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 .
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 112
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 112(b):
(b) CONCLUSION.—The specification shall conclude with one or more claims particularly pointing out and distinctly claiming the subject matter which the inventor or a joint inventor regards as the invention.
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), second paragraph:
The specification shall conclude with one or more claims particularly pointing out and distinctly claiming the subject matter which the applicant regards as his invention.
Claims 5, 8, 13 and 16 are rejected under U.S.C. 112 (b) as being indefinite for failing to particularly point out and distinctly claim the subject matter which the inventor regards as the invention.
The recitation “in a case that” renders the scope of the claims indefinite because it is uncertain whether the subsequently recited steps are required limitations of the claimed invention or are conditional statements that may or may not occur. Accordingly, the metes and bounds of the claims cannot be determined with reasonable certainty.
For examination purposes, the claims should be interpreted as ‘wherein a position…’.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 102
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)(1) the claimed invention was patented, described in a printed publication, or in public use, on sale, or otherwise available to the public before the effective filing date of the claimed invention.
Claims 1, 9, 17 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a) as being anticipated by US9530395 (Friesen), hereinafter US’395.
Regarding claim 1, US’395 discloses ‘A non-transitory computer-readable medium (US’395, col. 3, lines 21-23:“each module is a relatively simple controller board, such as an ARDUINO Board, and associated memory”; col. 7, lines 2-3:“modules which may selectively be added include memory”) recording a timbre setting program that causes a computer equipped with a displayer and an input unit that accepts a user operation to execute timbre setting processing for setting a timbre (US’395, col. 7, lines 40-47:”The present invention also includes some of the functions of a prior art, software synthesizer (softsynth) … Connected to the PC … a display … keyboard 53 and mouse 55. The user-musician controls the Softsynth synthesizer via the keyboard 53 and mouse 55”), wherein the timbre setting program causes the computer to execute processing comprising:
displaying modules constituting the timbre on the displayer (US’395, [Abstract]:“The hardware modules provide user interface elements corresponding to parameters of their softsynth counterparts”; col. 8 lines 32-54:“An oscillator module 75…”, “A filter module 87…” , “ A low frequency oscillator (LFO) module 111…”, col. 1, lines 61-67: “. Examples of modules for a modular synthesizer are units dedicated to act as one of the following: Voltage controlled oscillators (VCO) … low frequency, mid-frequency, and high frequency oscillators (LFO, MFO. HFO), complex power sources providing ADSR contours or envelopes … ” , displaying multiple modules that collectively constitute the timbre);
acquiring, in the modules displayed, a module selected via the input unit as a setting target module (US’395, “A wave shape selector 81 is centrally located. A series of octave selector buttons 83…”; six waveform selectors 113…”, teaches user selection of a displayed module/function through input controls, thereby acquiring the selected module as the setting target.¶[0007]:“the sound modifying utility presenting … on a display … one or more audio waveform defining/modifying graphical user interfaces”, teaches selection of graphical timbre elements for editing);
and displaying a setting area where the module acquired is set on the displayer (US’395, col. 8, lines 34-35:”A wave shape selector 81 … associated volume slider control 85 ...”; lines 45-46: “frequency slider control 99 and a resonance slider control 101 ... ”; lines 56-58:”LFO speed slider control 119 … input modulation slider control 121 … “,displaying the parameter-setting area associated with the selected module.)
Regarding claim 9, US’395 discloses ‘A timbre setting device, comprising: an input part, accepting a user operation;
a module display part, displaying modules constituting a timbre;
an acquisition part, acquiring, in the modules displayed by the module display part, a module selected via the input part as a setting target module;
and a setting area display part, displaying a setting area where the module acquired by the acquisition part is set. (Claim 9 corresponds to claim 1)
Regarding claim 17, US’395 discloses ‘A timbre setting method, executed by a timbre setting device equipped with an input part that accepts a user operation, the timbre setting method comprising: displaying modules constituting a timbre;
acquiring, in the modules displayed, a module selected via the input part as a setting target module;
and displaying a setting area where the module acquired is set. (Claim 17 corresponds to claim 1)
Claims 1,6,7,9, 14, 15 and 17 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a) as being anticipated by US20180225083 (Barkley), hereinafter US’083.
Regarding claim 1, US’083 discloses ‘A non-transitory computer-readable medium (US’083, ¶[0144]:” a computer program stored on a non-transitory computer - readable storage medium … by one or more processors … as a tablet application”) recording a timbre setting program that causes a computer equipped with a displayer and an input unit that accepts a user operation to execute timbre setting processing for setting a timbre wherein the timbre setting program causes the computer to execute processing (US’083, [Abstract]:“one or more sound modification interfaces that enable one or more users to access a digital waveform generator/modifier utility … so as to graphically map aspects of that audio waveform’s generation”) comprising:
displaying modules constituting the timbre on the displayer (US’083, see Figs. 1-8, displays separate graphical editing interfaces for different timbre components, including ADSR envelope, waveform, filters, phase overtone, relative pitch, resonance, and other timbre parameters; ¶[0025]:“receiving one or more selections relevant to one or more musical elements using the interface…”; ¶[0017]:“the interface includes one or more grids…receiving input at the interface … so as to define or modify an audio waveform’s timbre”);
acquiring, in the modules displayed, a module selected via the input unit as a setting target module (US’083, [Abstract]:“the sound engine enables user manipulation of the Bezier paths, including touch input modification of the paths…”; ¶[0007]:“the sound modifying utility presenting … on a display … one or more audio waveform defining/modifying graphical user interfaces”; ¶[0025]:“receiving one or more selections relevant to one or more musical elements using the interface…”; ¶[0017]:“the interface includes one or more grids…receiving input at the interface … so as to define or modify an audio waveform’s timbre”, teaches selection of graphical timbre elements for editing);
and displaying a setting area where the module acquired is set on the displayer (US’083, see Figs. 1-8, each displayed graphical interface provides the editable parameter region in which the user modifies the selected timbre parameter, such as the ADSR envelope, waveform, resonance, filter or overtone grids through displayed Bezier paths and nodes; ¶[0008]:“the graphical user interfaces include a graphical map of one or more audio elements as parametric representations”; “the parametric representations … are definable and/or modifiable by the graphical user interface”; “frequency, pitch and amplitude envelopes, harmonic structure … or directly upon the waveform”)
Regarding claim 6, US’083 discloses ‘The non-transitory computer-readable medium according to claim 1, as discussed above.
Barkley further discloses ‘wherein the timbre setting program causes the computer to further execute processing comprising: performing a selection display indicating that the module acquired in the modules displayed is selected as the setting target module (US’083, [0132]:”Anchor points, sections of paths between anchor points, and whole paths can be selected”, displaying a selected editing object as the current target for editing; [0133]: “An individual anchor point on a curved path or at the end of a curved path can be selected to show its Bezier handles”, selection causes a visual indication – the Bezier handles are displayed to identify the selected object) .
Regarding claim 7, US’083 discloses ‘The non-transitory computer-readable medium according to claim 6, as discussed above.
Barkley further discloses ‘wherein the selection display is a display in which the module acquired in the modules displayed is surrounded by a region of a predetermined shape (US’083 [0000]:”An individual anchor point … can be selected to show its Bezier handles”, the selected object is visually distinguished using surrounding editing handles); Fig. 13 shows selected anchor surrounded by predetermined graphical editing elements).
Regarding claim 9, US’083 discloses ‘A timbre setting device, comprising: an input part, accepting a user operation;
a module display part, displaying modules constituting a timbre;
an acquisition part, acquiring, in the modules displayed by the module display part, a module selected via the input part as a setting target module;
and a setting area display part, displaying a setting area where the module acquired by the acquisition part is set. (Claim 9 corresponds to claim 1)
Regarding claim 14, US’083 discloses ‘The timbre setting device according to claim 9, as discussed above.
further comprising: a selection display, indicating that the module acquired by the acquisition part in the modules displayed by the module display part is selected as the setting target module. (Claim 14 corresponds to claim 6)
Regarding claim 15, US’083 discloses ‘The timbre setting device according to claim 14, as discussed above.
wherein the selection display is a display in which the module acquired by the acquisition part in the modules displayed by the module display part is surrounded by a region of a predetermined shape. (Claim 15 corresponds to claim 7)
Regarding claim 17, US’083 discloses ‘A timbre setting method, executed by a timbre setting device equipped with an input part that accepts a user operation, the timbre setting method comprising: displaying modules constituting a timbre;
acquiring, in the modules displayed, a module selected via the input part as a setting target module;
and displaying a setting area where the module acquired is set. (Claim 17 corresponds to claim 1)
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.
Claims 2,3,10 and 11 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over US’395, in view of US5898118 (Tamura), hereinafter US’118.
Regarding claim 2, US’395 discloses ‘The non-transitory computer-readable medium according to claim 1, as discussed above.
‘wherein, in displaying the modules, a module is arranged and displayed according to a correlation between the module and other modules
US’395 further discloses displaying synthesizer modules arranged according to their functional relationships (US’395, col. 9, lines 18-21:“The physical arrangement of modules is logical for signal generation and modification”, arranging displayed modules according to their operational relationship within the synthesizer)
US’395, does not expressly disclose ‘displaying the modules, a module is arranged and displayed according to a correlation between the module and other modules; and in acquiring the module, a plurality of highly correlated modules selected via the input unit are acquired together.
However, US118 discloses ’displaying the modules, a module is arranged and displayed according to a correlation between the module and other modules (US’118, col. 8 line 67 and col 9 lines 1-2:“the loader operates according to a compatibility criterion for selecting a software module only if the same is compatible with other software modules” ; col. 8, lines 54-57:“the loader operates according to an integrity criterion for selecting a software module together with one or more of an indispensable software submodule”, arranging and acquiring modules based on their relationship with other modules and acquiring related modules together);
and in acquiring the module, a plurality of highly correlated modules selected via the input unit are acquired together (US’118, col. 7, lines 52-56:“the ABC module 303, one or more of the three ABC pattern submodules 306-308 are selectively loaded into the primary storage” ; col. 8, lines 54-57:“the loader operates according to an integrity criterion for selecting a software module…”, acquiring multiple correlated modules together based upon their functional relationship).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art prior to the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify US’395 module arrangement with US’118’s correlated module loading technique so that the selecting one module automatically acquires functionally related modules, thereby ensuing compatible module configurations, preserving functional dependencies among modules and reducing user configuration operations.
Regarding claim 3, US’395 discloses ‘The non-transitory computer-readable medium according to claim 2, as discussed above.
US’ 395 further discloses ‘wherein the timbre is configured by combining a plurality of partials each comprising a plurality of the modules;
in displaying the modules, a module is arranged and displayed for each partial (US’395, [Abstract]:“The hardware modules provide user interface elements corresponding to parameters of their softsynth counterparts..”, arranging modules according to their functional relationship within the synthesizer architecture);
US’395 does not expressly disclose ‘and in acquiring the module, equivalent modules comprised in each of different partials selected via the input unit are acquired together.
However, US’395 discloses ‘and in acquiring the module, equivalent modules comprised in each of different partials selected via the input unit are acquired together (US’118, col. 7, lines 52-56:”The ABC module 303, one or more of the two ABC engine submodules 304, 305 and one or more of the three ABC pattern submodules 306–308 are selectively loaded into the primary storage”; col. 13, lines 16-17“occasionally, two or more ABC pattern submodules may be loaded” ; col. 13, lines 35-36:“two or more converter modules may be loaded into the primary storage”, selecting multiple corresponding subordinate modules together).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art prior to the effective filing date of the claimed invention to organize US’395’s synthesizer modules using US’118’s hierarchical module organization and coordinated loading technique so that the corresponding modules associated with higher-level functional groups are acquired together, simplifying configuration of complex timbre structures while maintaining consistency among related modules and improving compatibility.
Regarding claim 10, US’395 discloses ‘The timbre setting device according to claim 9, as discussed above.
wherein the module display part arranges and displays a module according to a correlation between the module and other modules;
and the acquisition part acquires a plurality of highly correlated modules selected via the input part together. (Claim 10 corresponds to claim 2)
Regarding claim 11, US’395 discloses ‘The timbre setting device according to claim 10, as discussed above.
wherein the timbre is configured by combining a plurality of partials each comprising a plurality of the modules;
the module display part arranges and displays a module for each partial;
and the acquisition part acquires equivalent modules comprised in each of different partials selected via the input part together. (Claim 11 corresponds to claim 3)
Regarding claim 18, US’395 discloses ‘The timbre setting method according to claim 17, as discussed above.
wherein, in displaying the modules, a module is arranged and displayed according to a correlation between the module and other modules;
and in acquiring the module, a plurality of highly correlated modules selected via the input part are acquired together. (Claim 18 corresponds to claim 2)
Regarding claim 19. The timbre setting method according to claim 18, as discussed above.
wherein the timbre is configured by combining a plurality of partials each comprising a plurality of the modules;
in displaying the modules, a module is arranged and displayed for each partial;
and in acquiring the module, equivalent modules comprised in each of different partials selected via the input part are acquired together. (Claim 19 corresponds to claim 3)
Claims 4, 12 and 20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over US’395, in view of US’118, in further view of US10446129 (Garncarz), hereinafter, US’129.
Regarding claim 4, US’395 (in view of US’118) discloses ‘The non-transitory computer-readable medium according to claim 3, as discussed above.
US’395 (in view of US’118) does not expressly disclose ‘wherein, in displaying the modules, the partials are arranged and displayed side by side in an up-down direction.
However, US’129 discloses ‘wherein, in displaying the modules, the partials are arranged and displayed side by side in an up-down direction (US’129, col. 10, lines 30-33:“the display screen 110 may be described as a ‘vertical’ view because each track may be controlled by user inputs an display regions in columns associated with each of the tracks”, displaying grouped sound-control elements in a vertical arrangement, each group occupying its own column; “ … ; col. 13, lines 45-47 and col. 14, lines 23-25: ‘vertical’ view includes parameter icons in columns, each of the columns associated with a respective track”, displaying parameter groups in vertically oriented columns positioned adjacent to one another).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art prior to the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the modular synthesizer interface of US’395, as arranged according to US’118, to use the vertical column layout from US’129 because organizing related sound generation parameter groups into adjacent vertical columns improves organization, enables efficient user selection and editing of corresponding groups, and provides a structured interface for efficiently modifying sound-generation components.
Regarding claim 12, US’395 (in view of US’118) discloses ‘The timbre setting device according to claim 11, as discussed above.
wherein the module display part arranges and displays the partials side by side in an up-down direction. (Claim 12 corresponds to claim 4)
Regarding claim 20, US’395 (in view of US’118) discloses ‘The timbre setting method according to claim 19, as discussed above.
wherein, in displaying the modules, the partials are arranged and displayed side by side in an up-down direction. (Claim 20 corresponds to claim 4)
Claims 5 and 13 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over US’395, in view of US’118, and in further view of US’083 and US10152300 (Brown), hereinafter US’300.
Regarding claim 5, US’395 (in view of US’118) discloses ‘The non-transitory computer-readable medium according to claim 2, as discussed above.
US’395 does not expressly disclose ‘wherein, in acquiring the module, in a case that a position between modules is specified via the input unit, modules arranged in the vicinity of the specified position are acquired together.
However, US’083 discloses ‘wherein, in acquiring the module, in a case that a position between modules is specified via the input unit (US’083,¶¶[0126]-[0127]:“The Y position along the Bezier curve is calculated in relation to a … value input, between one node to another” … and … t = a position between nodes … along a cubic Bezier path segment”, user-specified position between displayed nodes/modules using graphical input interface),
US’083 does not expressly disclose ‘modules arranged in the vicinity of the specified position are acquired together.
However, US’300 discloses ‘modules arranged in the vicinity of the specified position are acquired together (US’300, col. 38, lines 49-52“user input … is a request to move the current focus from application icon 532-e to application 532-d”; col. 38, lines 54-58:“the current focus has moved from application icon 532-d in response to user input… application icon 532-d is visually distinguished from the other use interface objects to indicate that the current focus is over application icon 532-d”, acquiring nearby displayed user-interface object in response to a specified input position/direction by moving the current focus to the nearby object).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art prior to the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the modular synthesizer interface of US’395, as arranged according to US’118, to incorporate the position-based module US’083 and the neighboring module acquisition technique taught by US’300 in order to improve the efficiency of selecting an editing related modules.
Regarding claim 13, US’395 (in view of US’118) discloses ‘The timbre setting device according to claim 10, as discussed above.
wherein in a case that a position between modules is specified via the input part, the acquisition part acquires modules arranged in the vicinity of the specified position together. (Claim 13 corresponds to claim 5)
Claims 8 and 16 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over US’083, in view of US’300.
Regarding claim 8, US’083 discloses ‘The non-transitory computer-readable medium according to claim 6, as discussed above.
Barkley further discloses ‘wherein the timbre setting program causes the computer to further execute processing comprising: in a case that a position is specified via the input unit (US’083,¶¶[0126]-[0127]:“The Y position along the Bezier curve is calculated in relation to a … value input”),
US’083 does not expressly disclose ‘acquiring a module arranged in the vicinity of the specified position; and performing a candidate display indicating that, in the modules displayed, the module acquired that is arranged in the vicinity of the specified position is a candidate for the setting target module, and in acquiring the module, in a case that an instruction to confirm the candidate display is given via the input unit, the module acquired that is arranged in the vicinity of the specified position is acquired as the setting target module.
However Brown discloses ‘acquiring a module arranged in the vicinity of the specified position (US’300, col. 5, lines 25-35:”…receive an input that corresponds to a request to change a location of the current focus .. the input having a direction and a magnitude” and “ … move the current focus from the first user interface object to a second user interface object where the second user interface object is selected for the current focus in accordance with the direction and/or the magnitude of the input”, specifying an input position/direction and acquiring a nearby user-interface object by moving the current focus to the second UI object according to the input);
and performing a candidate display indicating that, in the modules displayed, the module acquired that is arranged in the vicinity of the specified position is a candidate for the setting target module (US’300, Fig. 8A, col. 38, lines 36-40:“…application icon 532-e is visually distinguished from the other user interface objects…” and “.. has a highlighted border … to indicate that the current focus is over application 532-e”, displaying the acquired object as the current focus by surrounding it with a highlighted border, thereby indicating it is the object presently available for selection (candidate)) ,
and in acquiring the module, in a case that an instruction to confirm the candidate display is given via the input unit, the module acquired that is arranged in the vicinity of the specified position is acquired as the setting target module (US’300, col. 5, lines 33-34:“… the second user interface object is selected for the current focus…. ; Fig. 8A, after the object has become the current focus (candidate), the user confirms the selection through the input operation, resulting in that object becoming the selected object).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art prior to the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the graphical timbre editing interface of US’083 to incorporate US’300’s focus-navigation and candidate highlighting a nearby object selected according to directional user input provides clear feedback regarding the current selection target prior to confirmation. This combination would have improved user accuracy and usability by reducing selection errors while selecting among displayed timbre modules.
Regarding claim 16, US’083 discloses ‘The timbre setting device according to claim 14, as discussed above.
wherein in a case that a position is specified via the input part, a module arranged in the vicinity of the specified position is acquired;
and the timbre setting device further comprises a candidate display indicating that, in the modules displayed by the module display part, the module acquired that is arranged in the vicinity of the specified position is a candidate for the setting target module,
and in a case that an instruction to confirm the candidate display is given via the input part, the acquisition part acquires the module acquired that is arranged in the vicinity of the specified position as the setting target module. (Claim 16 corresponds to claim 8)
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure. USRE37654 teaches synthesis modules.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to NICOLE K GILLESPIE whose telephone number is (571)482-4187. The examiner can normally be reached Monday-Friday 7:30-5pm.
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If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Dedei K Hammond can be reached at (571)270-3819. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/NICOLE K GILLESPIE/Examiner, Art Unit 2837
/DEDEI K HAMMOND/Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 2837
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