18513450DETAILED 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 .
This action is in response to the Amendment filed on 12/17/2025.
Claims 1-20 are pending. Claims 1-3, 12-13, 20 have been amended.
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) 1-3, 12-13, 20 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Terre et al. (US 20220229534 A1, hereinafter Terre), in view of Marlow et al. (US 20170332044 A1, hereinafter Marlow).
Regarding Claim 12, Terre teaches a computing device (Terre, Fig. 2, Paragraph [0086], “System 200 may be computer-based and may include computer system components, wearable appliances, workstations, tablets, handheld computing devices”), comprising a memory and a processor (Terre, Fig. 3, Element 360, Processing Device), wherein the memory (Terre, Fig. 3, Element 311 Memory Devices) stores computer-readable instructions that upon execution by the processor cause the processor to perform operations comprising (Terre, Paragraph [0098], “Memory device 311, shown in FIG. 3, may contain software modules to execute processes consistent with the present disclosure”): presenting a live streaming interface (Terre, Paragraph [0113], “the image data may include pixel data streams, digital images, digital video streams, data derived from captured images”), wherein the live streaming interface comprises a virtual character (Terre, Paragraph [0082], “the digital signals may be configured to cause the extended reality appliance to present virtual content…The virtual content may include a virtual object… a virtual character or persona),the virtual character being an animated avatar representing a user (Terre, Paragraph [0162], “A virtual object may include a representation…a two-dimensional virtual object, a three-dimensional virtual object, an animated virtual object; [0082], “the digital signals may be configured to cause the extended reality appliance to present virtual content…The virtual content may include a virtual object… a virtual character or persona <read on a user>”) [[ for presentation to a remote audience as part of a live video stream; ]]; generating a target motion instruction for the virtual character (Terre, Paragraph [0123], “communicate with other XR units 204 to obtain virtual input 432 ( e.g., a virtual object shared with XR unit 204 or a gesture of avatar <read on virtual character > detected in the virtual environment)” [0384], The presented virtual content may include a virtual object, inanimate virtual object, animate virtual object configured to change over time or in response to triggers…a virtual character or persona, a virtual computer screen, a virtual widget, or any other format for presenting information virtually. [0386], the plurality of virtual objects may move in the environment in response to detected movements of the wearable extended reality appliance), wherein the target motion instruction is generated based on user manipulation of a physical input device, and not based on sensing or tracking the spatial position or orientation of the user's body, head, or limbs (Terre, Paragraph [0105], input unit 202 may execute instructions that include an image processing algorithm on data from XR unit 204 to determine head movement of user 100. [0456], instructions contained in a non-transitory computer-readable medium when executed by a processor may cause the processor to, in response to the first two-dimensional input, cause a first cursor movement toward the first virtual object, the first cursor movement being along the first virtual plane; [0147], A physical touch controller may include a device that permits manipulation of information on a display through detection of finger contact with a surface or finger motion on a surface”; it is noted since the manipulation is based on the user touch the physical device which is not rely on the sensing or tracking the spatial position or orientation of the user’s body part); and controlling, in response to the target motion instruction, the virtual character to perform a target motion associated with the target motion instruction (Terre, Paragraph [0105], “ input unit 202 may execute instructions that include an image processing algorithm on data from XR unit”’ [0123], “a gesture of avatar detected in the virtual environment), communicate with a microphone to obtain audio input 433 (e.g., voice commands), and communicate with input unit 202 to obtain UI input 434 (e.g., virtual content determined by virtual content determination module”).
But Terre does not explicitly disclose for presentation to a remote audience as part of a live video stream;
However, Marlow teaches ,the virtual character being an animated avatar representing a user for presentation to a remote audience as part of a live video stream (Marlow, Paragraph [0022], “replace the video with a generated animated avatar to indicate that the user is an active participant in the video conference”), user manipulation of a physical input device (Marlow, Paragraph [0028], “If so, and if the system detects any mouse or keyboard events within the window, then the system can infer the user is active in the meeting.”), and not based on sensing or tracking the spatial position or orientation of the user's body, head, or limbs (Marlow, Paragraph [0028], “scenario involving a user having a laptop with no webcam, the system can determine if the meeting window is in focus”
Marlow and Terre are analogous since both of them are dealing with processing mixing human and avatar movement in the virtual environment. Terre provided a way of control avatar action based on the input operation in the virtual environment. Marlow provided a way of generating avatar animation based on discrete physical input events in a live video stream when spatial tracking is unavailable. Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention was made to incorporate the remote audience proxy avatar and physical-input mapping logic taught by Marlow into modified invention off Terre such that in the virtual world, the system will be able to provide a richer and more continuous representation of a user even when the user lacks spatial tracking hardware or chooses to disable image capture, thereby supporting a wider range of hardware configurations and reducing computational overhead.
Regarding Claim 13, the combination of Terre and Marlow teaches the invention in claim 12.
The combination further teaches wherein the generating a target motion instruction for the virtual character further comprises: receiving a target input signal from the physical input device (Terre, Paragraph [0087], “input unit 202 may also include a pointing input device, such as mouse 106. The pointing input device may include all possible types of devices and mechanisms for inputting two-dimensional or three-dimensional information to system 200”),
the physical device comprising at least one of a physical keyboard (Terre, Fig. 2, Element 104 Physical keyboard), a physical mouse (Terre, Fig. 2, Element 106, Physical 106), or a physical touchpad (Terre, Fig. 2, Paragraph [0087], “pointing input devices may include a computer mouse, trackball, touchpad, trackpad, touchscreen, joystick”);
and determining the target motion instruction based on the target input signal (Terre, Paragraph [0105], “in software (including in one or more signal processing and/or application specific integrated circuits), in firmware, or in any combination thereof, executable by one or more processors, alone, or in various combinations with each other. Specifically, modules 312-317 may be configured to interact with each other and/or other modules of system 200 to perform functions consistent with Some disclosed embodiments. For example, input unit 202 may execute instructions that include an image processing algorithm”),
wherein different input signals correspond to different motion instructions (Terra, Paragraph [0098], “Sensors communication module 314 may receive data from different sensors to determine a status of user 100” [0105], execute instructions that include an image processing algorithm on data from XR unit 204 to determine head movement of user 100. Furthermore, each functionality described throughout the specification, with regards to input unit 202 or with regards to a component of input unit 202).
Regarding Claim 1, it recites limitations similar in scope to the limitations of Claim 12 but as a method and the combination of Terre and Marlow teaches all the limitations as of Claim 12. Therefore is rejected under the same rationale.
Regarding Claim 2, the combination of Terre and Marlow teaches the invention in claim 1.
The combination further teaches wherein the input operation comprises a keyboard input, a mouse input, a touchpad input, a voice input, a text input (Terre, Paragraph [0079], “examples of the input device may include a button, a key, a keyboard, a computer mouse, a touchpad, a touchscreen, a joystick, or another mechanism from which input may be received.” [0087], “input unit 202 may also include one or more voice input devices”), a random animation, and a program-setting-based automatic blink (Terre, Paragraph [0431], “A virtual cursor may have any desired size, shape, color, or visual effects such as blinking, having pointer tails, or having animations.”).
Regarding Claim 3, it recites limitations similar in scope to the limitations of Claim 13 and therefore is rejected under the same rationale.
Regarding Claim 20, it recites limitations similar in scope to the limitations of claim 12 and the combination of Terre and Marlow teaches all the limitations as of Claim 12. And Terre discloses these features can be implemented on a computer readable storage medium (Terre, Paragraph [0097], Memory interface 310, shown in FIG. 3, may be used to access a software product and/or data stored on a non-transitory computer-readable medium… one or more computer-readable storage mediums can be utilized in implementing a computer-implemented method).
Claim(s) 4, 14 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Terre et al. (US 20220229534 A1, hereinafter Terre), in view of Marlow et al. (US 20170332044 A1, hereinafter Marlow). as applied to Claim 1, 12 above respectively and in view of Berliner et al. (US 20220256062 A1, hereinafter Berliner).
Regarding Claim 14, the combination of Terre and Marlow teaches the invention in Claim 13 with the live streaming interface.
The combination further teaches a virtual keyboard floating in front of the virtual character, and wherein the virtual keyboard is configured to interact with a hand of the virtual character (Terre, Paragraph [0098], “Virtual content communication module 316 may obtain virtual content that is not determined by virtual content determination module 315 (e.g., an avatar of another user)” [0082], “a textual content entered using a keyboard (for example, using a physical keyboard, using a virtual keyboard, etc.) may be presented on a virtual display in real time as the textual content is typed”)
But the combination does not explicitly disclose wherein the generating a target motion instruction further comprises: determining a target virtual button of the virtual keyboard in response to determining that a target input signal is received from and generated by a physical keyboard, determining a target finger of the virtual character based on the target virtual button and generating the target motion instruction based on the target virtual button and the target finger, wherein the target motion instruction is configured to instruct the virtual character to tap the target virtual button with the target finger.
However, Berliner teaches comprises a virtual keyboard floating in front of the virtual character, and wherein the virtual keyboard is configured to interact with a hand of the virtual character (Berliner, paragraph [0117], “a textual content entered using a keyboard (for example, using a physical keyboard, using a virtual keyboard, etc.) may be presented on a virtual display in real time as the textual content is typed… content presented on a virtual display may be interactive, that is, it may change in reaction to actions of users”; [0133], “Virtual content communication module 316 may obtain virtual content that is not determined by virtual content determination module 315 (e.g., an avatar <read on virtual character> of another user)”); and wherein the generating a target motion instruction further comprises: determining a target virtual button of the virtual keyboard in response to determining that a target input signal is received from and generated by a physical keyboard (Berliner, Paragraph [0639], The user may then confirm this automatic selection by clicking on a virtual confirmation button presented by the wearable extended reality appliance), determining a target finger of the virtual character based on the target virtual button (Berliner, Paragraph [0487], “a user may activate a virtual activatable button element by pressing on or touching the button”), and generating the target motion instruction based on the target virtual button and the target finger (Berliner, Paragraph [0487], A virtual activatable element may generate a signal or cause a processor to take an action in response to being touched or activated by a user”), wherein the target motion instruction is configured to instruct the virtual character to tap the target virtual button with the target finger (Berliner, Paragraph [0500], a user may tap, touch, press, brush, or flick part of a touch-sensitive surface… the user may press the touch-sensitive surface that corresponds to a letter key. The user's engagement with the touch-sensitive surface may cause one or more sensors associated with the touch-sensitive surface to generate signals).
Berliner and Terre are analogous since both of them are dealing with processing mixing human and avatar movement in the virtual environment. Terre provided a way of control avatar action based on the input operation in the virtual environment. Berliner provided a way of using virtual keyboard in the virtual environment and allow the avatar to use the virtual keyboard to type and control the movement in the virtual world. Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention was made to incorporate virtual keyboard taught by Berliner into modified invention off Terre such that in the mixed reality and virtual world, system will be able to allow avatar to use virtual keyboard to type and change the scene which and provide more realistic scene processing and better immersive experience for users.
Regarding Claim 4, it recites limitations similar in scope to the limitations of Claim 14 and therefore is rejected under the same rationale.
Claim(s) 5-6, 15-16 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Terre et al. (US 20220229534 A1, hereinafter Terre), in view of Marlow et al. (US 20170332044 A1, hereinafter Marlow) as applied to Claim 1, 12 above respectively and in view of Burtner et al. (US 20100302144 A1, hereinafter Burtner).
Regarding Claim 15, the combination of Terre and Marlow teaches the invention in Claim 12.
The combination does not explicitly disclose but Burtner teaches wherein the live streaming interface further comprises a virtual mouse floating beside the virtual character (Burtner, Paragraph [0017], The virtual mouse 27 may be linked with a user through an identifier that is contained on the card. [0030], Menu option 345 allows a user to select an avatar to be associated with the mouse ), and wherein the virtual mouse is configured to interact with a hand of the virtual character (Burtner, Paragraph [0017], he user may select an avatar <read on virtual character>to associate with a cursor, the type of input ( e.g. mouse, keyboard, ink or trackball) driven by the business card, a voting button, and an option to switch the virtual mouse between a right handed mouse and a left handed mouse); and wherein the generating a target motion instruction further comprises: determining a target hand in which the virtual mouse is located in response to determining that the target input signal is received from a physical mouse (Burtner, Paragraph [0046], the virtual mouse input device is displayed…the virtual input device is displayed beneath a portion of the user's hand) and generated by moving the physical mouse, and generating the target motion instruction based on a location change of the physical mouse (Burtner, Paragraph [0022], The recognized text may then be used to associate the mouse and related cursor with an identified individual; [0024], the virtual mouse input device 210 and an associated cursor on a display may be moved to correspond to the movement of the card 208 on the touch surface), wherein the target motion instruction is configured to instruct the virtual character to move the target hand by simulating the physical mouse (Burtner, Paragraph [0032], using a virtual input mouse allows a user to keep their hands on the touch surface without having to reach for a hardware mouse).
Burtner and Terre are analogous since both of them are dealing with processing mixing human and avatar movement in the virtual environment. Terre provided a way of control avatar action based on the input operation in the virtual environment. Burtner provided a way of using virtual mouse in the virtual environment and allow the avatar to use the virtual mouse to maneuver and control the movement in the virtual world. Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention was made to incorporate virtual mouse taught by Burtner into modified invention off Terre such that in the mixed reality and virtual world, system will be able to allow avatar to use virtual mouse to control the movement in the virtual world freely and to provide more realistic scene processing and better immersive experience for users.
Regarding Claim 16, the combination of Terre and Marlow teaches the invention in Claim 12.
The combination does not explicitly disclose but Burtner teaches wherein the live streaming interface further comprises a virtual mouse floating beside the virtual character(Burtner, Paragraph [0017], The virtual mouse 27 may be linked with a user through an identifier that is contained on the card. [0030], Menu option 345 allows a user to select an avatar to be associated with the mouse ), and wherein the virtual mouse is configured to interact with a hand of the virtual character (Burtner, Paragraph [0017], he user may select an avatar <read on virtual character>to associate with a cursor, the type of input ( e.g. mouse, keyboard, ink or trackball) driven by the business card, a voting button, and an option to switch the virtual mouse between a right handed mouse and a left handed mouse); and wherein the generating a target motion instruction further comprises: determining a target virtual button of the virtual mouse in response to determining that the target input signal is received from a physical mouse (Burtner, Paragraph [0046], the virtual mouse input device is displayed…the virtual input device is displayed beneath a portion of the user's hand)and generated by a button of the physical mouse, determining a target finger of the virtual character, and generating the target motion instruction based on the target virtual button and the target finger (Burtner, Paragraph [0003], “The virtual mouse is configured to move cursor on a display in response to movement of the card on the touch surface” [0047], “Moving to operation 750, the virtual input device(s) displayed receives input from the user while the card is detected by the touch input device. For example, a user may move the card across the touch surface causing a cursor to also move, a user may pick a finger up and then press the finger down to select a menu option or a mouse button, and the like”), wherein the target motion instruction is configured to instruct the virtual character to click the virtual mouse with the target finger (Burtner, Paragraph [0030], “when the user taps one of their fingers on a virtual mouse button, a function relating to application 24 and/or some other function may be invoked”).
Burtner and Terre are analogous since both of them are dealing with processing mixing human and avatar movement in the virtual environment. Terre provided a way of control avatar action based on the input operation in the virtual environment. Burtner provided a way of using virtual mouse in the virtual environment and allow the avatar to use the avatar virtual finger to use the virtual mouse to maneuver and control the movement in the virtual world. Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention was made to incorporate virtual mouse taught by Burtner into modified invention off Terre such that in the mixed reality and virtual world, system will be able to allow avatar to use virtual mouse to control the movement in the virtual world freely and to provide more realistic scene processing and better immersive experience for users.
Regarding Claim 5, it recites limitations similar in scope to the limitations of Claim 15 and therefore is rejected under the same rationale.
Regarding Claim 6, it recites limitations similar in scope to the limitations of Claim 16 and therefore is rejected under the same rationale.
Claim(s) 7, 17 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Terre et al. (US 20220229534 A1, hereinafter Terre), in view of Marlow et al. (US 20170332044 A1, hereinafter Marlow) as applied to Claim 1, 12 above respectively and in view of Takashima et al. (“Effects of Avatars Blinking Animation on Person Impressions”, 20211209, hereinafter Takashima)
Regarding Claim 17, the combination of Terre and Marlow teaches the invention in Claim 12.
The combination does not explicitly disclose but Takashima teaches the operations further comprising: generating a random blink instruction for the virtual character; and controlling an eye motion of the virtual character based on the random blink instruction (Takashima, Page 2, developed the eye movement model based on empirical models of Saccade and statistical models of eye-tracking data… conditions presented The stimulus avatars blinked at random intervals in each condition).
Takashima and Terre are analogous since both of them are dealing with processing mixing human and avatar movement in the virtual environment. Terre provided a way of control avatar action based on the input operation in the virtual environment. Takashima provided a way of controlling the avatar movement based on tracking the eye blinking of avatar in the virtual world. Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention was made to incorporate eye-blinking function taught by Takashima into modified invention off Terre such that in the virtual world, system will be able to use additional way of control the motion of avatar base on eye blinking which provide user friendly action control and better immersive and realistic experience in the virtual world.
Regarding Claim 7, it recites limitations similar in scope to the limitations of Claim 17 and therefore is rejected under the same rationale.
Claim(s) 8, 18 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Terre et al. (US 20220229534 A1, hereinafter Terre), in view of Marlow et al. (US 20170332044 A1, hereinafter Marlow) as applied to Claim 1, 12 above respectively and in view of Perez et al. (US 20100302257 A1, hereinafter Perez).
Regarding Claim 18, the combination of Terre and Marlow teaches the invention in Claim 12.
The combination does not explicitly disclose but Perez teaches generating a random motion instruction for a head or an upper body of the virtual character; and controlling a motion of the head or the upper body of the virtual character based on the random motion instruction (Perez, Paragraph [0033], [0080], “instructions for capturing a live motion of a user, receiving a pre-recorded motion, applying the live motion to a first portion of a virtual object and the pre-recorded motion to a second portion of the virtual object, or any other suitable instruction” “to animate the virtual character 700 with the live motions and the pre-recorded motions, the target recognition, analysis, and tracking system may disable animation or motion tracks associated with the joints and/or body parts of the character model 600 that correspond to the first portion A of the virtual character 700”).
Perez and Terre are analogous since both of them are dealing with processing mixing human and avatar movement in the virtual environment. Terre provided a way of control avatar action based on the input operation in the virtual environment. Perez provided a way of control the motion of avatar based on the head movement of avatar in the virtual environment. Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention was made to incorporate head movement of avatar taught by Perez into modified invention off Terre such that in the virtual world, system will be able to use avatar head movement to mimic the real person movement in the virtual world to create more realistic avatar motion.
Regarding Claim 8, it recites limitations similar in scope to the limitations of Claim 18 and therefore is rejected under the same rationale.
Claim(s) 9, 10, 19 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Terre et al. (US 20220229534 A1, hereinafter Terre), in view of Marlow et al. (US 20170332044 A1, hereinafter Marlow) as applied to Claim 1, 12 above respectively and in view of Miller (US 20150302661 A1).
Regarding Claim 9, the combination of Terre and Marlow teaches the invention in Claim 1.
The combination does not explicitly disclose but Miller teaches determining a target emotion, wherein the determining a target emotion comprises obtaining voice audio signals from a target object and determining an emotion of the target object based on acoustic features of the voice audio signals (Miller, Paragraph [0240], “The right PCBA 604 may also include a right microphone connector 622 to communicatively couple audio signals from a microphone of the head worn component”); and blending a motion corresponding to the target emotion with an animation status of the virtual character (Miller, Paragraph [0304], [0309], Based on captured set of data pertaining to the user (e.g., movement, emotions, direction of movement, speed of movement, physical attributes, movement of body parts relative to the head, etc.) a pose of the sensors (e.g., sensors of the individual AR system) relative to the user may be determined…the AR system captures or receives images of a user, and generates animations of an avatar based on movements of the user in the captured images),
wherein different target emotions correspond to motions of different parts of the virtual character (Miller, Paragraph [0304], reliably used to create avatars for the user and help the avatar communicate with other avatars or users of that space).
Miller and Terre are analogous since both of them are dealing with processing mixing human and avatar movement in the virtual environment. Terre provided a way of control avatar action based on the input operation in the virtual environment. Miller provided a way of control the motion of avatar based on avatar emotion triggered by audio signal. Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention was made to incorporate audio signal for action triggering taught by Miller into modified invention off Terre such that system will be able to dynamically adjust the avatar motion based on the emotion of avatar in the virtual world triggered by the audio of avatar which will create more realistic scene in the virtual world and provide more immersive experience for user to use the system
Regarding Claim 10, the combination of Terre, Marlow and Miller teaches the invention in Claim 9.
The combination further teaches determining a target emotion, wherein the determining a target emotion comprises: obtaining voice audio signals from a target object; determining an emotion of the target object based on acoustic features of the voice audio signals (Miller, Paragraph [0240], “The right PCBA 604 may also include a right microphone connector 622 to communicatively couple audio signals from a microphone of the head worn component”; [0003], “Users may sense and interact with the virtual and augmented reality environments through a variety of visual, auditory and tactical means”), determining the target emotion based on the emotion of the target object (Miller, Paragraph [0304], [0309], Based on captured set of data pertaining to the user (e.g., movement, emotions, direction of movement, speed of movement, physical attributes, movement of body parts relative to the head, etc.) a pose of the sensors (e.g., sensors of the individual AR system) relative to the user may be determined…the AR system captures or receives images of a user, and generates animations of an avatar based on movements of the user in the captured images), wherein the target emotion is the same as or correspond to the emotion of the target object (Miller, Paragraph [0106], [0304], the one or more predetermined conditions comprises a detected emotion…reliably used to create avatars for the user and help the avatar communicate with other avatars or users of that space).
As explained in rejection of claim 9, the obviousness for combining of emotion of avatar of Miller into Terre is provided above.
Regarding Claim 19, the combination of Terre and Marlow teaches the invention in Claim 12.
The combination does not explicitly disclose but Miller teaches obtaining voice audio signals from a target object determining an emotion of the target object based on acoustic features of the voice audio signals (Miller, Paragraph [0240], “The right PCBA 604 may also include a right microphone connector 622 to communicatively couple audio signals from a microphone of the head worn component”) ; and and wherein the target emotion is the same as or correspond to the emotion of the target object (Miller, Paragraph [0612], “A frightened or flee emotion vector tends to cause the virtual object (e.g., avatar) 2602b to flee when presented with some defined condition or stimulus, such as fright”) ; and blending a motion corresponding to the target emotion with an animation status of the virtual character (Miller, Paragraph [0304], [0309], Based on captured set of data pertaining to the user (e.g., movement, emotions, direction of movement, speed of movement, physical attributes, movement of body parts relative to the head, etc.) a pose of the sensors (e.g., sensors of the individual AR system) relative to the user may be determined…the AR system captures or receives images of a user, and generates animations of an avatar based on movements of the user in the captured images), wherein different target emotions correspond to motions of different parts of the virtual character (Miller, Paragraph [0304], reliably used to create avatars for the user and help the avatar communicate with other avatars or users of that space).
Miller and Terre are analogous since both of them are dealing with processing mixing human and avatar movement in the virtual environment. Terre provided a way of control avatar action based on the input operation in the virtual environment. Miller provided a way of control the motion of avatar based on avatar emotion triggered by audio signal. Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention was made to incorporate audio signal for action triggering taught by Miller into modified invention off Terre such that system will be able to dynamically adjust the avatar motion based on the emotion of avatar in the virtual world triggered by the audio of avatar which will create more realistic scene in the virtual world and provide more immersive experience for user to use the system.
Claim(s) 11 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Terre et al. (US 20220229534 A1, hereinafter Terre), in view of Marlow et al. (US 20170332044 A1, hereinafter Marlow), in view of Miller (US 20150302661 A1) as applied to Claim 10 and further in view of Lee et al. (US 20190138096 A1, hereinafter Lee).
Regarding Claim 11, the combination of Terre, Marlow and Miller teaches the invention in Claim 10.
The combination does not explicitly disclose but Lee further comprising: performing frequency domain conversion on the voice audio signals to obtain a spectrum (Lee, Paragraph [0010], “One variation of the method S100 also includes: during the sampling interval, recording an audio signal in Block S114; transforming the audio signal into a spectrum of oscillating audio components”);
determining a formant of the spectrum; determining a vowel in the voice audio signals based on the formant (Lee, Paragraph [0073], [0076], “decomposing the audio signal into a spectrum of oscillating audio components… which recites predicting a mouth position of the user based on amplitudes of oscillating audio components in the spectrum of oscillating audio components.” “the controller detects both vowel formats linked to a particular vowel”);
determining, based on the vowel, a mouth shape corresponding to the voice audio signals (Lee, Paragraph [0076], “correlate these vowels with various representative mouth shapes”) ; and generating a mouth motion instruction based on the mouth shape (Lee, Paragraph [0011], interpret this audio signal as a mouth shape (or "viseme"); and to output this facial expression and this mouth shape for implementation within a virtual environment”), wherein the mouth motion instruction is configured to instruct a mouth motion of the virtual character (Lee, Paragraph [0012], mobile computing device, or computing device can then update the virtual face of a virtual avatar; [0068], “an avatar that best resembles the user's face; extract sizes and shapes of the user's facial features and other relevant characteristics of the user from this user-generated avatar; select a nearest expression engine, from the set of predefined expression engines, based on these characteristics of the user”).
Lee and Terre are analogous since both of them are dealing with processing mixing human and avatar movement in the virtual environment. Terre provided a way of control avatar action based on the input operation in the virtual environment. Lee provided a way of control the motion of avatar based on audio signal that changed the mouth shape in the virtual world. Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention was made to incorporate mouth shape change based on audio signal taught by Lee into modified invention off Terre such that system will be able to dynamically adjust the avatar motion based on the mouth shape change caused by audio signal from the avatar which will create more realistic virtual environment.
Response to Arguments
Applicant’s arguments with respect to claim 1, 12, 20, filed on 12/17/2025, with respect to rejection under 35 USC § 103 have been considered but are moot in view of the new ground(s) of rejection. It has been taught by the combination of prior arts Terre and Marlow.
In regard to Claims 2-11, 13-19, they directly/indirectly depends on independent Claim 1, 12 respectively. Applicant does not argue anything other than the independent claim 1, 12. The limitations in those claims in conjunction with combination previously established as explained.
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure.
US20110225039A1 Virtual social venue feeding multiple video streams
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“To see or not to see a study comparing four-way avatar video and audio conferencing for work”, 2012, JUNUZOVIC et al.
.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 YUJANG TSWEI whose telephone number is (571)272-6669. The examiner can normally be reached 8:30am-5:30pm EST.
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/YuJang Tswei/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2614
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