DETAILED ACTION
This action is responsive to patent application as filed on 9/12/2023 which is a CON of 17/452,894 filed 10/29/2021, now U.S. Pat. No: 11,790,122.
This action is made Non-Final.
Claims 2 – 21 are pending in the case. Claims 1 and 14 are independent claims. Claim 1 has been cancelled and new claims 2-21 have been added via preliminary amendment filed 10/16/2023.
Drawings
The drawings filed on 11/30/2023 have been accepted by the Examiner.
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) 2-21 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(2) as being anticipated by Jain (USPAT 11,250,607).
Claim 2:
Jain discloses A computer implemented method, comprising: forming a point-map-to-line-segment array from path data collected from a plurality of vector-based objects wherein the point-map-to-line-segment array includes one or more points from the collected path data and identifies one or more line segments from the collected path data with each point and wherein each line segment is a clamped line segment that includes two end points from the collected path data (fig. 3; col. 10 lines 7-14; col. 12 lines 55-67: connecting endpoints to form a point-map-to-line-segment array, such as a straight line approximation); identifying a best point-on-line based on proximity of a sense area encompassing a cursor to a locus of points associated with one of the one or more line segments (fig. 12; col. 30 lines 1-15: identifying a best match from the target angular bin based on the shortest distance to a cursor point of cursor associated with a line segment); and snapping the sense area to the best point-on-line based on a selected mode of operation (fig. 12; col. 29 lines 9-15: snapping the cursor to a position, such as an angular snapping guide).
Claim 3:
Jain discloses responsive to the selected mode of operation being point snap mode, snapping the cursor to the current best point-on-line (fig. 12; col. 29 lines 9-15: snapping the cursor to the angular snapping guide).
Claim 4:
Jain discloses responsive to the selected mode of operation being line snap mode, snapping the cursor to an endpoint of the line segment associated with the current best point-on-line (fig. 12; col. 30 lines 42-60: snapping the cursor to an endpoint of a line segment associated with a current best point-on-line by means of selecting a target angular linear segment for the cursor having the shortest distance to the cursor point).
Claim 5:
Jain discloses identifying a candidate best point-on-line associated with a candidate line segment within the sense area based on a comparison of proximity of a location of the cursor to the candidate best point-on-line and proximity of the location of the cursor to the current best point-on-line, and responsive to proximity of the location of the cursor to the candidate best point-on-line being less than proximity of the location of the cursor to the current best point-on-line, replacing the current best point-on-line with the candidate best point-on-line (figs. 7C & 12; col. 23 lines 37-63; col. 30 lines 1-15: identifying a candidate linear segment, comparing the difference to the snapping tolerance, and snapping the cursor onto the candidate linear segment having the shortest distance as being the best candidate point-on-line to the cursor point).
Claim 6:
Jain discloses wherein the one or more points of each object is an end point (fig. 8; col. 26 lines 5-29: including an end point).
Claim 7:
Jain discloses storing the current best point-on-line in a snap point collection array (col. 5 lines 1-15 col. 32 lines 20-26: storing the best or closest linear segment in the angular bins of data storage).
Claim 8:
Jain discloses identifying a snap end point closest to the current best point-on-line from the two end points of the line segment associated with the current best point-on-line (fig. 5; col. 16 lines 1-12: identifying a snap end point of an angular linear segment closest to a current best point-on-line from two end points of the linear segment).
Claim 9:
Jain discloses ordering the two end points of the line segment associated with the current best point-on- line and storing the snap end point in a snap point collection array (col. 23 lines 22-35: determining a joining angle connecting the endpoints of the two linear segments).
Claim 10:
Jain discloses retrieving, from the point-map-to-line-segment array, end points of other line segments associated with the snap end point (fig. 7C; col. 23 lines 37-50: retrieving end points of other line segments, as shown in fig. 7C).
Claim 11:
Jain discloses predicting a next end point based on proximity of the cursor location with end points of other line segments associated with the snap end point (col. 16 lines 1-12: projecting a next point based on proximity of the cursor location).
Claim 12:
Jain discloses snapping the cursor on the user interface to the next end point, linking the next end point and its associated line segment to the snap end point and storing the next end point and both end points of the associated line segment in the snap point collection array (fig. 8; col. 26 lines 5-28: snapping the cursor to a projected end point and storing the projected end point and other end points in the data storage).
Claim 13:
Jain discloses responsive to committing to the current best point-on-line, further comprising snapping the cursor to the current best point-on-line and storing the current best point-on-line, and both end points of the associated line segment in a snap point collection array (col. 30 lines 1-23; col. 32 lines 21-27: snapping a cursor onto an angular snapping guide, which is the current best point-on-line, and storing the angular snapping guide in the data storage).
Claim 14:
Jain discloses A computer program product embodied on a non-transitory computer- readable storage medium (Abstract) and comprising instructions that, when executed by at least one computing device, is configured to cause the at least one computing device to: form a point-map-to-line-segment array from path data collected from a plurality of vector-based objects wherein the point-map-to-line-segment array includes one or more points from the collected path data and identifies one or more line segments from the collected path data with each point and wherein each line segment is a clamped line segment that includes two end points from the collected path data (fig. 3; col. 10 lines 7-14; col. 12 lines 55-67: connecting endpoints to form a point-map-to-line-segment array, such as a straight line approximation); identify a best point-on-line based on proximity of a sense area encompassing a cursor to a locus of points associated with one of the one or more line segments (fig. 12; col. 30 lines 1-15: identifying a best match from the target angular bin based on the shortest distance to a cursor point of cursor associated with a line segment); and snap the sense area to the best point-on-line based on a selected mode of operation (fig. 12; col. 29 lines 9-15: snapping the cursor to a position, such as an angular snapping guide).
Claims 15-21:
The subject matter recited in claims 15-21 corresponds to the subject matter recited in claims 3, 5 and 8-12, respectively. Thus Jain discloses every limitation of claims 15-21, as indicated in the above rejections for claims 3, 5 and 8-12.
Note
The Examiner cites particular columns, line numbers and/or paragraph numbers in the references as applied to the claims below for the convenience of the Applicant(s). Although the specified citations are representative of the teachings in the art and are applied to the specific limitations within the individual claim, other passages and figures may apply as well. It is respectfully requested that, in preparing responses, the Applicant fully consider the references in their entirety as potentially teaching all or part of the claimed invention, as well as the context of the passage as taught by the prior art or disclosed by the Examiner. See MPEP 2123.
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure and is listed in the attached PTOL-892 form.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to MOHAMMED-IBRAHIM ZUBERI whose telephone number is (571)270-7761. The examiner can normally be reached on M-Th 8-6 Fri: 7-12/OFF.
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/MOHAMMED H ZUBERI/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2178
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