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 .
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.
Claims 1-6, 13-14, 23-28 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102a1 as being anticipated by Ashby (US 2022/0012007).
Claim 1. Ashby discloses a computer-implemented method comprising:
during video game gameplay (sound effect rendering can be done at game playback runtime; paragraph 49).
determining, by a video game system (game console; paragraph 24), a sound effect to be output (Game system selects a sound effect to be rendered according to the game event; paragraph 47. Game system determines a sound effect to be outputted during the game runtime; paragraph 51);
identifying, by the video game system, a source sound and one or more edit instructions that are associated with generating the sound effect (paragraphs 41-42;
retrieving, from a memory of the video game system, the source sound and the one or more edit instructions (paragraphs 43-52);
applying the one or more edit instructions to the source sound to generate the sound effect (paragraphs 43-52); and
providing the generated sound effect for output (paragraph 47 and 51).
Claim 2. Ashby discloses the computer-implemented method according to claim 1, wherein the sound effect to be output is determined in response to a gameplay event in the video game (sound effects to simulate game event, paragraphs 2-3, 47).
Claim 3. Ashby discloses the computer-implemented method according to claim 1, wherein the one or more edit instructions comprise instructions to perform an edit of a parameter of the source sound (The parameters include, without limitation, volume, delay, attenuation, compression, distortion, and reverberation, panning, filter, time stretch, pitch shift; paragraphs 12, 44-46)
Claim 4. Ashby discloses the computer-implemented method according to claim 3, wherein the parameter comprises one or more of: an amplitude or amplitude range of the source sound; a frequency or frequency range of the source sound; temporal characteristics of the source sound; or phase characteristics of the source sound (The parameters include, without limitation, volume, delay, attenuation, compression, distortion, and reverberation, panning, filter, time stretch, pitch shift, fade-in duration, fade-in curve, and fade-out duration, distortion, removing or adding frequency components; paragraphs 12, 44-46. For example, volume, delay, attenuation, time stretch, pitch shift, fade in, fade out, removing or adding frequency components are changes to the amplitude, frequency, temporal characteristics and phase characteristics to the sound.).
Claim 5. Ashby discloses the computer-implemented method according to claim 1, wherein the one or more edit instructions comprise a variable edit parameter for editing a parameter of the source sound by a variable magnitude within a predetermined range, wherein the variable magnitude is selected at runtime during the video game gameplay (Fig. 5, paragraphs 44-46).
Claim 6. Ashby discloses the computer-implemented method according to claim 1, wherein different edit instructions cause different sound effects to be generated for a given source sound (paragraphs 12, 41-50).
Claim 13. Ashby discloses wherein identifying the one or more edit instructions comprises: applying a plurality of candidate edit instructions to the source sound to generate a plurality of candidate sounds from the source sound (generate a plurality of sound effects from the source, paragraphs 44-50); outputting the candidate sounds (tracks are played; paragraphs 46); receiving a user input selecting a candidate sound; and (user can make changes using authoring tool and therefore receives inputs to create a desired/candidate sound; paragraphs 5-6, 10-11, 42-46); storing the source sound and the candidate edit instructions that is associated with the selected candidate sound in the memory of the video game system (User can make changes to the sound using authoring tool; paragraphs 5-6, 10-11, 42-46. The changes or sound effects or info to make the changes are stored for playback according the game situation. See paragraph 47; steps 1004-1008 in Fig. 10.).
Claim 14. Ashby discloses the computer-implemented method according to claim 1, wherein the source sound comprises a sound sample or a white noise sound sample (“source” audio or first track is considered to be a sample sound; paragraphs 7, 32, 39-40).
Claims 23-28. See rejection for claims 1-5 above and Ashby paragraphs 24, 27, 30, 37.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 7-12 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 Jasson H Yoo whose telephone number is (571)272-5563. The examiner can normally be reached M-F 9am-5pm.
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/JASSON H YOO/ Primary Examiner, Art Unit 3715
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