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 .
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.
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)(2) the claimed invention was described in a patent issued under section 151, or in an application for patent published or deemed published under section 122(b), in which the patent or application, as the case may be, names another inventor and was effectively filed before the effective filing date of the claimed invention.
Claim(s) 1-2, 6, 11-12 and 16 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(2) as being anticipated by Barki (US patent Publication: 20200179802, “Barki”).
Regarding claim 11, Barki teaches an apparatus (Fig. 2), comprising:
processing circuitry ( processing module 215) configured to:
determining an update interval of a first map element to be displayed in a game map based on a change frequency of the first map element; (“[0037] The game element timing activator 325 defines the time duration lapsing between processing the update required for a game element and actual update of the element.”)
displaying the first map element in the game map; (“ [0026] FIG. 1 shows a method of managing an online game according to data concerning real world events, according to exemplary embodiments of the present invention. Step 110 discloses playing an online game via the gaming server”) and
updating the display of the first map element in the game map based on the determined update interval of the first map element. (“[0017] In some cases, the gaming storage stores a timing activator associated with at least a portion of the game elements, wherein the game element is updated after a predefined period of time lapses from collecting the data concerning real world events, said predefined period of time is associated with the timing activator.” “[0041The changes may then be displayed on all the electronic devices used by the players of the physical game or only displayed on the electronic devices used by the players that are relevant to the change of the game element.”)
Claim 1 is directed to a method and its steps are similar in scope and functions of the elements of the device claim 11 and therefore claim 1 is rejected with same rationales as specified in the rejection
Regarding claims 2 and 12, Barki teaches, determine an update interval of a second map element to be displayed in the game map based on a change frequency of the second map element; (“[0037] The game element timing activator 325 defines the time duration lapsing between processing the update required for a game element and actual update of the element.”)
display the second map element in the game map (“[0026] FIG. 1 shows a method of managing an online game according to data concerning real world events, according to exemplary embodiments of the present invention. Step 110 discloses playing an online game via the gaming server;”)and
update the display of the second map element in the game map based on the determined update interval of the second map element, (“[0017] In some cases, the gaming storage stores a timing activator associated with at least a portion of the game elements, wherein the game element is updated after a predefined period of time lapses from collecting the data concerning real world events, said predefined period of time is associated with the timing activator.” “[0041The changes may then be displayed on all the electronic devices used by the players of the physical game or only displayed on the electronic devices used by the players that are relevant to the change of the game element.”)
wherein the update interval of the second map element is different from the update interval of the first map element. ( Fig. 3A shows different timing activator or update interval for different game element.)
Regarding claims 6 and 16, Barki teaches, wherein the processing circuitry is configured to: detect a change in a display position of the first map element; and update the display of the first map element in the game map based on the detected change in the display position of the first map element. (“[0020] In some cases, the at least one of the conversion functions is configured to receive a player's geographic location, correlate the player's geographic location with a location associated with the data concerning real world events and update the game element according to the data concerning real world events and the player's geographic location.”)
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) 7, 17 and 20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Barki in view of NOJIRI( US patent Publication: 20110130201, “Nojiri”).
Regarding claims 7and 17, Barki doesn’t expressly teach, wherein the processing circuitry is configured to: update the display of the first map element in the game map based on the detected change in the display position of the first map element being greater than or equal to a distance threshold.
However, update the display of the first map element in the game map based on the detected change in the display position of the first map element being greater than or equal to a distance threshold. (“[0018] Further, according to one aspect of the present invention, the display control section may include a section for displaying an afterimage of the object on the game screen in a case where a change amount of the position and the posture of the object per predetermined time period is larger than a reference amount.”)
Barki and Nojiri are analogous as they are from the field of mapping a gaming environment.
Therefore it would have been obvious for an ordinary skilled person in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have modified Barki to have included update the display of the first map element in the game map based on the detected change in the display position of the first map element being greater than or equal to a distance threshold as taught by Nojiri.
The motivation to include the modification is to reduce unnecessary display processing for a small movement of the displayed object.
Regarding claim 20, Barki teaches all the limitations of claim 20 as shown in the rejection claim 1 but doesn’t expressly teach the functionality of the limitations are implemented in a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium, storing program code which when executed by a processor cause the processor to perform the limitations.
Nojiri teaches, a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium, storing program code which when executed by a processor cause the processor to perform similar limitations.( [0010] Further, a program according to the present invention is a program for causing a computer, such as a consumer game machine (stationary game machine), a portable game machine, an arcade game machine, a mobile phone, a personal digital assistant (PDA), or a personal computer, to function as: …….[0011] Further, an information storage medium according to the present invention is a computer-readable information storage medium storing the above-mentioned program.”)
Barki and Nojiri are analogous as they are from the field of mapping a gaming environment.
Therefore it would have been obvious for an ordinary skilled person in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have modified Barki to have included a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium, storing program code which when executed by the processor cause the processor to perform as taught by Nojiri.
The motivation is to create an alternative implementation of Barki’s invention.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 3-5, 8-10, 13-15 and 18-19 are objected to as being dependent upon a rejected base claim, but would be allowable if rewritten in independent form including all of the limitations of the base claim and any intervening claims.
Claim(s) 3 and 13 are objected to be allowable because Salfity (US 20200334887) teaches, determine a classification of the first map element based on the change frequency of the first map element, when the classification of the first map element is a first classification, add the first map element to a first canvas of the game map, and when the classification of the first map element is a second classification, add the first map element to a second canvas of the game map; (“[0015] The control system 130 can analyze image data obtained using sensors 150, to determine a permanency classification of each detected object. As described in more detail, the control system 130 may perform the image analysis when generating an occupancy map of a given region. The image analysis may be used to eliminate objects of a given classification from the map. As an addition or alternative, the map may be structured into multiple layers, where each layer depicts objects of the given region based on a type of permanency associated with the detected object.”) but no prior art is available to reject the limitations, the classification of the first map element is a first classification when the change frequency of the first map element is greater than or equal to a change frequency threshold; and the classification of the first map element is a second classification when the change frequency of the first map element is less than the change frequency threshold.
Claims 4, 10 and 14 are objected by virtue of dependency.
Claims 5 and 15 are allowable because the combination of the best available prior arts fails to expressly teach wherein a minimum update interval of the game map is longer than a display duration of two frames.
Claims 8 and 18 are allowable because the combination of the best available prior arts fails to expressly teach, wherein the game map includes a second map element, and the distance threshold for the first map element is different from a distance threshold for the second map element.
Claims 9 and 19 are objected because the combination of prior arts fails to expressly teach, wherein the first map element is loaded in a memory pool when a loading count of the first map element reaches a count threshold.
Conclusion
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/TAPAS MAZUMDER/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2615