determining means for determining an approaching state during approaching; and, during approaching to the predetermined object, the own device to express emotion to the predetermined object in accordance with the approaching mode determined by the determining means. And control means for controlling.”, ¶ 0007, “In order to achieve the above object, one embodiment of the robot control method according to the present invention includes a recognition step of recognizing a predetermined object, and the predetermined step based on a favorable sensitivity to the predetermined object recognized in the recognition step. A determining step of determining an approach mode during approach to the target, and expressing an emotion on the predetermined object in accordance with the approach mode determined in the determination step during the approach to the predetermined object. And a control step of controlling the robot”).
Regarding claim 11, Atsuya in view of Versace teaches wherein the parameters comprise movement speed (Atsuya: Figure 12D, ¶ 0099, “The personality forming section 135 updates and stores personality parameters representing the personality. The personality creation section 135 may handle multiple types of personality parameters. In this embodiment, the personality created by the personality creating section 135 includes "voice quality." In addition, the individuality may include personality (lonely, active, short-tempered, easy-going, etc.), physical ability (maximum movement speed, etc.), and the like.”. The individuality parameters clearly teach operational speeds such as maximum movement speed.).
Atsuya in view of Versace does not teach wherein the parameters comprise one or more of a gap to an obstacle, smoothness of route during a route search, stopover frequency during the route search, a prioritized goal position during the route search, movement acceleration, head swing speed, detection range for target of interest, and prioritization of targets of interest.
Kadosawa, in the same field of endeavor, teaches wherein the parameters comprise one or more of a gap to an obstacle, smoothness of route during a route search(Kadosawa: Abstract, “To provide a robot that can express various emotions more than before to a predetermined object depending on favorability rating, and to provide a method for controlling a robot and a program. SOLUTION: A robot 100 includes: a user recognition unit 111 for recognizing a predetermined object; and a response control unit 116 for determining an approaching mode during approaching the predetermined object on the basis of favorability rating to the predetermined object recognized by the user recognition unit 111, and controlling the own device to express an emotion to the predetermined object depending on the determined approaching mode during approaching the predetermined object.”, ¶ 0029, “In addition, the response control unit 116 determines whether the target user satisfies a preset approach condition when the user activity recognition unit 114 recognizes the user activity, and determines that the target user satisfies the approach condition, The approach mode as the response mode is determined according to the favorable impression. The approach condition includes that the target user has called for the robot 100 to approach the robot 100 in the vicinity of the user (for example, “come”, “come here”, etc.). In this case, the response control unit 116 may determine whether or not the approach condition is satisfied, based on the speech recognition result by the voice recognition unit 113. In the following description, a target user satisfying the approach condition is referred to as an “approach target user”. When it is determined that the approach condition is satisfied, the response control unit 116 refers to, for example, the approach mode determination table illustrated in FIG. 5 and determines, as the approach mode, the moving route (approach route) and the moving speed approaching the approach target user. At least one of (approach speed), an opposing distance (approach distance) to the approach target user at the end of the approach, and an opposing posture (approaching posture) at the time of approaching or at the end of approaching the user is determined. Thus, the response control unit (approach control unit) 116 functions as the control unit and the determination unit of the present invention.”, ¶ 0032, “More specifically, in the case of the moving path “straight”, as shown in FIG. 6, the robot 100 approaches the approach target user UR along the linear moving path MR. In addition, in the case of the moving path “curved (large)” or “curved (small)”, as illustrated in FIG. 7, the robot 100 approaches the approach target user UR along the curved moving path MR. Note that “curved (large)” indicates that the curvature is smaller than “curved (small)”. In the case of the moving route “meandering (large)” or “meandering (small)”, as shown in FIG. 8, the robot 100 approaches the approaching user UR along the meandering moving route MR. Note that “meandering (large)” indicates that the meandering width is larger than “meandering (small)”. As described above, the “moving route” is set such that the moving distance becomes longer as the likability decreases. The response control unit 116 determines a specific moving route based on the position of the target user recognized by the user recognizing unit 111, the distance to the target user, and the route pattern indicated by the “moving route”.”, ¶ 0034, “The “opposite distance (approach distance)” is set so that the distance between the robot 100 and the approach target user becomes shorter at the end of the movement as the liking is higher. The distance from the user is set to be long. For example, the favorable sensitivity “A” is “short” which is a distance (for example, 0.3 m) shorter than a preset standard distance (for example, 0.5 m), and the favorable sensitivity “B” is more than the standard distance. "Slightly short" which is a slightly shorter distance (for example, 0.4 m), "Medium" which is a standard distance for the favorable sensitivity "C", and a slightly longer distance (for example, 0 for the favorable sensitivity "D") than the standard distance .6m), and "Length", which is a distance longer than the standard distance (for example, 0.7m), is set for the favorable sensitivity "E". As described above, the “facing distance” is set so as to end the approaching movement and face the approaching target user at a position apart from each other as the favorable impression decreases.”. The cited passages clearly teaches that the robot has parameters that include its movement speed, the distance at which the robot will stop when approaching an object (this clearly is a “gap” to the object), and the smoothness of the route (i.e. Figure 6, the robot takes a straight direct route to the target, Figure 7, the robot takes a wider, curved route to the target, and Figure 8, the robot takes a winding, meandering route to the target, which is not smooth.)).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filling date of the claimed invention to have combine the system taught in Atsuya in view of Versace with wherein the parameters comprise one or more of a gap to an obstacle, smoothness of route during a route search taught in Kadosawa with a reasonable expectation of success. One of ordinary skill in the art would have been motivated to make this modification because such a method allows for the robot to express familiarity with a predetermined object and express richer emotions (Kadosawa: ¶ 0002, “For devices such as robots to be widely used, it is important how to express familiarity with a predetermined object. At present, there is known a technique for changing a distance between a robot and a predetermined target according to a favorable sensitivity to the predetermined target.”, 0005, “Therefore, the present invention has been made in view of the above-described circumstances, and provides a robot, a robot control method, and a program that can express richer emotions than ever before in accordance with a favorable sensitivity to a predetermined target.”, ¶ 0006, “In order to achieve the above object, one embodiment of the robot according to the present invention includes a recognition unit for recognizing a predetermined target, and a recognition target for the predetermined target, which is recognized by the recognition unit. Determining means for determining an approaching state during approaching; and, during approaching to the predetermined object, the own device to express emotion to the predetermined object in accordance with the approaching mode determined by the determining means. And control means for controlling.”, ¶ 0007, “In order to achieve the above object, one embodiment of the robot control method according to the present invention includes a recognition step of recognizing a predetermined object, and the predetermined step based on a favorable sensitivity to the predetermined object recognized in the recognition step. A determining step of determining an approach mode during approach to the target, and expressing an emotion on the predetermined object in accordance with the approach mode determined in the determination step during the approach to the predetermined object. And a control step of controlling the robot”).
Response to Arguments
Applicant’s descriptions and support for each limitation that evokes 35 U.S.C. § 112(f), found in pages 7-12 is acknowledged. However, in all of the previous Office Actions mailed and in this Final Office Action, no objections or rejections of the claims were made due to lacking sufficient structure in the specification, being indefinite, or any other issues that may arise from claim language that invokes 35 U.S.C. § 112(f). Additionally, as the claim language of the Claims filed on March 10th, 2026, still invoke 35 U.S.C. § 112(f), the 35 U.S.C. § 112(f) remains for the purpose of clarity of record.
Applicant's arguments filed March 10th, 2026, have been fully considered but they are not persuasive.
Regarding Applicant’s arguments on Pages 13-18, Applicant argues that the prior art on record fails to teach the limitations of the independent claims 1 and 9.
Specifically on Pages 13-15, Applicant argues that the combination of Atsuya in view of Versace does not teach the limitation “data related to physical movement of the robot includes parameters defining manners in which the robot reacts to an object seen in the at least one camera in accordance with the parameters corresponding to the character so selected” of independent claim 1. The Examiner respectfully disagrees. As stated in the previous Non-Final Office Action mailed December 11th, 2025, and above in the 35 U.S.C. § 103 rejection section, The primary reference Atsuya teaches an entertainment system comprising: a user terminal including a display unit (Atsuya: Figures 11, 12A-D, ¶ 0131); a robot (Atsuya: Figure 1 robot 100, ¶ 0056); and a control device including a character data storage unit (Atsuya: ¶ 0075, ¶ 0079, ¶ 0081, ¶ 0099), an operation determination unit (Atsuya: Figure 5 speech determining unit 1362, ¶ 0102), and an operation instruction transmission unit (Atsuya: ¶ 0131), the character data storage unit is configured to store character data including parameters defined to match an assigned characteristic for each one of a plurality of characters (Atsuya: ¶ 0099), the parameters including data related to physical movement of the robot (Atsuya: ¶ 0099), upon selection of one of the plurality of characters at the display unit by a user, the operation determination unit is configured to determine an operation mode of the robot to generate operation instructions (Atsuya: Figures 11 and 12A, ¶ 0131, ¶ 0145, “¶ 0179, ¶ 0181, ¶ 0182), the operation instruction transmission unit is configured to transmit the operation instructions so generated to the robot such that the robot exhibits movements in accordance with the parameters corresponding to the character so selected (Atsuya: ¶ 0099, ¶ 0179, ¶ 0181), the robot further includes at least one camera configured to image a periphery (Atsuya: ¶ 0064, ¶ 0088, ¶ 0139). The system of Atsuya teaches a robot and a user terminal, wherein the personality of the robot can be selected and configured from the user terminal. The personality changes the behavior of the robot including aspects of its speed such as talking speed, as well as physical properties such as movement speed. The secondary reference Versace teaches data related to physical movement of the robot includes parameters defining manners in which the robot reacts to an object seen in the at least one camera in accordance with the parameters corresponding to the character so selected (Versace: ¶ 0056, “As shown in FIG. 3A, a behavior 10 may comprise at least one stimulus 20 and at least one response 30, but can comprise a plurality of stimuli 10 and a plurality of responses 30. In some implementations, a behavior 10 may comprise a set of external responses 20 (e.g., movement of the robot via activating a motor) and/or internal responses 20 (e.g., change in the state of the robot which is not manifested externally to a human user) triggered by one or more external stimuli 30 ( e.g., visual or auditory stimuli as”, ¶ 0057, “FIGS. 4A and 4B show that a collection of behaviors 10 so defined constitutes a "brain" 40 A brain and its constituent behaviors 10 can be implemented in any suitable manner, including as a deep neural network running locally on a computer, tablet, or smartphone or remotely on a server. The brain may be stored locally on the electronic device used to define the brain, on a robot, and/or in a cloud-based storage system (a server). In some implementations the cloud computing and storage system may provide the brain to the robot; in other implementations the electronic device (e.g., mobile phone, tablet, a single-board computer on board of the robot, and/or the like) may provide the brain to the robot. In another implementation, a combination of local (on the robot), controller (e.g., a user cell phone, tablet, laptop, or desktop), and cloud (e.g., a remote server) jointly provide computing power for the brain.”, ¶ 0058, “In some implementations, a robot brain may also include one or more robot personalities 45, each of which may comprise one or more behaviors ( e.g., a brain may include a personality comprising four behaviors, and/or the like) as shown in FIG. 4B. For example, a subset of the collection of behaviors ( e.g., a subset attributed to certain types of stimuli, certain types of responses, and/or the like) may be associated with each other, forming a personality component of the brain. A brain may comprise a plurality of personality and behavior components. Personality components may allow for a faster and more streamlined process of adding and/or removing sets of behaviors in a robot brain, and/or the like, and could be used to build "brains" out of "personalities". Examples of personalities include, but are not limited to: (1) a "friendly" personality, composed of the following two behaviors: •=dance when a person is seen; •=ask "hello, what is your name" when a person is seen; and (2) a "suspicious" personality, composed of the following three behaviors: e=take a picture when a person is seen; •=say "who is there" when a person is seen; •=follow a person which enters the camera focus.”, ¶ 0062, “FIG. 5B shows an example of how behaviors (neurons) in a brain can be connected to each other or "chained together." In this case, a first behavior 510a produces a particular output (e.g., motion in a particular direction or to particular GPS coordinates) that serves as a stimulus 520a for a second behavior 510b. If the second behavior's other stimulus 520b (e.g., recognition of a particular object in imagery acquired by a camera) is present, then the second behavior 510b produces its own response 530, which in tum may stimulate another behavior. Thus, triggering of the first behavior 510a is a stimulus for a second behavior Slob.”, ¶ 0106, “Additionally, responses can be controlled by an AI/ANN/DNN. For example, a response 10 may be "Go to the kitchen," where the knowledge of the spatial configuration of the environment is given by the robot mapping system (e.g., a DNN). Similarly, for the response "Find Bob", the knowledge of Bob is given by an AI/ ANN/DNN system. And for the response "Grasp the can of coke", finding the object, reaching, and grasping can be given by an AI/ANN/DNN system.”. The cited passages clearly teaches that the defined personality of the robot changes how the robot reacts to stimuli, such as detecting an object using a camera. Additionally, these reactions clearly include parameters that affect a physical movement of the robot. Furthermore, the cited passages clearly teach that the user is capable of selecting the personality of the robot.). The system of Versace clearly teaches a robot with personalities that are selectable from a user terminal. The personality change of the robot behaves and response to detected stimuli. Such behaviors include changing how a robot reacts to a detected object such as grasping a soda can, or in the case of a suspicious personality, taking a picture of a detected human. The cited passages of Versace clearly shows that the robot is configured to capture images of an object using a camera, and that the selectable personalities change the behavior of the robot in response to different stimuli. As is shown in paragraph 0062, each personality has a behavior for each stimulus and said stimulus can be the detection of a specific object. Furthermore, the system taught in Atsuya is already configured with a personality selectable by the user, a camera configured to image a periphery, and is configured to change its behaviors based on sensory input (Atsuya: ¶ 0139, “For example, when the robot 100 is surrounded by users and detects lots of smiles and laughter through the camera 1113 and microphone 1114, the robot 100 begins to feel a surge of emotion that is "fun.". At that timing, the voice generating unit 136 selects parameters for when the user is having fun from the voice content database 1361 and generates a voice. For example, when the robot 100 is being rocked up and down while being held on the robot's lap, the robot 100 interprets this as causing waves of a "happy" emotion and generates a voice expressing the "happy" emotion. At this time, since the acceleration sensor value indicates a periodic fluctuation, a vibrato that matches the period begins to be applied to the vocalization.”, ¶ 0140, “The influence may be a quantitative condition, such as sensor information exceeding a predetermined value, or the degree of the influence may vary qualitatively depending on the internal state, such as emotions, at the time. In this way, by generating sounds by the sound generation unit 136 based on the sensor information, the robot 100 does not always generate the same sound, but generates sounds that reflect the sensor information and the internal state in a composite manner.”, ¶ 0148, “Furthermore, the robot 100 may learn the user's reaction when it outputs a voice, and the learned reaction may be reflected in the formation of a personality in the personality formation section 135. Here, as the user's reaction, for example, it is possible to detect that the user is smiling by performing image recognition on the image from the camera 1113, and it is possible to detect that the user is stroking the robot 100 based on the sensor information from the touch sensor 1111.”). As such, the system taught in Atsuya teaches the necessary components and methods required to effect a physical movement based on a detected object and the selected personality and is readily configurable with the methods taught in Versace. Such a modification would not change or introduce new functionality, as the system taught in Atsuya already allows a user to select and edit a personality of a robot. No inventive effort would have been required. Additionally, Applicant argues that Atsuya in view of Versace does not teach the aforementioned limitation because the combination of Atsuya in view of Versace does not that the parameter includes a route search, a smoothness of a route, a movement speed, or a movement acceleration. These specific parameters are not defined in the independent claims 1 and 9, and are instead limitation of dependent claims 3, 4, 10, and 11. Independent claim 1 and 9 only recites “data related to physical movement of the robot includes parameters defining manners in which the robot reacts to an object seen in the at least one camera in accordance with the parameters corresponding to the character so selected”. Under the broadest reasonable interpretation of this limitation, this can include other aspects of physical motion in addition to the ones listed in the Applicant’s arguments. Therefore, the combination of Atsuya in view of Versace teaches the limitation “data related to physical movement of the robot includes parameters defining manners in which the robot reacts to an object seen in the at least one camera in accordance with the parameters corresponding to the character so selected”.
Specifically on Page 15, Applicant argues that a person of ordinary skill in the art would not have been motivated to combine Atsuya in view of Versace. In response to applicant’s argument that there is no teaching, suggestion, or motivation to combine the references, the examiner recognizes that obviousness may be established by combining or modifying the teachings of the prior art to produce the claimed invention where there is some teaching, suggestion, or motivation to do so found either in the references themselves or in the knowledge generally available to one of ordinary skill in the art. See In re Fine, 837 F.2d 1071, 5 USPQ2d 1596 (Fed. Cir. 1988), In re Jones, 958 F.2d 347, 21 USPQ2d 1941 (Fed. Cir. 1992), and KSR International Co. v. Teleflex, Inc., 550 U.S. 398, 82 USPQ2d 1385 (2007). In this case, one of ordinary skill in the art would have been motivated to combine Atsuya with Versace because the combination would have yielded predictable results. the system taught in Atsuya is already configured with a personality selectable by the user, a camera configured to image a periphery, and is configured to change its behaviors based on sensory input (Atsuya: ¶ 0139, “For example, when the robot 100 is surrounded by users and detects lots of smiles and laughter through the camera 1113 and microphone 1114, the robot 100 begins to feel a surge of emotion that is "fun.". At that timing, the voice generating unit 136 selects parameters for when the user is having fun from the voice content database 1361 and generates a voice. For example, when the robot 100 is being rocked up and down while being held on the robot's lap, the robot 100 interprets this as causing waves of a "happy" emotion and generates a voice expressing the "happy" emotion. At this time, since the acceleration sensor value indicates a periodic fluctuation, a vibrato that matches the period begins to be applied to the vocalization.”, ¶ 0140, “The influence may be a quantitative condition, such as sensor information exceeding a predetermined value, or the degree of the influence may vary qualitatively depending on the internal state, such as emotions, at the time. In this way, by generating sounds by the sound generation unit 136 based on the sensor information, the robot 100 does not always generate the same sound, but generates sounds that reflect the sensor information and the internal state in a composite manner.”, ¶ 0148, “Furthermore, the robot 100 may learn the user's reaction when it outputs a voice, and the learned reaction may be reflected in the formation of a personality in the personality formation section 135. Here, as the user's reaction, for example, it is possible to detect that the user is smiling by performing image recognition on the image from the camera 1113, and it is possible to detect that the user is stroking the robot 100 based on the sensor information from the touch sensor 1111.”). As such, the system taught in Atsuya teaches the necessary components and methods required to effect a physical movement based on a detected object and the selected personality and is readily configurable with the methods taught in Versace. Such a modification would not change or introduce new functionality, as the system taught in Atsuya already allows a user to select and edit a personality of a robot. No inventive effort would have been required. Therefore, the combination would have yielded predictable results.
Specifically on Pages 15-16, Applicant argues that because Kurihara was relied upon to teach the limitation “wherein the user terminal further includes an imaging unit that images a periphery” of dependent claim 2, this contradicts the Examiners assertion that the combination of Atsuya in view of Versace teaches the limitation “the robot further includes at least one camera configured to image a periphery”. The Examiner respectfully disagrees. Under the broadest reasonable interpretation of the aforementioned limitations, the user terminal and robot are separate aspects of the claimed invention. One of ordinary skill in the art would recognize a user terminal to include devices such as a smart phone, computer, tablet, VR device, etc. Additionally one of ordinary skill in the art would recognize a robot to include some robotic device. As such, under the broadest reasonable interpretation of these limitations, the camera included on the robot would be separate from the imaging unit included on the user terminal and vice versa. Therefore, because the camera of the robot and the imaging device of the user terminal are two separate imaging devices, no contradiction exists.
Specifically on Pages 16-17, Applicant argues that the combination of Atsuya in view of Versace in further view of Rheey fails to teach the limitation “wherein the parameters include data related to route search behavior as exhibited by the robot” of dependent claim 3. The Examiner respectfully disagrees. As stated in the previous Non-Final Office Action and show in the response to previous arguments, the primary reference Atsuya teaches a robot and a user terminal, wherein the personality of the robot can be selected and configured from the user terminal. The personality changes the behavior of the robot including aspects of its speed such as talking speed, as well as physical properties such as movement speed. The secondary reference Verace teaches a robot with personalities that are selectable from a user terminal. The personality change of the robot behaves and response to detected stimuli. Such behaviors include changing how a robot reacts to a detected object such as grasping a soda can, or in the case of a suspicious personality, taking a picture of a detected human. The secondary reference Rheey teaches wherein the parameters include data related to route search behavior as exhibited by the robot (Rheey: ¶ 0075, “The pet robot 100 moves over a black track on the floor at the Racing mode. The black track can be made in various manners, for instance, by marking a track on the paper using a water-proof marker in black color, by attaching a black tape on the floor, etc.”, ¶ 0085, “The Escape mode is a game wherein a pet robot that escape first from a predetermined space marked with a black band wins. At the Escape mode, the pet robot makes turn movements to a direction at random upon clapping of hands. Here, the pet robot can also make movements evading any obstacle it confronts”, ¶ 0108, “Aside the singing, various other dating behaviors can also be designed, e g. the male pet robot 100 follows the female pet robot 100. If the female pet robot moves to a S540, direction at step the male pet robot 100 detects the female pet robot using its infrared ray generator/sensor part 130 and follows it”. As can be seen from the cited passages, the pet robot changes its route search method in each operation mode, ranging from detecting and following another robot to moving randomly until it detects a marker.). Rheey clearly teaches that depending on the selected mode, the robot performs a path search differently. One of ordinary skill in the art would have been easily able to modify the system taught in Atsuya in view of Versace wherein the parameters include data related to route search behavior as exhibited by the robot taught in Rheey, as Atsuya in view of Versace is already configured with a personality selectable by the user, a camera configured to image a periphery, is configured to change its behaviors based on sensory input, and that these behaviors can include aspects that affect physical movement of the robot. Additionally, as shown in paragraph 0062 of Versace, the personalities can be configured with personalities whose behavior produces an output in response to stimuli that cause the robot to move in a specific direction or to a specific direction. Such a modification would not have changed or introduced new. No inventive effort. One of ordinary skill in the art would have been motivated to make this modification because in order for the robot to be able to perform various games, different methods of movement would be required for each game. Such a method of allowing the robot to move in different ways thus facilitating different games would result in the user being less likely to lose interest.
Therefore, for the reasons stated above and in the 35 U.S.C. § 103 rejection section, the 35 U.S.C. § 103 rejection of claims 1-11 are maintained.
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.
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/N.W.S./ Examiner, Art Unit 3658
/Ramon A. Mercado/Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 3658
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