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 .
Application Status
This office action is responsive to the Application 18/638,238 filed on 04/17/2024.
The previous 35 USC 103 rejection has been withdrawn in light of the Applicant’s arguments.
This action has been made NON-FINAL.
Information Disclosure Statement
The information disclosure statement (IDS) submitted on 01/05/2026 is being considered by the examiner. A signed IDS is hereby attached.
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, 6, 10, 13-15 and 19-20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Shen, US 12260508 in view of Ham, US 20250191305.
Claim 1:
Shen discloses a method (See Shen Abstract). Shen failed to explicitly disclose a generative machine learning model but Ham discloses this feature in paragraph 0020. It would have been obvious to a person having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have further modified Shen by the teachings of Ham to enable an improved reality (XR) experience by the implementation of generative machine learning models, more effectively (See Ham Abstract; Paragraph 0020). In addition, the references teach features that are directed to analogous art and they are directed to the same field of endeavor, such as, reality (XR) experience. This close relation between the references highly suggests an expectation of success.
As modified:
The combination of Shen and Ham discloses the following:
receiving, by one or more processors (See Shen Column 26, Lines 57-67), a video depicting movement of a humanoid (See Shen Column 23, Lines 7-341), and a target image depicting an object (See Shen Column 6, Lines 43-612);
processing, by a generative machine learning model (See Ham Paragraphs 0020; 0024; 0028; 0033), the video and the target image to generate a new video depicting the object performing the movement (See Shen Column 4, Lines 44-653 & Column 6, Lines 1-43);
and generating an augmented reality (AR) experience using the new video to overlay a face of a user on a portion of the new video (See Shen Column 4, Lines 44-654 & Column 6, Lines 1-43).
Claim 2:
The combination of Shen and Ham discloses receiving a prompt describing the object (See Ham Paragraph 0149); and processing the prompt by a large language model (LLM) (See Ham Paragraph 0149) to generate the target image (See Ham Paragraph 0149) comprising the object having a description matching the prompt (See Ham Paragraphs 0135; 0149).
Claim 3:
The combination of Shen and Ham discloses recording the video depicting a person performing the movement (See Shen Column 23, Lines 7-345); and generating a densepose video representing the movement being performed by the person depicted in the video (See Shen Column 23, Lines 7-346).
Claim 5:
The combination of Shen and Ham discloses wherein the item comprises a fashion item (See Ham Paragraphs 0170), further comprising: applying a segmentation machine learning model (See Ham Paragraphs 0020; 0024; 0028; 0033; 0065; 0170) to the new video to generate a segmentation of the portion of the object corresponding to the fashion item (See Ham Paragraphs 0020; 0024; 0028; 0033; 0065; 0170); and replacing the portion of the object with the fashion item based on the segmentation (See Ham Paragraphs 0020; 0024; 0028; 0033; 0065; 0170).
Claim 6:
The combination of Shen and Ham discloses wherein the item comprises at least one of a shirt, a logo, a lower body garment, an upper body garment, jewelry, gloves, or a hat (See Shen Column 16, Lines 10-25).
Claim 10:
The combination of Shen and Ham discloses wherein the portion of the new video on which the face of the user is overlaid comprises a face of the object (“provides modification options for avatar elements (e.g., digital skins, digital outfits, digital accessories, digital faces” See Shen Column 3, Lines 10-30; Column 7, Lines 5-40).
Claim 13:
The combination of Shen and Ham discloses wherein the size of the head of the user is adjusted based on one or more manually set parameters (“provides modification options for avatar elements (e.g., digital skins, digital outfits, digital accessories, digital faces” See Shen Column 3, Lines 10-30; Column 7, Lines 5-40).
Claim 14:
The combination of Shen and Ham discloses overlaying the head of the user with the adjusted size at the location of the head of the object depicted in the new video (“provides modification options for avatar elements (e.g., digital skins, digital outfits, digital accessories, digital faces” See Shen Column 3, Lines 10-30; Column 7, Lines 5-40).
Claim 15:
The combination of Shen and Ham discloses receiving, by the user system, a selection of one or more image modification effects (See Shen Column 3, Lines 10-30; Column 7, Lines 5-40); and modifying one or more portions of the new video over which the head of the user is overlaid using the one or more image modification effects (“provides modification options for avatar elements (e.g., digital skins, digital outfits, digital accessories, digital faces” See Shen Column 3, Lines 10-30; Column 7, Lines 5-40).
Claim 19:
Claim 19 is rejected on the same basis as claim 1.
Claim 20:
Claim 20 is rejected on the same basis as claim 1.
Claim(s) 4, 11, 12 and 17-18 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Shen, US 12260508 in view of Ham, US 20250191305 and in further view of Davies, US 20220309633.
Claim 4:
The combination of Shen and Ham failed disclose image resolution. However, Davies disclosed this feature in Paragraphs 0003; 0006; 0056; 0123-0124; 0140-0141. It would have been obvious to a person having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have further modified Shen and Ham by the teachings of Davies to enable an improved image alterations in an augmented reality, virtual reality, or mixed reality (AR/VR/MR) environment, more effectively (See Davies Abstract; Paragraph 0160). In addition, the references teach features that are directed to analogous art and they are directed to the same field of endeavor, such as, reality (XR) experience. This close relation between the references highly suggests an expectation of success.
As modified:
The combination of the combination of Shen, Ham and Davies discloses the following:
wherein the new video comprises a first image resolution (See Davies Paragraphs 0003; 0006; 0056; 0123-0124; 0140-0141), further comprising: accessing an item (See Shen Column 16, Lines 10-25) having a second image resolution that is greater than the first image resolution (See Davies Paragraphs 0003; 0006; 0056; 0123-0124; 0140-0141); and replacing a portion of the object depicted in the new video with the item having the second image resolution (See Davies Paragraphs 0003; 0006; 0056; 0123-0124; 0140-0141).
Claim 11:
The combination of Shen and Ham failed disclose cropping. However, Davies disclosed this feature in Paragraphs 0025; 0041-0051; 0123; 0225; 0228-0229. It would have been obvious to a person having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have further modified Shen and Ham by the teachings of Davies to enable an improved image alterations (i.e. cropping) in an augmented reality, virtual reality, or mixed reality (AR/VR/MR) environment, more effectively (See Davies Abstract; Paragraph 0160). In addition, the references teach features that are directed to analogous art and they are directed to the same field of endeavor, such as, reality (XR) experience. This close relation between the references highly suggests an expectation of success.
As modified:
The combination of the combination of Shen, Ham and Davies discloses the following:
wherein the video is received from a developer of the AR experience (See Shen Column 1, Lines 15-67; Column 2, Lines 1-25), further comprising:
transmitting the AR experience to a user system of the user (See Shen Column 1, Lines 15-67; Column 2, Lines 1-25);
in response to the user system receiving input from the user to activate the AR experience (See Shen Column 1, Lines 15-67; Column 2, Lines 1-25), activating a camera of the user system to capture a real-time video of the user (See Shen Column 13, Lines 1-8; Column 31, Lines 1-8);
and cropping a port ion of the real-time video corresponding to a head of the user (See Davies Paragraphs 0025; 0041-0051; 0123; 0225; 0228-0229).
Claim 12:
The combination of the combination of Shen, Ham and Davies identifying a location of a head of the object depicted in the new video (See Shen Column 3, Lines 10-30; Column 7, Lines 5-40); determining a head size of the head of the object depicted in the new video (“avatar face sizes” See Shen Column 3, Lines 10-30; Column 7, Lines 5-40); and adjusting a size of the head of the user in the cropped portion of the real-time video to match the head size of the head of the object (“provides modification options for avatar elements (e.g., digital skins, digital outfits, digital accessories, digital faces” See Shen Column 3, Lines 10-30; Column 7, Lines 5-40).
Claim 17:
The combination of the combination of Shen, Ham and Davies wherein the portion of the real-time video is cropped from at least one of first or last frames of the real-time video (See Davies Paragraphs 0025; 0041-0051; 0123; 0225; 0228-0229).
Claim 18:
The combination of the combination of Shen, Ham and Davies wherein one or more machine learning models (See Ham Paragraphs 0020; 0024; 0028; 0033) are applied to the new video to identify the location of the head of the object and the location of the head of the user (“provides modification options for avatar elements (e.g., digital skins, digital outfits, digital accessories, digital faces” See Shen Column 3, Lines 10-30; Column 7, Lines 5-40), the one or more machine learning models trained (See Ham Paragraphs 0020; 0024; 0028; 0033) by performing training operations comprising: accessing training data comprising a plurality of training images depicting training objects and ground truth data (See Davies Paragraphs 0159; 0360-0361; 0172) indicating locations of heads of the training objects in the plurality of training images (See Davies Paragraphs 0159; 0360-0361; 0172); analyzing, using the one or more machine learning models (See Davies Paragraph 0172), a first training image of the plurality of training images to estimate a location of the head depicted in the first training image (See Davies Paragraph 0118); computing a loss (See Davies Paragraph 0172) based on a deviation between the estimated location of the head for the first training image and the location of the head indicated by the ground truth data (See Davies Paragraphs 0159; 0360-0361; 0172); and updating one or more parameters of the one or more machine learning models based on the computed loss (See Davies Paragraph 0172).
Claim(s) 7-9 and 16 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Shen, US 12260508 in view of Ham, US 20250191305 in view of Davies, US 20220309633 and in further view of Miao, 20190172238.
Claim 7:
Shen, Ham, and Davies failed to disclose replacing a background of the new video with a target background. However, Miao discloses the feature in paragraph 0045. It would have been obvious to a person having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have further modified Shen, Ham and Davies by the teachings of Miao to enable an improved processing of images specifically, the background image and/or video, more effectively (See Miao Abstract; Summary). In addition, the references teach features that are directed to analogous art and they are directed to the same field of endeavor, such as, reality (XR) experience. This close relation between the references highly suggests an expectation of success.
Claim 8:
The combination of Shen, Ham, Davies and Miao discloses wherein the background of the new video being replaced corresponds to a background depicted in the target image (See Miao Paragraph 0045).
Claim 9:
The combination of Shen, Ham, Davies and Miao discloses wherein the background of the new video being replaced corresponds to a background depicted in the video depicting the movement of the humanoid (See Miao Paragraph 0045).
Claim 16:
The combination of Shen, Ham, Davies and Miao discloses wherein the one or more image modification effects comprise at least one of background replacement, parallax background (See Miao Paragraph 0042-0044; 0080), or fish-eye sharpening (See Miao Paragraph 0036-0037; 0057-0060; 0080).
Pertinent Art
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure.
US 20150325029 discloses a mechanism is described for facilitating dynamic simulation of avatars based on user performances according to one embodiment. A method of embodiments, as described herein, includes capturing, in real-time, an image of a user, the image including a video image over a plurality of video frames. The method may further include tracking changes in size of the user image, the tracking of the changes may include locating one or more positions of the user image within each of the plurality of video frames, computing, in real-time, user performances based on the changes in the size of the user image over the plurality of video frames, and dynamically scaling an avatar associated with the user such that the avatar is dynamically simulated corresponding to the user performances.
Contact Information
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to SHEREE N BROWN whose telephone number is (571)272-4229. The examiner can normally be reached M-F 5:30-2:00 PM EST.
Examiner interviews are available via telephone, in-person, and video conferencing using a USPTO supplied web-based collaboration tool. To schedule an interview, applicant is encouraged to use the USPTO Automated Interview Request (AIR) at http://www.uspto.gov/interviewpractice.
If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, SAID BROOME can be reached at (571) 272-2931. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/SHEREE N BROWN/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2612 March 9, 2026
1 Shen, Column 23, Lines 7-34 recites “display within the context-aware overlay avatar editor, a set of athletic wear-related graphical assets for an extended-reality environment representing a video game with a physical activity component (e.g., dancing or sports video game).”
2 Shen, Column 6, Lines 43-61 recites “a thumbnail image or other representation of a digital object.”
3 Shen, Column 4, Lines 44-65 recites “upon receiving a request from the user of the subsequent extended-reality device to modify the user's avatar, the context-aware universal avatar editing system can provide, for display as an overlay user interface in the subsequent extended-reality environment, a context-aware avatar overlay editor to modify an appearance of a user's avatar with avatar modifications that are relevant to a concert venue environment (e.g., artist merchandise, hats, sunglasses, rock-inspired hairstyles) while the extended-reality environment of the concert venue is running live in the background.”
4 Shen, Column 4, Lines 44-65 recites “upon receiving a request from the user of the subsequent extended-reality device to modify the user's avatar, the context-aware universal avatar editing system can provide, for display as an overlay user interface in the subsequent extended-reality environment, a context-aware avatar overlay editor to modify an appearance of a user's avatar with avatar modifications that are relevant to a concert venue environment (e.g., artist merchandise, hats, sunglasses, rock-inspired hairstyles) while the extended-reality environment of the concert venue is running live in the background.”
5 Shen, Column 23, Lines 7-34 recites “display within the context-aware overlay avatar editor, a set of athletic wear-related graphical assets for an extended-reality environment representing a video game with a physical activity component (e.g., dancing or sports video game).”
6 Shen, Column 23, Lines 7-34 recites “display within the context-aware overlay avatar editor, a set of athletic wear-related graphical assets for an extended-reality environment representing a video game with a physical activity component (e.g., dancing or sports video game).”