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 .
Remarks
This office action is responsive to the RCE/amendment filed on 08/31/2026.
Claim(s) 28-51 is/are pending in the application.
Claim(s) 1-27, 52-170 was/were previously canceled.
Independent claim(s) 28, 50-51 was/were amended.
Continued Examination Under 37 CFR 1.114
A request for continued examination under 37 CFR 1.114, including the fee set forth in 37 CFR 1.17(e), was filed in this application after final rejection. Since this application is eligible for continued examination under 37 CFR 1.114, and the fee set forth in 37 CFR 1.17(e) has been timely paid, the finality of the previous Office action has been withdrawn pursuant to 37 CFR 1.114. Applicant's submission filed on 08/31/2026 has been entered.
Response to Arguments
Applicant's argument(s), regarding the amended portion(s) as recited in independent claim 28 (and similarly in independent claim(s) 50-51), filed 08/31/2026, have/has been fully considered and is/are persuasive. However, upon further consideration, a new ground(s) of rejection is made, adding/using Benfold to be relied upon for the aforementioned amended portion(s). To note, applicant's amendment necessitated the new ground(s) of rejection presented in this office action.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
The text of those sections of Title 35, U.S. Code not included in this action can be found in a prior Office action.
Claim(s) 28-32, 50-51 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Mandryk et al. (US 2011/0202834 A1) in view of Jian et al. (US 2008/0120568 A1) and Benfold et al. (US 2023/0377278 A1).
In regards to claim 28, Mandryk teaches a method comprising: at a computer system in communication with a display generation component and one or more input devices (e.g. [0183],Fig.12: computing environment 1200 includes storage 1240, one or more input devices 1250, one or more output devices 1260, and one or more communication connections 1270; see also [0185]: output device(s) 1260 may be a display, printer, speaker, CD-writer, or another device that provides output from the computing environment 1200):
displaying, via the display generation component, a virtual object at a first position within an environment (e.g. [0078],Fig.5: in display state 590, user 302 interacts with a touchscreen by making a flick gesture 510, which is indicated by a leftward-pointing arrow; the flick gesture 510 causes an inertia motion in content layer 532, which continues to move after the gesture 510 has ended; Examiner’s note: display state 590 shows element 542 (virtual object) at a first position);
while displaying, via the display generation component, the virtual object at the first position, detecting, via the one or more input devices, a first input including a request to move the virtual object from the first position to a second position within the environment, different from the first position (e.g. as above, [0078],Fig.5: in display state 590, user 302 interacts with a touchscreen by making a flick gesture 510; see also [0079]: from display state 590, the flick gesture 510 causes a leftward movement in the layers and leads to display state 592, in which element 540 is no longer visible, and elements 542 and 544 have moved to the left; Examiner’s note: display state 592 shows element 542 has moved to a second position);
in response to receiving the first input, displaying, via the display generation component, the virtual object at the second position within the environment (e.g. as above, [0078],Fig.5: in display state 590, user 302 interacts with a touchscreen by making a flick gesture 510; [0079]: from display state 590, the flick gesture 510 causes a leftward movement in the layers and leads to display state 592, in which element 540 is no longer visible, and elements 542 and 544 have moved to the left; Examiner’s note: display state 592 shows element 542 at a second position);
after detecting termination of the first input:
in accordance with a determination that the second position satisfies one or more first criteria, moving the virtual object from the second position to a third position within the environment, wherein the third position is different from the first position and the second position (e.g. [0171]: for example, when the user touches the touchscreen and begins a movement in UI element in a horizontal direction while maintaining contact with the touchscreen, the system 1100 can fire a pan input and begin a horizontal movement in the UI element; system 1100 can continuously update the contact position and rate of movement; when the physical gesture ends (e.g. when user breaks contact with the touchscreen), the system 1100 can determine whether to interpret the motion at the end as a flick by determining how quickly the user's finger, stylus, etc., was moving when it broke contact with the touchscreen, and whether the rate of movement exceeds a threshold; see also [0037]: UI system can distinguish between a non-inertia gesture and an inertia gesture by determining how quickly the user's finger, stylus, etc., was moving when it broke contact with the touchscreen, and whether the velocity exceeds a threshold; if the gesture ends with a velocity above the threshold, the gesture can be interpreted as an inertia gesture; for example, a gesture that starts with panning motion at a velocity below the threshold and ends with a velocity above the threshold can be interpreted as ending with a flick that causes movement to which inertia can be applied; if the gesture ends with a velocity below the threshold, the gesture can be interpreted as a non-inertia gesture; Examiner’s note: as such, once the input (gesture) ends, if the velocity is above a threshold (movement threshold), then inertia is applied to the panning movement which results in further panning movement of the GUI elements (virtual object) to a third position because of the applied inertia); and
in accordance with a determination that the second position does not satisfy the one or more first criteria, maintaining display of the virtual object at the second position within the environment (e.g. as above, [0037]: UI system can distinguish between a non-inertia gesture and an inertia gesture by determining how quickly the user's finger, stylus, etc., was moving when it broke contact with the touchscreen, and whether the velocity exceeds a threshold; if the gesture ends with a velocity below the threshold, the gesture can be interpreted as a non-inertia gesture; also as above, [0171]; Examiner’s note: as such, since the first criteria is not satisfied, the GUI element (virtual object) is not moved further due to the lack of inertia, which results in the GUI element (virtual object) stopping at the second position),
but does not explicitly teach the method,
wherein the environment is a three-dimensional environment,
wherein the one or more first criteria includes a criterion that is satisfied when a respective portion of the virtual object has been moved to a respective position within the environment that is beyond a movement threshold in the environment, and
wherein the moving of the virtual object is from a second position to a third position within the movement threshold in the environment.
However, Jian teaches a method,
wherein the environment is a three-dimensional environment (e.g. [0037]: by dividing a volume above a control surface into various layers of three dimensional space, and associating each three dimensional space with a graphical user interface (GUI), GUIs that are intuitively perceived as stacked on top of each other, such as menus and sub-menus, pages of documents, or various magnifications of images, can be efficiently selected and manipulated by a user; see also Figs.2,4).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have modified the teachings/combination of Mandryk to use 2D windows within a 3D environment, in the same conventional manner as taught by Jian as both deal with GUI controls. The motivation to combine the two would be that it would help managing different applications at the same time in the GUI by displaying the different windows/applications at different depths within the three-dimensional space.
Further, Benfold teaches a method,
wherein the one or more first criteria includes a criterion that is satisfied when a respective portion of the virtual object has been moved to a respective position within the environment that is beyond a movement threshold in the environment (e.g. [0006]: the AR device may apply a motion threshold when correcting a virtual object's location; a motion threshold is a maximum distance that the location of a virtual object may be adjusted based on the motion of the virtual object; for example, the motion threshold may allow a virtual object's location to be adjusted up to some proportion of the distance that the virtual object travels in a timestep; if the target location for a virtual object is within the motion threshold of the virtual object's original location, then the virtual object's location is updated to the target location; if the target location (second position) is outside the motion threshold, the virtual object's location may be updated to a location (third location) that is closest to the target location while not exceeding the motion threshold), and
wherein the moving of the virtual object is from a second position to a third position within the movement threshold in the environment (e.g. as above, [0006]: if the target location (second position) is outside the motion threshold, the virtual object's location may be updated to a location (third location) that is closest to the target location while not exceeding the motion threshold).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have modified the teachings/combination of Mandryk and Jian to use positioning criteria, in the same conventional manner as taught by Benfold as both deal with movement of objects on a display. The motivation to combine the two would be that it would allow the use of different criteria, such as positioning of the object and resulting position, based on a threshold.
In regards to system claim 50 and medium claim 51, claim(s) 50-51 recite(s) limitations that is/are similar in scope to the limitations recited in claim 28. Therefore, claim(s) 50-51 is/are subject to rejections under the same rationale as applied hereinabove for claim 28.
In regards to claim 29, the combination of Mandryk, Jian and Benfold teaches a method, wherein the virtual object is moved to the second position while the first input is ongoing, and the virtual object is moved to the third position in response to detecting the termination of the first input (e.g. Mandryk as above, [0171],[0037]; Examiner’s note: this occurs when the GUI element (virtual object) continues to move to a third position due to inertia even after detecting the termination of the first input (finger slide or flick)).
In regards to claim 30, the combination of Mandryk, Jian and Benfold teaches a method, wherein the displaying of the virtual object at the second position occurs in response to receiving the first input and after detecting the termination of the first input (e.g. Mandryk as above, [0171],[0037]; Examiner’s note: this occurs when the GUI element (virtual object) does not continue to move to a third position and stays at the second position due to lack of inertia even after detecting the termination of the first input (finger slide or flick)).
In regards to claim 31, the combination of Mandryk, Jian and Benfold teaches a method, further comprising:
in response to receiving the first input, after detecting the termination of the first input, and before displaying the virtual object at the second position and before displaying the virtual object at the third position, moving the virtual object from a fourth position to the second position within the three-dimensional environment with simulated inertia (e.g. Mandryk as above, [0171],[0037]; Examiner’s note: this occurs when the GUI element (virtual object) continues to move at least from a starting position (first position); the claimed fourth position may be an intermediate position between the first and second position along which the GUI element is displayed as it pans or slides in response to the finger sliding input or flick; Jian as above, [0037]: dividing a volume above a control surface into various layers of three dimensional space, and associating each three dimensional space with a graphical user interface (GUI)).
In regards to claim 32, the combination of Mandryk, Jian and Benfold teaches a method, wherein the third position corresponds to a position within the three-dimensional environment coincident with the movement threshold (e.g. Benfold as above, [0006]: if the target location (second position) is outside the motion threshold, the virtual object's location may be updated to a location (third location) that is closest to the target location while not exceeding the motion threshold).
In addition, the same rationale/motivation of claim 28 is used for claim 32.
Claim(s) 42 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over the combination of Mandryk, Jian and Benfold as applied to claim 28 above, and further in view of Bates et al. (US 2013/0169649 A1).
In regards to claim 42, the combination of Mandryk, Jian and Benfold teaches the method of claim 28, wherein the moving of the virtual object from the second position to the third position includes movement of the virtual object from the second position to the third position (e.g. Mandryk as above, [0171],[0037]; Examiner’s note: while Mandryk teaches movement of the GUI elements (virtual objects) from a second position to a third position due to inertia, it is unclear whether an animation is shown), but does not explicitly teach the method, wherein the moving of the virtual object includes displaying an animation of the movement.
However, Bates teaches a method, wherein the moving of the virtual object includes displaying an animation of the movement (e.g. [0017]: in one or more implementations, an endpoint for an animation involving movement is exposed for use by software associated with the user interface in which the movement is to be applied, such as to applications, controls, and so on; the animation, for instance, may be configured to support touch panning that involves an amount of inertia, such as in response to a flick in which the user interface continues to move after input of the flick).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have modified the teachings/combination of Mandryk, Jian and Benfold to include an animation of movement, in the same conventional manner as taught by Bates as both deal with displaying/manipulating GUI elements. The motivation to combine the two would be that it would allow the user to visually understand how GUI elements are being moved or changed over time by showing the full movement over a series of frames displayed.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claim(s) 33-41, 43-49 is/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 JED-JUSTIN IMPERIAL whose telephone number is (571)270-5807. The examiner can normally be reached Monday to Friday, 9am - 6pm.
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If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Daniel Hajnik can be reached at (571) 272-7642. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/JED-JUSTIN IMPERIAL/Examiner, Art Unit 2616
/DANIEL F HAJNIK/Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 2616
