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 § 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 1-2 and 17-20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by KR 20190087907A to Kim Sung Jin et al.
Re claim 1, Kim Sung Jin teaches: A storage medium having stored thereon a program that is executed by a first computer including a processor and a memory, the program causing the processor to perform operations
The description of Figs. 1-3 in the “Description of Embodiments” section of the disclosure indicates that Kim Sung Jin comprises a virtual reality game executed by a control module 120 of “game terminal 100 that can implement a virtual reality technology through interoperation with a server, a computer, a mobile terminal, and the like.”
comprising: generating a virtual space; arranging a virtual camera and a user object in the virtual space; generating, based on the virtual camera, a virtual space image, the virtual space image being an image obtained by capturing an image of inside of the virtual space from the virtual camera;
The “Description of Embodiments” section, in the paragraph describing Fig. 3 indicates that “display module 110 can display a screen of the virtual reality game. The display module 110 may be disposed so as to correspond to at least one of the left and right eyes so that the game player can directly provide an image in front of the game player's eyes when the virtual reality game terminal 100 is worn. Through the display module 110 as described above, the virtual reality game terminal 100 can provide a virtual reality (VR) showing the 3D virtual image to the game player.”
And regarding a virtual camera viewpoint of objects in the virtual space image, the paragraph beginning “The control module 120 may switch the viewpoint from the first person to the third person…” begins to describe first and third-person viewpoints that are automatically selected by the control module based on movement conditions.
and moving the user object in the virtual space based on a movement operation for moving the user object having been performed, wherein in the generating of the virtual space image, when the movement operation is not being performed, a position of the virtual camera is controlled such that the virtual space image is an image from a first-person viewpoint of the user object, and when the movement operation is being performed, the position of the virtual camera is controlled such that the virtual space image is an image from a third-person viewpoint including at least a part of the user object.
The portion of the “Description of Embodiments” directed to Fig. 3 describes that, “The control module 120 may switch the viewpoint from the first person to the third person while the fast moving event occurs in the virtual reality game displayed on the display module 110. That is, the control module 120 controls the various electronic components, particularly the display module 110, provided in the virtual reality game terminal 100 to control the progress of the game contents so that the motion sickness that may occur during playing the virtual reality game is minimized to control the display. More specifically, the control module 120 may switch the viewpoint from the first person to the third person, if the fast moving event is a movement over the reference speed …by switching the viewpoints from the first person to the third person or from the third person to the first person naturally, it is possible to prevent the game player from feeling inconvenience due to the viewpoint switching.”
Re claims 17-18, these claims recite showing a second object of a different user (another player character) in the virtual space. Fig. 5 of Kim Sung Jin, which the disclosure describes is illustrating a first-person viewpoint that simulates a view through goggles to a player, depicts another player character in the distance.
Re claims 19-20, refer to the rejection of claim 1.
Re claim 2, the description of Fig. 3 in the “Description of the Embodiments” indicates that images output through display module 110 may be overlapped with images of a general field to provide augmented reality (AR).
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 3-4 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Kim Sung Jin et al. in view of US 2003/0096648 A1 to Ohno.
Re claims 3-4, although Kim Sung Jin et al. teaches substantially the same inventive concept regarding adapting viewpoints in a 3D game to improve a player’s experience, Kim Sung Jin is silent as to whether a camera viewpoint is moved if a distance between a user object and the virtual camera exceeds a predetermined distance.
Ohno is an analogous prior art video game perspective switching reference that teaches, see [0120], it was known in the art to move the view point 403 of a virtual camera 301 if a distance (termed “second distance”) between the viewpoint and a player character 300 is exceeded.
It would have been obvious that the old and well-known video game viewpoint mechanic taught by Ohno could have been used in Kim Sung Jin et al to produce the same advantage touted by Ohno “the image on the display screen […] is optimized and the player can easily recognize the movement of player character 300 from the image on the display screen”.
Claims 5-7 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Kim Sung Jin et al. in view of Ohno, US 2021/0362056 A1 to Zhou et al. and JP 2003150980 to Ono Koji et a.
Re claims 5-7, although Kim Sung Jin et al. teaches substantially the same inventive concept regarding adapting viewpoints in a 3D game to improve a player’s experience, Kim Sung Jin is silent as to whether a camera speed can be the same or faster than a user object, including when a user object is moving in an opposite direction of the camera.
Zhou is an analogous video game virtual camera control reference that teaches, see [0062], gradually increasing a virtual camera speed when a user character is moving away from the viewpoint. Ono Koji is another video game perspective switching reference that teaches that “In each video game device according to the first aspect, the viewpoint moving means may move the position of the viewpoint at a speed equal to or higher than the moving speed of the character by the character moving means. … By setting the moving speed of the viewpoint to be equal to or higher than the moving speed of the character, the distance between the character and the viewpoint during perspective conversion can be kept within a predetermined range, and the character displayed on the screen can be displayed. The size can be made more appropriate. By changing the moving speed of the viewpoint according to the moving speed of the character, for example, it is possible to prevent the background image of the character from being switched more than necessary.”
It would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the instant invention that the camera moving speed could have been controlled to match or exceed the moving speed of a user character including when the user character is moving away from the viewpoint without causing any unexpected results. The motivation would be the same as Ono Koji, to maximize visibility of a player character.
Claims 8-13 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Kim Sung Jin et al. in view of Ohno. and US 2019/0192968 A1 to He et al.
Re claims 8-13, although Kim Sung Jin et al. teaches substantially the same inventive concept regarding adapting viewpoints in a 3D game to improve a player’s experience, Kim Sung Jin is silent as to whether game scenes are faded in or faded out.
He is an analogous prior art perspective mode switching reference that teaches it was known in the art to vary transparency during video game scenarios such as transitions from first to second perspective modes – see [0009], [0011]-[0013] and [0066]-[0067] which disclose linearly changing a transparency or brightness over time. Figs. 4 and 5 which show examples of fade-out (increased transparency) and fade-in (decreased transparency) of visibility of objects. Increases or decreases in brightness over time can also be interpreted as fading in (making brighter) or fading out (making less bright), see additionally [0078]-[0086].
It would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the invention that fading in and out in virtual game graphics could have been done by varying graphic transparency and/or brightness over time, especially for use when changing camera viewpoints as taught by He, without causing any unexpected results. The motivation is provided by He in [0087] – to avoid unwanted overlap in graphics when a viewpoint transition is occurring and to make the transition appear smooth and natural to the viewer.
Claims 14-16 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Kim Sung Jin et al. in view of US 2009/0109213 A1 to Hamilton, II et al.
Re claims 14-16, although Kim Sung Jin et al. teaches substantially the same inventive concept regarding adapting viewpoints in a 3D game to improve a player’s experience, Kim Sung Jin is silent as to whether a video can be triggered, optionally in full-screen, when a user object is positioned at a trigger region.
Hamilton is an analogous virtual gaming environment reference that teaches, see [0051], it was known that when a virtual character arrives at a trigger location in a game world, they can trigger the playing of video that may be full screen video.
It would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the invention that Kim Sung Jin’s immersive game environment could have enabled playing videos as taught by Hamilton without causing any unexpected results. The motivation would be to provide informational or entertaining content to players as they explore an environment.
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure.
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/STEVEN J HYLINSKI/ Primary Examiner, Art Unit 3715