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 .
Examiner Notes
Examiner cites particular columns and line numbers in the references as applied to the claims below for the convenience of the applicant. Although the specified citations are representative of the teachings in the art and are applied to the specific limitations within the individual claim, other passages and figures may apply as well. It is respectfully requested that, in preparing responses, the applicant fully consider the references in entirety as potentially teaching all or part of the claimed invention, as well as the context of the passage as taught by the prior art or disclosed by the examiner.
Information Disclosure Statement
As required by M.P.E.P. 609, the applicant’s submissions of the Information Disclosure Statement dated July 2nd, 2025 is acknowledged by the examiner and the cited references have been considered in the examination of the claims now pending.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 112
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 112(b):
(b) CONCLUSION.—The specification shall conclude with one or more claims particularly pointing out and distinctly claiming the subject matter which the inventor or a joint inventor regards as the invention.
Claims 5 and 20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 112(b) as being indefinite for failing to particularly point out and distinctly claim the subject matter which the inventor or a joint inventor, regards as the invention.
Regarding claims 5 and 20, the limitation “decrypting the stream of biometric data” is unclear and renders the claims indefinite. Specifically, the parent claim(s) here do/does not mention a step of encryption and it is unclear if the data is automatically encrypted or how it gets encrypted to eventually be decrypted. Accordingly, for the purpose of examining the claims currently pending, this limitation will be interpreted to mean “the biometric data exists”.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 102
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 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) 1-5, 10, 14, and 16-20 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by Guzik (US 2019/0008441 A1).
Regarding claim 1, Guzik teaches a method of implementing a virtual vision test, comprising:
at an electronic device including a head-mounted display (HMD) (See, e.g., the system 100 in Fig. 1 which includes virtual reality headset 110 and device 140):
establishing a wireless communication link with a wearable device associated with a user of the electronic device (See, e.g., controllers 113 and 114 in Fig. 1 and paragraph [0021] which explains the wireless aspect);
rendering, on the HMD, a user interface including a first visual stimulus corresponding to the virtual vision test (See, e.g., Fig. 2A which explains this and paragraph [0053] which explains there can be a vision test); and
while displaying the visual stimulus, in real time: collecting a stream of biometric data from the wearable device via the wireless communication link (See, e.g., paragraph [0053] which explains this, here the biometric data corresponds to the user’s response via the controllers); and
determining information of at least one of a second visual stimulus following the first visual stimulus and a user response to the first visual stimulus based on the stream of biometric data (Note the user response here corresponds to the user response to the test via the controllers).
Regarding claim 2, Guzik teaches the method set forth above and further teaches executing a user application configured to enable the virtual vision test (See, e.g., Fig. 2A which shows this step); generating the user interface corresponding to a three-dimensional (3D) virtual reality environment (Note this is how the device operates in normal operation to administer the test in Fig. 2A).
Regarding claim 3, Guzik teaches the method set forth above and further teaches wherein the wireless communication link is configured to communicate the stream of biometric data using a short-range wireless protocol selected from Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, NearLink, near-field communication (NFC), LPWAN, ultra-wideband (UWB) and IEEE 802.15 (See, e.g., paragraph [0023] which explains this).
Regarding claim 4, Guzik teaches the method set forth above and further teaches wherein the wearable device comprises one or more of: a motion sensor, an electrical heart sensor, an optical heart sensor, a blood oxygen sensor, a galvanic skin response sensor, or a body temperature sensor, and wherein the wearable device is configured to measure one or more sensing signals and generate the stream of biometric data based on the one or more sensing signals (Note as cited above here the wearable device is a motion sensor).
Regarding claim 5, Guzik teaches the method set forth above and further teaches after receiving the stream of biometric data, decrypting the stream of biometric data (Note this limitation is met in light of the 112 rejection above because the biometric data exists).
Regarding claim 10, Guzik teaches the method set forth above and further teaches while displaying a first visual pattern: determining a response feature of the user response to the first visual stimulus based on the stream of biometric data (This corresponds to the motion level of the controllers); wherein the response feature comprises one or more of: a motion level, a stress level, whether each of one or more feature events occurs, whether the user catches a prompt, or whether the user recognizes or speculates about the first visual stimulus (Note the cited response feature above is a motion level).
Regarding claim 14, Guzik teaches the method set forth above and further teaches obtaining a response analysis model from a server associated with the electronic device (See, e.g., Fig. 2A which shows this step), and applying the response analysis model to process the stream of biometric data, thereby determining the information of at least one of the first visual stimulus and the user response to the first visual stimulus (See, e.g., Fig. 2A which shows this step).
Regarding claim 16, Guzik teaches a non-transitory computer readable storage medium, storing one or more programs for execution by one or more processors of an electronic device including an HMD (See, e.g., the system 100 in Fig. 1 which includes virtual reality headset 110 and device 140), the one or more programs including instructions for:
establishing a wireless communication link with a wearable device associated with a user of the electronic device (See, e.g., controllers 113 and 114 in Fig. 1 and paragraph [0021] which explains the wireless aspect);
rendering, on the HMD, a user interface including a first visual stimulus corresponding to the virtual vision test (See, e.g., Fig. 2A which explains this and paragraph [0053] which explains there can be a vision test); and
while displaying the visual stimulus, in real time:
collecting a stream of biometric data from the wearable device via the wireless communication link (See, e.g., paragraph [0053] which explains this, here the biometric data corresponds to the user’s response via the controllers); and
determining information of at least one of a second visual stimulus following the first visual stimulus and a user response to the first visual stimulus based on the stream of biometric data (Note the user response here corresponds to the user response to the test via the controllers).
Regarding claim 17, Guzik teaches the device set forth above and further teaches the one or more programs further comprising instructions for: executing a user application configured to enable the virtual vision test (See, e.g., Fig. 2A which shows this step); generating the user interface corresponding to a three-dimensional (3D) virtual reality environment (Note this is how the device operates in normal operation to administer the test in Fig. 2A).; generating the user interface corresponding to a three-dimensional (3D) virtual reality environment.
Regarding claim 18, Guzik teaches the device set forth above and further teaches wherein the wearable device comprises one or more of: a motion sensor, an electrical heart sensor, an optical heart sensor, a blood oxygen sensor, a galvanic skin response sensor, or a body temperature sensor, and wherein the wearable device is configured to measure one or more sensing signals and generate the stream of biometric data based on the one or more sensing signals (Note as cited above here the wearable device is a motion sensor).
Regarding claim 19, Guzik teaches an electronic device, comprising:
an HMD (See, e.g., the system 100 in Fig. 1 which includes virtual reality headset 110 and device 140);
one or more processors (See, e.g., processor 141 in Fig. 1); and
memory for storing one or more programs for execution by the one or more processors (See, e.g., device 142 in Fig. 1), the one or more programs including instructions for:
establishing a wireless communication link with a wearable device associated with a user of the electronic device (See, e.g., controllers 113 and 114 in Fig. 1 and paragraph [0021] which explains the wireless aspect);
rendering, on the HMD, a user interface including a first visual stimulus corresponding to the virtual vision test (See, e.g., Fig. 2A which explains this and paragraph [0053] which explains there can be a vision test); and
while displaying the visual stimulus, in real time:
collecting a stream of biometric data from the wearable device via the wireless communication link (See, e.g., paragraph [0053] which explains this, here the biometric data corresponds to the user’s response via the controllers); and
determining information of at least one of a second visual stimulus following the first visual stimulus and a user response to the first visual stimulus based on the stream of biometric data (Note the user response here corresponds to the user response to the test via the controllers).
Regarding claim 20, Guzik teaches the device set forth above and further teaches the one or more programs further comprising instructions for, after receiving the stream of biometric data, decrypting the stream of biometric data (Note this limitation is met in light of the 112 rejection above because the biometric data exists).
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 6-9, 11-13, and 15 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.
The following is a statement of reasons for the indication of allowable subject matter:
Regarding claim 6, the prior art, alone or in combination, fails to teach wherein based on the response feature, dynamically selecting a subsequent visual pattern immediately following the first visual pattern and determining a next temporal separation between the first visual pattern and the subsequent visual pattern, the subsequent visual pattern corresponding to the second visual stimulus.
Regarding claim 11, the prior art, alone or in combination, fails to teach applying a response analysis model to process a subset of the stream of biometric data, which is recorded immediately after a first visual pattern, determining the user response to the first visual pattern, the user response including whether the user speculates about the first visual pattern.
Regarding claim 13, the prior art, alone or in combination, fails to teach collecting the user response to a first visual pattern using a microphone or a camera of the electronic device; and applying a response analysis model to process a subset of the stream of biometric data, which is recorded immediately after the first visual pattern, generating a confidence score associated with the user response.
Regarding claim 15, the prior art, alone or in combination, fails to teach before applying the response analysis model, at the server: collecting a plurality of historical visual stimuli; collecting, from a plurality of users, a collection of historical biometric data that are associated with the plurality of historical visual stimuli; and training a response analysis model based on the plurality of historical visual stimuli and the collection of historical biometric data.
Regarding claims 7-9 and 12, these claims depend on an allowable base claim and are therefore allowable for at least the reasons stated supra.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to Mitchell Oestreich whose telephone number is (571)270-7559. The examiner can normally be reached M-F 7:00-11:00 MT.
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, Bumsuk Won can be reached at 571-272-2713. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/MITCHELL T OESTREICH/ Examiner, Art Unit 2872
/BUMSUK WON/ Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 2872
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