DETAILED ACTION
Notice of Pre-AIA or AIA Status
The present application, filed on or after March 16, 2013, is being examined under the first inventor to file provisions of the AIA .
Continued Examination Under 37 CFR 1.114
A request for continued examination under 37 CFR 1.114, including the fee set forth in 37 CFR 1.17(e), was filed in this application after final rejection. Since this application is eligible for continued examination under 37 CFR 1.114, and the fee set forth in 37 CFR 1.17(e) has been timely paid, the finality of the previous Office action has been withdrawn pursuant to 37 CFR 1.114. Applicant's submission filed on 06/19/2026 has been entered.
Application Status
This office action is responsive to the amendments filed on 06/11/2026.
This action has been made NON-FINAL.
Response to Arguments
Applicant's arguments filed 06/11/2026 have been fully considered but they are not persuasive.
The Applicant alleges on pages 8-10 of the remarks, the following: “In response, claims 1, 10, and 19 recite obtaining a texel gradient for a texel of a shade space by combining a first gradient between pixels in a screen space and one or more material textures with a second gradient between material texture coordinates and shade space coordinates to obtain a texel gradient for a texel of a shade space texture. This specific combination, to form a single texel from the different gradients described above, is not taught by the very generalized disclosure of Akenine-Moller. Thus, Akenine-Moller cannot teach or suggest the above features.” The examiner is not persuaded. The examiner maintains that the combination of Snyder, Jiang, Lentz, and Vaibhav discloses the Applicant’s claim language in Paragraphs 0075; 0079; 0088-0091 of AKENINE-MOLLER. More specifically, Paragraph 0075 of AKENINE-MOLLER recites “performs anisotropic texture filtering based on the gradients and the texture. Any technically feasible anisotropic texture filtering may be performed in embodiments. For example, in the case of HLSL, which is the High Level Shading Language for DirectX, the SampleGrad function can be called to sample a texture, with the gradients being used to influence the sampling,” in which, discloses the Applicant’s amended claim language. MPEP § 2106 states Office personnel are to give claims their broadest reasonable interpretation in light of the supporting disclosure. In re Morris, 127 F.3d 1048, 1054-55, 44 USPQ2d 1023, 1027-28 (Fed Cir. 1997). Accordingly, the examiner maintains the rejection.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 103 which forms the basis for all obviousness rejections set forth in this Office action:
A patent for a claimed invention may not be obtained, notwithstanding that the claimed invention is not identically disclosed as set forth in section 102, if the differences between the claimed invention and the prior art are such that the claimed invention as a whole would have been obvious before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to a person having ordinary skill in the art to which the claimed invention pertains. Patentability shall not be negated by the manner in which the invention was made.
Claim(s) 1, 4-10, 13-19 and 21-25 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Snyder, US Patent No.: 20040001069 in view of Jiang, WO214094257 in view of Lentz, US20210295586, in further view of Vaibhav, US 20240412442 and in further view of AKENINE-MOLLER, US 20210350608.
Claim 1:
Snyder discloses a method for rendering (See Snyder Abstract; Figures 8A-10D). Snyder failed to explicitly disclose an anisotropic gradient, however, Jiang discloses this feature in the detailed description. It would have been obvious to a person having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have further modified Snyder by Jiang’s teaching of an anisotropic gradient, to thereby enable improved image processing, more effectively (See Jiang Technical Field). Moreover, both of the references teach features that are directed analogous art and they are directed to the same field of endeavor, such as image processing. This close relation between both of the references highly suggests an expectation of success.
Additionally, Snyder and Jiang failed to disclose shade space texture to produce a final image. However, Lentz discloses this feature in paragraphs 0014; 0018-0019 and 0036. It would have been obvious to a person having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have further modified the combination of Snyder and Jiang’s by incorporating Lentz’s teaching of texted spaces to produce a final image, to thereby enable improved graphics processing, more effectively (See Lentz Abstract). Moreover, both of the references teach features that are directed analogous art and they are directed to the same field of endeavor, such as image/graphics processing. This close relation between both of the references highly suggests an expectation of success.
Additionally, Snyder, Jiang, and Lentz failed to disclose “visibility pass”. However, Vaibhav discloses this feature in paragraphs 0007; 0016; 0023; 0027-0028. It would have been obvious to a person having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have further modified the combination of Snyder, Jiang, and Lentz by incorporating Vaibhav’s teaching of a visibility pass, to thereby enable improved efficiency of graphics processing systems, more effectively (See Vaibhav Background/Summary). Moreover, the references teach features that are directed analogous art and they are directed to the same field of endeavor, such as image/graphics processing. This close relation between both of the references highly suggests an expectation of success.
Additionally, the combination of Snyder, Jiang, Lentz, and Vaibhav failed to disclose filtering the one or more material textures using the combined gradients. However, AKENINE-MOLLER discloses this feature in paragraph 0075. It would have been obvious to a person having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have further modified the combination of Snyder, Jiang, and Lentz and Vaibhav by incorporating AKENINE-MOLLER’s teaching of filtering to thereby enable improved and effective techniques for rendering graphics, more effectively (See AKENINE-MOLLER Description of the Related Art). Moreover, the references teach features that are directed analogous art and they are directed to the same field of endeavor, such as image/graphics processing. This close relation between both of the references highly suggests an expectation of success.
As modified:
The combination of Snyder, Jiang, Lentz, Vaibhav and AKENINE-MOLLER discloses the following:
performing a visibility pass (See Vaibhav Paragraphs 0007; 0016; 0023; 0027-0028) to determine portions of a plurality of shade space textures in a shade space that are visible in a screen space (See Snyder Paragraph 0014; 0116);
in the visibility pass (See Vaibhav Paragraphs 0007; 0016; 0023; 0027-0028), determining a first correspondence between the screen space and the shade space (See Snyder Paragraph 0014; 0116), wherein the first correspondence indicates a first gradient including an anisotropic gradient between pixels in the screen space and one or more material textures (See Jiang Detailed Description section);
selecting a size for a shade space tile based on the correspondence between the screen space and the shade space (“increasing the size of the tiles” See Snyder Paragraphs 0097; 0102);
combining the first gradient with a second gradient between material texture coordinates and shade space coordinates to obtain a texel gradient for a texel of a shade space texture of the plurality of shade space texture (See AKENINE-MOLLER Paragraphs 00751; 0079; 0088-0091);
shading the shade space tile (“Shading can be applied to the textured surface” See Snyder Paragraphs 0109; 0128) by filtering the one or more material textures using the texel gradient (See AKENINE-MOLLER Paragraphs 00752; 0079; 0088-0091), to produce a shaded shade space tile that is part of a shade space texture (See Lentz Paragraphs 0014; 0018-0019);
and texturing objects of a scene using the shade space texture to produce a final image (See Lentz Paragraphs 0014; 0018-0019).
Claim 4:
The combination of Snyder, Jiang, Lentz, Vaibhav and AKENINE-MOLLER discloses wherein the size for the shade space tile (“increasing the size of the tiles” See Snyder Paragraphs 0097; 0102) comprises a footprint of the shade space tile within the shade space (See Snyder Paragraphs 0013; 0122).
Claim 5:
The combination of Snyder, Jiang, Lentz, Vaibhav and AKENINE-MOLLER discloses wherein shading the shade space tile based on the shade space tile size (“increasing the size of the tiles” See Snyder Paragraphs 0097; 0102) comprises shading an area comprising a footprint of the shade space tile within the shade space (See Snyder Paragraphs 0013; 0122).
Claim 6:
The combination of Snyder, Jiang, Lentz, Vaibhav and AKENINE-MOLLER discloses wherein determining the tile size includes selecting a tile size (“increasing the size of the tiles” See Snyder Paragraphs 0097; 0102) having differing horizontal and vertical dimensions (See Snyder Paragraphs 0106; 0123; 0126).
Claim 7:
The combination of Snyder, Jiang, Lentz, Vaibhav and AKENINE-MOLLER discloses wherein determining the tile size (“increasing the size of the tiles” See Snyder Paragraphs 0097; 0102) comprises determining the tile size (See Snyder Paragraph 0097; 0102) such that samples of the shade space in the shade space tile have the same spatial frequency as samples in the screen space in at least one location (See Snyder Paragraph 0044).
Claim 8:
The combination of Snyder, Jiang, Lentz, Vaibhav and AKENINE-MOLLER discloses shading samples of the shade space tile using an anisotropic filter applied to a material texture (See Snyder Paragraphs 0009; 0020; 0022; 0025; 0048; 0049).
Claim 9:
The combination of Snyder, Jiang, Lentz, Vaibhav and AKENINE-MOLLER discloses wherein the texturing is performed as part of a reconstruction operation (See Snyder Paragraph 0010; 0019).
Claim 10 and 13-18:
Claims 10 and 13-18 are rejected on the same basis as claims 1, and 4-9.
Claim 19:
Claim 19 are rejected on the same basis as claim 1.
Claim 21:
The combination of Snyder, Jiang, Lentz, Vaibhav and AKENINE-MOLLER discloses wherein the size for the shade space tile (“increasing the size of the tiles” See Snyder Paragraphs 0097; 0102) comprises a footprint of the shade space tile within the shade space (See Snyder Paragraphs 0013; 0122).
Claim 22:
The combination of Snyder, Jiang, Lentz, Vaibhav and AKENINE-MOLLER discloses wherein shading the shade space tile based on the shade space tile size (“increasing the size of the tiles” See Snyder Paragraphs 0097; 0102) comprises shading an area comprising a footprint of the shade space tile within the shade space (See Snyder Paragraphs 0013; 0122).
Claim 23:
The combination of Snyder, Jiang, Lentz, Vaibhav and AKENINE-MOLLER discloses wherein determining the tile size includes selecting a tile size (“increasing the size of the tiles” See Snyder Paragraphs 0097; 0102) having differing horizontal and vertical dimensions (See Snyder Paragraph 0106; 0123; 0126).
Claim 24:
The combination of Snyder, Jiang, Lentz, Vaibhav and AKENINE-MOLLER discloses wherein determining the tile size comprises determining the tile size (“increasing the size of the tiles” See Snyder Paragraphs 0097; 0102) such that samples of the shade space in the shade space tile have the same spatial frequency (See Snyder Paragraph 0044) as samples in the screen space in at least one location (See Snyder Paragraph 0102).
Claim 25:
The combination of Snyder, Jiang, Lentz, Vaibhav and AKENINE-MOLLER discloses wherein the operations further comprise shading samples of the shade space tile using an anisotropic filter applied to a material texture (See Snyder Paragraph 0007).
Pertinent Art
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure.
US Patent Application Publication No.: 20150206340
Contact Information
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to SHEREE N BROWN whose telephone number is (571)272-4229. The examiner can normally be reached M-F 5:30-2:00 PM EST.
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/SHEREE N BROWN/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2612 June 29, 2026
1 Paragraph 0075 of AKENINE-MOLLER recites “performs anisotropic texture filtering based on the gradients and the texture. Any technically feasible anisotropic texture filtering may be performed in embodiments. For example, in the case of HLSL, which is the High Level Shading Language for DirectX, the SampleGrad function can be called to sample a texture, with the gradients being used to influence the sampling.”
2 Paragraph 0075 of AKENINE-MOLLER recites “performs anisotropic texture filtering based on the gradients and the texture. Any technically feasible anisotropic texture filtering may be performed in embodiments. For example, in the case of HLSL, which is the High Level Shading Language for DirectX, the SampleGrad function can be called to sample a texture, with the gradients being used to influence the sampling.”
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