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 . This Office action is based on the communications filed September 13, 2024. Claims 1 – 20 are currently pending and considered below.
Information Disclosure Statement
The information disclosure statement (IDS) submitted on September 13, 2024 and the IDS submitted on June 16, 2025 are in compliance with the provisions of 37 CFR 1.97. Accordingly, the information disclosure statements are being considered by the examiner.
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.
(a)(2) the claimed invention was described in a patent issued under section 151, or in an application for patent published or deemed published under section 122(b), in which the patent or application, as the case may be, names another inventor and was effectively filed before the effective filing date of the claimed invention.
Claim(s) 1, 4, 5, 9, 10, 14, and 17 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) and 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(2) as being anticipated by Johnston (US 2016/0055857 A1), hereinafter Johnston.
Claim 1: Johnston discloses a method performed by a computer program executing on a computing device (see at least, “The present disclosure relates generally to the field of computer data processing, and in particular but not exclusively, relates to a system and method for generating dynamic sound environments using user-specified temporal and geolocation information,” Johnston [0001]), the method comprising:
receiving input that is indicative of a request to initiate a media compilation that includes audio segments in order, wherein at least some of the audio segments are associated with a geographical location, indicating where that audio segment should be played (see at least, “FIG. 5 is an illustration of a method for receiving and processing sound samples in a dynamic sound generation system. In the illustrated embodiment the method commences with a receiving of data input as shown as step 502 where the data input can comprise one or more of the following data items: current location, atmospheric condition state, time, date, population and topographical features. A user interface system is provided to enable end users to submit sound requests from a variety of client devices for processing on an application server. End users can provide custom or user-specific preferences for data input such as atmospheric condition state (i.e., windy, stormy, sunny, etc.), time, date (e.g., historical dates), population size (e.g., desired population size, etc.), and topographical feature. In a preferred embodiment, a current location is determined from a user's GPS geographic coordinates as included in the data input comprising the sound request. The geographic coordinates can be the user's actual geographic location as determined from a GPS sensor in a user's client device or, alternatively, be a specified geographic location as set by an end user. After receiving a user's data input in a sound request, sound samples are retrieved from one or more databases, as shown at step 504,” Johnston [0028], “The sound databases include compilations of sound files that are associated with groupings of tags. In one embodiment, these sound files are stored digitized sound content representing the ambient sound environment for a designated geographic location. The sound files matching the tags in the search request are retrieved from the sound databases, assembled into a sound sequence using the sound sequencer 308, and used in the sound mixer 310 to produce a sound-stream for streamed rendering to a client device,” Johnston [0024]);
initiating the media compilation, beginning with a first audio segment (see at least, “In an embodiment, the sound samples are retrieved from sound files stored in a SoundMap database or in a one or more proprietary databases. In responding to a sound request, an application server receives the user's data input, identifies the GPS geographic coordinates and uses them to search one or more Meta-Element databases to retrieve meta-tags representing the sound attributes or characteristics of the identified geographic location. Afterwards, the meta-tags for the location are read and included in a search request and used in a second search query of the SoundMap database or one or more proprietary sound databases to identify the specific sound files associated with the geographic location,” Johnston [0028], “The retrieved sound samples (or pointers to them) are then sequenced ( as shown at step 506) into an organized form,” Johnston [0028], “After processing and generation of a soundstream, the mixing engine will control the transmission of the processed sound-stream to a client device where the received sound-stream will be rendered (as shown at step 512) on one or more of the output devices designated by the end user on the client device,” Johnston [0029]);
monitoring a location of the computing device in real time (see at least, “Upon commencement of the rendering of a sound-stream, an active process is initiated to continually monitor for additional user input, as shown at step 514,” Johnston [0029], “In a preferred embodiment, a current location is determined from a user's GPS geographic coordinates as included in the data input comprising the sound request. The geographic coordinates can be the user's actual geographic location as determined from a GPS sensor in a user's client device or, alternatively, be a specified geographic location as set by an end user,” Johnston [0028], “The network communication interface 322 receives service requests in real-time as the location of the user's client device changes geographic location or as an end-user updates or adjusts the variable inputs for specific sound-streams (e.g., changes in weather, date, population and/or topographical features),” Johnston [0025]); and
determining whether adjustments of the order are needed by continually comparing the location to the geographical locations associated with the at least some audio segments (see at least, “If updated user input is received, the process will re-commence (as shown at step 514) with a retrieval of sound samples from the sound databases, the sequencing of the sound samples, and the processing and mixing of those sound samples to render a sound-stream on a client device reflecting the updated selections made by a user,” Johnston [0029], “The sound databases include compilations of sound files that are associated with groupings of tags. In one embodiment, these sound files are stored digitized sound content representing the ambient sound environment for a designated geographic location. The sound files matching the tags in the search request are retrieved from the sound databases, assembled into a sound sequence using the sound sequencer 308, and used in the sound mixer 310 to produce a sound-stream for streamed rendering to a client device,” Johnston [0024]).
Claim 4: Johnston discloses the method of claim 1, wherein said monitoring comprises: acquiring, from the computing device, indicators of the location in a continual manner (see at least, “Upon commencement of the rendering of a sound-stream, an active process is initiated to continually monitor for additional user input, as shown at step 514,” Johnston [0029], “In a preferred embodiment, a current location is determined from a user's GPS geographic coordinates as included in the data input comprising the sound request. The geographic coordinates can be the user's actual geographic location as determined from a GPS sensor in a user's client device or, alternatively, be a specified geographic location as set by an end user,” Johnston [0028], “The network communication interface 322 receives service requests in real-time as the location of the user's client device changes geographic location or as an end-user updates or adjusts the variable inputs for specific sound-streams (e.g., changes in weather, date, population and/or topographical features),” Johnston [0025]).
Claim 5: Johnston discloses the method of claim 4, wherein the indicators are Global Positioning System (GPS) coordinates (see at least, “In a preferred embodiment, a current location is determined from a user's GPS geographic coordinates as included in the data input comprising the sound request. The geographic coordinates can be the user's actual geographic location as determined from a GPS sensor in a user's client device or, alternatively, be a specified geographic location as set by an end user,” Johnston [0028]).
Claim 9: Johnston discloses the method of claim 1, wherein each geographical location is representative of an area that, when entered by the computing device, allows for playback of a corresponding audio segment (see at least, “The structured command used to retrieve tags associated with a search radius of a specified geographic location from the meta-element databases 402 in one embodiment is as follows: soundTags=soundTagSevice.searchNearLocation(user location, search radius, Type Sound Tags),” Johnston [0026] – [0027].
Claim 10: Johnston discloses a method (see at least, “The present disclosure relates generally to the field of computer data processing, and in particular but not exclusively, relates to a system and method for generating dynamic sound environments using user-specified temporal and geolocation information,” Johnston [0001]), comprising:
receiving, by a media platform, first input indicative of an acknowledgement that a content-based experience has been initiated by an individual on a computing device (see at least, “FIG. 5 is an illustration of a method for receiving and processing sound samples in a dynamic sound generation system. In the illustrated embodiment the method commences with a receiving of data input as shown as step 502 where the data input can comprise one or more of the following data items: current location, atmospheric condition state, time, date, population and topographical features. A user interface system is provided to enable end users to submit sound requests from a variety of client devices for processing on an application server. End users can provide custom or user-specific preferences for data input such as atmospheric condition state (i.e., windy, stormy, sunny, etc.), time, date (e.g., historical dates), population size (e.g., desired population size, etc.), and topographical feature. In a preferred embodiment, a current location is determined from a user's GPS geographic coordinates as included in the data input comprising the sound request. The geographic coordinates can be the user's actual geographic location as determined from a GPS sensor in a user's client device or, alternatively, be a specified geographic location as set by an end user. After receiving a user's data input in a sound request, sound samples are retrieved from one or more databases, as shown at step 504,” Johnston [0028], “The sound databases include compilations of sound files that are associated with groupings of tags. In one embodiment, these sound files are stored digitized sound content representing the ambient sound environment for a designated geographic location. The sound files matching the tags in the search request are retrieved from the sound databases, assembled into a sound sequence using the sound sequencer 308, and used in the sound mixer 310 to produce a sound-stream for streamed rendering to a client device,” Johnston [0024]);
monitoring, by the media platform, location metadata generated by the computing device throughout the content-based experience (see at least, “Upon commencement of the rendering of a sound-stream, an active process is initiated to continually monitor for additional user input, as shown at step 514,” Johnston [0029], “In a preferred embodiment, a current location is determined from a user's GPS geographic coordinates as included in the data input comprising the sound request. The geographic coordinates can be the user's actual geographic location as determined from a GPS sensor in a user's client device or, alternatively, be a specified geographic location as set by an end user,” Johnston [0028], “The network communication interface 322 receives service requests in real-time as the location of the user's client device changes geographic location or as an end-user updates or adjusts the variable inputs for specific sound-streams (e.g., changes in weather, date, population and/or topographical features),” Johnston [0025]); and
adjusting, by the media platform, the content-based experience in real time based on the location metadata (see at least, “If updated user input is received, the process will re-commence (as shown at step 514) with a retrieval of sound samples from the sound databases, the sequencing of the sound samples, and the processing and mixing of those sound samples to render a sound-stream on a client device reflecting the updated selections made by a user,” Johnston [0029], “The sound databases include compilations of sound files that are associated with groupings of tags. In one embodiment, these sound files are stored digitized sound content representing the ambient sound environment for a designated geographic location. The sound files matching the tags in the search request are retrieved from the sound databases, assembled into a sound sequence using the sound sequencer 308, and used in the sound mixer 310 to produce a sound-stream for streamed rendering to a client device,” Johnston [0024]).
Claim 14: Johnston discloses the method of claim 10, further comprising: acquiring, by the media platform, the location metadata by querying the computing device (see at least, “In an embodiment, the sound samples are retrieved from sound files stored in a SoundMap database or in a one or more proprietary databases. In responding to a sound request, an application server receives the user's data input, identifies the GPS geographic coordinates and uses them to search one or more Meta-Element databases to retrieve meta-tags representing the sound attributes or characteristics of the identified geographic location. Afterwards, the meta-tags for the location are read and included in a search request and used in a second search query of the SoundMap database or one or more proprietary sound databases to identify the specific sound files associated with the geographic location,” Johnston [0028]).
Claim 17: Johnston discloses the method of claim 14, wherein the media platform is communicatively coupled to a computer program executing on the computing device through which the content-based experience is initiated (see at least, “FIG. 5 is an illustration of a method for receiving and processing sound samples in a dynamic sound generation system. In the illustrated embodiment the method commences with a receiving of data input as shown as step 502 where the data input can comprise one or more of the following data items: current location, atmospheric condition state, time, date, population and topographical features. A user interface system is provided to enable end users to submit sound requests from a variety of client devices for processing on an application server. End users can provide custom or user-specific preferences for data input such as atmospheric condition state (i.e., windy, stormy, sunny, etc.), time, date (e.g., historical dates), population size (e.g., desired population size, etc.), and topographical feature. In a preferred embodiment, a current location is determined from a user's GPS geographic coordinates as included in the data input comprising the sound request. The geographic coordinates can be the user's actual geographic location as determined from a GPS sensor in a user's client device or, alternatively, be a specified geographic location as set by an end user. After
receiving a user's data input in a sound request, sound samples are retrieved from one or more databases, as shown at step 504,” Johnston [0028]).
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.
Claim(s) 2, 3, 6, 8, 11 – 13, 15, 16, and 18 – 20 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Johnston in view of Waldman et al. (US 2013/0110633 A1), hereinafter Waldman.
Claim 2: Johnston discloses the method of claim 1, but does not disclose wherein the geographical locations associated with the at least some audio segments collectively define a path to be traversed during playback of the media compilation. Johnston does disclose “Representative examples of the content of such custom tagged files include user-created walking tours of neighborhoods at the geographic location,” Johnston [0027]. In regards to guided tours Waldman discloses wherein the geographical locations associated with the at least some audio segments collectively define a path to be traversed during playback of the media compilation (see at least, “According to some embodiments of the present invention, there is provided a method of adaptive generating of navigation instructions on a mobile client terminal. The method comprises acquiring, using a mobile client terminal, at least one path passing via a plurality of points of interest and guided tour information pertaining to a tour along the at
least one path, monitoring power availability and a current location of the mobile client terminal, presenting navigation instructions to a user of the mobile client terminal according to the current location in relation to the at least one path, presenting the guided tour information to the user according to the current location, and updating at least one of the navigation instructions and a presentation of the guided tour information according to the power availability,” Waldman [0007]). It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to incorporate the aforementioned features disclosed by Waldman thereby improving the walking tours in the invention of Johnston with adaptive presentation of guided tour information.
Claim 3: Johnston and Waldman disclose the method of claim 2, wherein said monitoring comprises: in response to a determination that the location is not along the path, establishing another location along the path to be used for the purpose of said determining (see at least, “According to some embodiments of the present invention, there is provided a method of adaptive generating of navigation instructions on a mobile client terminal. The method comprises acquiring, using a mobile client terminal, at least one path passing via a plurality of points of interest, a plurality of access point locations around the at least one path, and guided tour information pertaining to a tour along the at least one path, iteratively monitoring a current location of the mobile client terminal in relation to the at least one path to
detect accordingly a deviation from the at least one path, adjusting, locally on the mobile client terminal, the navigation instructions to pass via one of the plurality of access point locations, and automatically connecting to at least one of the plurality of access point locations to download additional
guided tour information pertaining to at least one additional point of interest which is passed by while the mobile client terminal being routed according to the adjusted navigation instructions,” Waldman [0030], “According to some embodiments of the present invention, there is provided a method of adaptive coordination of a meeting place between a plurality of users of a plurality of mobile client terminals. The method comprises calculating a plurality of paths having different points of interest and a common meeting place and time, providing each of a plurality of mobile client terminals with navigation
instructions to follow another of the plurality of paths, monitoring a current location of each of the plurality of mobile client terminals in relation to a respective the path, identifying at least one deviation of at least one of the plurality of mobile client terminals from a respective the path, calculating at least
one of a new meeting place and a new meeting time, and distributing at least one of the new meeting place and the new meeting time to the plurality of mobile client terminals to allow a calculation of a plurality of new paths having the new meeting place as a common meeting place,” Waldman [0031], “Optionally, the one or more paths are adjusted to pass via the new points of interest. For example, according to the preferences and optionally according to a dynamic allowed deviation, new points of interest are added, either as predefined locations which appear in the navigation instructions and/or as alerts which appear when the user is in an applicable distance, optionally dynamic, therefrom,” Waldman [0071]).
Claim 6: Johnston discloses the method of claim 4, but does not disclose wherein the indicators are wireless access point (WAP) identifiers. Johnston does disclose “Representative examples of the content of such custom tagged files include user-created walking tours of neighborhoods at the geographic location,” Johnston [0027]. In regards to guided tours Waldman discloses wherein the indicators are wireless access point (WAP) identifiers (see at least, “According to some embodiments of the present invention, there are methods and systems of identifying, using a mobile client terminal, when a data connection is required in order to download guided tour information and/ or navigation instructions, such as maps, and/or upload user content and/or messages and automatically adjusting the path of a guided tour to pass in the coverage area of an access point such as a WLAN access point documented in the memory of a respective mobile client terminal,” Waldman [0050]). It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to incorporate the features of tours disclosed by Waldman thereby improving the walking tours in the invention of Johnston with adaptive presentation of guided tour information utilizing gathered access point locations.
Claim 8: Johnston discloses the method of claim 4, but does not disclose wherein in response to a determination that available bandwidth or connectivity of the computer program does not meet a threshold, the indicators are periodically acquired from the computing device. Johnston does disclose “Representative examples of the content of such custom tagged files include user-created walking tours of neighborhoods at the geographic location,” Johnston [0027]. In regards to guided tours Waldman discloses wherein in response to a determination that available bandwidth or connectivity of the computer program does not meet a threshold, the indicators are periodically acquired from the computing device (see at least, “The mobile client terminals 102 may provide the locational data either iteratively, for example using SMS, upon request, which may be sent using an SMS, whenever a WLAN connection is established, for example using or an hypertext transfer protocol (HTTP) message, and/or continuously using a data connection, as shown at 407,” Waldman [0098]). It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to incorporate the aforementioned features disclosed by Waldman thereby improving the walking tours in the invention of Johnston with adaptive presentation of guided tour information in the case of unreliable bandwidth/connectivity to WLAN.
Claim 11: Johnston discloses the method of claim 10, but does not disclose wherein the content-based experience includes multiple triggers, and wherein each trigger specifies a location criterion that must be satisfied to play corresponding audio content. Johnston does disclose “Representative examples of the content of such custom tagged files include user-created walking tours of neighborhoods at the geographic location,” Johnston [0027]. In regards to guided tours Waldman discloses wherein the content-based experience includes multiple triggers, and wherein each trigger specifies a location criterion that must be satisfied to play corresponding audio content (see at least, “Optionally, the method further comprises presenting guided tour information pertaining to some of the plurality of points of interest only when the current location is in proximity thereto,” Waldman [0018]).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to incorporate the features of tours disclosed by Waldman thereby improving the walking tours in the invention of Johnston since
Claim 12: Johnston and Waldman disclose the method of claim 11, wherein each trigger is associated with a Global Positioning System (GPS) coordinate or a wireless access point (WAP) identifier (see at least, “In a preferred embodiment, a current location is determined from a user's GPS geographic coordinates as included in the data input comprising the sound request. The geographic coordinates can be the user's actual geographic location as determined from a GPS sensor in a user's client device or, alternatively, be a specified geographic location as set by an end user,” Johnston [0028]).
Claim 13: Johnston and Waldman disclose the method of claim 11, wherein each trigger is considered satisfied when the computing device is within a predetermined proximity of the corresponding location criterion (see at least, “Optionally, the method further comprises presenting guided tour information pertaining to some of the plurality of points of interest only when the current location is in proximity thereto,” Waldman [0018]).
Claim 15: Johnston disclose the method of claim 14, but does not disclose wherein said querying is performed on a continuous basis as long as available bandwidth exceeds a threshold. Johnston does disclose “Representative examples of the content of such custom tagged files include user-created walking tours of neighborhoods at the geographic location,” Johnston [0027]. In regards to guided tours Waldman discloses disclose wherein said querying is performed on a continuous basis as long as available bandwidth exceeds a threshold (see at least, “The mobile client terminals 102 may provide the locational data either iteratively, for example using SMS, upon request, which may be sent using an SMS, whenever a WLAN connection is established, for example using or an hypertext transfer protocol (HTTP) message, and/or continuously using a data connection, as shown at 407,” Waldman [0098]).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to incorporate the aforementioned features disclosed by Waldman thereby improving the walking tours in the invention of Johnston with adaptive presentation of guided tour information in the case of unreliable bandwidth/connectivity to WLAN.
Claim 16: Johnston disclose the method of claim 14, but does not disclose wherein said querying is performed on a continuous basis as long as connectivity status exceeds a threshold. Johnston does disclose “Representative examples of the content of such custom tagged files include user-created walking tours of neighborhoods at the geographic location,” Johnston [0027]. In regards to guided tours Waldman discloses wherein said querying is performed on a continuous basis as long as connectivity status exceeds a threshold (see at least, “The mobile client terminals 102 may provide the locational data either iteratively, for example using SMS, upon request, which may be sent using an SMS, whenever a WLAN connection is established, for example using or an hypertext transfer protocol (HTTP) message, and/or continuously using a data connection, as shown at 407,” Waldman [0098]). It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to incorporate the aforementioned features disclosed by Waldman thereby improving the walking tours in the invention of Johnston with adaptive presentation of guided tour information in the case of unreliable bandwidth/connectivity to WLAN.
Claim 18: Johnston discloses non-transitory medium with instructions stored thereon that, when executed by a processor of a computing device, cause the computing device to perform operations comprising:
initiating playback of a media compilation that includes audio segments in a given order, wherein at least some of the audio segments are associated with a geographical location, indicating where that audio segment should be played (see at least, “FIG. 5 is an illustration of a method for receiving and processing sound samples in a dynamic sound generation system. In the illustrated embodiment the method commences with a receiving of data input as shown as step 502 where the data input can comprise one or more of the following data items: current location, atmospheric condition state, time, date, population and topographical features. A user interface system is provided to enable end users to submit sound requests from a variety of client devices for processing on an application server. End users can provide custom or user-specific preferences for data input such as atmospheric condition state (i.e., windy, stormy, sunny, etc.), time, date (e.g., historical dates), population size (e.g., desired population size, etc.), and topographical feature. In a preferred embodiment, a current location is determined from a user's GPS geographic coordinates as included in the data input comprising the sound request. The geographic coordinates can be the user's actual geographic location as determined from a GPS sensor in a user's client device or, alternatively, be a specified geographic location as set by an end user. After receiving a user's data input in a sound request, sound samples are retrieved from one or more databases, as shown at step 504,” Johnston [0028], “The sound databases include compilations of sound files that are associated with groupings of tags. In one embodiment, these sound files are stored digitized sound content representing the ambient sound environment for a designated geographic location. The sound files matching the tags in the search request are retrieved from the sound databases, assembled into a sound sequence using the sound sequencer 308, and used in the sound mixer 310 to produce a sound-stream for streamed rendering to a client device,” Johnston [0024]),
in response to said initiating, establishing, in real time, a location of the computing device (see at least, “Upon commencement of the rendering of a sound-stream, an active process is initiated to continually monitor for additional user input, as shown at step 514,” Johnston [0029], “In a preferred embodiment, a current location is determined from a user's GPS geographic coordinates as included in the data input comprising the sound request. The geographic coordinates can be the user's actual geographic location as determined from a GPS sensor in a user's client device or, alternatively, be a specified geographic location as set by an end user,” Johnston [0028], “The network communication interface 322 receives service requests in real-time as the location of the user's client device changes geographic location or as an end-user updates or adjusts the variable inputs for specific sound-streams (e.g., changes in weather, date, population and/or topographical features),” Johnston [0025]); and
determining whether adjustments to the given order are needed based on the location (see at least, “If updated user input is received, the process will re-commence (as shown at step 514) with a retrieval of sound samples from the sound databases, the sequencing of the sound samples, and the processing and mixing of those sound samples to render a sound-stream on a client device reflecting the updated selections made by a user,” Johnston [0029], “The sound databases include compilations of sound files that are associated with groupings of tags. In one embodiment, these sound files are stored digitized sound content representing the ambient sound environment for a designated geographic location. The sound files matching the tags in the search request are retrieved from the sound databases, assembled into a sound sequence using the sound sequencer 308, and used in the sound mixer 310 to produce a sound-stream for streamed rendering to a client device,” Johnston [0024]).
Johnston does not disclose wherein the geographical locations associated with the at least some audio segments collectively define a path to be traversed during playback of the media compilation and in comparison to the path, wherein said establishing and said determining are performed in an ongoing manner, so as to ensure that the at least some audio segments associated with geographic locations are not played unless the computing device is located in the geographic locations. Johnston does disclose “Representative examples of the content of such custom tagged files include user-created walking tours of neighborhoods at the geographic location,” Johnston [0027]. In regards to guided tours Waldman discloses wherein the geographical locations associated with the at least some audio segments collectively define a path to be traversed during playback of the media compilation and in comparison to the path, wherein said establishing and said determining are performed in an ongoing manner, so as to ensure that the at least some audio segments associated with geographic locations are not played unless the computing device is located in the geographic locations (see at least, “According to some embodiments of the present invention, there is provided a method of adaptive generating of navigation instructions on a mobile client terminal. The method comprises acquiring, using a mobile client terminal, at least one path passing via a plurality of points of interest and guided tour information pertaining to a tour along the at least one path, monitoring power availability and a current location of the mobile client terminal, presenting navigation instructions to a user of the mobile client terminal according to the current location in relation to the at least one path, presenting the guided tour information to the user according to the current location, and updating at least one of the navigation instructions and a presentation of the guided tour information according to the power availability,” Waldman [0007], “Optionally, the method further comprises presenting guided tour information pertaining to some of the plurality of points of interest only when the current location is in proximity thereto,” Waldman [0018]). It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to incorporate the aforementioned features disclosed by Waldman thereby improving the walking tours in the invention of Johnston with adaptive presentation of guided tour information.
Claim 19: Johnston and Waldman disclose the non-transitory medium of claim 18, wherein said establishing comprises: in response to a determination that the location is not along the path, identifying an appropriate location along the path to be used for the purpose of said determining (see at least, “According to some embodiments of the present invention, there is provided a method of adaptive generating of navigation instructions on a mobile client terminal. The method comprises acquiring, using a mobile client terminal, at least one path passing via a plurality of points of interest, a plurality of access point locations around the at least one path, and guided tour information pertaining to a tour along the at least one path, iteratively monitoring a current location of the mobile client terminal in relation to the at least one path to detect accordingly a deviation from the at least one path, adjusting, locally on the mobile client terminal, the navigation instructions to pass via one of the plurality of access point locations, and automatically connecting to at least one of the plurality of access point locations to download additional guided tour information pertaining to at least one additional point of interest which is passed by while the mobile client terminal being routed according to the adjusted navigation instructions,” Waldman [0030], “According to some embodiments of the present invention, there is provided a method of adaptive coordination of a meeting place between a plurality of users of a plurality of mobile client terminals. The method comprises calculating a plurality of paths having different points of interest and a common meeting place and time, providing each of a plurality of mobile client terminals with navigation instructions to follow another of the plurality of paths, monitoring a current location of each of the plurality of mobile client terminals in relation to a respective the path, identifying at least one deviation of at least one of the plurality of mobile client terminals from a respective the path, calculating at least one of a new meeting place and a new meeting time, and distributing at least one of the new meeting place and the new meeting time to the plurality of mobile client terminals to allow a calculation of a plurality of new paths having the new meeting place as a common meeting place,” Waldman [0031], “Optionally, the one or more paths are adjusted to
pass via the new points of interest. For example, according to the preferences and optionally according to a dynamic allowed deviation, new points of interest are added, either as predefined locations which appear in the navigation instructions and/or as alerts which appear when the user is in an applicable distance, optionally dynamic, therefrom,” Waldman [0071]).
Claim 20: Johnston and Waldman disclose the non-transitory medium of claim 18, wherein the operations further comprise: acquiring data that indicates the location from a computer program that is executing on the computing device (see at least, “Upon commencement of the rendering of a sound-stream, an active process is initiated to continually monitor for additional user input, as shown at step 514,” Johnston [0029], “In a preferred embodiment, a current location is determined from a user's GPS geographic coordinates as included in the data input comprising the sound request. The geographic coordinates can be the user's actual geographic location as determined from a GPS sensor in a user's client device or, alternatively, be a specified geographic location as set by an end user,” Johnston [0028], “The network communication interface 322 receives service requests in real-time as the location of the user's client device changes geographic location or as an end-user updates or adjusts the variable inputs for specific sound-streams (e.g., changes in weather, date, population and/or topographical features),” Johnston [0025]).
Claim(s) 7 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Johnston in view of Baumert et al. (US 9,762,851 B1), hereinafter Baumert.
Claim 7: Johnston discloses the method of claim 4, but does not disclose wherein the indicators are gleaned from verbal utterances by a user of the computing device. However, Baumert discloses a similar form of contextual augmentation and further discloses wherein the indicators are gleaned from verbal utterances by a user of the computing device (see at least, “In one example, the service provider may process speech input that is received from the user that is capturing the video to determine that the user is talking about a particular object in the user's environment. The service provider may then retrieve content that is related to the particular object,” Baumert Column 2 Line 65 – Column 3 Line 2).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to incorporate the aforementioned features of Baumert in the invention of Johnston thereby allowing for improved content retrieval at the location of Johnston.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to JOSEPH SAUNDERS whose telephone number is (571) 270-1063. The examiner can normally be reached Monday-Thursday, 9:00 a.m. - 4 p.m., EST.
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, Carolyn R Edwards can be reached at (571)270-7136. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
Information regarding the status of published or unpublished applications may be obtained from Patent Center. Unpublished application information in Patent Center is available to registered users. To file and manage patent submissions in Patent Center, visit: https://patentcenter.uspto.gov. Visit https://www.uspto.gov/patents/apply/patent-center for more information about Patent Center and https://www.uspto.gov/patents/docx for information about filing in DOCX format. For additional questions, contact the Electronic Business Center (EBC) at 866-217-9197 (toll-free). If you would like assistance from a USPTO Customer Service Representative, call 800-786-9199 (IN USA OR CANADA) or 571-272-1000.
/JOSEPH SAUNDERS JR/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2692
/CAROLYN R EDWARDS/Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 2692
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