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 .
35 USC § 101
The examiner notes, claim 11, 21, 22 and 23 are directed towards patent eligible subject matter under 35 USC § 101.
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.
The factual inquiries for establishing a background for determining obviousness under 35 U.S.C. 103 are summarized as follows:
1. Determining the scope and contents of the prior art.
2. Ascertaining the differences between the prior art and the claims at issue.
3. Resolving the level of ordinary skill in the pertinent art.
4. Considering objective evidence present in the application indicating obviousness or nonobviousness.
Claim(s) 1-8, 10, 11, 14-23 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Yoshikawa et al. (US 20190174109 A1)
Regarding claim 1, Yoshikawa teaches a video generation method (See abstract, “A camerawork generating method includes […]” camerawork is considered to be video), comprising:
acquiring an initial pose of a virtual camera and a motion parameter of the virtual camera (See abstract, “A camerawork generating method includes: generating, from a multi-view video of a same scene captured from different viewpoints, a three-dimensional model for the scene; determining a target scene which is included in the scene and is a target for which a free-viewpoint video of the three-dimensional model as viewed from a virtual camera is to be generated; and generating a camerawork representing a temporal change in a position and an orientation of the virtual camera in the free-viewpoint video.” The examiner notes an initial pose of a virtual camera is the first pose from the temporal change in position and orientation.);
determining at least one target camera pose of the virtual camera according to the initial pose and the motion parameter (See abstract, “A camerawork generating method includes: generating, from a multi-view video of a same scene captured from different viewpoints, a three-dimensional model for the scene; determining a target scene which is included in the scene and is a target for which a free-viewpoint video of the three-dimensional model as viewed from a virtual camera is to be generated; and generating a camerawork representing a temporal change in a position and an orientation of the virtual camera in the free-viewpoint video.”); in a primary embodiment but doesn’t explicitly disclose
rendering a target virtual scene according to the at least one target camera pose, so as to acquire at least one video frame; and
generating, according to the at least one video frame, a video.
Another embodiment by Yoshikawa teaches rendering a target virtual scene according to the at least one target camera pose, so as to acquire at least one video frame; and
generating,
according to the at least one video frame, a video (See ¶77, ¶82-84. ¶77, “In camera information display field 202, the position and orientation of the camera corresponding to a time point and camera parameters including a focal distance, an angle of view, and an F-number, and the like are displayed. The position and orientation of the camera and the camera parameters can be edited by an editor. This enables the editor to modify camerawork 154 generated by camerawork generation unit 123 according to a preference of the editor. In place of the camera parameters, an interface on which to select a type of a camera may be provided. When an editor selects a type of a camera, camera parameters and the like of the selected camera are set automatically. This enables playback of a video as if the video is captured by the selected camera.”. ¶83, “At this point, rendering unit 124 may determine a region three-dimensional model 152 of which is not generated, a region of a low quality, or a region difficult to reproduce, such as a surface of water, and interpolate these regions using CG or the like. Alternatively, rendering unit 124 may interpolate images of such regions by using information on frames of different time points (e.g., a result of rendering performed at several seconds ago). Such kinds of processing for interpolation enable a natural free-viewpoint video 156 to be created even for a region with little information on three-dimensional model 152. In a case where there is a region difficult to reproduce, rendering unit 124 controls image capturing devices 101 such as mobile cameras to acquire video data and the like used to generate the region.”).
Therefore it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine the primary embodiment of Yoshikawa in view of another embodiment of Yoshikawa as it would have been obvious to combine the primary embodiment prior art elements according to know methods of another embodiment of Yoshikawa to yield predictable results.
Regarding claim 2, Yoshikawa teaches the method according to claim 1, wherein, before rendering a target virtual scene according to the at least one target camera pose so as to acquire at least one video frame, the method further comprises:
constructing the target virtual scene;
wherein, the target virtual scene comprises a virtual three-dimensional space and at least one target three-dimensional model disposed in the virtual three-dimensional space.
Regarding claim 3, Yoshikawa teaches the method according to claim 2, wherein the constructing the target virtual scene comprises:
creating the virtual three-dimensional space;
determining the at least one target three-dimensional model; and
adding the at least one target three-dimensional model to a specified position in the virtual three-dimensional space (¶53, “ Next, model generation unit 121 included in video processing device 102 uses multi-view video 151 and camera parameters of the plurality of image capturing devices 101 used to capture multi-view video 151 to generate three-dimensional model 152 of a capturing space (S103). Video processing device 102 may determine the camera parameters beforehand by calibration processing or may estimate the camera parameters from multi-view video 151 using Structure from Motion (SfM) or the like. Model generation unit 121 generates three-dimensional model 152 using, for example, visual cone intersection, SfM, or the like.”).
Regarding claim 4, Yoshikawa teaches the method according to claim 3, wherein the determining the at least one target three-dimensional model comprises:
displaying a model selection page, the model selection page displaying identifications of at least one three-dimensional model;
receiving a selection operation by a user on an identification of a three-dimensional model in the model selection page; and
determining the at least one target three-dimensional model based on the selection operation (¶73, “In camerawork display field 201, three-dimensional model 152 and a camera path that is a path of camerawork 154 are displayed. There may be one camera path displayed or a plurality of candidates for a camera path displayed. In addition, colors and line types may be applied to the plurality of camera paths to represent information such as recommendation levels of the respective camera paths. Here, the recommendation levels each indicate a degree of match between the recommendation level and a preference of a user or a degree of viewing frequency. Displaying the plurality of camera paths can provide choices to a user (viewer) or an editor.”).
Regarding claim 5, Yoshikawa teaches the method according to claim 3,wherein the determining the at least one target three-dimensional model comprises: acquiring each storyboard of the video; and constructing the at least one target three-dimensional model according to elements in each storyboard of the video (¶73, “In camerawork display field 201, three-dimensional model 152 and a camera path that is a path of camerawork 154 are displayed. There may be one camera path displayed or a plurality of candidates for a camera path displayed. In addition, colors and line types may be applied to the plurality of camera paths to represent information such as recommendation levels of the respective camera paths. Here, the recommendation levels each indicate a degree of match between the recommendation level and a preference of a user or a degree of viewing frequency. Displaying the plurality of camera paths can provide choices to a user (viewer) or an editor.”).
Regarding claim 6, Yoshikawa teaches the method according to claim1, wherein the method further comprises:
acquiring a transformation parameter of the at least one target three-dimensional model; and
controlling the at least one target three-dimensional model to perform model state transformation in the virtual three-dimensional space according to the transformation parameter of the at least one target three-dimensional model (See abstract).
Regarding claim 7, Yoshikawa teaches the method according to claim 6, wherein the rendering a target virtual scene according to the at least one target camera pose so as to acquire at least one video frame comprises:
determining a model state corresponding to the at least one target camera pose; and
rendering the target virtual scene according to the at least one target camera pose and the model state corresponding to the at least one target camera pose, so as to acquire the at least one video frame (See ¶77, ¶82-84. ¶77, “In camera information display field 202, the position and orientation of the camera corresponding to a time point and camera parameters including a focal distance, an angle of view, and an F-number, and the like are displayed. The position and orientation of the camera and the camera parameters can be edited by an editor. This enables the editor to modify camerawork 154 generated by camerawork generation unit 123 according to a preference of the editor. In place of the camera parameters, an interface on which to select a type of a camera may be provided. When an editor selects a type of a camera, camera parameters and the like of the selected camera are set automatically. This enables playback of a video as if the video is captured by the selected camera.”. ¶83, “At this point, rendering unit 124 may determine a region three-dimensional model 152 of which is not generated, a region of a low quality, or a region difficult to reproduce, such as a surface of water, and interpolate these regions using CG or the like. Alternatively, rendering unit 124 may interpolate images of such regions by using information on frames of different time points (e.g., a result of rendering performed at several seconds ago). Such kinds of processing for interpolation enable a natural free-viewpoint video 156 to be created even for a region with little information on three-dimensional model 152. In a case where there is a region difficult to reproduce, rendering unit 124 controls image capturing devices 101 such as mobile cameras to acquire video data and the like used to generate the region.”).
Regarding claim 8, Yoshikawa teaches the method according to claim1,wherein the generating a video
Claim 10 recites similar limitations to that of claim 1 but doesn’t explicitly disclose an electronic device, comprising: a memory and a processor, the memory is configured to store a computer program; the processor is configured to cause the electronic device to implement a video generation method when executing the computer program, the video generation method comprises:
Yoshikawa teaches an electronic device (¶9), comprising: a memory (¶219)and a processor (¶115, ¶116)), the memory is configured to store a computer program (¶116); the processor is configured to cause the electronic device to implement a video generation method when executing the computer program (¶116), the video generation method comprises (abstract).
Claim 11 recites similar limitations to that of claim 1 but doesn’t explicitly disclose a non-transient computer-readable storage medium having a computer program stored thereon, which, when executed by a computing device, causes the computing device to implement a video generation method comprising:
Yoshikawa a non-transient (¶118) computer-readable storage medium (¶118) having a computer program stored thereon (¶118), which, when executed by a computing device (¶9), causes the computing device (¶207)to implement a video generation method comprising (abstract).
Claims 10, 11, 14-23 recite similar limitations to that of claim 1-8 and thus is rejected under similar rationale as detailed above.
Conclusion
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/ROBERT J CRADDOCK/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2618
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