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 .
Response to Arguments
Applicant’s arguments with respect to claim(s) 1 and 15 have been considered but are moot because the new ground of rejection does not rely on any reference applied in the prior rejection of record for any teaching or matter specifically challenged in the argument.
Applicant’s arguments with respect to claim 8 have been fully considered and are persuasive. The previous rejection has been withdrawn.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 102
In the event the determination of the status of the application as subject to AIA 35 U.S.C. 102 and 103 (or as subject to pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 102 and 103) is incorrect, any correction of the statutory basis (i.e., changing from AIA to pre-AIA ) for the rejection will not be considered a new ground of rejection if the prior art relied upon, and the rationale supporting the rejection, would be the same under either status.
The following is a quotation of the appropriate paragraphs of 35 U.S.C. 102 that form the basis for the rejections under this section made in this Office action:
A person shall be entitled to a patent unless –
(a)(2) the claimed invention was described in a patent issued under section 151, or in an application for patent published or deemed published under section 122(b), in which the patent or application, as the case may be, names another inventor and was effectively filed before the effective filing date of the claimed invention.
Claim(s) 1 and 5 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(2) as being anticipated by Knoppert et al (pub # 20230350213).
Consider claim 1. Knoppert et al teaches A cartridge, (paragraphs 0044 and 0058, compute stick).
comprising:
a housing; (paragraphs 0044 and 0058, compute stick, thus a housing).
a processor positioned within the housing, (paragraph 0044, compute stick may contain the HMD processor 170).
the processor configured to transmit electronic video output to a display unit forming an integral part of a head- mounted display (HMD) (paragraph 0041, a processing device either on the HMD device 154 (e.g., HMD processor 170) itself or the processor 102 in operative communication with the HMD device 154 may process this received data from these sensors and the camera in order to facilitate the presentation of an XR image of a surrounding environment to a user via a display device on the HMD device 154 as described herein.).
through an electrical connection to the display unit of the HMD, (paragraph 0044, these hardware devices may be maintained offsite from the HMD device 154 and within a compute stick operatively coupled to the HMD video display 162, the camera/pass-through camera 161, and other devices such as an IR detector/IR emitter. The compute stick may be operatively coupled to these devices using, for example, an HMD connection wire.).
wherein the display unit presents the video output to a user; (paragraph 0025, each of these windows, icons, or display images may be represented on the HMD video display 162 of the HMD device 154 when the HMD device 154 is being used by the user.
and an attachment interface configured to removably attach the cartridge to the display unit adjacent to a display screen of the display unit. (Paragraph 0058, a compute stick or compute compartment that includes the hardware such as a GPU/video processor, a data storage device, a power system/battery 169, a power source (e.g., the battery) among other hardware that may be operatively coupled to the HMD device 254 and HMD video display (e.g., 162, FIG. 1) but could be placed offsite from the HMD device 254 or on the back or side of the head strap 294 in order to reduce the weight of the HMD device 254 on the user's face or head. As can be seen from Fig. 2 head strap 294 can be interpreted as being adjacent to the display screen which is located inside the HMD hood 278, thus an attachment interface on the head strap 294 to attach the compute stick to said strap which is adjacent to the display screen).
Consider claim 5. (Original) The cartridge of claim 1, wherein the attachment interface comprises at least one of a mechanical coupler or a magnetic coupler. (Paragraph 0058, a compute stick or compute compartment that includes the hardware such as a GPU/video processor, a data storage device, a power system/battery 169, a power source (e.g., the battery) among other hardware that may be operatively coupled to the HMD device 254 and HMD video display (e.g., 162, FIG. 1) but could be placed offsite from the HMD device 254 or on the back or side of the head strap 294 in order to reduce the weight of the HMD device 254 on the user's face or head, thus a mechanical coupler).
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) 2, 3, and 7 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Knoppert et al (pub # 20230350213) in view of Breed et al (U.S. Pat # 11,508,249).
Consider claim 2. Knoppert et al further teaches The cartridge of claim 1, further comprising: a battery positioned within the housing, the battery configured to power the HMD; (paragraph 0044, a power source for the HMD device 154 (e.g., a battery)).
and a cable electrically connecting the cartridge to the HMD; (paragraph 0044, The compute stick may be operatively coupled to these devices using, for example, an HMD connection wire.).
Knoppert et al does not specifically disclose wherein the cartridge is configured to be removably inserted into a slot defined by the HMD. However Breed et al in at least Col. 5 lines 25- 30 and Figs. 1, 3, and 4 discloses an HMD assembly 11 comprising a slot for receiving a smartphone 12. Therefore it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the HMD of Knoppert et al to have a slot for receiving the compute stick as disclosed by Breed et al in order to provide a safe and secure method of securing the compute stick to the HMD.
Consider claim 3. Knoppert et al does not specifically disclose The cartridge of claim 1, wherein the attachment interface is configured to removably attach the cartridge within an internal volume of the display unit. However Breed et al in at least Col. 5 lines 25- 30 and Figs. 1, 3, and 4 discloses an HMD assembly 11 comprising a slot for receiving a smartphone 12, thus attaching the smartphone 12 to an internal volume of the display unit. Therefore it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the HMD of Knoppert et al to have a slot for receiving the compute stick as disclosed by Breed et al in order to provide a safe and secure method of securing the compute stick to the HMD.
Consider claim 7. Knoppert et al does not specifically disclose The cartridge of claim 1, further comprising a user input interface to receive a user input. However Breed et al in at least col. 11 and lines 60-64 discloses that the smartphone 11 that can be inserted into the HMD assembly 11 comprises a touch screen, thus a user input interface. Therefore it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the compute stick of Knoppert et al to comprise a user input interface as disclosed by Breed et al so as to improve the user experience by providing more ways and methods for the user to input information and thereby interact with the HMD system.
Claim(s) 4 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Knoppert et al (pub # 20230350213) in view of Cooper et al (U.S. Pat # 10,261,555).
Consider claim 4. Knoppert et al does not specifically disclose The cartridge of claim 1, further comprising a fan positioned within the housing, wherein, when the cartridge is attached to the HMD, the fan is positioned proximate a component disposed in an internal volume of the HMD and is configured to provide an airflow to the internal volume. However Cooper et al in at least Figs. 2A and 5A as well as the abstract discloses “A head mounted display device may include a housing, including a user-facing cavity and an electronics compartment. At least one fan may be installed in the electronics compartment. A plurality of intake ports may be defined in a peripheral wall portion of the user-facing cavity, and at least one air discharge port may be defined in a wall portion of the electronics compartment. A plurality of air channels may extend between the user-facing cavity and the electronics compartment. Operation of the at least one fan may draw external air into the housing through the plurality of air intake ports into the user—facing cavity, and into the electronics compartment through the plurality of air channels”. Therefore it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine the cooling system of Cooper et al with the system of Knoppert et al in order to provide cooling of the user-facing cavity and the electronics compartment (Cooper et al, abstract).
Claim(s) 6 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Knoppert et al (pub # 20230350213) in view of Abdollahi et al (pub # 20140130241).
Consider claim 6. Knoppert et al does not specifically disclose The cartridge of claim 1, wherein the attachment interface comprises a push-push mechanism. However Abdollahi et al in at least Figs. 1, 2, and 5 as well as paragraph 0038 discloses a heads-up information system 12 comprising an attachment assembly 38 having a push-push mechanism. Therefore it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art to combine the push-push mechanism of Abdollahi et al with the attachment interface of Knoppert et al in order to provide a convenient and user-friendly method of inserting and removing the cartridge.
Claim(s) 15-19 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Hoellwarth (pub # 20100079356) in view of Kim et al (pub # 20160255748).
Consider claim 15. Hoellwarth teaches An electronic component for a head-mountable device, (Fig. 1 and paragraph 0037, The head-mounted display system 100 can include head-mounted device 102 and portable electronic device 104 that are separate devices which can be temporarily coupled together to form an integrated unit, which can be worn on a user's head.).
the electronic component comprising:
an input to receive a user input; (paragraph 0039, in one embodiment of the present invention, portable electronic device 104 may be a handheld electronic device such as a portable media player, cellular telephone, internet-capable device, a personal digital assistant ("PDA"), any other portable electronic device, or any combination thereof. In another embodiment of the present invention, portable electronic device 104 can be a device that has the combined functionalities of a portable media player and a cellular telephone, such as an iPhone.TM. sold by Apple Inc. of Cupertino, Calif. In yet another embodiment of the present invention, the portable electronic device 104 can be a dedicated media player such as an iPod.TM. sold by Apple Inc. of Cupertino, Calif. Examples of iPods.TM. may include Touch.TM., Nano.TM., Classic.TM., and the like.).
and a central processing unit (CPU) of the head-mountable device; (paragraph 0198, a processor on the portable electronic device can control the activation of the internal viewing mode and the external viewing mode, thus a processing unit of the HMD).
and configured to be selectively removed from the head-mountable device independent of a display of the head-mountable device. (Fig. 2B and paragraph 0055, portable electronic device 204 may be coupled to head-mounted device 202 (as shown in FIG. 2B) and removed from head-mounted device 202. Paragraph 0099, the HMD 300 can include an optical sub assembly that is disposed between the display screen and the user's eyes in the region of the opening 332. The optical sub assembly may for example be disposed behind, within or in front of the opening 332. The optical subassembly may be supported by some portion of the main body 303 front panel 304 and/or back panel 305. In some cases, the optical sub assembly may simply be a transparent window. In other cases, however, the optical sub assembly may also be a more complicated system of optical components that enhance and improved the viewing experience (i.e., help focus the user's eyes on the image frames being displayed on the display screen of the portable electronic device), thus the optical sub assembly of the HMD can read on a display and it is not removed when the portable electronic device is removed).
Hoellwarth does not specifically disclose wherein the electronic component is positioned behind a display screen and between the display screen and a head-mountable device electronic component. However Kim et al in at least Fig. 6 and paragraph 0061 discloses an HMD 200 with a display that is able to physically attach to a portable electronic device 300. Fig. 6 and paragraph 0070 discloses that the HMD 200 comprises a connector 216 to electrically connect the HMD 200 to the portable device 300. As can be seen from Fig. 6 the connector 216 overlaps the portable device 300 on the left side, thus the portable electronic device 300 is disposed between the electric component (connector 216) of the HMD 200 and the display of the HMD 200.
Therefore it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to dispose the portable device of Hoellwarth to be between the display screen and a electric component of the HMD as disclosed by Kim et al in order to provide an improved system and method of securing the portable electronic device to the HMD so that the portable device does not fall off the HMD when being worn by the user.
Consider claim 16. Hoellwarth further teaches The electronic component of claim 15, wherein the input comprises at least one of a button, a touchpad, an analog stick, or a D-pad. (paragraph 0039, in one embodiment of the present invention, portable electronic device 104 may be a handheld electronic device such as a portable media player, cellular telephone, internet-capable device, a personal digital assistant ("PDA"), any other portable electronic device, or any combination thereof. In another embodiment of the present invention, portable electronic device 104 can be a device that has the combined functionalities of a portable media player and a cellular telephone, such as an iPhone.TM. sold by Apple Inc. of Cupertino, Calif. In yet another embodiment of the present invention, the portable electronic device 104 can be a dedicated media player such as an iPod.TM. sold by Apple Inc. of Cupertino, Calif. Examples of iPods.TM. may include Touch.TM., Nano.TM., Classic.TM., and the like.).
Consider claim 17. Hoellwarth further teaches The electronic component of claim 15, further comprising a haptic engine. (paragraph 0118).
Consider claim 18. Hoellwarth further teaches The electronic component of claim 15, wherein the electronic component is attachable to the head-mountable device. , (Fig. 1 and paragraph 0037, The head-mounted display system 100 can include head-mounted device 102 and portable electronic device 104 that are separate devices which can be temporarily coupled together to form an integrated unit, which can be worn on a user's head.).
Consider claim 19. Hoellwarth further teaches The electronic component of claim 15, further comprising a motion sensor to provide user feedback to the CPU. (paragraph 0049, accelerometers on the head-mounted device and/or the portable electronic device can be used to detect the user's head movements.).
Claim(s) 20 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Hoellwarth (pub # 20100079356) in view of Kim et al (pub # 20160255748) and further in view of Knoppert et al (pub # 20230350213).
Consider claim 20. Hoellwarth in view of Kim et al does not specifically disclose The electronic component of claim 15, further comprising a battery, wherein the battery is a primary power source of the head-mountable device. However Knoppert et al in at least paragraph 0044 discloses a removable compute stick for an HMD device wherein the power source for the HMD device (e.g., a battery) is located on the removable computer stick. Therefore it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the battery of the HMD of Hoellwarth to be on the portable electronic device as disclosed by Knoppert et al In order to provide a more comfortable experience for the user, a weight of the HMD device may be reduced, thereby limiting the weight placed on the user's face when worn (Knoppert et al paragraph 0044).
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 8 and 10-14 are allowed.
The following is a statement of reasons for the indication of allowable subject matter:
Consider independent claim 8. The closest prior art Knoppert et al (pub # 20230350213) A head-mountable assembly, (paragraph 0044, HMD device 154).
comprising:
a processor within a display-free housing; (paragraph 0044, compute stick may contain the HMD processor 170).
a display screen; (paragraph 0045, HMD video display 162).
and a display unit including a display forming an integral part of the display unit; (Fig. 2 and paragraph 0045, HMD device 154 comprising HMD hood 178 that contains the HMD video display 162).
However none of the prior art, either alone or in combination, teaches or renders obvious (in combination with all of the other limitations of the claim) the display unit defining a slot to removably receive the processor; wherein: in a first mode, the processor is positioned within the slot and adjacent to the display screen and configured to provide electronic image data to the display; in a second mode, the processor is removed from the slot and is configured to provide the electronic image data to the display; and the display screen presents an image based on the electronic image data.
Claims 10-14 are allowed due to their dependency from claim 8.
Conclusion
Applicant's amendment necessitated the new ground(s) of rejection presented in this Office action. Accordingly, THIS ACTION IS MADE FINAL. See MPEP § 706.07(a). Applicant is reminded of the extension of time policy as set forth in 37 CFR 1.136(a).
A shortened statutory period for reply to this final action is set to expire THREE MONTHS from the mailing date of this action. In the event a first reply is filed within TWO MONTHS of the mailing date of this final action and the advisory action is not mailed until after the end of the THREE-MONTH shortened statutory period, then the shortened statutory period will expire on the date the advisory action is mailed, and any nonprovisional extension fee (37 CFR 1.17(a)) pursuant to 37 CFR 1.136(a) will be calculated from the mailing date of the advisory action. In no event, however, will the statutory period for reply expire later than SIX MONTHS from the mailing date of this final action.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to CHAYCE R BIBBEE whose telephone number is (571)270-7222. The examiner can normally be reached Mon-Thurs 8:00-6:00.
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/CHAYCE R BIBBEE/Examiner, Art Unit 2624
