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 .
Response to Amendment
The amendment filed 1 July, 2026 has been entered.
The amendment of claims 2, 7, 12, and 17 has been acknowledged.
The cancellation of claims 6 and 16 has been acknowledged.
Response to Arguments
Applicant’s arguments, see page 9, section “Remarks”, filed 1 July, 2026 with respect to the rejection of claims 2, 3, 7, 8, 12, 13, 17, and 18 under 35 U.S.C. §103 have been fully considered and are not persuasive.
Applicant states on page 9 of the remarks filed 1 July, 2026 that Bouazizi et al (WO2022226502 A1, employed using the provided machine translation, hereinafter “Bouazizi”) fails to teach or suggest a method of mutually mapping the coordinates of two different virtual media (i.e., a 360 video and a 3D scene object) as in amended independent Claims 2 and 12 as well as since Bouazizi does not disclose a 360 video itself, it is impossible to derive "metadata mapping an origin defined in the 360 video to a reference point in the 3D scene object" from Bouazizi. The examiner respectfully disagrees.
Regarding the assertion Bouazizi fails to teach or suggest a method of mutually mapping the coordinates of two different virtual media (i.e., a 360 video and a 3D scene object) the examiner disagrees. Bouazizi explicitly teaches in ¶ 0006 “techniques for streaming and presenting immersive media content, e.g., for augmented reality (AR), virtual reality (VR), or mixed reality (MR) content. Such content may generally be referred to as extended reality (XR) content. In general, XR content may include a virtual scene including one or more virtual objects. The virtual scene may be presented to a user as three-dimensional (3D) and navigable media content.”. While Bouazizi does not explicitly teach 360 video, it does teach a plurality of video file formats in ¶ 0025 that the techniques described may be applied to. It is well understood that any video format when compared to a mesh object or point cloud object are different virtual media. With respect to the teaching of a 360 video, the combination with Oh would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art to combine the anchoring scene description to a user for streaming immersive media content (as taught by Bouazizi) and method for displaying 360-degree video (as taught by Oh) before the effective filing date of the claimed invention. The motivation for this combination of references would be the method of Oh incorporates a process of correcting distortion of the 360 degree video during a stitching and/or rendering process to improve image quality (See ¶ 181).
Additionally, the applicant states “since Bouazizi does not disclose a 360 video itself, it is impossible to derive "metadata mapping an origin defined in the Bouazizi”. Again, the examiner relies on the combination of Bouazizi with Oh in order to teach the 360 video in this limitation. The specific amended claim limitation directed to this in claims 2 and 12 is “wherein the information indicating the relation between the coordinates of the 360 video and the 3D scene object includes coordinates of a reference point in the 3D scene object which corresponds to an origin defined in the 360 video”, which is plainly understood to mean that the 3D scene object is placed in the coordinate system of the 360 video with respect to an origin point. This is understood by the examiner to be a well known concept in the art. If an origin of a coordinate space is defined, any object placed in that coordinate space will be defined by its distance from the origin. Bouazizi teaches defining an origin of the coordinate space in ¶ 0127 “The scene description may indicate a transformation of the scene coordinate system into the anchor XR space. For example, rotation, translation, and scaling of the origin of the scene description coordinate space may be performed to align to the XR space. In the absence of any transform, the coordinate system of the scene description is aligned with that of the anchor space.”. Finally ¶ 0147 teaches “After aligning the virtual scene anchor point with the real-world anchor point and making any necessary transformations, presentation unit 330 may present media data 322 via display 314, For example, media data 322 may include data defining virtual objects, textures, colors, and locations for the virtual objects”. As such the examiner understands that Bouazizi in combination with Oh teaches the claim limitations of claims
Priority
Acknowledgment is made of applicant’s claim for foreign priority under 35 U.S.C. 119 (a)-(d). The certified copy has been filed on 5 February, 2024.
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.
Claims 2, 3, 7, 8, 12, 13, 17 and 18 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over WO2022226502 A1 Bouazizi et al (employed using the provided machine translation, hereinafter “Bouazizi”) in view of WO2020122361 A1 Oh et al (employed using the provided machine translation, hereinafter “Oh”).
Regarding claim 2, Bouazizi teaches a method performed by a user equipment, the method comprising:
identifying pose information of a user (¶ 0142: In some examples, camera 308 may detect light emitted from devices coupled to client device 300, such as infrared light boxes, which may be used to determine the location and orientation of a user in the real world presentation environment… Similarly, sensors 310 may be gyroscopes and/or other sensors for detecting posture, location, and/or orientation information of a user in the real-world presentation environment.);
obtaining, from a (¶ 0066: After encapsulation unit 30 has assembled NAL units and/or access units into a video file based on received data, encapsulation unit 30 passes the video file to output interface 32. for output.; ¶ 0134: When implemented in software or firmware, it should he understood that requisite hardware, such as a memory for storing instructions and one or more processors for executing the instructions, may also be provided.), a (¶ 0006: In general, this disclosure describes techniques for streaming and presenting immersive media content, e.g., for augmented reality (AR), virtual reality (VR), or mixed reality (MR) content. Such content may generally be referred to as extended reality (XR) content. In general, XR content may include a virtual scene including one or more virtual objects. The virtual scene may be presented to a user as three-dimensional (3D) and navigable media content.; ¶ 146: Transformation unit 334 may transform the virtual scene to match the real-world presentation environment. For example, transformation unit 334 may determine an orientation of the virtual scene and an orientation of the real-world presentation environment, then transform the virtual scene such that the orientations of the virtual scene and the real-world presentation environment are aligned. That is, scene graph 324 may include data representing a transformation of a scene coordinate system into a real- world coordinate system of the real-world presentation environment. Such transformation may include a rotation and/or translation.);
obtaining, from a scene description (SD) player included in the user equipment (¶ 0134: When implemented in software or firmware, it should he understood that requisite hardware, such as a memory for storing instructions and one or more processors for executing the instructions, may also be provided.), a 3 dimensional (3D) scene object including a mesh object or a point cloud object (¶ 0092: A scene description may be used to describe the composition of a 3D scene, where the scene description includes data referencing and positioning various two-dimensional (2D) and 3D assets in the scene.; ¶ 0098: Typically, camera node 174 includes data describing the view' from which rendering shall be made. 3D objects may be described in mesh sub-nodes, such as mesh node 176, whose child nodes provide information on how to access the media data through buffers and texture information (e.g., accessor node 182, buffer_view node 188, buffer node 194, material node 180, texture node 186, sampler node 190, and image node 192).); and
composing, by a media resource (MR) compositor included in the user equipment (¶ 0134: When implemented in software or firmware, it should he understood that requisite hardware, such as a memory for storing instructions and one or more processors for executing the instructions, may also be provided.), a 3D scene by incorporating, the (¶ 0147: Presentation unit 330 may present the virtual objects at the corresponding locations, relative to the user' s virtual camera orientation (determined from data received from camera 308 and sensors 310). Presentation unit 330 may update the presentation according to user movements detected from user interface devices 306, camera 308, and/or sensors 310, and/or based on updated to scene graph 324.), based on metadata including information indicating relation between coordinates of the (¶ 0124: The scene description, including scene graph 262 and scene graph updates 264, as discussed above, acts as the entry point in a set of data for consuming immersive media data. The scene description describes all virtual objects of the scene and their spatial and temporal relationships. Currently, the scene description (and no other element) describes relationships between virtual objects of a scene and objects in the real-world, in order to support AR and MR applications, however, this disclosure recognizes the necessity of describing such relationships between virtual objects and real-world objects.; ¶ 0127: The scene description may indicate a transformation of the scene coordinate system into the anchor XR space. For example, rotation, translation, and scaling of the origin of the scene description coordinate space may he performed to align to the XR space. In the absence of any transform, the coordinate system of the scene description is aligned with that of the anchor space.),
wherein the information indicating the relation between the coordinates of the (¶ 0127: The scene description may indicate a transformation of the scene coordinate system into the anchor XR space. For example, rotation, translation, and scaling of the origin of the scene description coordinate space may he performed to align to the XR space. In the absence of any transform, the coordinate system of the scene description is aligned with that of the anchor space.; ¶ 0147: After aligning the virtual scene anchor point with the real-world anchor point and making any necessary transformations, presentation unit 330 may present media data 322 via display 314,).
Bouazizi does not explicitly teach a 360 video.
However, Oh does teach a 360 video (¶ 50: 360-degree video may mean video or image content that is required to provide VR and is simultaneously captured or reproduced in all directions (360 degrees). Hereinafter, the term 360-degree video may mean a 360-degree video. The 360-degree video may refer to a video or image displayed on various types of 3D spaces according to a 3D model, and for example, a 360-degree video may be displayed on a spherical surface. 360 audio is also audio content for providing VR, and may mean spatial audio content that can be recognized as being located in a specific three-dimensional space.).
Bouazizi and Oh are considered to be analogous art as both pertain to immersive video processing for XR applications. Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art to combine the anchoring scene description to a user for streaming immersive media content (as taught by Bouazizi) and method for displaying 360-degree video (as taught by Oh) before the effective filing date of the claimed invention. The motivation for this combination of references would be the method of Oh incorporates a process of correcting distortion of the 360 degree video during a stitching and/or rendering process to improve image quality (See ¶ 181).
This motivation for the combination of Bouazizi and Oh is supported by KSR exemplary rationale (G) Some teaching, suggestion, or motivation in the prior art that would have led one of ordinary skill to modify the prior art reference or to combine prior art reference teachings to arrive at the claimed invention. MPEP 2141 (III).
Regarding claim 3, the Bouazizi and Oh combination teaches the method of claim 2.
Additionally, Oh teaches wherein obtaining the 360 video comprises selecting the 360 video among a plurality of 360 videos based on a user position indicated by the pose information of the user (¶ 53: The capture process may mean a process of capturing an image or video for each of a plurality of viewpoints through one or more cameras. Image/video data such as 110 of FIG. 1 may be generated by the capture process. Each plane of 110 of FIG. 1 may mean an image/video for each viewpoint.; ¶ 56: First, each image/video may go through a stitching process. The stitching process may be a process of making one panoramic image/video or a spherical image/video by connecting each of the captured images/videos.; ¶ 67: The head orientation information may refer to information on the position, angle, and movement of the user's head. Based on this information, information on an area that the user is currently viewing in the 360-degree video, that is, viewport information may be calculated.).
Additionally Oh teaches a 360 video (¶ 50: 360-degree video may mean video or image content that is required to provide VR and is simultaneously captured or reproduced in all directions (360 degrees). Hereinafter, the term 360-degree video may mean a 360-degree video. The 360-degree video may refer to a video or image displayed on various types of 3D spaces according to a 3D model, and for example, a 360-degree video may be displayed on a spherical surface. 360 audio is also audio content for providing VR, and may mean spatial audio content that can be recognized as being located in a specific three-dimensional space.).
Regarding claim 7, the Bouazizi and Oh combination teaches the method of claim 2.
Additionally Bouazizi teaches wherein the (¶ 0093: A scene description usually includes a scene graph, which is a directed acyclic graph, typically a plain tree-structure, that represents an object-based hierarchy of the geometry of a scene.; ¶ 0113: In this example, the MPEG-I Scene Description architecture includes local camera 250, local microphone 252, controller device 254, sensors 256, scene graph 262, scene graph updates 264, 2D/3D media data 258, and presentation engine 260. 2D/3D media data 258 may include data for rendering a virtual scene (emphasis added).; Examiner’s note: Examiner believes it would be beneficial for prosecution to detail what a screen description is in the claim to help make clear the bounds of the term and how it contains scene objects and the 360 video. As written, “scene description” is broad and could comprise any supplemental data that is used in creating the scene.).
Additionally, Oh teaches a 360 video (¶ 50: 360-degree video may mean video or image content that is required to provide VR and is simultaneously captured or reproduced in all directions (360 degrees). Hereinafter, the term 360-degree video may mean a 360-degree video. The 360-degree video may refer to a video or image displayed on various types of 3D spaces according to a 3D model, and for example, a 360-degree video may be displayed on a spherical surface. 360 audio is also audio content for providing VR, and may mean spatial audio content that can be recognized as being located in a specific three-dimensional space.).
Bouazizi and Oh are considered to be analogous art as both pertain to immersive video processing for XR applications. Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art to combine the anchoring scene description to a user for streaming immersive media content (as taught by Bouazizi) and method for displaying 360-degree video (as taught by Oh) before the effective filing date of the claimed invention. The motivation for this combination of references would be the method of Oh incorporates a process of correcting distortion of the 360 degree video during a stitching and/or rendering process to improve image quality (See ¶ 181).
Regarding claim 8, the Bouazizi and Oh combination teaches the method of claim 7.
Additionally Bouazizi teaches wherein the metadata further includes at least one of YUV data or depth data (¶ 0113: 2D/3D media data 258 may include data for rendering a virtual scene, e.g., one or more virtual objects, including walls, floor, ceiling, chairs, tables, or any other virtual object, as well as locations of the objects within the virtual scene. (emphasis added)).
Regarding claim 12, claim 12 has been analyzed with regard to claim 2 and is rejected for the same reasons of obviousness as used above as well as in accordance with Bouazizi’s further teaching on:
A user equipment comprising:
A transceiver (¶ 0066: Output interface 32 may comprise, for example, a transmitter, a transceiver…); and
At least one processor coupled with the transceiver and configured to (¶ 0134: Hardware may
include one or more processing circuits, such as one or more digital signal processors (DSPs), general purpose microprocessors, application specific integrated circuits (ASICs), field programmable logic arrays (FPGAs), or other equivalent integrated or discrete logic circuitry.)…
Regarding claim 13, claim 13 has been analyzed with regard to respective claim 3 and is rejected for the same reasons of obviousness as used above.
Regarding claim 17, claim 17 has been analyzed with regard to respective claim 7 and is rejected for the same reasons of obviousness as used above.
Regarding claim 18, claim 18 has been analyzed with regard to respective claim 8 and is rejected for the same reasons of obviousness as used above.
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure.
Oyman et al (U.S. Patent Publication No. 2021/0105451 A1) teaches a system for generating, by a scene generation engine, a scene of an immersive video based on a scene description format, providing, by the scene generation engine to an immersive video encoder, object map information associated with the scene, and generating, by an immersive video encoder, an immersive video bitstream for the scene based on the object map information.
THIS ACTION IS MADE FINAL. Applicant is reminded of the extension of time policy as set forth in 37 CFR 1.136(a).
A shortened statutory period for reply to this final action is set to expire THREE MONTHS from the mailing date of this action. In the event a first reply is filed within TWO MONTHS of the mailing date of this final action and the advisory action is not mailed until after the end of the THREE-MONTH shortened statutory period, then the shortened statutory period will expire on the date the advisory action is mailed, and any nonprovisional extension fee (37 CFR 1.17(a)) pursuant to 37 CFR 1.136(a) will be calculated from the mailing date of the advisory action. In no event, however, will the statutory period for reply expire later than SIX MONTHS from the mailing date of this final action.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to ANDREW JONES whose telephone number is (703)756-4573. The examiner can normally be reached Monday - Friday 8:00-5:00 EST, off Every Other Friday.
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If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Matthew Bella can be reached at (571) 272-7778. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/ANDREW B. JONES/Examiner, Art Unit 2667
/MATTHEW C BELLA/Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 2667
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