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 .
Election/Restrictions
Applicant’s election without traverse of Group II, drawn to Claims 13-18, in the reply filed on 12/19/2025 is acknowledged.
Priority
Receipt is acknowledged that application is a National Stage application of PCT PCT/CN2022/083024. Priority to CN202110350834.5 with a priority date of 03/31/2021 is acknowledged under 35 USC 119(e) and 37 CFR 1.78.
Information Disclosure Statement
The IDS(s) dated 1/21/2025 and 10/12/2024 have been considered and placed in the application file.
Claim Objections
Claim 18 is objected to because of the following informalities: The claim recites “to indicate to determine a primary camera.” This appears to be a grammatical error/redundancy – it is unclear if both “indicate” and “determine” are intended. Appropriate correction is required.
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) 13-18 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as obvious over Watanabe et al (JP2019145017A, hereafter referred to as Watanabe) in view of Shimura et al (US 20180146218 A1, hereafter referred to as Shimura).
Claim 13
Regarding Claim 13, Watanabe teaches A subject selection method implemented by a terminal device, the method comprising:
displaying a target interface comprising a rotation axis selection control (Watanabe in ¶7 discloses “users can freely select the viewpoint by touching the screen of a dedicated controller”),
wherein the rotation axis selection control is configured to select a rotation axis (Watanabe in ¶7, 75 discloses selecting viewpoints with a controller where in order to obtain certain viewpoints, the view is rotated around the x-axis, y-axis, and z-axis, with the origin of the world coordinate system as the center);
receiving a selection operation for a target rotation axis (Watanabe in ¶7, 26, 75 discloses acquiring free viewpoint video for objects such as soccer players, selecting viewpoints with a controller where in order to obtain certain viewpoints, the view is rotated around the x-axis, y-axis, and z-axis, with the origin of the world coordinate system as the center); and
sending a selection indication for the target rotation axis to a server (Watanabe in ¶7, 26, 75 discloses selecting viewpoints with a controller where in order to obtain certain viewpoints, the view is rotated around the x-axis, y-axis, and z-axis, with the origin of the world coordinate system as the center; Watanabe ¶60 discloses server viewpoint rendering with viewpoint information from the terminal).
Watanabe does not explicitly teach all of wherein the target rotation axis is configured to generate a free-viewpoint video with the target rotation axis as a rotation center of a viewing angle.
However, Shimura teaches wherein the target rotation axis is configured to generate a free-viewpoint video with the target rotation axis as a rotation center of a viewing angle (Shimura in ¶109-112-120, Fig. 13 discloses obtaining free viewpoint motion images where a viewpoint is moved while being rotated about the specific axis in a free viewpoint space).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the invention of Watanabe by generating free-viewpoint video using a user-selected rotation axis as the explicit rotation center that is taught by Shimura, since both reference are analogous art in -the field of free-viewpoint video generation systems; thus, one of ordinary skilled in the art would be motivated to combine the references since Watanabe’s terminal-based viewpoint selection and rotation around fixed world coordinate axes with Shimura’s rotation around a user-defined axis in free-viewpoint space yields the predictable result of enabling multiple viewing angles centered on a selected rotation axis, thereby improving the viewing experience for users.
Thus, the claimed subject matter would have been obvious to a person having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention.
Claim 14
Regarding Claim 14, Watanabe in view of Shimura teaches The method according to claim 13, wherein the rotation axis selection control is configured to select the rotation axis from a location point in a target region (Shimura in ¶109-112-120, Fig. 13 discloses a scene, such as a dance scene, where acquiring free viewpoint motion images of specific people/objects involves a viewpoint being moved while being rotated about the specific axis in a free viewpoint space).
Claim 15
Regarding Claim 15, Watanabe in view of Shimura teaches The method according to claim 13,
wherein the rotation axis selection control is configured to select the rotation axis from a plurality of subjects in a target region (Shimura in ¶109-112-120, Fig. 13 discloses a scene, such as a dance scene, where acquiring free viewpoint motion images of specific people/objects involves a viewpoint being moved while being rotated about the specific axis in a free viewpoint space),
wherein the target rotation axis is used to indicate a target subject, and the target subject is further used to determine a primary camera (Watanabe in ¶33 discloses free viewpoint technology in which an object in 3-D space is approximated from multiple camera images. The “real camera cam” whose line of sight angle is closest to that of the virtual viewpoint is viewed as the “primary camera”), and
wherein a region in which the target subject is located in the free-viewpoint video is related to a region in which the target subject is in an image acquired by the primary camera (Watanabe in ¶33 discloses free viewpoint technology in which an object in 3-D space is approximated from multiple camera images. The “real camera cam” whose line of sight angle is closest to that of the virtual viewpoint is viewed as the “primary camera”).
Claim 16
Regarding Claim 16, Watanabe teaches An apparatus comprising:
at least one processor (Watanabe in ¶1 discloses a system and method for playing back replay footage of free viewpoint video); and
one or more memories coupled to the at least one processor (Watanabe in ¶1 discloses a system and method for playing back replay footage of free viewpoint video) and storing programming instructions for execution by the at least one processor to cause the apparatus to:
display a target interface comprising a rotation axis selection control (Watanabe in ¶7 discloses “users can freely select the viewpoint by touching the screen of a dedicated controller”),
wherein the rotation axis selection control is configured to instruct to select a rotation axis (Watanabe in ¶7, 75 discloses selecting viewpoints with a controller where in order to obtain certain viewpoints, the view is rotated around the x-axis, y-axis, and z-axis, with the origin of the world coordinate system as the center);
receive a selection operation for a target rotation axis (Watanabe in ¶7, 26, 75 discloses acquiring free viewpoint video for objects such as soccer players, selecting viewpoints with a controller where in order to obtain certain viewpoints, the view is rotated around the x-axis, y-axis, and z-axis, with the origin of the world coordinate system as the center); and
send a selection indication for the target rotation axis to a server (Watanabe in ¶7, 26, 75 discloses selecting viewpoints with a controller where in order to obtain certain viewpoints, the view is rotated around the x-axis, y-axis, and z-axis, with the origin of the world coordinate system as the center).
Watanabe does not explicitly teach all of wherein the target rotation axis is configured to generate a free-viewpoint video with the target rotation axis as a rotation center of a viewing angle.
However, Shimura teaches wherein the target rotation axis is configured to generate a free-viewpoint video with the target rotation axis as a rotation center of a viewing angle (Shimura in ¶109-112-120, Fig. 13 discloses obtaining free viewpoint motion images where a viewpoint is moved while being rotated about the specific axis in a free viewpoint space).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the invention of Watanabe by generating free-viewpoint video using a user-selected rotation axis as the explicit rotation center that is taught by Shimura, since both reference are analogous art in -the field of free-viewpoint video generation systems; thus, one of ordinary skilled in the art would be motivated to combine the references since Watanabe’s terminal-based viewpoint selection and rotation around fixed world coordinate axes with Shimura’s rotation around a user-defined axis in free-viewpoint space yields the predictable result of enabling multiple viewing angles centered on a selected rotation axis, thereby improving the viewing experience for users.
Thus, the claimed subject matter would have been obvious to a person having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention.
Claim 17
Regarding Claim 17, Watanabe in view of Shimura teaches The apparatus according to claim 16, wherein the rotation axis selection control is configured to select the rotation axis from a location point in a target region (Shimura in ¶109-112-120, Fig. 13 discloses a scene, such as a dance scene, where acquiring free viewpoint motion images of specific people/objects involves a viewpoint being moved while being rotated about the specific axis in a free viewpoint space).
Claim 18
Regarding Claim 18, Watanabe in view of Shimura teaches The apparatus according to claim 16,
wherein the rotation axis selection control is configured to select the rotation axis from a plurality of subjects in a target region (Shimura in ¶109-112-120, Fig. 13 discloses a scene, such as a dance scene, where acquiring free viewpoint motion images of specific people/objects involves a viewpoint being moved while being rotated about the specific axis in a free viewpoint space),
wherein the target rotation axis is used to indicate a target subject, and the target subject is further used to determine a primary camera (Watanabe in ¶33 discloses free viewpoint technology in which an object in 3-D space is approximated from multiple camera images. The “real camera cam” whose line of sight angle is closest to that of the virtual viewpoint is viewed as the “primary camera”), and
wherein a region in which the target subject is located in the free-viewpoint video is related to a region in which the target subject is in an image acquired by the primary camera (Watanabe in ¶33 discloses free viewpoint technology in which an object in 3-D space is approximated from multiple camera images. The “real camera cam” whose line of sight angle is closest to that of the virtual viewpoint is viewed as the “primary camera”).
Conclusion
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/J.P.C./Examiner, Art Unit 2674
/Ross Varndell/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2674
Date: 1/7/2025