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 .
Response to Preliminary Amendment
Applicant’s preliminary amendment dated 02/28/2024 cancelling claims 21-100 has been fully considered and is entered.
Applicant’s preliminary amendment dated 11/14/2024 amending pending claims 1-20, specification, and drawings has been fully considered and is entered. Claims 1-20, as amended, are examined.
Information Disclosure Statement
The information disclosure statements (IDS) submitted on 2/8/2024, 4/16/2024, 5/02/2024, 10/15/2024, 11/14/2024, 12/18/2024, 3/19/2025, 5/29/2025, 6/20/2025, 8/06/2025, 12/8/2025, and 4/22/2026 are in compliance with the provisions of 37 CFR 1.97. Accordingly, the information disclosure statements are being considered by the examiner.
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.
Claim(s) 1-9 and 11-19 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Salmasi et al. (US 20250039987) in view of Pries et al. (US 20230403596).
Regarding claims 1 and 11, Salmasi teaches: A system for distributed extended reality (XR) computing optimization for edge nodes connectable to client devices and XR content servers / A method for distributed extended reality (XR) computing optimization for an edge node connectable to a client device and an XR content server (see abstract), comprising: accessing a performance metric of at least one of the edge node, the client device, the XR content server, or the network (the edge computing system is able to access edge device information such as workload, computation capacities, and performance requirements par. 0056 – 0057); determining at the edge node whether visual feature descriptor extraction is to be performed (the edge device determines whether the user device is capable of running at least portions of the XR application par. 0256 – 0257); in response to determining that the visual feature descriptor extraction is to be performed: transmitting from the edge node an indicator for performing the visual feature descriptor extraction (after determination that the device is capable of running at least a portion of the XR application, operations performed by the object recognizer unit which include feature extraction are offloaded to be performed by the user device par 0100 and 0256 – 0257); and performing at the edge node the apportioned XR computing without receiving at the edge node full image data (performing XR application operations which may include a package including only certain extracted features par. 0175).
Salmasi does not explicitly teach determining XR distribution ladders based on the performance metric of apportioning XR computing based on the distribution ladders.
However, Pries teaches: determining at the edge node one of a plurality of XR computing distribution ladders based on the performance metric (XR client and XR AS negotiate a configuration for rendering the XR aware application according to XR UE capability and/or preference, edge cloud capability, network conditions, and/or XR aware application service requirements par. 0316); apportioning at the edge node XR computing between the edge node and the client device based on the one of the plurality of XR computing distribution ladders (the service level indicates that XR application processing is to be split between the terminal and the edge cloud par. 0095 – 0096)
It would have been prima facie obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art prior to the effective filing date of the application to combine the teachings of Salmasi with the teachings of Pries since the teachings of Pries would enhance the prior art by providing edge nodes the capability to send and receive modifications for service levels of XR applications, thus allowing for splitting of XR processing functionality between a terminal and edge node depending on capability, suggestions, and/or preferences.
Regarding claims 2 and 12, Salmasi teaches: selecting at the edge node one of a plurality of feature descriptor extraction processes for the visual feature descriptor extraction and for tracking initialization (system includes a feature extraction unit 420 and a tracker/mapper component which coordinate or collaborate closely to perform an integrated XR process/task par. 0099 - 0103).
Regarding claims 3 and 13, Pries teaches: requesting at the edge node a local environment condition of the client device (negotiation request includes XR UE and/or edge cloud capability or preference which includes current condition information such as remaining power, and capacity and load par. 0316); requesting at the edge node a computing capability of the client device (request includes XR UE and edge cloud capabilities and/or preferences par. 0316); determining at the edge node a load of the edge node (edge cloud capacity and load par. 0316); requesting at the edge node a performance metric of the network from the network (request includes network conditions par. 0316); and determining at the edge node an initialization target based on the one of the plurality of XR computing distribution ladders (negotiation request is for a configuration for rendering an XR aware application, in which a terminal, edge cloud, or mix of both can process the XR application based on the negotiation information par. 0316 – 0324).
For motivation to combine see claim 1 above.
Regarding claims 4 and 14, Pries teaches: wherein the selecting at the edge node the one of the plurality of feature descriptor extraction processes for the visual feature descriptor extraction and for the tracking initialization is based on the local environment condition, the computing capability, the load of the edge node, the performance metric of the network, and the initialization target (selection of XR processing is based on current conditions, capabilities, loads, network conditions and/or XR aware application service requirements of the terminal/ XR UE /edge cloud that is negotiating configuration for rendering the XR aware application par. 0316 - 0324, in which XR application processing may comprise of rendering, pose tracking, foreground/background segmentation or stitching par. 0022).
For motivation to combine see claim 1 above.
Regarding claims 5 and 15, Salmasi teaches: wherein the plurality of feature descriptor extraction processes includes: a first feature descriptor extraction process configured for feature descriptor extraction with offloading of XR rendering to the edge node (a portion of XR application related computations can be offloaded to an edge device or edge computing system par. 0058 – 0059), and a second feature descriptor extraction process configured for feature descriptor extraction with performing of XR rendering on the client device (feature extractor component performing various feature extraction operations par. 0174 wherein the offloading only occurs for a portion of processing and the other processing occurs normally par. 0086).
Regarding claims 6 and 16, Salmasi teaches: wherein the transmitting from the edge node the indicator for performing the visual feature descriptor extraction includes indicators for capture of device camera data (an HMD may be used in conjunction with an edge computing system which includes various sensors/cameras that capture and send corresponding image data for processing par. 0075 – 0078) and extraction of a feature descriptor using one of a plurality of feature descriptor extraction processes (feature extraction component applying feature descriptors such as SIFT or QRB par. 0105).
Regarding claims 7 and 17, Salmasi teaches: receiving at the edge node the feature descriptor without receiving at the edge node full image data (edge device receives an offloaded portion of processing par. 0086); and tracking at the edge node initialization based on the feature descriptor (edge node includes a tracker/mapper component that begins tracking based on portion of offloaded processing par. 0099 – 00103 and 0086).
Regarding claims 8 and 18, Salmasi teaches: determining at the edge node the one or another of the plurality of feature descriptor extraction processes for frame to frame tracking based on the performance metric (offloading tracker component function to the user device upon determination that the user device is capable of running the portion of the XR application, where the tracking component is configured to track position of user with respect to the environment par. 0100 – 0103 and 0205); and transmitting from the edge node an indicator of the one or the another of the plurality of feature descriptor extraction processes for another capture of device camera data and extraction of another feature descriptor using the one or the another of the plurality of feature descriptor extraction processes (the feature extractor component may request and receive information from local image databases, image database application mesh, and cloud image database and further apply SIFT, QRB, or other methods in operations par. 0172 – 0174).
Regarding claims 9 and 19, Salmasi teaches: tracking at the edge node a device pose using the feature descriptor (localization/mapping techniques may be used including producing a homography matrix to determine pose par. 0078); rendering at the edge node XR output based on the device pose (processor rendering the scene par. 0076 in which localization/mapping techniques are used to determine pose par. 0078); and transmitting from the edge node the XR output for display (rendering mixed or augmented scenes and rendering the scene on electronic displays par. 0076).
Claim(s) 10 and 20 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Salmasi and Pries in view of Novlan (US 20240056984).
Regarding claims 10 and 20, Salmasi teaches: receiving at the edge node a request for XR service (receiving a request to download or run an XR application par. 0255); transmitting from the edge node a request for an XR executable and XR content (edge device requesting offload of XR applications par. 0059 - 0064 in which the request is for XR executables, or main components of an XR application, as well as content par. 0060); receiving at the edge node the XR executable and the XR content (edge node receives offloaded portion of XR application as well as XR content for processing par. 0059 – 0064); initializing at the edge node the XR application (initial processing of XR functions par. 0269);
Salmasi does not explicitly teach transmitting a request for, and receiving, a device specification.
However, Novlan teaches: transmitting from the edge node a request for a device specification (processing system requesting bandwidth capabilities par. 0051 – 0052); and receiving at the edge node the device specification (processing system provided with bandwidth capabilities relating to computing XR metrics par. 0051 – 0052).
It would have been prima facie obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art prior to the effective filing date of the application to combine the teachings of Salmasi and Pries with the teachings of Novlan since the teachings of Novlan would enhance the prior combination by allowing for optimization of XR application traffic as well as adapting for network traffic flow, wherein the optimization allows for different flows carrying different traffic to be differentiated and to be independently and simultaneously optimized to meet required QoS.
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure. Ma et al. (US 20240340229) which outlines delivering content, such as XR applications, to client devices using RTP/SRTP packets which include various time indicators and allow for the determination of delay.
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/J.S.M./Examiner, Art Unit 2198
/PIERRE VITAL/Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 2198
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