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 .
Claims 1-16 are cancelled.
Claims 17-36 are 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.
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), second paragraph:
The specification shall conclude with one or more claims particularly pointing out and distinctly claiming the subject matter which the applicant regards as his invention.
Claims 17, 19-21, 30, 32-34, are 36 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 112(b) or 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), second paragraph, as being indefinite for failing to particularly point out and distinctly claim the subject matter which the inventor or a joint inventor (or for applications subject to pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, the applicant), regards as the invention.
Claims 17, 30, and 36 recites “an angular offset between a scene orientation of the audio scene for rendering and a sector orientation of the identified sector” is ambiguous and not clear; it is not clear how the scene orientation as well as the sector orientation is measured or in other words how these orientations/directions are determined.
Claim 19 and 32 recites “actively includes speech audio sources” which is ambiguous and not clear; especially the word “actively” is not clear.
Claims 20-21 and 33-34 recites "active physical presence” which is ambiguous and not clear; especially the word “active” is not clear.
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 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) 17, 19, 23, 26-30, 35, and 36 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by Leppänen et al. (US #2021/0092545).
Regarding Claim 17, Leppänen discloses an apparatus (title, abstract, fig. 1-11) comprising:
at least one processor (Leppänen fig. 2: 46); and
at least one memory (Leppänen fig. 2: memory) storing instructions (Leppänen fig. 2: software 44) that, when executed by the at least one processor, cause the apparatus at least to:
identify a sector of an audio scene, wherein the sector comprises one or more persons and has an angular spread that does not extend beyond a spatial distribution of persons in the audio scene (Leppänen figs. 1 and 3; in fig. 3 the angular spread of the sector does not extend beyond the relevant persons based on the user device 35; ¶0070-¶0071); and
determine a modification to a spatial audio content, for rendering the audio scene, to reduce an angular offset between a scene orientation of the audio scene for rendering and a sector orientation of the identified sector (Leppänen figs. 4-6 showing a modification to the spatial content, reducing the angular offset; ¶0072-¶0078).
Regarding Claim 19, Leppänen discloses an apparatus as claimed in claim 17,
wherein identifying a sector of an audio scene comprising one or more persons comprises identifying the sector as an active sector and the apparatus is further caused to process audio content captured from the audio scene to identify a sector of the audio scene that actively includes speech audio sources (Leppänen figs. 3-6: active sectors are identified by persons in the respective region).
Regarding Claim 23, Leppänen discloses an apparatus as claimed in claim 17,
wherein determining a modification to a spatial audio content, for rendering the audio scene, to reduce an angular offset between a scene orientation of the audio scene and a sector orientation of the identified sector comprises rotating the audio scene (Leppänen ¶0074 discloses there are a number of ways in which the server 10 can perform the transformation. For example, as shown in fig. 4, repositioning of the selected audio sources 30a, 30b, 30c, 30e, 30f can be by means of translation of said selected audio sources towards a center line 36 passing through the center of the first and/or second spatial areas 40, 80. For example, as an alternative, repositioning of the selected audio sources 30a, 30b, 30c, 30e, 30f can be by means of movement along an arc of constant radius from the origin of the first and second spatial areas 40, 80. This is indicated for completeness in fig. 5).
Regarding Claim 26, Leppänen discloses an apparatus as claimed in claim 17,
wherein determining a modification to a spatial audio content, for rendering the audio scene, to reduce an angular offset between a scene orientation of the audio scene and a sector orientation of the identified sector comprises modifying the spatial audio content for rendering the audio scene, to optimize a cost function that favors a spaced, distribution of orientations of persons about the scene orientation of the audio scene (The use of cost functions in mathematical optimization processes is well known and is regarded as being merely one of several straightforward possibilities which the skilled person would select, depending on the circumstances, without exercising inventive skill).
Regarding Claim 27, Leppänen discloses an apparatus as claimed in claim 17,
wherein determining a modification to a spatial audio content, for rendering the audio scene, to reduce an angular offset between a scene orientation of the audio scene and a sector orientation of the identified sector (Leppänen ¶0072 discloses a second spatial area 80, which is a smaller than the first spatial area 50, is determined, and the above transformation of the selected spatial sources 30a, 30b, 30c, 30e, 30f is such that their corresponding audio content is spatially repositioned to be within the second spatial area. There is therefore a spectral shrinking of audio content from the selected spatial sources 30a, 30b, 30c, 30e, 30f, which can lead to an improved audio experience and does not require the user 14 to move away in order to achieve this. ¶0074 discloses for example, as shown in fig. 4, repositioning of the selected audio sources 30a, 30b, 30c, 30e, 30f can be by means of translation of said selected audio sources towards a center line 36 passing through the center of the first and/or second spatial areas 40, 80. ¶0075 discloses for audio rendering, the spatial sources 30a, 30b, 30c, 30e, 30f may then be returned by inverse translation to the user-centric coordinate system and the rendering is done as normal. ¶0078 discloses as shown in fig. 6, movement of the second user device 35 further is away from the user 14 may result in an angle a of greater than 180 degrees, which would in this case cover all of the shown audio sources 30a-30g for transformation) comprises at least one of:
determining a modification to a spatial audio content, for rendering the audio scene, to reduce to zero an angular offset between the scene orientation of the audio scene and the sector orientation of the identified sector (Leppänen figs. 4-6 shows a modification to the spatial content, reducing the angular offset); or
determining a modification to a spatial audio content, for rendering the audio scene, to reduce to a non-zero value an angular offset between the scene orientation of the audio scene and the sector orientation of the identified sector (Leppänen ¶0075 discloses for audio rendering, the spatial sources 30a, 30b, 30c, 30e, 30f may then be returned by inverse translation to the user-centric coordinate system and the rendering is done as normal. ¶0076 discloses initiation of the virtual wide-angle lens system and method as described above can be responsive to user action and/or the size or angular extent of a can be based on user action).
Regarding Claim 28, Leppänen discloses an apparatus as claimed in claim 17,
wherein microphones used for capturing the spatial audio from an audio scene are fixed relative to the audio scene and wherein determining a modification to a spatial audio content, for rendering the audio scene, to reduce an angular offset between a scene orientation of the audio scene and a sector orientation of the identified sector comprises virtually re-orienting the microphones (Leppänen ¶0109 discloses it is well known in the field of spatial audio capture that the aforementioned metadata representation is particularly suitable in the context of perceptually motivated capturing or conveying of spatial sound from microphone arrays, which may be any device type including mobile phones, VR cameras, etc. ¶0118 discloses DirAC, as determined above, is only one of the options to determine the directional and ratio metadata, and clearly one may utilize other methods to determine the metadata, for example by simulating a microphone array and using SPAC algorithms. Furthermore, there are also many variants of DirAC).
Regarding Claim 29, Leppänen discloses an apparatus as claimed in claim 17,
wherein the apparatus is further caused to transfer a modification record of the modification on the spatial audio content to reduce a difference between the orientation of the audio source and the scene orientation of an audio scene, to enable the modification to be done or undone (Leppänen figs. 1-2, claims 16-20).
Claims 30, 35, and 36 are rejected for the same reasons as set forth in Claims 17, and 23.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
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 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 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.
Claims 18, 20-22, 24-25, 31, and 33-34 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Leppänen et al. (US #2021/0092545) in view of Peters et al. (US #2022/0386060).
Regarding Claim 18, Leppänen discloses an apparatus as claimed in claim 17,
wherein the scene orientation of the audio scene for rendering is defined by a front direction for rendering the audio scene and the sector orientation of the identified sector is defined by a midline of the sector (Leppänen figs. 3-6: sector and scene orientation is in front of the user. claim 1: identify virtual audio content within a first spatial sector of a virtual space with respect to a reference position; and modify the identified virtual audio content to be rendered in a second, smaller spatial sector).
But Leppänen may not explicitly disclose wherein the scene orientation of the audio scene for rendering is defined by a front direction for rendering the audio scene and the sector orientation of the identified sector is defined by a midline of the sector.
However, Peters (title, abstract, fig. 1-17) teaches wherein the scene orientation of the audio scene for rendering is defined by a front direction for rendering the audio scene (Peters ¶0074 discloses it may be desired to automatically select a single loudest audio source, or audio from multiple talking sources, and to deemphasize [e.g., discard or lower the volume of] other audio components of the soundfield. Face, motion, and/or person detection can be performed on one or more corresponding video streams to identify directions of interest and/or to support suppression of noise arriving from other directions) and the sector orientation of the identified sector is defined by a midline of the sector (Peters ¶0075 discloses the metadata can also include one or more parameter values that indicate a desired rotation of the soundfield. The soundfield can be rotated according to the location of the loudest audio source: for example, to support auto-rotation of a remote user's video and audio so that the loudest speaker is in front of the remote user [i.e., the sector orientation of the identified sector is defined by a midline of the sector]).
Leppänen and Peters are analogous art as they pertain to modifying audio scene. Therefore it would have been obvious to someone of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the invention was made to modify audio rendered (as taught by Leppänen) to provide audio formats for accurate modeling of soundfield [e.g., object- and scene-based codecs] that can also allow for spatial manipulation of sound-field and perform soundfield rotation, zooming in the audio scene in a manner that is similar to selecting an area of interest in an image or video (as taught by Peters, ¶0046-¶0047) to overcome the high-bit rates required to properly encode the audio in 2D and/or 3D surround sound formats (Peters, ¶0003).
Regarding Claim 20, Leppänen discloses an apparatus as claimed in claim 17, but may not explicitly disclose wherein identifying a sector of an audio scene comprising one or more persons comprises identifying the sector as an active sector and the apparatus is further caused to receive an input from one or more person-presence-sensors for the audio scene that detect active physical presence of one or more persons in the sector of the audio scene.
However, Peters (title, abstract, figs. 1-17) teaches wherein identifying a sector of an audio scene comprising one or more persons comprises identifying the sector as an active sector and the apparatus is further caused to receive an input from one or more person-presence-sensors for the audio scene that detect active physical presence of one or more persons in the sector of the audio scene (Peters ¶0059 discloses for each identified effect, the metadata can include a corresponding set of effect parameter values PM10 for parameters that define how the identified effect is to be applied [e.g., as shown in fig. 3B]. Such parameters can include, for example, an indication of the area of interest for the associated audio effect [such as spatial direction and size and/or width of the area]; one or more values for effect-specific parameters [e.g., strength of focus effect]; etc. ¶0074 discloses it may be desired to automatically select a single loudest audio source, or audio from multiple talking sources, and to deemphasize [e.g., discard or lower the volume of] other audio components of the soundfield. Face, motion, and/or person detection can be performed on one or more corresponding video streams to identify directions of interest and/or to support suppression of noise arriving from other directions. ¶0085 discloses to determine a position, orientation, and/or movement of the user. ¶0092 discloses the spatial translations can be induced, for example, by sensors tracking the location of the person in the physical world, by way of an input controller, and/or by way of a rendering program that simulates transportation of the user within the virtual space. ¶0094 discloses where the head movements may not be centered on the optical and acoustical center, adjustments can be made to provide for 6DOF rendering, and not necessarily be limited to spatial two-dimensional coordinate systems. ¶0095 discloses computer rendered image or data that is world locked to a particular location in the real world, or can refer to a variant on VR in which part computer rendered 3D elements and part photographed real elements are combined into an immersive experience that simulates the user's physical presence in the environment. claim 4: wherein the applying the identified effect comprises rotating the soundfield to a desired orientation).
Leppänen and Peters are analogous art as they pertain to modifying audio scene. Therefore it would have been obvious to someone of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the invention was made to modify audio rendered (as taught by Leppänen) to provide audio formats for accurate modeling of soundfield [e.g., object- and scene-based codecs] that can also allow for spatial manipulation of sound-field and perform soundfield rotation, zooming in the audio scene in a manner that is similar to selecting an area of interest in an image or video (as taught by Peters, ¶0046-¶0047) to overcome the high-bit rates required to properly encode the audio in 2D and/or 3D surround sound formats (Peters, ¶0003).
Regarding Claim 21, Leppänen discloses an apparatus as claimed in claim 17, but may not explicitly disclose wherein identifying a sector of an audio scene comprising one or more persons comprises identifying the sector as an active sector and the apparatus further comprises one or more in-vehicle person-presence-sensors configured to detect active physical presence of one or more persons in the sector of the audio scene, wherein the audio scene is an in-vehicle audio scene.
However, Peters (title, abstract, figs. 1-17) teaches wherein identifying a sector of an audio scene comprising one or more persons comprises identifying the sector as an active sector and the apparatus further comprises one or more in-vehicle person-presence-sensors configured to detect active physical presence of one or more persons in the sector of the audio scene, wherein the audio scene is an in-vehicle audio scene (Peters ¶0093 discloses it may be possible to take into account movement of a vehicle that has the capabilities of AR, MR and/or VR devices and provide an immersive audio experience [using the respective known apparatus for an in-vehicle-audio scene is obvious to a person skilled in the art]).
Leppänen and Peters are analogous art as they pertain to modifying audio scene. Therefore it would have been obvious to someone of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the invention was made to modify audio rendered (as taught by Leppänen) to provide audio formats for accurate modeling of soundfield [e.g., object- and scene-based codecs] that can also allow for spatial manipulation of sound-field and perform soundfield rotation, zooming in the audio scene in a manner that is similar to selecting an area of interest in an image or video (as taught by Peters, ¶0046-¶0047) to overcome the high-bit rates required to properly encode the audio in 2D and/or 3D surround sound formats (Peters, ¶0003).
Regarding Claim 22, Leppänen in view of Peters discloses an apparatus as claimed in claim 21. But Leppänen may not explicitly disclose wherein the one or more in-vehicle person-presence-sensors comprise at least one of vehicle seat weight sensors or vehicle seatbelt buckle activation sensors.
However, Peters (title, abstract, figs. 1-17) teaches wherein the one or more in-vehicle person-presence-sensors comprise at least one of vehicle seat weight sensors or vehicle seatbelt buckle activation sensors (Peters ¶0141 discloses wherein at least one of the means for receiving, the means for parsing, or the means for applying is integrated in at least one of a vehicle. [vehicle seat weight sensors or seatbelt sensors are standard sensors and well known to the skilled person in the art]).
Leppänen and Peters are analogous art as they pertain to modifying audio scene. Therefore it would have been obvious to someone of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the invention was made to modify audio rendered (as taught by Leppänen) to provide audio formats for accurate modeling of soundfield [e.g., object- and scene-based codecs] that can also allow for spatial manipulation of sound-field and perform soundfield rotation, zooming in the audio scene in a manner that is similar to selecting an area of interest in an image or video (as taught by Peters, ¶0046-¶0047) to overcome the high-bit rates required to properly encode the audio in 2D and/or 3D surround sound formats (Peters, ¶0003).
Regarding Claim 24, Leppänen discloses an apparatus as claimed in claim 17,
wherein the apparatus is further caused to modify the spatial audio content for rendering the audio scene (Leppänen ¶0072 discloses a second spatial area 80, which is a smaller than the first spatial area 50, is determined, and the above transformation of the selected spatial sources 30a, 30b, 30c, 30e, 30f is such that their corresponding audio content is spatially repositioned to be within the second spatial area. There is therefore a spectral shrinking of audio content from the selected spatial sources 30a, 30b, 30c, 30e, 30f, which can lead to an improved audio experience and does not require the user 14 to move away in order to achieve this. ¶0074 discloses for example, as shown in fig. 4, repositioning of the selected audio sources 30a, 30b, 30c, 30e, 30f can be by means of translation of said selected audio sources towards a center line 36 passing through the center of the first and/or second spatial areas 40, 80. ¶0075 discloses for audio rendering, the spatial sources 30a, 30b, 30c, 30e, 30f may then be returned by inverse translation to the user-centric coordinate system and the rendering is done as normal. ¶0078 discloses as shown in fig. 6, movement of the second user device 35 further is away from the user 14 may result in an angle a of greater than 180 degrees, which would in this case cover all of the shown audio sources 30a-30g for transformation).
Leppänen may not explicitly disclose wherein the spatial audio content comprises at least a first audio source at a first orientation relative to the scene orientation of the audio scene and a second audio source at a second orientation relative to the scene orientation of the audio scene, wherein an angular offset between the first orientation and the scene orientation of the audio scene and an angular offset between the second orientation and the scene orientation of the audio scene are reduced.
However, Peters (title, abstract, figs. 1-17) teaches wherein the spatial audio content comprises at least a first audio source at a first orientation relative to the scene orientation of the audio scene and a second audio source at a second orientation relative to the scene orientation of the audio scene (Peters ¶0064 discloses a rotation effect can be applied by rotating the soundfield to a desired orientation. Parameters defining a desired rotation of the soundfield can indicate the direction which is to be rotated into a defined reference direction [e.g., as shown in fig. 5A]. Alternatively, the desired rotation can be indicated as a rotation of the reference direction to a different specified direction within the soundfield [e.g., as shown equivalently in fig. 5B]. ¶0065 discloses a translation effect can be applied to translate a sound source to a new location within the soundfield. Parameters defining a desired translation may include a direction and a distance [alternatively, an angle of rotation relative to the user position]. ¶0066 discloses each soundfield modification indicated in the metadata may be linked to a particular moment of the soundfield stream. For an implementation in which more than one soundfield modification is indicated under a shared timestamp, the metadata may also include information to identify a time precedence among the modifications [e.g., "apply the indicated rotation effect to the soundfield, then apply the indicated focus effect to the rotated soundfield"]. ¶0061 discloses “a focus effect” definition),
wherein an angular offset between the first orientation and the scene orientation of the audio scene and an angular offset between the second orientation and the scene orientation of the audio scene are reduced (Peters ¶0067 discloses it may be desirable to enable a user to select a raw version of the soundfield or a version modified by the audio effects metadata, and/or modify the soundfield in a manner that is partially or completely different from the effects indicated in the effects metadata. ¶0068 discloses task T400 receives at least one user command [e.g., by active and/or passive user interaction]. Based on at least one of (A) the at least one effect parameter value or (B) the at least one user command, task T350 applies, to the soundfield description, an effect identified by the effect identifier. ¶0069 discloses it may be desirable to support virtual movement in six degrees of freedom [6DOF]. As shown in figs. 8A and 8B, 6DOF includes the three rotational movements of 3DOF and also three translational movements: forward/backward [surge], up/down [heave], and left/right [sway]).
Leppänen and Peters are analogous art as they pertain to modifying audio scene. Therefore it would have been obvious to someone of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the invention was made to modify audio rendered (as taught by Leppänen) to provide audio formats for accurate modeling of soundfield [e.g., object- and scene-based codecs] that can also allow for spatial manipulation of sound-field and perform soundfield rotation, zooming in the audio scene in a manner that is similar to selecting an area of interest in an image or video (as taught by Peters, ¶0046-¶0047) to overcome the high-bit rates required to properly encode the audio in 2D and/or 3D surround sound formats (Peters, ¶0003).
Regarding Claim 25, Leppänen in view of Peters discloses an apparatus as claimed in claim 24,
wherein the spatial audio content is modified, such that the scene orientation of the audio scene is mid-way between the first orientation and the second orientation (Leppänen ¶0074 discloses there are a number of ways in which the server 10 can perform the transformation. For example, as shown in fig. 4, repositioning of the selected audio sources 30a, 30b, 30c, 30e, 30f can be by means of translation of said selected audio sources towards a center line 36 passing through the center of the first and/or second spatial areas 40, 80. For example, as an alternative, repositioning of the selected audio sources 30a, 30b, 30c, 30e, 30f can be by means of movement along an arc of constant radius from the origin of the first and second spatial areas 40, 80. This is indicated for completeness in fig. 5).
Claims 31 and 33-34 are rejected for the same reasons as set forth in Claims 18 and 20-21.
Conclusion
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/YOGESHKUMAR PATEL/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2691
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