DETAILED ACTION
The present application, filed on or after March 16, 2013, is being examined under the first inventor to file provisions of the AIA .
Drawings
The drawings are objected to as failing to comply with 37 CFR 1.84(p)(5) because they do not include the following reference sign(s) mentioned in the description:
Fig. 3 is missing the reference character “212-4” for the object in the lower right corner. See at least ¶0103 of the specification as filed.
Corrected drawing sheets in compliance with 37 CFR 1.121(d) are required in reply to the Office action to avoid abandonment of the application. Any amended replacement drawing sheet should include all of the figures appearing on the immediate prior version of the sheet, even if only one figure is being amended. Each drawing sheet submitted after the filing date of an application must be labeled in the top margin as either “Replacement Sheet” or “New Sheet” pursuant to 37 CFR 1.121(d). If the changes are not accepted by the examiner, the applicant will be notified and informed of any required corrective action in the next Office action. The objection to the drawings will not be held in abeyance.
Claim Objections
Claims 10-20 are objected to because of the following informalities: Every instance of “program instructions” in claims 10, 12, 16-17 and 19 following the first usage in independent claims 10 and 19 should be changed to “the program instructions.”
Appropriate correction is required.
Examiner’s Comment
The examiner notes that ¶0024 of the instant specification states, “a computer readable storage medium, as that term is used in the present disclosure, is not to be construed as storage in the form of transitory signals per se.” The computer readable storage media of claims 19-20 is therefore defined as non-transitory.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
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 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.
The factual inquiries for establishing a background for determining obviousness under 35 U.S.C. 103 are summarized as follows:
1. Determining the scope and contents of the prior art.
2. Ascertaining the differences between the prior art and the claims at issue.
3. Resolving the level of ordinary skill in the pertinent art.
4. Considering objective evidence present in the application indicating obviousness or nonobviousness.
Claims 1, 3-5, 7-10, 12-14 and 16-19 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Chhabra et al. (US 2023/0017111 A1), hereinafter “Chhabra,” in view of Terentiv et al. (US 2022/0086588 A1, cited in IDS), hereinafter “Terentiv.”
As to claim 1, Chhabra discloses a computer implemented method for managing distribution of audio data streams in a virtual environment, the virtual environment comprising an avatar, and a set of objects, each object comprising an audio data stream (¶0005 and ¶0123, Fig. 4. “Implementations of this application relate to providing spatialized audio in a virtual metaverse.” “Ambient sounds may also include sounds created by other avatars moving or interacting with the environment 400 and/or objects within the environment 400.”), the method comprising:
for each object:
subscribing to receive, from the object, an audio data stream with an embedded data structure, by a first user, wherein the first user is associated with a device and the avatar (¶0107, ¶0114-0115 and ¶0143, Fig. 3. “The prioritization of audio streams (sometimes referred to as “subscription” to audio streams) allows for a reduced set of prioritized streams (e.g., as compared to all available streams) to be transformed into spatialized audio streams.” “The subscription requests are based on subscription logic 312 configured to issue individual subscription requests 338 based on spatial parameters 340 with respect to a particular avatar of a particular user.”);
determining a first distance from the object to the avatar (¶0125, Fig. 5. “avatar 502 may represent a user that requests spatialized audio, and the distance radius 525 may be a parameter or setting used in prioritization of audio streams.”);
creating the embedded data structure based on the first distance, the embedded data structure comprising a set of audio parameters (¶0100 and ¶0134. “The data model 206 may include a plurality of spatial parameters related to audio transformation. For example, the data model 206 may include one or more spatial parameters representative of a group of physical laws that apply to the metaverse place.” “For example, attenuation based on a distance decay parameter to attenuate audio based on distance between avatars defined in the data model may be used to alter audio characteristics.”);
streaming an audio data stream with the embedded data structure to the device (¶0131-0132, Fig. 6. “a request to receive audio associated with a metaverse place of the virtual metaverse may be received (e.g., from a first user of a plurality of users). For example, a client device 110 (also referred to as user device) may be associated with a first user. The first user is associated with a first avatar. Furthermore, the plurality of users can be associated with a plurality of avatars in the metaverse place (e.g., other avatars engaging with the metaverse place).” “a data model associated with the metaverse place is retrieved.” “The parameters and underlying physical laws of sound propagation may be adjusted and/or altered.”); and
processing the audio data stream at the device according to the embedded data structure to determine a processed audio data stream (¶0133-0134, Fig. 6. “respective audio streams received from each user of the plurality of users are transformed, using the extracted spatial parameters. The transformation is based on the avatar information and the scene information. The transforming can include modifying one or more audio characteristics to create spatialized audio streams.”);
mixing a set of processed audio data streams from each of the set of objects to determine a resulting audio data stream (¶0135, Fig. 6. “the spatialized audio streams are combined to create a combined spatialized audio stream.”); and
playing the resulting audio data stream at the device (¶0137, Fig. 6. “the combined spatialized audio stream is provided to the user device for output through an audio output device connected thereto, for example, a set of speakers or headphones.”).
Chhabra does not expressly disclose determining a closest oscillator; and
the embedded data structure inserted at a rate determined by the closest oscillator.
Terentiv discloses determining a closest oscillator (Terentiv, ¶0035 and ¶0040, Figs. 1b-c. “an audio source 113 is associated with audio data that is captured by the audio sensors 120, wherein the audio data indicates an audio signal and the position of the audio source 113 as a function of time (at a particular sampling rate of e.g. 20 ms).” “For rendering purposes, it may be assumed that the audio sources 113, 194 are placed at different rendering positions on a (unity) sphere 114 around the listener 181. The rendering positions of the different audio sources 113, 194 may change over time (according to a given sampling rate).” Audio sources with sampling rates considered oscillators.); and
the embedded data structure inserted at a rate determined by the closest oscillator (Terentiv, ¶0035 and ¶0040, Figs. 1b-c. “an audio source 113 is associated with audio data that is captured by the audio sensors 120, wherein the audio data indicates an audio signal and the position of the audio source 113 as a function of time (at a particular sampling rate of e.g. 20 ms).” “The rendering positions of the different audio sources 113, 194 may change over time (according to a given sampling rate).”).
Chhabra and Terentiv are analogous art because they are from the same field of endeavor with respect to virtual reality sound.
Before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, it would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art to use the sampling rate of the audio source, as taught by Terentiv. The motivation would have been to coordinate the timing of audio in the virtual space.
As to claim 3, Chhabra in view of Terentiv discloses responsive to determining a second distance from the object to the avatar, determining a further closest oscillator; updating the embedded data structure based on the second distance; and inserting the updated embedded data structure at a rate determined by the further closest oscillator (Terentiv, ¶0040 and ¶0078-0079. “The rendering positions of the different audio sources 113, 194 may change over time (according to a given sampling rate). Different situations may occur within a VR rendering environment 180: The listener 181 may perform a global transition 191 from the origin audio scene 111 to a destination audio scene 112. Alternatively or in addition, the listener 181 may perform a local transition 192 to a different listening position 182 within the same audio scene 111.” “a global transition 191 between different audio scenes 111, 112 may be performed by progressively fading out the origin audio signals of the one or more origin audio sources 113.” “In particular, during the global transition 191 an intermediate time instant 213 within the transition time interval may be determined (e.g. according to a certain sampling rate of e.g. 100 ms, 50 ms, 20 ms or less).”).
The motivation is the same as claim 1 above.
As to claim 4, Chhabra in view of Terentiv discloses wherein the virtual environment is selected from the group consisting of: virtual reality, augmented reality, and mixed reality (Chhabra, ¶0056. “Virtual reality (VR) games, or augmented reality (AR) games, for example.” Terentiv, ¶0003. “Virtual reality (VR), augmented reality (AR) and mixed reality (MR) applications are rapidly evolving.”).
As to claim 5, Chhabra in view of Terentiv discloses wherein the audio parameters are dynamic, dependent on the distance (Chhabra, ¶0134. “attenuation based on a distance decay parameter to attenuate audio based on distance between avatars defined in the data model may be used to alter audio characteristics.”).
As to claim 7, Chhabra in view of Terentiv discloses sending a request to receive an audio data stream from each object within a threshold range from the avatar (¶0125, Fig. 5. “In this example, avatar 502 may represent a user that requests spatialized audio, and the distance radius 525 may be a parameter or setting used in prioritization of audio streams.” “In this example, a user device associated with avatar 502 may receive prioritized audio streams associated with avatars 504 and 506, as well as ambient sounds associated with any objects or non-player items within the radius 525. However, data associated with avatar 508 may also be readied to be prioritized should avatar 508 continue to approach the radius 525 as shown by arrow 581.”).
As to claim 8, Chhabra in view of Terentiv discloses wherein the avatar is at a first location and an object of the set of objects is at a second location, further comprising: responsive to determining that the first location is different from a second location, unsubscribing from the object (Chhabra, ¶0116 and ¶0120-0121, ¶0126 and ¶0135, Fig. 5. “a set of prioritized streams may be based on a plurality of spatial parameters related to avatars, items, objects, and other features of a metaverse place.” “a subset of available audio streams is transformed based on proximity or a threshold distance to an avatar within a metaverse place.” Unsubscribing from objects outside the threshold distance is implicit.).
As to claim 9, Chhabra in view of Terentiv discloses wherein each of the first location and the second location define volumes of the virtual environment (Chhabra, ¶0060-0061, Fig. 5 and “An example of an environment may be a three-dimensional (3D) environment. The one or more environments of a game 105 or virtual experience may be collectively referred to as a “world,” “gaming world,” “virtual world,” “universe,” or “metaverse” herein.” Also, Terentiv, ¶0041, Fig. 1C.).
Claims 10 and 19 are directed towards substantially the same subject matter as claim 1 and are therefore rejected using the same motivation as claim 1 above.
Claims 12-14 and 16-18 are rejected under claim 10 using the same motivation as claims 2-5 and 7-9 above.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 2, 6, 11, 15 and 20 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.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to JAMES K MOONEY whose telephone number is (571)272-2412. The examiner can normally be reached Monday-Friday, 9:00 AM -5:00 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, Vivian Chin can be reached at 5712727848. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
Information regarding the status of published or unpublished applications may be obtained from Patent Center. Unpublished application information in Patent Center is available to registered users. To file and manage patent submissions in Patent Center, visit: https://patentcenter.uspto.gov. Visit https://www.uspto.gov/patents/apply/patent-center for more information about Patent Center and https://www.uspto.gov/patents/docx for information about filing in DOCX format. For additional questions, contact the Electronic Business Center (EBC) at 866-217-9197 (toll-free). If you would like assistance from a USPTO Customer Service Representative, call 800-786-9199 (IN USA OR CANADA) or 571-272-1000.
/JAMES K MOONEY/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2695