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 .
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, 5-9, 11-13, 15, 17, and 19 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Parr (U.S. PGPUB 2020/0338450) in view of Xiao (U.S. PGPUB 2023/0298252)
Re claims 1 and 8: Parr discloses a video game animation method, comprising:
generating, for each of one or more entities to be animated, a position sequence for use in animating the movement of the entity along one or more paths in a virtual environment (see paragraphs [0052]: a final route, i.e. a position sequence, for NPC objects is created to animate movement of NPCs in a virtual environment), wherein the position sequence defines a position in the virtual environment at each of a plurality of time steps (see paragraph [0052, 0053]: the final route as shown in Fig. 7B, defines positions for the NPCs to travel on over time while in the virtual environment) and wherein generating the position sequence comprises accessing one or more regions of position data, each region of position data comprising position data items for successive positions along a respective one of the one or more paths (see paragraph [0032, 0053-0056]: the node graph of the final route, depicts a plurality of regions consisting of one or more nodes and paths, wherein said region includes a positional start point as depicted in one node, and information for a successive position along the path, as depicted in the next node in the path).
Parr fails to disclose “encoding position data representing a plurality of connected paths in a virtual environment into one or more texture maps;” and “wherein the position data items comprise one or more pixels of one or more texture maps.” However, Xiao teaches a series of objects that are animated along paths dictated by road pathways, wherein each position data along said road, i.e. animated connected path, is stored in a texture map as a texels (see paragraphs [0007, 0049, 0060, 0062, 0068]). Since texels also have RGBA values, they are also identical to pixels (see paragraph [0064]). Additionally, the road pathways are a plurality of connected paths in the form of connected sub-road sections (see paragraph [0052]), and also the form of a larger city wide network of connected paths (see Fig. 1). It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time the invention was filed, to modify the animation engine of Parr with Xiao for the purpose of processing a large quantity of animated objects in a scene while minimizing processing resources.
Re claim 3 and 9: Parr discloses with respect to the video game animation method of claim 1, wherein each position data item comprises a pixel for each respective coordinate of the coordinates (see Abstract, paragraph [0053-0056]: each node and position along the path corresponds with a specific pixel that has specific coordinates within the virtual environment).
Re claim 5: Parr discloses with respect to the video game animation method of claim 1, wherein the position data items comprise first and second position data items having adjacent locations in the region of position data, wherein the first and second position data items correspond to neighboring position along the respective path (see Fig. 7B: a series of nodes along the path are adjacent to one another and are neighboring positions along the path).
Re claims 6 and 11: Parr discloses with respect to the video game animation method of claim 1, wherein the one or more regions of position data include:
a first region of position data for a first of the one or more paths (see Fig. 7B: a first region can include a first set of nodes, e.g. 4 nodes), and
a second region of position data for a second of the one or more paths, wherein the second path is connected to the first path (see Fig, 7B: a second region can include a second set of nodes, e.g. 3 three nodes),
wherein generating the position sequence comprises:
accessing the first region of position data to retrieve a first group of the position data items corresponding to successive positions along the first path (see Fig. 7B: to create a full path, a first path of a collection of first successive nodes, is created),
accessing a connection data item comprising a reference to connection data which specifies a location in the second region of position data (see Fig. 7B: here a linking path, i.e. connection data, between a last node of a first path and a first node of a second path is accessed, wherein such specifies locations of each path), and
accessing the second region of position data to retrieve a second group of the position data items corresponding to successive positions along the second path (see Fig. 7B: a second region of a second set of nodes is accessed, after the connection path).
Re claim 7 and 12: Parr discloses with respect to the video game animation method of claim 1, further comprising animating one or more flows of vehicle traffic based on the one or more generated position sequences (see paragraph [0003-0006, 0069-0071]: the virtual environment animates vehicles through traffic).
Regarding claim 13, claimed subject matter encompasses the same subject matter of claim 6, which was previously rejected above.
Re claim 15: Parr discloses with respect to the method of claim 13, wherein each position data item comprises a pixel for each respective coordinate of the coordinates (see Abstract, paragraph [0053-0056]: each node and position along the path corresponds with a specific pixel that has specific coordinates within the virtual environment).
Regarding claim 17, the claimed subject matter is encompassed within the subject matter of claim 6, except for stating that the system determines parametric curves for paths. Parr teaches that the determined paths can be splines, i.e. parametric curves (see paragraphs [0056, 0071]). See claim 6 for the rejections of the remaining limitations.
Re claim 19: Parr discloses with respect to the system of claim 17, wherein each position data item comprises a pixel for each respective coordinate of the coordinates (see Abstract, paragraph [0053-0056]: each node and position along the path corresponds with a specific pixel that has specific coordinates within the virtual environment).
Claim(s) 2, 4, 10, 14, 16, 18, and 20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Parr in view of Xiao in further view of Marshall (U.S. PGPUB 2003/0128203).
Re claims 2, 14, and 18: Parr fails to disclose with respect to the video game animation method of claim 1, wherein each position data item comprises one or more pixels which encode coordinates of a position along the respective path. However, Marshall like Parr teaches a node graph that is used to create animation paths for virtual objects within a 3d virtual environment (see paragraph [0013-0015]). The node graph further presents a 3d mesh of a terrain wherein the nodes themselves are pixels on the virtual map (see Fig. 1). Thus, because the nodes and pixels are one in the same, the pixel encodes coordinates of their position within the virtual environment, which is also on the respective patch. It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time the invention was filed, it simply substitute the location of the node graph of Parr for the 3d terrain node graph location of Marshall, as such would have produced the predictable results of storing the node graph within 3d virtual map.
Re claims 4, 10, 16, 20: Parr fails to disclose with respect to the system of claim 17, wherein for each path, the successive positions comprise neighboring positions for which the distance along the path is the same. However, Marshall teaches a node graph wherein it appears that the nodes of the node graph is equally spaced (see Fig. 5), wherein each triangle used to create the node graphs are equivalent. While such is not explicitly disclosed within the Specification, it would have been obvious to one of skilled art at the time the invention was filed, to simply substitute the distances between the nodes Parr with distances that dictate that said nodes are equally spaced apart as suggested by Marshall, as such would have produced the predictable results of a node graph with equally spaced nodes.
Response to Arguments
Applicant’s arguments with respect to claims 1-20 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. Applicant has amended the claims to further disclose “encoding position data representing a plurality of connected paths in a virtual environment into one or more texture maps;” and “wherein the position data items comprise one or more pixels of one or more texture maps.” However, Xiao teaches a series of objects that are animated along paths dictated by road pathways, wherein each position data along said road, i.e. animated connected path, is stored in a texture map as a texels (see paragraphs [0007, 0049, 0060, 0062, 0068]). Since texels also have RGBA values, they are also identical to pixels (see paragraph [0064]). Additionally, the road pathways are a plurality of connected paths in the form of connected sub-road sections (see paragraph [0052]), and also the form of a larger city wide network of connected paths (see Fig. 1). It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time the invention was filed, to modify the animation engine of Parr with Xiao for the purpose of processing a large quantity of animated objects in a scene while minimizing processing resources. For those reasons, the claims are rejected.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to REGINALD A RENWICK whose telephone number is (571)270-1913. The examiner can normally be reached Monday-Friday 11am-7pm.
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If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Kang Hu can be reached at (571)270-1344. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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REGINALD A. RENWICK
Primary Examiner
Art Unit 3714
/REGINALD A RENWICK/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 3715
