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 Objections
Claim 1 is objected to because of the following informalities: In the final clause, the limitation “states of the or more applications” appears to be a typographical error. It is understood to mean “states of the one or more applications.” Appropriate correction is required.
Claims 13 and 14 are objected to for grammatic ambiguity. The limitation “relative an object” lacks a preposition. It is understood to mean “relative to an object.”
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 102
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.
Claims 1-21 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by Agarawala (US 2021/0064218).
With respect to Claim 1, Agarawala teaches a method, comprising:
at a head mounted device (HMD) having a processor (Agarawala: Para. [0012]):
determining to configure a three-dimensional (3D) extended reality (XR) environment using a workspace that stores information based on a prior activity associated with the workspace, the workspace identifying states of one or more applications associated with the prior activity and 3D spatial positioning information for user interfaces of the one or more applications during the prior activity (Agarawala: Para. [0017], [0138], the user may save this session, this saved session constitutes a workspace based on prior activity; Para. [0105], session persistence that enable users to store/retrieve meeting or session contents and state information); and
in accordance with determining to configure the XR environment using the workspace:
positioning the user interfaces of the one or more applications in the XR environment based on the 3D spatial positioning information (Agarawala: Para. [0027] – [0029]; Fig. 3); and
restoring the one or more applications to the states of the or more applications associated with the prior use (Agarawala: Para. [0105], session persistence enable users to store/retrieve state information (including actions by various users and data changes made); Para. [0118], a resume function where an application may resume from a previous state).
With respect to Claim 2, Agarawala teaches the method of claim 1, wherein the workspace further stores application sizing information for the one or more applications based on sizes of the one or more applications associated with the prior activity, wherein the applications are sized in the XR environment in accordance with the application sizing information (Agarawala: Para. [0047]).
With respect to Claim 3, Agarawala teaches the method of claim 1, wherein the workspace further stores environment information for the one or more applications based on a virtual 3D environment associated with the prior activity, wherein the XR environment is configured with at least partial immersion of the one or more applications within the virtual 3D environment in accordance with the environment information (Agarawala: Para. [0029], [0152]).
With respect to Claim 4, Agarawala teaches the method of claim 1, wherein the workspace further stores audio information comprising a volume level or identifies playback audio, wherein the audio information is based on the prior activity, wherein the XR environment is configured to present audio based on the audio information (Agarawala: Para. [0103]).
With respect to Claim 5, Agarawala teaches the method of claim 4, wherein the audio information identifies 3D positions of spatial audio sources, wherein the XR environment is configured to present the audio based on the 3D positions of the spatial audio sources (Agarawala: Para. [0061], [0088]).
With respect to Claim 6, Agarawala teaches the method of claim 1, wherein the workspace further stores hardware accessory information based on the prior activity, wherein the XR environment is configured based on the hardware accessory information. (e.g., positioning UI relative to a physical keyboard, mouse, etc., overlaying a virtual keyboard on a real keyboard) (Agarawala: Para. [0108]).
With respect to Claim 7, Agarawala teaches the method of claim 1, wherein determining to configure the XR environment using the workspace is triggered based on a current context satisfying a workspace context trigger criterion (Agarawala: Para. [0018], [0104]).
With respect to Claim 8, Agarawala teaches the method of claim 7, wherein the workspace context trigger criterion requires that:
the HMD be in a particular geographic area;
the HMD be in a particular building or campus;
the HMD be in a particular room or type of room; or
the HMD be in a room that has one or more particular items (Agarawala: Para. [0018] – [0020]).
With respect to Claim 9, Agarawala teaches the method of claim 7, wherein the workspace context trigger criterion requires that a current time or day be within a particular time range or on one or more particular days.
With respect to Claim 10, Agarawala teaches the method of claim 1, wherein determining to configure the XR environment using the workspace is triggered based on user input manually initiating use of the workspace (Agarawala: Para. [0301]).
With respect to Claim 11, Agarawala teaches the method of claim 1, wherein determining to configure the XR environment using the workspace is triggered based on determining that a type of focus has been initiated (Agarawala: Para. [0111]).
With respect to Claim 12, Agarawala teaches the method of claim 1, wherein the spatial positioning identifies 3D positions for one or more of the one or more applications relative to a position of the user (Agarawala: Para. [0019], [0055]).
With respect to Claim 13, Agarawala teaches the method of claim 1, wherein the spatial positioning identifies fixed 3D positions for one or more of the one or more applications relative an object or type of object (Agarawala: Para. [0019], [0138]).
With respect to Claim 14, Agarawala teaches the method of claim 1, wherein:
when a position of the user corresponds to a particular location, the spatial positioning identifies fixed 3D positions for one or more of the one or more applications relative an object or type of object; and
when the position of the user does not correspond to the particular location, the spatial positioning identifies 3D positions for one or more of the one or more applications relative to the position of the user (Agarawala: Para. [0019], [0055]).
With respect to Claim 15, Agarawala teaches the method of claim 1, wherein positioning the user interfaces of the one or more applications in the XR environment is further based on a scene understanding of a physical environment in which the HMD is operated, the scene understanding based on sensor data obtained via one more sensors on the HMD (Agarawala: Para. [0027], [0311] – [0313]).
With respect to Claim 16, Agarawala teaches the method of claim 1 further comprising:
determining to transition the XR environment using a second workspace that stores information based on a second prior activity associated with the second workspace, the second workspace identifying second states of one or more applications associated with the second prior activity and second 3D spatial positioning information for user interfaces of the one or more applications during the second prior activity; and
configuring the XR environment using the second workspace (Agarawala: Para. [0055] – [0057]; Fig. 10A-B).
With respect to Claim 17, Agarawala teaches the method of claim 1, wherein the prior activity is an initial creation of the workspace in which a user manually positions or changes the states of the one or more applications (Agarawala: Para. [0317]).
With respect to Claim 18, Agarawala teaches the method of claim 1, wherein the prior activity is a use of the workspace following a prior creation and storage of the workspace, wherein the workspace is changed based on a user manually positioning or changing the states of the one or more applications during the use (Agarawala: Para. [0317]).
With respect to Claim 19, Agarawala teaches the method of claim 1, wherein notifications are limited based on the workspace (Agarawala: Para. [0066]).
With respect to Claims 20-21 (System/CRM), Agarawala discloses a “system” (Agarawala: Claim 8) and “computer program product” (Agarawala: Claim 15) performing the method steps as cited above for the rejection of Claim 1.
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to BRYAN EARLES whose telephone number is (571)272-4628. The examiner can normally be reached on Monday - Thursday at 7:30am - 5:00pm.
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/BRYAN EARLES/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2625