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 .
Information Disclosure Statement
The information disclosure statement (IDS) submitted on 06/25/2024 and 04/01/2025 are in compliance with the provisions of 37 CFR 1.97. Accordingly, the information disclosure statement has been considered by the examiner.
Specification
The lengthy specification has not been checked to the extent necessary to determine the presence of all possible minor errors. Applicant’s cooperation is requested in correcting any errors of which applicant may become aware in the specification.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
1 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.
2 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.
3 Claim(s) 1-2, 4, 6, 8-9, 12, 16, 19, 21, and 23 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Zhang et al. (CN 112270732 A) in view of O’ Brien (US 9177419 B2).
4 Regarding claim 1, Zhang teaches a particle effect rendering method, comprising:
obtaining an object to be rendered ([Page 9; Lines 38-39] reciting “Obtain the historical position information of the target particle on the surface of the three-dimensional model in the previous frame and determine the motion state of the target particle.”);
generating, based on the object to be rendered, a force field corresponding to the object to be rendered, wherein the force field comprises one or more positions, and a vector value corresponding to a position of the one or more positions is used to indicate a force applied to a particle when the particle is at the position ([Page 9; Lines 41, 43-44, 48-51] reciting “Apply a simulated force field to the target particle…Determine the estimated position of the target particle in the current frame according to the frame duration, the simulated force field, the historical position information and the motion state… In other words, the determining module 12 can be used to obtain the historical position information of the target particles on the surface of the three-dimensional model in the previous frame, determine the motion state of the target particles, and apply a simulated force field to the target particles. , Simulation force field, historical position information and motion state determine the estimated position of the target particle in the current frame.”)
based on a of the force field, obtaining, according to a vector value corresponding to a first position of a particle in the force field in an image frame at a t-th moment, a second position of the particle in the force field in an image frame at a (t+1)-th moment, wherein t is a non-negative integer ([Page 9, Lines 43-44; Page 10, Lines 14-17] reciting “Determine the estimated position of the target particle in the current frame according to the frame duration, the simulated force field, the historical position information and the motion state… Understandably, if there is no simulated force field, the motion state of the target particle will remain unchanged, and the target particle will remain stationary or continue to move in a certain direction. Therefore, to change the motion state, a simulated force field must be applied to the target particle. , So that the movement state of the target particle changes.”); and
rendering and generating, according to the second position of the particle in the force field in the image frame at the (t+1)-th moment, the image frame at the (t+1)-th moment, so as to obtain a particle effect rendering result of the object to be rendered according to image frames corresponding to respective moments in a preset time period ([Page 5; Lines 20-24] reciting “The movement of particles attached to the surface of the 3D model can simulate various dynamic visual effects. For example, attaching a large number of particles to the surface of a sphere can show the simulation effect of flame burning animation. In related technologies, in order for particles to simulate various dynamic effects, it is necessary to determine the position of each frame of the particle during the movement of the surface of the three-dimensional model, and then render the movement position of each frame.” [Page 11; Lines 19-23] reciting “For example, in some scenes, the target particles need to move on the surface of the human body model to generate a dynamic flame animation on the surface of the human body. After the processor 20 adds centripetal force to the target particles, add them to different target particles. Different curling noises are used to control the movement of target particles, thereby generating animations of dynamic flames on the surface of the human body model.”).
5 Zhang does not explicitly teach based on a 3D texture map of the force field, obtaining, according to a vector value corresponding to a first position of a particle…
6 O’ Brien teaches based on a 3D texture map of the force field, obtaining, according to a vector value corresponding to a first position of a particle ([Abstract] reciting “The simulation application retrieves a first texture element from a set of uv texture maps, and attaches a first displacement value to the mesh point based on the first texture element…such that the first displacement value remains attached to the mesh point as the plurality of mesh points moves in response to a motion of the fluid.”; [Page 14; Column 11, Lines 9-20] reciting “The surface characteristic 540 is associated with a secondary property of the fluid surface, such as surface foam or bubbles below the surface. The surface characteristic 540 may be modeled via advection of UV texture maps, as described above. Alternatively, the surface characteristic 540 may be modeled via particle simulation. During particles simulation, particles collect in regions where foam would form. Results from the particle simulation may be written to an output file. The output file may then be accessed by a rendering application that places the particles on the post-displaced fluid surface resulting from the advection process, as described above.”; [Page 14; Column 12, Lines 50-53] reciting “The surface of the fluid flow is modeled by attaching two UV texture maps to a mesh defining the displacement of the fluid surface. The first UV map is advected along the surface of the fluid as the fluid flows during the simulation.”)…
7 It would have been obvious to one with ordinary skill before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, to have modified the method (taught by Zhang) to incorporate the teachings of O’ Brien to provide a 3d texture map (or a UV texture map) for the objects that are taught by Zhang, while also utilizing a type of motion that can be similar to the surface motion taught by Zhang ([Page 4; Lines 5-6] reciting “Figure 1 is a schematic diagram of the calculation of the surface motion of the particle 3D model by the calculation engine in the related technology.”). Doing so would achieve a more realistic appearance as stated by O’ Brien ([Page 13; Column 9, Lines 18-23] recited).
8 Regarding claim 2, Zhang in view of O’ Brien teaches the particle effect rendering method according to claim 1 (see claim 1 rejection above), wherein the obtaining, according to a vector value corresponding to a first position of a particle in the force field in an image frame at a t-th moment, a second position of the particle in the force field in an image frame at a (t+1)-th moment comprises: obtaining a force applied to the particle when the particle is at the first position according to the vector value corresponding to the first position of the particle; and obtaining the second position of the particle in the force field in the image frame at the (t+1)-th moment according to the force applied to the particle when the particle is at the first position (Zhang; [Page 9; Lines 43-44] reciting “Determine the estimated position of the target particle in the current frame according to the frame duration, the simulated force field, the historical position information and the motion state.”; [Page 9; Lines 24-28] reciting “Specifically, after determining the motion state of the target particle in the previous frame, if a simulated force field is added, the velocity and velocity of the target particle after the force field is applied are calculated according to the simulated force field and the motion state of the target particle in the previous frame The direction is calculated according to the speed, direction, frame duration and position information of the previous frame to obtain the estimated position of the target particle in the current frame.”).
9 Regarding claim 4, Zhang in view of O’ Brien teaches the particle effect rendering method according to claim 1 (see claim 1 rejection above), wherein the force field comprises a vector field (Zhang; [Page 10; Lines 4-8] reciting “It should be noted that the force field is a vector field, in which the vector related to each point can be measured by a force, which is a very important basic concept in physics. Common force fields include gravitational field, magnetic field (magnetic field for short), electric field (electric field for short), etc. Therefore, it is understandable that the simulated force field is the force formed by simulating the force field that exists naturally in the image rendering process.”).
10 Regarding claim 6, Zhang in view of O’ Brien teaches the particle effect rendering method according to claim 1, wherein the generating, based on the object to be rendered, a force field corresponding to the object to be rendered comprises: obtaining a three-dimensional mesh model corresponding to the object to be rendered; and generating the force field corresponding to the object to be rendered based on the three-dimensional mesh model (Zhang; [Page 9; Lines 38-39] reciting “Obtain the historical position information of the target particle on the surface of the three-dimensional model in the previous frame and determine the motion state of the target particle.”; [Page 9; Lines 48-51] reciting “In other words, the determining module 12 can be used to obtain the historical position information of the target particles on the surface of the three-dimensional model in the previous frame, determine the motion state of the target particles, and apply a simulated force field to the target particles. , Simulation force field, historical position information and motion state determine the estimated position of the target particle in the current frame.”).
11 Claims 8-9 has similar limitations as of claim 1, therefore they are rejected under the same rationale as claim 1.
12 Regarding claim 12, Zhang in view of O’ Brien teaches the particle effect rendering method according to claim 2 (see claims 1-2 rejections above), wherein the force field comprises a vector field (Zhang; [Page 10; Lines 4-8] reciting “It should be noted that the force field is a vector field, in which the vector related to each point can be measured by a force, which is a very important basic concept in physics. Common force fields include gravitational field, magnetic field (magnetic field for short), electric field (electric field for short), etc. Therefore, it is understandable that the simulated force field is the force formed by simulating the force field that exists naturally in the image rendering process.”).
13 Regarding claim 16, Zhang in view of O’ Brien teaches the particle effect rendering method according to claim 2 (see claims 1-2 rejections above), wherein the generating, based on the object to be rendered, a force field corresponding to the object to be rendered comprises: obtaining a three-dimensional mesh model corresponding to the object to be rendered; and generating the force field corresponding to the object to be rendered based on the three-dimensional mesh model (Zhang; [Page 9; Lines 38-39] reciting “Obtain the historical position information of the target particle on the surface of the three-dimensional model in the previous frame and determine the motion state of the target particle.”; [Page 9; Lines 48-51] reciting “In other words, the determining module 12 can be used to obtain the historical position information of the target particles on the surface of the three-dimensional model in the previous frame, determine the motion state of the target particles, and apply a simulated force field to the target particles. , Simulation force field, historical position information and motion state determine the estimated position of the target particle in the current frame.”).
14 Claim 19 has similar limitations as of claim 2, therefore it is rejected under the same rationale as claim 2.
15 Claim 21 has similar limitations as of claim 4, therefore it is rejected under the same rationale as claim 4.
16 Claim 23 has similar limitations as of claim 6, therefore it is rejected under the same rationale as claim 6.
17 Claim(s) 3, 13, 17, and 20 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Zhang et al. (CN 112270732 A) in view of O’ Brien (US 9177419 B2) as of claims 1-2, further in view of Tillman et al. (US 20070174028 A1).
18 Regarding claim 3, Zhang in view of O’ Brien teaches the particle effect rendering method according to claim 2 (see claims 1-2 rejections above), wherein the obtaining the second position of the particle in the force field in the image frame at the (t+1)-th moment according to the force applied to the particle when the particle is at the first position comprises: obtaining a and an initial velocity of the particle at the first position; obtaining an acceleration of the particle at the first position according to the force applied to the particle when the particle is at the first position and the ; and obtaining the second position of the particle in the force field in the image frame at the (t+1)-th moment according to the initial velocity of the particle at the first position, the acceleration of the particle at the first position, and a time difference between the image frame at the (t+1)-th moment and the image frame at the t-th moment (Zhang; [Page 9; Lines 24-28] reciting “Specifically, after determining the motion state of the target particle in the previous frame, if a simulated force field is added, the velocity and velocity of the target particle after the force field is applied are calculated according to the simulated force field and the motion state of the target particle in the previous frame The direction is calculated according to the speed, direction, frame duration and position information of the previous frame to obtain the estimated position of the target particle in the current frame.”; [Page 6; Lines 51-54] reciting “It can be understood that according to the laws of physics, if there is no external interference during the movement of the target particle, the position of the target particle at any time (each frame) can be calculated based on the movement state and position of the previous time (previous frame).”).
19 Zhang in view of O’ Brien does not explicitly teach obtaining a mass of the particle and an initial velocity of the particle at the first position; obtaining an acceleration of the particle at the first position according to the force applied to the particle when the particle is at the first position and the mass of the particle;
20 Tillman teaches obtaining a mass of the particle and an initial velocity of the particle at the first position; obtaining an acceleration of the particle at the first position according to the force applied to the particle when the particle is at the first position and the mass of the particle ([Abstract] reciting “Data is generated that uniformly distributes particles at positions of the portion of the object based on dimensions of the child volume region in the set, wherein the data for each particle describes a mass density, velocity, pressure, stress and energy at a position and a collection of the particles represent the object portion for use in the computer-implemented simulation.”);
21 It would have been obvious to one with ordinary skill before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, to have modified the method (taught by Zhang in view of O’ Brien) to incorporate the teachings of Tillman to provide a mass of a particle alongside with the velocity of the particles provided by Zhang in view of O’ Brien. Doing so would provide a desired resolution or density without over-representing the object with particles as stated by Tillman.
22 Regarding claim 13, Zhang in view of O’ Brien and Tillman teaches the particle effect rendering method according to claim 3 (see claims 1-3 rejections above), wherein the force field comprises a vector field (Zhang; [Page 10; Lines 4-8] reciting “It should be noted that the force field is a vector field, in which the vector related to each point can be measured by a force, which is a very important basic concept in physics. Common force fields include gravitational field, magnetic field (magnetic field for short), electric field (electric field for short), etc. Therefore, it is understandable that the simulated force field is the force formed by simulating the force field that exists naturally in the image rendering process.”).
23 Regarding claim 17, Zhang in view of O’ Brien and Tillman teaches the particle effect rendering method according to claim 3 (see claims 1-3 rejections above), wherein the generating, based on the object to be rendered, a force field corresponding to the object to be rendered comprises: obtaining a three-dimensional mesh model corresponding to the object to be rendered; and generating the force field corresponding to the object to be rendered based on the three-dimensional mesh model (Zhang; [Page 9; Lines 38-39] reciting “Obtain the historical position information of the target particle on the surface of the three-dimensional model in the previous frame and determine the motion state of the target particle.”; [Page 9; Lines 48-51] reciting “In other words, the determining module 12 can be used to obtain the historical position information of the target particles on the surface of the three-dimensional model in the previous frame, determine the motion state of the target particles, and apply a simulated force field to the target particles. , Simulation force field, historical position information and motion state determine the estimated position of the target particle in the current frame.”).
24 Claim 20 has similar limitations as of claim 3, therefore it is rejected under the same rationale as claim 3.
25 Claim(s) 5, 14, 18, and 22 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Zhang et al. (CN 112270732 A) in view of O’ Brien (US 9177419 B2) as of claim 1, further in view of Li et al. (US 20240062449 A1) and Lo et al. (US 20190139309 A1).
26 Regarding claim 5, Zhang in view of O’ Brien teaches the particle effect rendering method according to claim 1 (see claim 1 rejection above), but does not explicitly teach wherein the force field comprises a signed distance field, and the signed distance field comprises a shortest distance between each of the one or more positions and a surface of the object to be rendered; the particle effect rendering method further comprises: determining a shortest distance between the first position and the surface of the object to be rendered; and determining a force applied to the particle when the particle is at the first position according to the shortest distance and the vector value corresponding to the first position.
27 Li teaches wherein the force field comprises a signed distance field, and the signed distance field comprises a shortest distance between each of the one or more positions and a surface of the object to be rendered; the particle effect rendering method further comprises: determining a shortest distance between the first position and the surface of the object to be rendered ([0038] reciting “Signed Distance Field (SDF): given a position point in any space, the closest distance of this position point from a scene object is returned, if the position point is outside the object, a positive value is returned, and if the position point is inside the object, a negative value is returned.”; [0055] reciting “In an embodiment, when the virtual marching ray is emitted forward from the current scene shading point, it may advance step by step according to the marching length, and the marching length depends on the shortest distance of a position where the virtual marching ray is currently located from the scene, that is, signed-distance-field information of the position where the virtual marching ray is currently located.”);
28 It would have been obvious to one with ordinary skill before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, to have modified the method (taught by Zhang in view of O’ Brien) to incorporate the teachings of Li to provide a signed distance field and the shortest distance based on the various positions provided by Zhang in view of O’ Brien. Doing so would allow to determine color information of a scene intersection point as stated by Li ([Abstract] recited).
29 Zhang in view of O’ Brien and Li does not explicitly teach determining a force applied to the particle when the particle is at the first position according to the shortest distance and the vector value corresponding to the first position.
30 Lo teaches determining a force applied to the particle when the particle is at the first position according to the shortest distance and the vector value corresponding to the first position ([Claim 32] reciting “…determine a shortest distance from the location of each sensor input within the volume to the location of the core; determine a force vector along each distance; apply the force vectors to the virtual element; render the one or more images of the virtual element in response to the applied force vectors; and cause the one or more displays to project light corresponding to the rendered images of the virtual element that is perceived by the user as his or her interaction with the virtual element.”).
31 It would have been obvious to one with ordinary skill before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, to have modified the method (taught by Zhang in view of O’ Brien and Li) to incorporate the teachings of Lo to provide a method to determine types of force for an element while using the methods to find the shortest distance provided by Zhang in view of O’ Brien and Li. Doing so would facilitate interactions between a user of the display system and a virtual element presented by the display system as stated by Lo ([Claim 32] recited).
32 Regarding claim 14, Zhang in view of O’ Brien teaches the particle effect rendering method according to claim 2 (see claims 1-2 rejections above), but does not explicitly teach wherein the force field comprises a signed distance field, and the signed distance field comprises a shortest distance between each of the one or more positions and a surface of the object to be rendered; the particle effect rendering method further comprises: determining a shortest distance between the first position and the surface of the object to be rendered; and determining a force applied to the particle when the particle is at the first position according to the shortest distance and the vector value corresponding to the first position.
33 Li teaches wherein the force field comprises a signed distance field, and the signed distance field comprises a shortest distance between each of the one or more positions and a surface of the object to be rendered; the particle effect rendering method further comprises: determining a shortest distance between the first position and the surface of the object to be rendered ([0038] reciting “Signed Distance Field (SDF): given a position point in any space, the closest distance of this position point from a scene object is returned, if the position point is outside the object, a positive value is returned, and if the position point is inside the object, a negative value is returned.”; [0055] reciting “In an embodiment, when the virtual marching ray is emitted forward from the current scene shading point, it may advance step by step according to the marching length, and the marching length depends on the shortest distance of a position where the virtual marching ray is currently located from the scene, that is, signed-distance-field information of the position where the virtual marching ray is currently located.”);
34 It would have been obvious to one with ordinary skill before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, to have modified the method (taught by Zhang in view of O’ Brien) to incorporate the teachings of Li to provide a signed distance field and the shortest distance based on the various positions provided by Zhang in view of O’ Brien. Doing so would allow to determine color information of a scene intersection point as stated by Li ([Abstract] recited).
35 Zhang in view of O’ Brien and Li does not explicitly teach determining a force applied to the particle when the particle is at the first position according to the shortest distance and the vector value corresponding to the first position.
36 Lo teaches determining a force applied to the particle when the particle is at the first position according to the shortest distance and the vector value corresponding to the first position ([Claim 32] reciting “…determine a shortest distance from the location of each sensor input within the volume to the location of the core; determine a force vector along each distance; apply the force vectors to the virtual element; render the one or more images of the virtual element in response to the applied force vectors; and cause the one or more displays to project light corresponding to the rendered images of the virtual element that is perceived by the user as his or her interaction with the virtual element.”).
37 It would have been obvious to one with ordinary skill before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, to have modified the method (taught by Zhang in view of O’ Brien and Li) to incorporate the teachings of Lo to provide a method to determine types of force for an element while using the methods to find the shortest distance provided by Zhang in view of O’ Brien and Li. Doing so would facilitate interactions between a user of the display system and a virtual element presented by the display system as stated by Lo ([Claim 32] recited).
38 Regarding claim 18, Zhang in view of O’ Brien and Tillman teaches the particle effect rendering method according to claim 5 (see claims 1-2 and 5 rejections above), wherein the generating, based on the object to be rendered, a force field corresponding to the object to be rendered comprises: obtaining a three-dimensional mesh model corresponding to the object to be rendered; and generating the force field corresponding to the object to be rendered based on the three- dimensional mesh model (Zhang; [Page 9; Lines 38-39] reciting “Obtain the historical position information of the target particle on the surface of the three-dimensional model in the previous frame and determine the motion state of the target particle.”; [Page 8; Lines 48-51] reciting “In other words, the determining module 12 can be used to obtain the historical position information of the target particles on the surface of the three-dimensional model in the previous frame, determine the motion state of the target particles, and apply a simulated force field to the target particles. , Simulation force field, historical position information and motion state determine the estimated position of the target particle in the current frame.”).
39 Claim 22 has similar limitations as of claim 5, therefore it is rejected under the same rationale as claim 5.
40 Claim(s) 15 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Zhang et al. (CN 112270732 A) in view of O’ Brien (US 9177419 B2) and Tillman et al. (US 20070174028 A1) as of claims 1-3, further in view of Li et al. (US 20240062449 A1) and Lo et al. (US 20190139309 A1).
41 Regarding claim 15, Zhang in view of O’ Brien and Tillman teaches the particle effect rendering method according to claim 3 (see claims 1-3 rejections above), but does not explicitly teach wherein the force field comprises a signed distance field, and the signed distance field comprises a shortest distance between each of the one or more positions and a surface of the object to be rendered; the particle effect rendering method further comprises: determining a shortest distance between the first position and the surface of the object to be rendered; and determining a force applied to the particle when the particle is at the first position according to the shortest distance and the vector value corresponding to the first position.
42 Li teaches wherein the force field comprises a signed distance field, and the signed distance field comprises a shortest distance between each of the one or more positions and a surface of the object to be rendered; the particle effect rendering method further comprises: determining a shortest distance between the first position and the surface of the object to be rendered ([0038] reciting “Signed Distance Field (SDF): given a position point in any space, the closest distance of this position point from a scene object is returned, if the position point is outside the object, a positive value is returned, and if the position point is inside the object, a negative value is returned.”; [0055] reciting “In an embodiment, when the virtual marching ray is emitted forward from the current scene shading point, it may advance step by step according to the marching length, and the marching length depends on the shortest distance of a position where the virtual marching ray is currently located from the scene, that is, signed-distance-field information of the position where the virtual marching ray is currently located.”);
43 It would have been obvious to one with ordinary skill before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, to have modified the method (taught by Zhang in view of O’ Brien and Tillman) to incorporate the teachings of Li to provide a signed distance field and the shortest distance based on the various positions provided by Zhang in view of O’ Brien and Tillman. Doing so would allow to determine color information of a scene intersection point as stated by Li ([Abstract] recited).
44 Zhang in view of O’ Brien, Tillman, and Li does not explicitly teach determining a force applied to the particle when the particle is at the first position according to the shortest distance and the vector value corresponding to the first position.
45 Lo teaches determining a force applied to the particle when the particle is at the first position according to the shortest distance and the vector value corresponding to the first position ([Claim 32] reciting “…determine a shortest distance from the location of each sensor input within the volume to the location of the core; determine a force vector along each distance; apply the force vectors to the virtual element; render the one or more images of the virtual element in response to the applied force vectors; and cause the one or more displays to project light corresponding to the rendered images of the virtual element that is perceived by the user as his or her interaction with the virtual element.”).
46 It would have been obvious to one with ordinary skill before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, to have modified the method (taught by Zhang in view of O’ Brien, Tillman, and Li) to incorporate the teachings of Lo to provide a method to determine types of force for an element while using the methods to find the shortest distance provided by Zhang in view of O’ Brien, Tillman, and Li. Doing so would facilitate interactions between a user of the display system and a virtual element presented by the display system as stated by Lo ([Claim 32] recited).
Conclusion
47 Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to JOHNNY TRAN LE whose telephone number is (571)272-5680. The examiner can normally be reached Mon-Thu: 7:30am-5pm; First Fridays Off; Second Fridays: 7:30am-4pm.
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/JOHNNY T LE/Examiner, Art Unit 2614
/KENT W CHANG/Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 2614