DETAILED ACTION
This action is responsive to the filing of 5/1/24. Claims 1-20 are pending and have been considered below.
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 .
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 2-9 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.
The following is an examiner's statement of reasons for allowance. The prior art of record fails to disclose before generating haptic feedback, using an audio sample to determine whether to trigger the haptic feedback in the future, and storing haptic record representing the audio sample, in combination with other limitations recited within the claimed context. The claims present a combination of limitations that differ from the cited art, and there is no reasonable combination of references that would teach it.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 101
35 U.S.C. 101 reads as follows:
Whoever invents or discovers any new and useful process, machine, manufacture, or composition of matter, or any new and useful improvement thereof, may obtain a patent therefor, subject to the conditions and requirements of this title.
Claim 19 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 101 because the claimed invention is directed to non-statutory subject matter. Claim 19 recites a “computer-readable signal” comprising. This encompasses nonstatutory subject matter (transmission media) that is unpatentable under 35 U.S.C. 101.
Claim 20 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 101 because the claimed invention is directed to non-statutory subject matter. Claim 20 recites a computer program. Accordingly, the recited “computer program” is a computer software per se and is not a “process,” a “machine,” a “manufacture” or a “composition of matter,” as defined in 35 U.S.C. 101.
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)(1) the claimed invention was patented, described in a printed publication, or in public use, on sale, or otherwise available to the public before the effective filing date of the claimed invention.
Claim(s) 1, 10-20 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by Doy (20190311590.)
Claim 1, 17-20: Doy discloses a computer-implemented method for generating haptic feedback to accompany an audio signal, the method comprising:
detecting a predetermined audio signal in one or more monitored audio channels (par. 54, receive the audio signal A.sub.IN and to determine whether the audio signal A.sub.IN comprises a haptic trigger based on an indication of a rate of change of an amplitude of the audio signal A.sub.IN. A haptic trigger may be considered a part of the audio signal which has a certain characteristic indicating that it is suitable for output in conjunction with a haptic signal); and
in response to detecting the predetermined audio signal, triggering a haptic feedback signal in a haptic feedback channel, wherein the haptic feedback channel (Fig. 4B: 414 haptic triggers over the Hout in Fig. 5: 502 to 208 to 201 haptic transducer; par. 81-84) is synchronized (par. 86, a fast reacting decision stage, which may therefore provide a haptic signal quickly, thereby maintaining synchronization with the audio signal) with the one or more monitored audio channels (Fig. 4B: 408.)
Claim 10: Doy discloses the method according to claim 1, wherein the haptic feedback signal comprises an audio signal (par. 54, A haptic trigger may be considered a part of the audio signal which has a certain characteristic indicating that it is suitable for output in conjunction with a haptic signal.)
Claim 11: Doy discloses the method according to claim 1, further comprising determining the haptic feedback signal based on the predetermined audio signal (par. 54, receive the audio signal A.sub.IN and to determine whether the audio signal A.sub.IN comprises a haptic trigger based on an indication of a rate of change of an amplitude of the audio signal A.sub.IN.)
Claim 12: Doy discloses the method according to claim 11, wherein determining the haptic feedback signal comprises selecting the haptic feedback signal from a plurality of predetermined haptic feedback signals based on the predetermined audio signal (Fig. 4a-4b 402, 404, 406; par. 64-66, a first weighted sum representation 402 of a rectified version 401 of the audio signal; a second weighted sum representation 404 of the rectified version 401 of the audio signal.)
Claim 13: Doy discloses the method according to claim 1, wherein: detecting the predetermined audio signal comprises detecting the predetermined audio signal with at least one of a range of amplitudes (Fig. 4a: 400; par. 54, an indication of a rate of change of an amplitude of the audio signal), durations, or occurrence frequencies; and the method further comprises adjusting a characteristic of the haptic feedback signal based on the at least one amplitude, duration, or occurrence frequency of the predetermined audio signal (par. 55, if the rate of change of the amplitude of the audio signal is above a first threshold value, such rate of change may indicate that an audio event is occurring in the audio signal A.sub.IN that may warrant a haptic event.)
Claim 14: Doy discloses the method according to claim 1, further comprising: obtaining haptic feedback capability information from a device configured to receive the haptic feedback channel; and triggering the haptic feedback signal based on the haptic feedback capability information (par. 58, the first type of haptic signal may comprise buzzes or Piece Wise Linear Envelope (PWLE) type waveforms, which are examples of simple and efficient methods of storing a haptics waveform; par. 59, a haptic signal of the second type may comprise a ‘more aggressive or ‘click’ style waveform, stored in the device (or memory) as a wave file consisting of discrete sampled data.)
Claim 15: Doy discloses a method of generating audio-visual media with feedback, the method comprising: generating base audio-visual media comprising an audio signal and a video signal; and performing the method according claim 1 to generate haptic feedback to accompany the base audio-visual media (par. 20, The media playback may comprise video data.)
Claim 16: Doy discloses the method according to claim 15, further comprising: detecting a predetermined video signal in one or more monitored video channels; and in response to detecting the predetermined video signal, triggering a haptic feedback signal in a haptic feedback channel, wherein the haptic feedback channel is synchronized with the one or more monitored video channels (par. 94, the audio signal may be played along with some video data, for example for a gaming application; the gaming content is for a military based game, the criteria may be adjusted to differentiate between gunshots represented by “on-screen” images (for example a muzzle flash) in the video data and “off-screen” gunshots not represented by images in the video data. The criteria utilized to generate the haptics signal may therefore be adjusted to produce different haptic signals for these two scenarios.)
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure: Eagleman (20210208684) haptic feedback.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to ANDREY BELOUSOV whose telephone number is (571) 270-1695 and Andrew.belousov@uspto.gov email. The examiner can normally be reached Mon-Friday EST.
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/Andrey Belousov/
Primary Examiner
Art Unit 2172
2/5/26