DETAILED ACTION
Notice of Pre-AIA or AIA Status
The present application is being examined under the pre-AIA first to invent provisions.
Double Patenting
The nonstatutory double patenting rejection is based on a judicially created doctrine grounded in public policy (a policy reflected in the statute) so as to prevent the unjustified or improper timewise extension of the “right to exclude” granted by a patent and to prevent possible harassment by multiple assignees. A nonstatutory double patenting rejection is appropriate where the conflicting claims are not identical, but at least one examined application claim is not patentably distinct from the reference claim(s) because the examined application claim is either anticipated by, or would have been obvious over, the reference claim(s). See, e.g., In re Berg, 140 F.3d 1428, 46 USPQ2d 1226 (Fed. Cir. 1998); In re Goodman, 11 F.3d 1046, 29 USPQ2d 2010 (Fed. Cir. 1993); In re Longi, 759 F.2d 887, 225 USPQ 645 (Fed. Cir. 1985); In re Van Ornum, 686 F.2d 937, 214 USPQ 761 (CCPA 1982); In re Vogel, 422 F.2d 438, 164 USPQ 619 (CCPA 1970); In re Thorington, 418 F.2d 528, 163 USPQ 644 (CCPA 1969).
A timely filed terminal disclaimer in compliance with 37 CFR 1.321(c) or 1.321(d) may be used to overcome an actual or provisional rejection based on nonstatutory double patenting provided the reference application or patent either is shown to be commonly owned with the examined application, or claims an invention made as a result of activities undertaken within the scope of a joint research agreement. See MPEP § 717.02 for applications subject to examination under the first inventor to file provisions of the AIA as explained in MPEP § 2159. See MPEP § 2146 et seq. for applications not subject to examination under the first inventor to file provisions of the AIA . A terminal disclaimer must be signed in compliance with 37 CFR 1.321(b).
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Claims 1, 28-19 are rejected on the ground of nonstatutory double patenting as being unpatentable over claim 2 of U.S. Patent No. 12,135,861. Although the claims at issue are not identical, they are not patentably distinct from each other. The correspondence between the claims is as follows:
Instant Application
US Patent 12,135,861
1. (Original) A method, comprising:requesting establishment of a presence for a user in a given zone of a virtual area in a virtual communications environment, wherein the virtual area comprises multiple zones, and each of respective ones of the zones defines a respective context for realtime communications between network nodes of respective communicants who are present in the zone;
processing voice input; based at least in part on the voice input, calling one or more services to perform a task involving navigation in the virtual area;
in association with the calling, receiving navigation results relating to at least one of the zones of the virtual area; and
generating audio output comprising an audio report of the navigation results
2. An apparatus, comprising: one or more processors, and a memory, coupled to the one or more processors, storing processor-readable code that is when executed by the one or more processors to cause the one or more processors to perform operations comprising: receiving a request to establish a presence for a user in a given zone of a virtual area in a virtual communications environment, wherein the virtual area comprises multiple zones, and each of respective ones of the zones defines a respective context for realtime communications between network nodes of respective communicants who are present in the zone;
processing voice input to recognize and interpret the voice input; based at least in part on the voice input, calling one or more services to perform a task involving navigation in the virtual area, wherein the calling one or more services comprises: calling commands to interpret voice-based navigation input from the user; and obtaining information to communicate audio visualization descriptions of visual aspects of visual information relating to at least one of the zones of the virtual area;
in association with the calling, receiving navigation results relating to at least one of the zones of the virtual area, wherein the navigation results include the audio visualization descriptions of visual aspects of visual information relating to at least one of the zones of the virtual area;
generating audio output comprising an audio report of the navigation results; wherein the navigation input further includes a set of navigation commands, and the set of navigation commands include a look command and a find command, wherein in response to the user vocalizing the look command with no modifier causes one of the services to send to the user a report of who else is in the user's current virtual location of presence in the virtual area and in response to the user vocalizing the look command with a specified virtual location in the virtual area causes one of the services to send to the user a report of who is in the specified virtual location in the virtual area, wherein the user vocalizing the find command with a specified contact operand causes one of the services to send to the user a report of the current virtual location of the specified contact in the virtual area, and the user vocalizing the find command with a specified name of a meeting in the virtual area causes one of the services to send to the user a report of the virtual location of the meeting with the specified name in the virtual area, wherein the detecting comprises probabilistically scoring a set of navigation commands based on application of semantic rules that measure consistency of the navigation commands with the user's current state or activity in the virtual area and, based on the scoring, selecting one of the navigation commands.
28. (Currently Amended) Apparatus comprising: a processor, and a memory, coupled to the processor, storing processor-readable code that is executable by the processor to cause the processor to perform operations comprising: a processor, coupled to the memory, operable to execute the instructions, and based at least in part on the execution of the instructions operable to perform operations comprising requesting establishment of a presence for a user in a given zone of a virtual area in a virtual communications environment, wherein the virtual area comprises multiple zones, and each of respective ones of the zones defines a respective context for realtime communications between network nodes of respective communicants who are present in the zone;
receiving voice input; based at least in part on the voice input, calling one or more services to perform a task involving navigation in the virtual area;
in association with the calling, receiving navigation results relating to at least one of the zones of the virtual area; and
generating audio output comprising an audio report of the navigation results.
2. An apparatus, comprising: one or more processors, and a memory, coupled to the one or more processors, storing processor-readable code that is when executed by the one or more processors to cause the one or more processors to perform operations comprising: receiving a request to establish a presence for a user in a given zone of a virtual area in a virtual communications environment, wherein the virtual area comprises multiple zones, and each of respective ones of the zones defines a respective context for realtime communications between network nodes of respective communicants who are present in the zone;
processing voice input to recognize and interpret the voice input; based at least in part on the voice input, calling one or more services to perform a task involving navigation in the virtual area, wherein the calling one or more services comprises: calling commands to interpret voice-based navigation input from the user; and obtaining information to communicate audio visualization descriptions of visual aspects of visual information relating to at least one of the zones of the virtual area;
in association with the calling, receiving navigation results relating to at least one of the zones of the virtual area, wherein the navigation results include the audio visualization descriptions of visual aspects of visual information relating to at least one of the zones of the virtual area;
generating audio output comprising an audio report of the navigation results; wherein the navigation input further includes a set of navigation commands, and the set of navigation commands include a look command and a find command, wherein in response to the user vocalizing the look command with no modifier causes one of the services to send to the user a report of who else is in the user's current virtual location of presence in the virtual area and in response to the user vocalizing the look command with a specified virtual location in the virtual area causes one of the services to send to the user a report of who is in the specified virtual location in the virtual area, wherein the user vocalizing the find command with a specified contact operand causes one of the services to send to the user a report of the current virtual location of the specified contact in the virtual area, and the user vocalizing the find command with a specified name of a meeting in the virtual area causes one of the services to send to the user a report of the virtual location of the meeting with the specified name in the virtual area, wherein the detecting comprises probabilistically scoring a set of navigation commands based on application of semantic rules that measure consistency of the navigation commands with the user's current state or activity in the virtual area and, based on the scoring, selecting one of the navigation commands.
29. (Currently Amended) A non-transitory computer-readable medium having processor-readable program code embodied therein, the processor- readable program code is executably by a processor to to cause the processor to perform operations comprising: requesting establishment of a presence for a user in a given zone of a virtual area in a virtual communications environment, wherein the virtual area comprises multiple zones, and each of respective ones of the zones defines a respective context for realtime communications between network nodes of respective communicants who are present in the zone;
receiving voice input; based at least in part on the voice input, calling one or more services to perform a task involving navigation in the virtual area;
in association with the calling, receiving navigation results relating to at least one of the zones of the virtual area; and
generating audio output comprising an audio report of the navigation results.
2. An apparatus, comprising: one or more processors, and a memory, coupled to the one or more processors, storing processor-readable code that is when executed by the one or more processors to cause the one or more processors to perform operations comprising: receiving a request to establish a presence for a user in a given zone of a virtual area in a virtual communications environment, wherein the virtual area comprises multiple zones, and each of respective ones of the zones defines a respective context for realtime communications between network nodes of respective communicants who are present in the zone;
processing voice input to recognize and interpret the voice input; based at least in part on the voice input, calling one or more services to perform a task involving navigation in the virtual area, wherein the calling one or more services comprises: calling commands to interpret voice-based navigation input from the user; and obtaining information to communicate audio visualization descriptions of visual aspects of visual information relating to at least one of the zones of the virtual area;
in association with the calling, receiving navigation results relating to at least one of the zones of the virtual area, wherein the navigation results include the audio visualization descriptions of visual aspects of visual information relating to at least one of the zones of the virtual area;
generating audio output comprising an audio report of the navigation results; wherein the navigation input further includes a set of navigation commands, and the set of navigation commands include a look command and a find command, wherein in response to the user vocalizing the look command with no modifier causes one of the services to send to the user a report of who else is in the user's current virtual location of presence in the virtual area and in response to the user vocalizing the look command with a specified virtual location in the virtual area causes one of the services to send to the user a report of who is in the specified virtual location in the virtual area, wherein the user vocalizing the find command with a specified contact operand causes one of the services to send to the user a report of the current virtual location of the specified contact in the virtual area, and the user vocalizing the find command with a specified name of a meeting in the virtual area causes one of the services to send to the user a report of the virtual location of the meeting with the specified name in the virtual area, wherein the detecting comprises probabilistically scoring a set of navigation commands based on application of semantic rules that measure consistency of the navigation commands with the user's current state or activity in the virtual area and, based on the scoring, selecting one of the navigation commands.
Claim Objections
Claims 29 are objected to because of the following informalities:
Claim 29 recites “is executably by a processor” and should apparently recite “is executable by a processor”.
Claim 29 recites “to to cause” and should apparently recite “to cause”.
Appropriate correction is required.
Prior Art
Listed herein below are the prior art references relied upon in this Office Action:
Cragun et al. (US Patent Application Publication 2010/0245257), referred to as Cragun herein.
Van Wie et al. (US Patent Application Publication 2009/0254843), referred to as Van Wie herein.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
The following is a quotation of pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 103(a) which forms the basis for all obviousness rejections set forth in this Office action:
(a) A patent may not be obtained though the invention is not identically disclosed or described as set forth in section 102, if the differences between the subject matter sought to be patented and the prior art are such that the subject matter as a whole would have been obvious at the time the invention was made to a person having ordinary skill in the art to which said subject matter pertains. Patentability shall not be negated by the manner in which the invention was made.
Claims 1, 28, and 29 is/are rejected under pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 103(a) as being unpatentable over Van Wie in view of Cragun.
Regarding claim 1, Van Wie discloses a method, comprising: requesting establishment of a presence for a user in a given zone of a virtual area in a virtual communications environment, wherein the virtual area comprises multiple zones (Van Wie, Abstract and ¶0225 with Figs. 13 and 14 – list of contacts and location by name. ¶0226 – navigation to the communicant via communicant’s place tile. See also Fig. 14 with ¶0229 – listing contacts by location. See also Fig. 16 with ¶0236-¶0238 – “Go” command to go to the contact’s location. Get command to bring the contact to the user’s location), and
each of respective ones of the zones defines a respective context for realtime communications between network nodes of respective communicants who are present in the zone (Van Wie, Abtract and ¶0062 – realtime communication between communicants may occur within the context of a virtual area. ¶0112 – context of a virtual area is logged for interaction between communicants. ¶0233-¶0234 – location co-presence creates a real-time communication context);
However, Van Wie appears not to expressly disclose the limitations shown in strikethrough above. However, the same field of endeavor, Cragun discloses avatar navigation in a virtual world (Cragun, Abstract),
including processing voice input, and generating audio output comprising an audio report of the navigation results (Cragun, Abstract with ¶0046 – voice command to initiate navigation to one of the fixed set of elements presented, audio description of objects or avatars included within the area of focus. ¶0025-¶0027 – synthesized speech output audio descriptions generated based on the elements within the user’s current area of focus).
Therefore, at the time of the invention, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art to have modified the voice navigation commands of Van Wie, to include voice commands and audio reports based on the teachings of Cragun. The motivation for doing so would have been to enable sight-impaired users to experience the virtual world through sound instead of sight (Cragun, ¶0025).
Regarding claim 28, Van Wie discloses an apparatus comprising: a processor, and a memory, coupled to the processor, storing processor-readable code that is executable by the processor to cause the processor to perform operations comprising: a processor, coupled to the memory, operable to execute the instructions, and based at least in part on the execution of the instructions operable to perform operations comprising (Van Wie, Figs. 1 and 3 with ¶0068, ¶0094, ¶0128 – processor executing instructions stored in hardware memory)
requesting establishment of a presence for a user in a given zone of a virtual area in a virtual communications environment, wherein the virtual area comprises multiple zones (Van Wie, Abstract and ¶0225 with Figs. 13 and 14 – list of contacts and location by name. ¶0226 – navigation to the communicant via communicant’s place tile. See also Fig. 14 with ¶0229 – listing contacts by location. See also Fig. 16 with ¶0236-¶0238 – “Go” command to go to the contact’s location. Get command to bring the contact to the user’s location), and
each of respective ones of the zones defines a respective context for realtime communications between network nodes of respective communicants who are present in the zone (Van Wie, Abtract and ¶0062 – realtime communication between communicants may occur within the context of a virtual area. ¶0112 – context of a virtual area is logged for interaction between communicants. ¶0233-¶0234 – location co-presence creates a real-time communication context);
However, Van Wie appears not to expressly disclose the limitations shown in strikethrough above. However, the same field of endeavor, Cragun discloses avatar navigation in a virtual world (Cragun, Abstract),
including receiving voice input, and generating audio output comprising an audio report of the navigation results (Cragun, Abstract with ¶0046 – voice command to initiate navigation to one of the fixed set of elements presented, audio description of objects or avatars included within the area of focus. ¶0025-¶0027 – synthesized speech output audio descriptions generated based on the elements within the user’s current area of focus).
Therefore, at the time of the invention, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art to have modified the voice navigation commands of Van Wie, to include voice commands and audio reports based on the teachings of Cragun. The motivation for doing so would have been to enable sight-impaired users to experience the virtual world through sound instead of sight (Cragun, ¶0025).
Regarding claim 29, Van Wie discloses a non-transitory computer-readable medium having processor-readable program code embodied therein, the processor- readable program code is executably by a processor toto cause the processor to perform operations comprising (Van Wie, Figs. 1 and 3 with ¶0068, ¶0094, ¶0128 – processor executing instructions stored in hardware memory):
requesting establishment of a presence for a user in a given zone of a virtual area in a virtual communications environment, wherein the virtual area comprises multiple zones (Van Wie, Abstract and ¶0225 with Figs. 13 and 14 – list of contacts and location by name. ¶0226 – navigation to the communicant via communicant’s place tile. See also Fig. 14 with ¶0229 – listing contacts by location. See also Fig. 16 with ¶0236-¶0238 – “Go” command to go to the contact’s location. Get command to bring the contact to the user’s location), and
each of respective ones of the zones defines a respective context for realtime communications between network nodes of respective communicants who are present in the zone (Van Wie, Abtract and ¶0062 – realtime communication between communicants may occur within the context of a virtual area. ¶0112 – context of a virtual area is logged for interaction between communicants. ¶0233-¶0234 – location co-presence creates a real-time communication context);
However, Van Wie appears not to expressly disclose the limitations shown in strikethrough above. However, the same field of endeavor, Cragun discloses avatar navigation in a virtual world (Cragun, Abstract),
including receiving voice input, and generating audio output comprising an audio report of the navigation results (Cragun, Abstract with ¶0046 – voice command to initiate navigation to one of the fixed set of elements presented, audio description of objects or avatars included within the area of focus. ¶0025-¶0027 – synthesized speech output audio descriptions generated based on the elements within the user’s current area of focus).
Therefore, at the time of the invention, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art to have modified the voice navigation commands of Van Wie, to include voice commands and audio reports based on the teachings of Cragun. The motivation for doing so would have been to enable sight-impaired users to experience the virtual world through sound instead of sight (Cragun, ¶0025).
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure. References are at least relevant as indicated in the corresponding summary.
Bates et al. (US Patent Application Publication 2010/0076970) - Avatar navigation through voice commands (see ¶0040).
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to DANIEL W PARCHER whose telephone number is (303)297-4281. The examiner can normally be reached Monday - Friday, 9:00am - 5:00pm, Mountain Time.
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/DANIEL W PARCHER/ Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2174
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