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 .
Priority
Receipt is acknowledged of certified copies of papers required by 37 CFR 1.55.
Information Disclosure Statement
The information disclosure statement (IDS) submitted is considered by the examiner.
Claim Objections
Claim objected to because of the following informalities: claim 3, “…the number of avatars…” should be changed to “…a number of avatars…” in order to correct the lack of antecedent basis in the claim. Appropriate correction is required.
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) 1-6 and 8 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Moyers et al. (US Publication Number 2021/0349952 A1, hereinafter “Moyers”) in view of Hashkes et al. (US Publication Number 2023/0172536 A1, hereinafter “Hashkes”).
(1) regarding claim 1:
As shown in fig. 1, Moyers disclosed a playback apparatus (para. [0049], note that the virtual area platform 18 includes at least one server network node 40 that provides a network infrastructure service environment 42 that manages sessions of the first and second client nodes 12, 14 in one or more virtual areas 44 in accordance with respective virtual area applications 46) comprising:
a recording control unit configured to record, when an avatar moves to a predetermined area to which an ID is assigned in a virtual space (para. [0050], note that Service environment 42 maintains a relationship database 47 that contains the records 48 of interactions between communicants and social network profiles 50 that are associated with respective communicants), state information indicating a state of the predetermined area and an action log of the avatar in the predetermined area in association with the ID in a recording unit (para. [0050], note that each interaction record describes the context of an interaction between a pair of communicants. In some examples, an interaction record contains one or more of an identifier for each of the communicants, an identifier for the place of interaction (e.g., a virtual area instance); and
a playback unit configured to play back, when an action of the avatar is to be played back in the predetermined area (para. [0080], note that he headphones graphic 290 and the microphone graphic 292 provide visual cues of the activity states of the communicant's sound playback and microphone devices).
Moyers disclosed most of the subject matter as described as above except for specifically teaching the action of the avatar based on the action log when a state indicated by the state information recorded in association with the ID in the recording unit matches with a state of the predetermined area at the time of the playback.
However, Hashkes disclosed the action of the avatar based on the action log when a state indicated by the state information recorded in association with the ID in the recording unit matches with a state of the predetermined area at the time of the playback (para. [0063], note that Example 6, in which 3D human movement data is captured, the human shape is segmented/separated from the background, the joints of the human form are identified, and then the 3D human movement data (including the identified joints) is combined with the segmented human form to be played back in augmented reality (AR) space at the receiving end. Also see para. [0149], feedback may be provided based on one or more specific higher-level features such as smoothness of motion, range of motion, reaction time to a cue, gait size and speed, limb flexibility, and closeness of match to a predefined 3D movement (using a suitable function to determine closeness of match or goodness of fit, or any one or more of such other higher-level features).
At the time of filing for the invention, it would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skilled in the art to teach the action of the avatar based on the action log when a state indicated by the state information recorded in association with the ID in the recording unit matches with a state of the predetermined area at the time of the playback. The suggestion/motivation for doing so would have been in order to allow body language to be shared between and among individuals and groups, permitting never-before-seen means of expressivity and sharing, and forming the basis for a novel type of media having numerous applications, for example as part of or to enhance the application of psychedelic-assisted therapy, especially where such therapy incorporates augmented or virtual reality (abs.). Therefore, it would have been obvious to combine Moyers with Hashkes to obtain the invention as specified in claim 1.
(2) regarding claim 2:
Moyers disclosed most of the subject matter as described as above except for specifically teaching wherein the state information includes information about a predetermined object disposed in the predetermined area, and when the predetermined object is disposed in the predetermined area at the time of the playback, the playback unit determines that the state of the predetermined area matches.
However, Hashkes disclosed wherein the state information includes information about a predetermined object disposed in the predetermined area, and when the predetermined object is disposed in the predetermined area at the time of the playback, the playback unit determines that the state of the predetermined area matches (para. [0063], note that Example 6, in which 3D human movement data is captured, the human shape is segmented/separated from the background, the joints of the human form are identified, and then the 3D human movement data (including the identified joints) is combined with the segmented human form to be played back in augmented reality (AR) space at the receiving end. Also see para. [0149], feedback may be provided based on one or more specific higher-level features such as smoothness of motion, range of motion, reaction time to a cue, gait size and speed, limb flexibility, and closeness of match to a predefined 3D movement (using a suitable function to determine closeness of match or goodness of fit, or any one or more of such other higher-level features).
At the time of filing for the invention, it would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skilled in the art to teach wherein the state information includes information about a predetermined object disposed in the predetermined area, and when the predetermined object is disposed in the predetermined area at the time of the playback, the playback unit determines that the state of the predetermined area matches. The suggestion/motivation for doing so would have been in order to allow body language to be shared between and among individuals and groups, permitting never-before-seen means of expressivity and sharing, and forming the basis for a novel type of media having numerous applications, for example as part of or to enhance the application of psychedelic-assisted therapy, especially where such therapy incorporates augmented or virtual reality (abs.). Therefore, it would have been obvious to combine Moyers with Hashkes to obtain the invention as specified in claim 2.
(3) regarding claim 3:
Moyers further disclosed the playback apparatus according to claim 1, wherein when the playback unit plays back the action of the avatar in the predetermined area, the playback unit plays back the action of the avatar when the number of avatars present in the virtual space or a congestion level of the predetermined area is smaller than a predetermined threshold (para. [0097], note that these examples capture features of ongoing and completed assemblies and visualize those features at different levels of detail. Also see para. [0099], note that the virtual area platform 18 detects assemblies of copresent communicants in the virtual area that have a threshold number (e.g., at least three) of copresent communicants and/or last least a threshold amount of time (e.g., thirty seconds).).
(4) regarding claim 4:
Moyers further disclosed the playback apparatus according to claim 1, wherein when an avatar moves to the predetermined area, the recording control unit further records, in the recording unit, time information indicating a time period during which the avatar stayed in the predetermined area in association with the ID (para. [0100], note that the virtual area platform 18 may link a wide variety of information to a meeting object, including, for example: [0101] time information (e.g., assembly start and end times, times when communicants joined and left a meeting, times when recordings started and stopped, and times when files are uploaded in association with a virtual area or zone), and when the playback unit plays back an action of an avatar in the predetermined area, the playback unit plays back the action of the avatar based on the action log when the time period indicated by the time information recorded in association with the ID in the recording unit is a shorter than a predetermined length (para. [0100], note that location information (e.g., a virtual area identifier that uniquely identifies a virtual area, and a zone identifier that uniquely identifies a zone of a virtual area, and other information about the virtual location or locations in which the assembly occurred or is occurring); [0103] participant information (e.g., communicant identifiers that uniquely identify the assembly participants, and other information about the assembly participants); [0104] information describing interactions in an assembly (e.g., an interaction history); [0105] information exchanged between participants (e.g.: realtime data streams, such as recorded chat data, audio, data and video data; recorded application sharing data; recorded co-browsing data; and data files uploaded by communicants)).
(5) regarding claim 5:
Moyers further disclosed the playback apparatus according to claim 1, wherein when an avatar moves to the predetermined area, the recording control unit classifies an attribute of a user operating the avatar into a class and further records class information indicating the class in which the attribute has been classified in association with the ID in the recording unit (para. [0108], note that he virtual area platform 18 selects meeting objects for all concurrent and consecutive assemblies of copresent communicants satisfying zero or more filter criteria. The filter criteria may be one or more conditions on any type of attribute associated with the assemblies through their respective meeting objects including, for example, a time attribute value, a virtual location attribute value, a communicant attribute value, and a data type attribute value. In some examples, the virtual area platform 18 ranks assemblies of copresent communicants in a virtual area, and selects highest ranked ones of the ranked assemblies as the selected assemblies).
Moyers disclosed most of the subject matter as described as above except for specifically teaching the playback unit plays back the action of the avatar in the predetermined area, the playback unit plays back based on the action log when the class in which the attribute of the user has been classified matches the class indicated by the class information recorded in association with the ID in the recording unit.
However, Hashkes disclosed the playback unit plays back the action of the avatar in the predetermined area, the playback unit plays back based on the action log when the class in which the attribute of the user has been classified matches the class indicated by the class information recorded in association with the ID in the recording unit (para. [0157], note that a motion detection algorithm also can be utilized to detect closeness of match to a predefined 3D movement and thus recognize specific 3D movements representing different gestures or body language, and to create 3D visualizations that enhance them. Reference is made to FIGS. 6A and 6B, demonstrating sender 611 (or, equivalently, sender 301) blowing a kiss 612 to a recipient(s) (i.e., recipient 313).).
At the time of filing for the invention, it would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skilled in the art to teach the playback unit plays back the action of the avatar in the predetermined area, the playback unit plays back based on the action log when the class in which the attribute of the user has been classified matches the class indicated by the class information recorded in association with the ID in the recording unit. The suggestion/motivation for doing so would have been in order to allow body language to be shared between and among individuals and groups, permitting never-before-seen means of expressivity and sharing, and forming the basis for a novel type of media having numerous applications, for example as part of or to enhance the application of psychedelic-assisted therapy, especially where such therapy incorporates augmented or virtual reality (abs.). Therefore, it would have been obvious to combine Moyers with Hashkes to obtain the invention as specified in claim 5.
(6) regarding claim 6:
Moyers disclosed most of the subject matter as described as above except for specifically teaching wherein when an avatar moves to a predetermined area, the recording control unit classifies an emotion of a user operating the avatar into a class based on a content of a conversation of the avatar or biometric information of the user operating the avatar and records class information indicating the class in which the emotion has been classified in association with the ID in the recording unit, and when the playback unit plays back the action of the avatar in the predetermined area, the playback unit changes an amount of the action of the avatar to be played back based on the class indicated by the class information recorded in association with the ID in the recording unit, and based on the action log.
However, Hashkes disclosed wherein when an avatar moves to a predetermined area, the recording control unit classifies an emotion of a user operating the avatar into a class based on a content of a conversation of the avatar or biometric information of the user operating the avatar and records class information indicating the class in which the emotion has been classified in association with the ID in the recording unit (para. [0188], note that correlations between 3D movement data and user choice of emotional avatars, filters, and other parameters will be utilized to train machine learning models to classify human emotions (i.e., sentiment analysis). Such data will also be used to develop novel models to improve health tracking, early disease detection, and other medical uses, and to improve computer vision), and when the playback unit plays back the action of the avatar in the predetermined area, the playback unit changes an amount of the action of the avatar to be played back based on the class indicated by the class information recorded in association with the ID in the recording unit, and based on the action log (para. [0194], note that the 3D human movement data is combined with the segmented human form to be played back in augmented reality (AR) space at the receiving end, along with 3D interactive effects, in accordance with an embodiment of the invention. Also see para. [0206], note that the 3D message, representation, and/or hologram will be uniquely tailored to each recipient and/or uniquely tailored to other characteristics such as time, date or location).
At the time of filing for the invention, it would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skilled in the art to teach wherein when an avatar moves to a predetermined area, the recording control unit classifies an emotion of a user operating the avatar into a class based on a content of a conversation of the avatar or biometric information of the user operating the avatar and records class information indicating the class in which the emotion has been classified in association with the ID in the recording unit, and when the playback unit plays back the action of the avatar in the predetermined area, the playback unit changes an amount of the action of the avatar to be played back based on the class indicated by the class information recorded in association with the ID in the recording unit, and based on the action log. The suggestion/motivation for doing so would have been in order to allow body language to be shared between and among individuals and groups, permitting never-before-seen means of expressivity and sharing, and forming the basis for a novel type of media having numerous applications, for example as part of or to enhance the application of psychedelic-assisted therapy, especially where such therapy incorporates augmented or virtual reality (abs.). Therefore, it would have been obvious to combine Moyers with Hashkes to obtain the invention as specified in claim 5.
The proposed rejection of claim 1, renders obvious the steps of the method of claim 8 because these steps occur in the operation of the proposed rejection as discussed above. Thus, the arguments similar to that presented above for claim 1 is equally applicable to claim 8.
Claim(s) 7 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Moyers and Hashkes, further in view of Kuroki (US Publication Number 2008/0079754 A1).
(1) regarding claim 7:
Moyers disclosed most of the subject matter as described as above except for specifically teaching wherein when the playback unit plays back the action of the avatar in the predetermined area, the recording control unit determines whether or not a user operating the avatar is concentrated; and when the user is not concentrated, the recording control unit thins out data of the action log and transfer the thinned-out data of the action log to the playback unit.
However, Hashkes disclosed wherein when the playback unit plays back the action of the avatar in the predetermined area, the recording control unit determines whether or not a user operating the avatar is concentrated (para. [0345], note that personalized diagnostic and therapeutic biomarkers and protocols can be used in combination with one or more therapeutically beneficial activities, where such activities provide an additional therapeutic effect or increase an existing therapeutic effect, where such participation follows or is in conjunction with administration of the biomarker-augmented mental health therapy, including breathing exercises, meditation and concentration practices, focusing on an object).
At the time of filing for the invention, it would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skilled in the art to teach wherein when the playback unit plays back the action of the avatar in the predetermined area, the recording control unit determines whether or not a user operating the avatar is concentrated. The suggestion/motivation for doing so would have been in order to allow body language to be shared between and among individuals and groups, permitting never-before-seen means of expressivity and sharing, and forming the basis for a novel type of media having numerous applications, for example as part of or to enhance the application of psychedelic-assisted therapy, especially where such therapy incorporates augmented or virtual reality (abs.). Therefore, it would have been obvious to combine Moyers with Hashkes to obtain the invention as specified in claim 7.
Also, Kuroki disclosed when the user is not concentrated, the recording control unit thins out data of the action log and transfer the thinned-out data of the action log to the playback unit (para. [0035], note that a thinning part 12 thins out the pixels and frames of the moving image data SVH, and outputs moving image data SV1. Here, in the video content providing system 1, since the area of video data is partially cut out from the moving image data SVH to generate the zoomed-in video V2, in the case in which the moving image data SVH is displayed on the full screen in the user terminal unit 3 (V1), the motion of the subject naturally becomes smaller and the allowance for out-of-focus moving images and jerkiness becomes greater than the case in which the partial area is displayed on the full screen in the user terminal unit 3).
At the time of filing for the invention, it would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skilled in the art to teach wherein when the playback unit plays back the action of the avatar in the predetermined area, the recording control unit determines whether or not a user operating the avatar is concentrated. The suggestion/motivation for doing so would have been in order to provide prevention of jerkiness and a moving image to be out of focus to be achieve while an increase in data volume to send is being avoided, and the video slightly zoomed out and zoomed-in video can be selectively provided for a user (para. [0003]). Therefore, it would have been obvious to combine Moyers with Hashkes to obtain the invention as specified in claim 7.
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure.
Rickwalkd et al. (US Publication Number 2018/0336715 A1) disclosed generating emoji recording and sending.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communication from the examiner should be directed to Hilina K Demeter whose telephone number is (571) 270-1676.
If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, King Y. Poon could be reached at (571) 270- 0728. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
Information regarding the status of an application may be obtained from the Patent Application Information Retrieval (PAIR) system. Status information for published applications may be obtained from either Private PAIR or Public PAIR. Status information for unpublished applications is available through Private PAIR only. For more information about PAIR system, see http://pari-direct.uspto.gov. Should you have questions on access to the Private PAIR system, contact the Electronic Business Center (EBC) at 866-217-9197 (toll-free). If you would like assistance from a USPTO Customer Service Representative or access to the automated information system, call 800-786-9199 (IN USA OR CANADA) or 571-272-1000.
/HILINA K DEMETER/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2617