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 .
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 (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 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 1, 4-7, and 10-12 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Goodart in view of Wang et al. (US 2025/0013476; hereinafter Wang) in view of Menachem (US Patent Publication No. 2022/0343878).
With reference to claims 1 and 7, Goodart discloses a multi-panel display method and apparatus (see paragraphs 12-14; Figs. 1-4), comprising:
a plurality of display devices (112A-C) (see paragraphs 115-116; Figs. 1-2); and
a processor (102), coupled to the plurality of display devices (112A-C) (see paragraph 12-14; Fig. 1), and configured to:
establishing, by a graphics compositing module (110) of an apparatus (100), a plurality of graphics compositing threads (splices), wherein each graphics compositing thread corresponds to a frame to be displayed on one display device (112A-C) (in teaching splicing video images into portions to be transmitted to the display devices; see paragraphs 6, 20; Figs. 1-2);
processing, by the graphics compositing module (110), data of the frames through the plurality of graphics compositing threads (see paragraphs 20-22; Figs. 1-3), wherein a graphics compositing module processes graphics compositing tasks utilizing the plurality of graphics compositing threads to composite data of frames and generated composited data,
establishing, by a hardware composer module of the apparatus (136), a plurality of overlay (OVL) threads, wherein each OVL thread corresponds to one graphics compositing thread and one display device (112A-C) (see paragraphs 21-24; Figs. 2-3);
processing, by the hardware composer module (136), the composited data from the graphics compositing module (110) through the plurality of overlay threads (see paragraphs 23-24; Figs. 2-3); and
displaying, by the plurality of display devices, frames from the hardware composer module (136) (see paragraphs 23-24; Figs. 2-3).
While disclosing the graphics compositing module and a plurality of threads as recited, and while teaching synchronization of the graphics threads to be displayed to generate a composite image (in teaching timing signals; see paragraph 23), there fails to be specific disclosure of parallel processing as recited.
Menachem discloses an electronic device including displays (12) and a graphics compositing module (60) (see paragraph 99; Fig. 14), wherein a graphics compositing module processes graphics in parallel to generated composited data, after the graphics compositing module receives a same vertical synchronization signal (see paragraphs 68, 103-104; Figs. 14-15), and wherein a hardware composer module (260) processes in parallel by utilizing a plurality of threads to provide frames to be displayed for the plurality of display devices (12) (see paragraph 99; Fig. 14); and displaying, by the plurality of display devices (12), frames from the hardware composer module (260) (see paragraph 108; Fig. 15).
Therefore it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art to allow the usage of parallel processing based on a synchronization signal similar to that which is taught by Menachem to be carried out in a system similar to Goodart to thereby improve perceived image quality when processing operation based on synchronization signals (see Menachem; paragraph 64).
With reference to claims 4 and 10, Goodart and Menachem disclose the multi-panel display method of claim 1 or 7, wherein Goodart further disclosing: establishing, by the graphics compositing module, the plurality of graphics compositing threads after receiving a vertical synchronization signal (in teaching timing signals; see paragraph 23).
With reference to claims 5 and 11, Goodart and Menachem disclose the multi-panel display method of claim 1 or 7, wherein Goodart further disclosing, wherein each graphics compositing thread corresponds to a panel ID (EDID), and the method further comprises: receiving, by the graphics compositing module (110), the data corresponding to different display devices (112A-C) through different graphics compositing threads according to the panel ID corresponding to each graphics compositing thread (see paragraphs 21-23; Figs. 2-3).
With reference to claims 6 and 12, Goodart and Menachem disclose the multi-panel display method of claim 5 or 11, wherein Goodart further disclosing, wherein each OVL thread corresponds to a panel ID, and the method further comprises: transmitting, by the graphics compositing module (110), the composited data to each OVL thread according to the panel ID corresponding to each OVL thread (see paragraphs 21-24; Figs. 1-3).
Claims 2-3 and 8-9 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Goodart and Menachem as applied to claims 1 and 7 above, and further in view of Wang et al. (US 2025/0013476; hereinafter Wang).
With reference to claims 2 and 8, Goodart and Menachem discloses the multi-panel display method of claim 1 or 7, and while Goodart discloses the graphics compositing module (110), Goodart fails to disclose SurfaceFlinger as recited.
Wang discloses and image processing system wherein a graphics compositing module is a SurfaceFlinger module (see paragraphs 76-79; Figs. 1).
Therefore it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill to allow the usage of SurfaceFlinger similar to that which is taught by Wang in a system similar to that which is taught by Goodart and Menachem to thereby allow for compositing different layers on the display device (see paragraph 78).
With reference to claims 3 and 9, Goodart and Menachem disclose the multi-panel display method of claim 1 or 7, however fails to disclose the hardware composer as recited.
Wang further discloses wherein the hardware composer module is a hardware composer (HWC) hardware abstraction layer (HAL) (see paragraph 113).
Response to Arguments
Applicant’s arguments with respect to claims 1-12 have been considered but are moot because the new ground of rejection does not rely on any reference applied in the prior rejection of record for any teaching or matter specifically challenged in the argument.
Pertinent Prior Art
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure.
KIM (US2010/0134384) discloses a multi-panel display device an method of driving wherein the device is configured of an alignment of multiple display device for representing a single image (see abstract; paragraphs 29-34; Figs. 1-9).
Conclusion
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/ADE/Examiner, Art Unit 2625
/WILLIAM BODDIE/
Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 2625
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