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 .
DETAILED ACTION
The present application, filed on or after March 16, 2013, is being examined under the first inventor to file provisions of the AIA .
1. This action is responsive to communications: Application filed on October 18, 2024, and Drawings filed on October 18, 2024.
2. Claims 1–11 are pending in this case. Claim 1, 10 are independent claims.
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.
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) 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 8, 9, 10, 11 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Molesky et al., Pub. No.: 20170344339 in view of Serafin et al., Pub. No.: 2011/0175803A1.
With regard to claim 1:
Molesky discloses a method for operating an operator control element provided for a display device, wherein the display device is configured to display a list with at least one end (See fig. 3 and paragraph 96 wherein the scrollable window contain multiple displayed elements that can be scrolled) , and wherein the operator control element is configured to output a control signal to the display device, which control signal is used to scroll through the displayed list, depending on a predetermined actuation of said actuator control element (see fig. 3 and paragraph 95 wherein the user can control the control element 410 to scroll the list of displayed elements), and wherein the method comprises: determining whether the at least one end of the list has been reached by way of the predetermined actuation of the operator control element (see fig. 9 step 182 and paragraph 161 wherein the system determines whether the boundaries of scrollable content has been reached); and (i) preventing an output of a predetermined active haptic feedback signal by way of the operator control element only when it has been determined that the at least one end of the list has been reached by way of the predetermined actuation of the operator control element or (ii) outputting a predetermined active haptic feedback signal by way of the operator control element only when it has been determined that the at least one end of the list has been reached by way of the predetermined actuation of the operator control element (See fig. 4 and paragraph 101when the scroll window 14 reaches the end of the content area 50 during a scroll operation, an additional or separate end-of-content indicator sound (e.g., an end-of-list percussion or other sound) is played to punctuate the audio impression that the viewport 14 is at the end of the content area 50.).
Molesky does not disclose the aspect wherein the display device is of a motor vehicle.
However Serafin display device of a motor vehicle that generate haptic feedback based on user input for scrolling a list of items (see paragraph 5 a display having a scroll area and a cursor presented thereon; a controller for manipulating a position of the cursor on the display, and a haptic device for generating a plurality of tactile feedbacks to a user through the controller) It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art, at the time the filing was made to apply Serafin Molesky so the same method can applied to an environment in a motor vehicle to allow haptic feedback to notify the user that the end has been reach so the user can still focus on driving.
With regard to claim 2:
Molesky and Serafin disclose the method according to claim 1, wherein when the method prevents the output of the predetermined active haptic feedback signal by way of the operator control element only when it has been determined that the at least one end of the list has been reached by way of the predetermined actuation of the operator control element, the method further comprises: outputting the predetermined active haptic feedback signal by way of the operator control element when it has been determined that the at least one end of the list has not been reached by way of the predetermined actuation of the operator control element (Molesky See fig. 4 and paragraph 101when the scroll window 14 reaches the end of the content area 50 during a scroll operation, an additional or separate end-of-content indicator sound (e.g., an end-of-list percussion or other sound) is played to punctuate the audio impression that the viewport 14 is at the end of the content area 50. Note: This limitation with regard to prevent output of haptic feedback is claimed in parallel with the limitation of output feedback, So the prior arts only need to teach one of the two.).
With regard to claim 3:
Molesky and Serafin disclose The method according to claim 2, wherein the list has a plurality of individual entries, the predetermined active haptic feedback signal is output by way of the operator control element in each case for each or for a plurality of the individual entries which have been reached by way of the scrolling (Molesky See fig. 4 and paragraph 101when the scroll window 14 reaches the end of the content area 50 during a scroll operation, an additional or separate end-of-content indicator sound (e.g., an end-of-list percussion or other sound) is played to punctuate the audio impression that the viewport 14 is at the end of the content area 50. Note: This limitation with regard to prevent output of haptic feedback is claimed in parallel with the limitation of output feedback, So the prior arts only need to teach one of the two ).
With regard to claim 4:
Molesky and Serafin disclose The method according to claim 3, wherein a frequency of the output of the predetermined active haptic feedback signal by way of the operator control element is effected depending on a speed of the predetermined actuation, and/or depending on a length of the predetermined actuation (Molesky See fig. 4 and paragraph 101when the scroll window 14 reaches the end of the content area 50 during a scroll operation, an additional or separate end-of-content indicator sound (e.g., an end-of-list percussion or other sound) is played to punctuate the audio impression that the viewport 14 is at the end of the content area 50. Note: This limitation with regard to prevent output of haptic feedback is claimed in parallel with the limitation of output feedback, So the prior arts only need to teach one of the two ).
With regard to claim 5:
Molesky and Serafin disclose The method according to claim 1, wherein when the method outputs the predetermined active haptic feedback signal by way of the operator control element only when it has been determined that the at least one end of the list has been reached by way of the predetermined actuation of the operator control element (Molesky See fig. 4 and paragraph 101 when the scroll window 14 reaches the end of the content area 50 during a scroll operation, an additional or separate end-of-content indicator sound (e.g., an end-of-list percussion or other sound) is played to punctuate the audio impression that the viewport 14 is at the end of the content area 50.), the method further comprises: outputting a further predetermined active haptic feedback signal by way of the operator control element when it has been determined that the at least one end of the list has not been reached by way of the predetermined actuation of the operator control element (Molesky see paragraph 77 wherein the system play different sound based on the context of scrolling and see paragraph 100 and 101 wherein the system play a unique sound when the end of the list is reached).
With regard to claim 6:
Molesky and Serafin disclose The method according to claim 5, wherein the predetermined active haptic feedback signal is output by way of the operator control element in addition to the further predetermined active haptic feedback signal being output by way of the operator control element (Molesky See fig. 4 and paragraph 101when the scroll window 14 reaches the end of the content area 50 during a scroll operation, an additional or separate end-of-content indicator sound (e.g., an end-of-list percussion or other sound) is played to punctuate the audio impression that the viewport 14 is at the end of the content area 50.), when it has been determined that the at least one end of the list has been reached by way of the predetermined actuation of the operator control element (Molesky see paragraph 100 and 101 the audio output occur after scrolling to a bottom end 64 (also called a lower boundary of the content area 50) of the content area 50)..
With regard to claim 8:
Molesky and Serafin disclose a frequency of the output of the further predetermined active haptic feedback signal by way of the operator control element is effected depending on a length of the list, a speed of the predetermined actuation, and/or depending on a length of the predetermined actuation (Molesky see paragraph 77 wherein The rate and way the sound or sound property changes may be dictated by a sound-to-position mapping (also simply called sound mapping function, sound mapping, or audio function herein). The sound-to-position mapping may specify, for example, that the frequency of audio percussions played incrementally (as the viewport 14 transitions across content sections 38, 40 or boundaries thereof) may vary linearly with scroll distance, such that the sound-to-position mapping (as implemented by the sound-to-position mapping module 26) represents a linear function that maps different incremental audio frequencies to incremental scroll positions.).
With regard to claim 9:
Molesky and Serafin disclose the method according to claim 1, wherein the predetermined actuation is a swipe gesture (Molesky see paragraph 183 wherein while certain embodiments discuss using swipe gestures applied mobile device touch screens to effectuate content scrolling, embodiments are not limited thereto.).
Claim 10 is rejected for the same reason as claim 1.
Claim 11 is rejected for the same reason as claim 1.
Claim 7 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Molesky et al., Pub. No.: 20170344339 in view of Serafin, and further in view of Mueller et al.: Patent No.: 8527900 B2
With regard to claim 7:
Molesky and Serafin disclose the method according to claim 5, wherein the list has a plurality of individual entries. (See fig. 4 for the plurality of individual entries),
Molesky and Serafin do not disclose the further predetermined active haptic feedback signal is output by way of the operator control element in each case for each or for a plurality of the individual entries which have been reached by way of the scrolling.
However Mueller discloses the aspect of predetermined active haptic feedback signal is output by way of the operator control element in each case for each or for a plurality of the individual entries which have been reached by way of the scrolling (See paragraph 24 column 4 line 1 to line 7 wherein motor vehicle comprises a controller for producing haptic feedback when the first distance is exceeded and/or for producing haptic feedback when a list entry in the list is reached.). It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art, at the time the filing was made to apply Serafin Molesky so the same method can apply Mueller to Molesky and Serafin so the user is informed about different entries that have been reached through haptic feedback during scrolling in order to make informed decisions.
Pertinent Arts
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure.
Taylor, Patent Number: 11860587 B2, discloses a method for a device has a variable friction mechanism for providing variable frictional feedback as an input mechanism, such as a crown, is rotated.
Keohane, Pub. No.: US 20080025529A1, discloses a scroll-based volume controller detects a user selection to scroll through a browser window loaded with data comprising at least one display element, wherein an audio element is associated with the display element and wherein the size of the displayable data is larger than the display area of the browser window.
Conclusion
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/DI XIAO/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2178
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