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 is in response to the preliminary amendments filed on 10/24/2024. Claim 3 has been amended. Claims 9-14 have been added. Claims 1-14 are present for examination.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 101
35 U.S.C. 101 reads as follows:
Whoever invents or discovers any new and useful process, machine, manufacture, or composition of matter, or any new and useful improvement thereof, may obtain a patent therefor, subject to the conditions and requirements of this title.
Claims 1-14 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 101 because the claimed invention is directed to abstract ideas without significantly more.
MPEP 2106 III provides a flowchart for the subject matter eligibility test for product and processes. The claim analysis following the flowchart is as follows:
Regarding claim 1, it recites
An automated formation group guidance method based on scene perception, comprising:
in response to receiving jump position information for a browsing area, determining whether a jump position corresponding to the jump position information is within any exhibit area, wherein the browsing area includes a non-exhibit area and at least one exhibit area, and each exhibit area in the at least one exhibit area corresponds to an exhibit;
in response to determining that the jump position is within the any exhibit area, based on a preset social distance threshold and a queue length, determining an initial visit position queue corresponding to a target exhibit, where the target exhibit is an exhibit exhibited in a target exhibit area, the target exhibit area is an exhibit area that includes the jump position, and the queue length is a number of respective visitors in a visitor group;
optimizing each initial visit position in the initial visit position queue to obtain an optimized visit position queue, wherein each optimized visit position in the optimized visit position queue is a viewpoint position with a higher quality of a view, the view being an image when viewing the exhibit through virtual reality equipment;
based on a preset matching strategy, matching the optimized visit position queue and a current visitor position information queue to obtain a target visitor position information queue, for guiding each visitor in the visitor group to perform position jumps and browse target exhibits, wherein the matching strategy is to minimize a sum of various position deflection angles of the respective visitors, and a position deflection angle is an angle between a position orientation before jump and a position orientation after jump of a visitor , which is less than a preset degree.
Step 1: Is the claim to a process, machine, manufacture or composition of matter?
Yes. It recites a method, which is a process.
Step 2A, Prong One: Does the claim recite an abstract idea, law of nature, or nature phenomenon?
Yes.
The step of determining whether a jump position is within any exhibit area is a mental process because a person can determine that mentally by looking at the browsing area and determine mentally whether there is a jump position within any exhibit area in the browsing area.
The step of “in response to determining that the jump position is within the any exhibit area, based on a preset social distance threshold and a queue length, determining an initial visit position queue corresponding to a target exhibit…” can be a mental process because a person can mentally determine an initial visit position queue based on a preset social distance threshold and a queue length, or a mathematical operation because determining a queue based on a threshold and a queue length involves mathematical relationship.
The step of “optimizing each initial visit position in the initial visit position queue to obtain an optimized visit position queue, wherein each optimized visit position in the optimized visit position queue is a viewpoint position with a higher quality of a view, the view being an image when viewing the exhibit through virtual reality equipment” can be a mental process because a person can mentally determine the optimized visit positions, or mathematical operations because optimizing positions to obtain an optimized visit position queue can be done by mathematical calculations to calculate the optimized positions. Although the limitation recites “the view being an image when viewing the exhibit through virtual reality equipment”, it only defines a view as an image but the claim does not disclose the image being generated, and therefore has been interpreted as limitations on the viewpoint position as data used in the mental process or mathematical operations instead of additional elements.
The step of “based on a preset matching strategy, matching the optimized visit position queue and a current visitor position information queue to obtain a target visitor position information queue, for guiding each visitor in the visitor group to perform position jumps and browse target exhibits, wherein the matching strategy is to minimize a sum of various position deflection angles of the respective visitors, and a position deflection angle is an angle between a position orientation before jump and a position orientation after jump of a visitor, which is less than a preset degree” can be mathematical operations because the matching strategy of minimizing a sum of angles are mathematical calculations and relationships.
Step 2A, Prong Two: Does the claim recite additional elements that integrate the judicial exception into a practical application?
No.
All the limitations recited in claim 1 are abstract ideas according to the discussion above. No additional elements are recited in claim 1.
Therefore, this judicial exception is not integrated into a practical application because no additional elements are recited in claim 1.
Step 2B: Does the claim recite additional elements that amount to significantly more than the judicial exception?
No.
As discussed above, no additional elements are recited in claim 1.
Therefore, the claim(s) does/do not include additional elements that are sufficient to amount to significantly more than the judicial exception because no additional elements are recited in claim 1.
Therefore, claim 1 is not eligible subject matter under 35 USC 101.
Regarding claim 2, it depends from claim 1 and further recites generating a transition queue based on the jump position information in response to determining that the jump position is not within the any exhibit area, wherein, the transition queue is a sequential queue composed of various transition jump positions, and each transition jump position is a position of temporary stop for visitors during a process of jumping from a vicinity of one exhibit to a vicinity of another exhibit.
Generating a queue based on the jump position information can be considered as a mental process because a person can look at the jump position information to determine a sequential queue composed of various transition jump positions mentally or at most using simple tools such as pen and paper.
Therefore, no additional elements are recited in claim 2 to integrate the abstract ideas into practical applications or amount to significantly more than the abstract idea.
Therefore, claim 2 is not eligible subject matter under 35 USC 101.
Regarding claim 3, it depends from claim 1 and further recites wherein, each visitor in the visitor group meets a preset visitor position condition set, the preset visitor position condition set comprises: condition 1: in response to determining that the jump position is within the any exhibit area, each visitor in the visitor group faces a centroid of the target exhibit; condition 2: a straight-line distance between positions of any two visitors in the visitor group is not less than the social distance threshold; condition 3: each visitor in the visitor group does not collide with obstacles.
Checking whether each visitor in the visitor group meets a preset visitor position condition set, such as facing a centroid of the target exhibit, straight-line distance not less than the social distance threshold, or each visitor not colliding with obstacles, can be mental process because a person can look at visitor positions to determine whether they met any of these conditions. Some of these conditions can also be considered as mathematical operations because comparing a distance with a threshold is mathematical relationship.
Therefore, no additional elements are recited in claim 3 to integrate the abstract ideas into practical applications or amount to significantly more than the abstract idea.
Therefore, claim 3 is not eligible subject matter under 35 USC 101.
Regarding claim 4, it depends from claim 3 with additional limitations.
The step of determining whether a shape of the target exhibit area is circular or arc-shaped can be mental process because a person can look at the shape and determine whether it is circular or arc-shaped.
The other steps recited in claim 4 expressly determining some values using mathematical formulas and are therefore mathematical concepts.
Therefore, no additional elements are recited in claim 4 to integrate the abstract ideas into practical applications or amount to significantly more than the abstract idea.
Therefore, claim 4 is not eligible subject matter under 35 USC 101.
Regarding claim 5, it depends from claim 4 with additional limitations that expressly recite determining some values using mathematical formulas and are therefore mathematical concepts.
Therefore, no additional elements are recited in claim 5 to integrate the abstract ideas into practical applications or amount to significantly more than the abstract idea.
Therefore, claim 5 is not eligible subject matter under 35 USC 101.
Regarding claim 6, it depends from claim 3 and further limits the optimizing step with taking the initial visit position as a position to be optimized and performing the steps including determining a candidate transform position group, determining an initial viewpoint score, determining a candidate viewpoint score to obtain a candidate viewpoint score group, and determining the position to be optimized as the optimized visit position wherein the target viewpoint score is a maximum value in the candidate viewpoint group that is greater than the initial viewpoint score, which are all mental processes because a person can mentally determine the candidate transfer position group, initial viewpoint score, candidate viewpoint score, and determine whether a viewpoint score is a maximum value.
Therefore, no additional elements are recited in claim 6 to integrate the abstract ideas into practical applications or amount to significantly more than the abstract idea.
Therefore, claim 6 is not eligible subject matter under 35 USC 101.
Regarding claim 7, it depends from claim 6 and further recites selecting the target viewpoint score as the optimized viewpoint score and taking the candidate transfer position as the position to be optimized and performing the optimized visit position generating step again. The selecting step and taking step can be mental processes because a person can mentally select viewpoint score and take candidate transfer position as the position to be optimized. The optimized visit position generating steps respectively recited in claims 1 and 6 are mental processes as discussed above.
Therefore, no additional elements are recited in claim 7 to integrate the abstract ideas into practical applications or amount to significantly more than the abstract idea.
Therefore, claim 7 is not eligible subject matter under 35 USC 101.
Regarding claim 8, it depends from claim 7 and further limits the determining an initial viewpoint score corresponding to the position to be optimized to include determining an exhibit observation plane, determining certain areas corresponding to the plane, determining an overlapping area, determining a ratio as an exhibit visual area proportion, determining another ratio as an exhibit visible area proportion, determining another overlapping area, determining a difference between two areas, determining another ratio as an area proportion of the unobstructed exhibit area, determining a visual color quality, determining a visual depth quality, and performing weighted summation. These steps can be mental processed because a person can mentally determine the values recited in the steps or using simple tools of pen and paper. Some of the steps such as determining ratios, differences, and weighted summation can also be mathematical concepts because they involve mathematical calculations.
Therefore, no additional elements are recited in claim 8 to integrate the abstract ideas into practical applications or amount to significantly more than the abstract idea.
Therefore, claim 8 is not eligible subject matter under 35 USC 101.
Regarding claim 9, it depends from claim 2 with additional limitations similar to claim 3.
As discussed above with respect to claims 2 and 3, no additional elements are recited in claim 9 to integrate the abstract ideas into practical applications or amount to significantly more than the abstract idea.
Therefore, claim 9 is not eligible subject matter under 35 USC 101.
Regarding claim 10, it depends from claim 9 with additional limitations similar to claim 4.
As discussed above with respect to claims 9 and 4, no additional elements are recited in claim 10 to integrate the abstract ideas into practical applications or amount to significantly more than the abstract idea.
Therefore, claim 10 is not eligible subject matter under 35 USC 101.
Regarding claim 11, it depends from claim 10 with additional limitations similar to claim 5.
As discussed above with respect to claims 10 and 5, no additional elements are recited in claim 11 to integrate the abstract ideas into practical applications or amount to significantly more than the abstract idea.
Therefore, claim 11 is not eligible subject matter under 35 USC 101.
Regarding claim 12, it depends from claim 9 with additional limitations similar to claim 6.
As discussed above with respect to claims 9 and 6, no additional elements are recited in claim 12 to integrate the abstract ideas into practical applications or amount to significantly more than the abstract idea.
Therefore, claim 12 is not eligible subject matter under 35 USC 101.
Regarding claim 13, it depends from claim 12 with additional limitations similar to claim 7.
As discussed above with respect to claims 12 and 7, no additional elements are recited in claim 13 to integrate the abstract ideas into practical applications or amount to significantly more than the abstract idea.
Therefore, claim 13 is not eligible subject matter under 35 USC 101.
Regarding claim 14, it depends from claim 13 with additional limitations similar to claim 8.
As discussed above with respect to claims 13 and 8, no additional elements are recited in claim 14 to integrate the abstract ideas into practical applications or amount to significantly more than the abstract idea.
Therefore, claim 14 is not eligible subject matter under 35 USC 101.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 1-14 would be allowable if rewritten or amended to overcome the rejection(s) under 35 U.S.C. 101 set forth in this Office action.
The following is a statement of reasons for the indication of allowable subject matter:
Regarding claim 1, the closest prior art references the examiner could find are US Patent Publication No. 20240089411 A1 to Goetzinger and Chinese Patent Publication No. CN 110689623 A to Xu et al., which disclose An automated formation group guidance method based on scene perception (Goetzinger, para. [0345], disclosing arranging virtual attendee representations, Xu, Translation, para. [0002], disclosing a visitor guidance method based on augmented reality display), comprising: wherein the browsing area includes a non-exhibit area and at least one exhibit area, and each exhibit area in the at least one exhibit area corresponds to an exhibit (Xu, Translation, para. [0115], disclosing introducing exhibits and relevant information, and dynamic exhibit overview model, para. [0116], disclosing multiple exhibits at different distances appear in the field of vision, para. [0193], disclosing dividing the image into regions with different visual meanings such as background walls, exhibits, and other targets); determining an initial visit position queue corresponding to a target exhibit, where the target exhibit is an exhibit exhibited in a target exhibit area (Xu, Translation, para. [0006], disclosing there are queues to visit and view the attractions and exhibits, Goetzinger, para. [0345], discl9osing the attendee representations are placed in queue); optimizing each initial visit position in the initial visit position queue to obtain an optimized visit position queue (Goetzinger, para. [0348], disclosing minimizing the attended representation in queue, para. [0348], disclosing the attendee representations include minimized presentation with different angles as directional videos giving visual queues as to what those attendees are looking at), the view being an image when viewing the exhibit through virtual reality equipment (Xu, Translation, para. [0009], disclosing creating augmented reality images and displaying virtual models to allow tourists to see exhibits in museums).
However, the prior art references on the record, alone or in combination, fails to disclose in response to receiving jump position information for a browsing area, determining whether a jump position corresponding to the jump position information is within any exhibit area; in response to determining that the jump position is within the any exhibit area, based on a preset social distance threshold and a queue length, determining an initial visit position queue corresponding to a target exhibit, the target exhibit area is an exhibit area that includes the jump position, and the queue length is a number of respective visitors in a visitor group; wherein each optimized visit position in the optimized visit position queue is a viewpoint position with a higher quality of a view; based on a preset matching strategy, matching the optimized visit position queue and a current visitor position information queue to obtain a target visitor position information queue, for guiding each visitor in the visitor group to perform position jumps and browse target exhibits, wherein the matching strategy is to minimize a sum of various position deflection angles of the respective visitors, and a position deflection angle is an angle between a position orientation before jump and a position orientation after jump of a visitor, which is less than a preset degree.
Claims 2-14 depend from claim 1 with respective additional limitations.
Conclusion
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/HAIXIA DU/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2611
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