DETAILED ACTION
This action is in response to communications filed 6/2/2026:
Claims 1-14 are pending
Claims 9-14 are added
Claim objection is withdrawn
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 Arguments
Applicant’s arguments with respect to claim(s) 1-14 have been considered but are moot because the new ground of rejection does not rely on any reference applied in the prior rejection of record for any teaching or matter specifically challenged in the argument.
Response to Amendment
Claim Objections
Claim 3 is objected to because of the following informalities:
In claim 3, “receiving” is misspelled
Appropriate correction is required.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 102
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 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.
Claim(s) 1-3 and 5-14 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by Habets et al (US20200154229, hereinafter “Habets”).
Regarding claim 1, Habets teaches a sound generation device (abstract, apparatus) comprising:
an acquisition section that is configured to acquire a first position and a first rotation of a head portion of a user at a first time and acquire a second position and a second rotation representing a current orientation of the head portion of the user at a second time after the first time and before a sound rendering time (¶98, Fig. 1B, head tracking of the user to track a user’s head translation and rotational movements);
a sound source data generation section that is configured to generate, on a basis of the first position and the first rotation of the head portion of the user at the first time, sound source data indicating three-dimensional coordinates of a virtual sound source arranged in a three-dimensional coordinate system of a virtual space (¶101-106, Fig. 4C, generated sound sources are rendered according to the user’s head tracking data so as the user continues to move in the environment, the generated sound scene changes accordingly; ¶85, the position of the sound sources and the user’s listening position can be seen as positions on a 3D coordinate system);
a correction processing section that modifies the sound source data based on the current orientation of the head portion of the user (Fig. 4C, head tracking information being used to update the rendered audio) by:
receiving, from the acquisition section, the second position and the second rotation representing the current orientation of the head portion of the user (Fig. 4C, obtaining updated translation and rotation data); and
applying at least one correction to the sound source data to generate corrected sound source data, the at least one correction including at least one of a translation of the virtual sound source in the virtual space based on a first mathematical difference calculated between the first position and the second position and a rotation of the virtual sound source in the virtual space based on a second mathematical difference calculated between the first rotation and the second rotation (¶113-114, Figs. 11A-11B, calculating corrections to be applied to the rendered audio in accordance to the obtained head tracking data which includes updated translation and rotation data of the user); and
a sound generation section that generates a sound to be rendered at the sound rendering time based on the corrected sound source data (Fig. 12, outputting updated sound field in accordance with head tracking data).
Regarding claim 2, Habets teaches wherein the correction processing section applies more than one correction including at least one of a translation and a rotation of each of multiple virtual sound sources arranged in the virtual space on a basis of differences for each of the multiple virtual sound sources (¶47, sound processing being performed for each sound source).
Regarding claim 3, Habets teaches a sound generation device (abstract, apparatus) comprising:
an acquisition section that is configured to acquire a first position and a first rotation of a head portion of a user at a first time and acquire a second position and a second rotation representing a current orientation of the head portion of the user at a second time after the first time and before a sound rendering time (¶98, Fig. 1B, head tracking of the user to track a user’s head translation and rotational movements);
a sound source data generation section that is configured to generate, on a basis of the first position and the first rotation of the head portion of the user at the first time, sound source data, the sound source data being ambisonics data in which a virtual sound source is represented through use of a spherical harmonic function in a virtual space (¶107, Fig. 4D, using ambisonics signals to represent the sound field/sound scene; ¶3, ambisonics employ the technique of using spherical harmonic decomposition for the sound field generation);
a correction processing section that modifies the sound source data based on the current orientation of the head portion of the user (Fig. 4C, head tracking information being used to update the rendered audio) by:
recieving, from the acquisition section, the second position and the second rotation representing the current orientation of the head portion of the user (Fig. 4C, obtaining updated translation and rotation data); and
applying at least one correction to the sound source data to generate corrected sound source data, the at least one correction including at least one of a translation of the virtual sound source in the virtual space based on a first mathematical difference calculated between the first position and the second position and a rotation of the virtual sound source in the virtual space based on a second mathematical difference calculated between the first rotation and the second rotation (¶113-114, Figs. 11A-11B, calculating corrections to be applied to the rendered audio in accordance to the obtained head tracking data which includes updated translation and rotation data of the user); and
a sound generation section that generates a sound to be rendered at the sound rendering time based on the corrected sound source data (Fig. 12, outputting updated sound field in accordance with head tracking data).
Regarding claim 5, it is rejected similarly as claim 1. The method can be found in Habets (¶21, method).
Regarding claim 6, it is rejected similarly as claim 1. The storage medium can be found in Habets (¶22, storage medium).
Regarding claim 7, it is rejected similarly as claim 3. The method can be found in Habets (¶21, method).
Regarding claim 8, it is rejected similarly as claim 3. The storage medium can be found in Habets (¶22, storage medium).
Regarding claim 9, Habets teaches wherein a predetermined position of the user is set as an origin of the three-dimensional coordinate system of the virtual space, and wherein the at least one of the translation of the virtual sound source in the virtual space based on the first mathematical difference calculated between the first position and the second position and the rotation of the virtual sound source in the virtual space based on the second mathematical difference calculated between the first rotation and the second rotation comprises a modification to the three-dimensional coordinates of the virtual sound source arranged in the three-dimensional coordinate system of the virtual space (¶85, 113-114, origin of the 3D coordinate space can be used as the reference location and wherein the translation and/or rotation data can be adjusted based on the origin).
Regarding claim 10, Habets teaches wherein the spherical harmonic function in the virtual space has a predetermined position of the user as a center, and wherein the at least one of the translation of the virtual sound source in the virtual space based on the first mathematical difference calculated between the first position and the second position and the rotation of the virtual sound source in the virtual space based on the second mathematical difference calculated between the first rotation and the second rotation comprises a modification to the spherical harmonic function (¶2, ambisonics employ spherical harmonic functions to represent the 3D sound field; ¶107, Fig. 4D, a horizontal angle and an elevation angle are needed to determine the new sound field for generating ambisonics signal; ¶113-114, a similar method can be used to calculate the updated position based on a difference between the last known position and the new position).
Regarding claim 11, it is rejected similarly as claim 9. The method can be found in Habets (¶21, method).
Regarding claim 12, it is rejected similarly as claim 9. The storage medium can be found in Habets (¶22, storage medium).
Regarding claim 13, it is rejected similarly as claim 10. The method can be found in Habets (¶21, method).
Regarding claim 14, it is rejected similarly as claim 10. The storage medium can be found in Habets (¶22, storage medium).
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) 4 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Habets et al (US20200154229, hereinafter “Habets”) in further view of Oto et al (US20190049728, hereinafter “Oto”).
Regarding claim 4, Habets fails to explicitly teach wherein:
the sound generation section generates the sound to be rendered at a first frequency, and
the correction processing section receives second positions and second rotations from the acquisition section at a second frequency that is higher than the first frequency.
Oto teaches wherein:
the sound generation section generates the sound to be rendered at a first frequency, and
the correction processing section receives second positions and second rotations from the acquisition section at a second frequency that is higher than the first frequency (abstract, the correcting includes multiple times of correction of the image generated in the first frequency using a plurality of the updated information in the second frequency, which is higher than the first frequency; Habets acknowledges the use of a renderer that continually update both the visual and audio content presented to the user (¶10)).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to use the correction technique at varying frequencies (rates) (as taught by Oto) on the audio rendering apparatus (as taught by Habets). The rationale to do so is to use a known technique to improve similar devices in the same way to yield the predictable result of resolving a possible mismatch in the output of visual or audio content if the user wanders about in the environment.
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure. Refer to PTO-892, Notice of References Cited for a listing of analogous art.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to QIN ZHU whose telephone number is (571)270-1304. The examiner can normally be reached Monday-Thursday 6AM-4PM EST.
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If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Duc Nguyen can be reached on 571-272-7503. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/QIN ZHU/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2691
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