DETAILED ACTION
Notice of Pre-AIA or AIA Status
0The present application, filed on or after March 16, 2013, is being examined under the first inventor to file provisions of the AIA .
Claim Objections
Claims 26 and 33 are objected to because of the following informalities:
In claim 26, line 2, change “ot” to “of”.
In claim 33, line 2, change “ot” to “of”.
Appropriate correction is required.
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.
Claims 1 and 21-39 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Cerny (US 11,508,110) in view of Minalia (US 12,465,853).
Referring to claims 1, 27 and 34, Cerny discloses a method (fig. 1, providing gaming over network) comprising:
receiving, by a cloud server (fig. 1, cloud game network 190), data (fig. 4, input geometries 405) defining a virtual scene (fig. 5, screen 510A) that includes multiple virtual objects (fig. 5A, objects 511/512/523/514/515/516/517);
assigning, by the cloud server, each of the multiple virtual objects to a respective plane (fig. 5, quadrants A/B/C/D) from among multiple planes (17:19-56);
for each of the virtual objects, determining, by the cloud server, an [order] (fig. 10, rendering timeline 1090) in which the virtual object is to be rendered at a user device (fig. 1, client device 110) based on a plane (fig. 5A, quadrants A/B/C/D) to which the virtual object (fig. 5A, objects) has been assigned; and
transmitting, by the cloud server and to the user device (8:24-27, client display), order in which each virtual object is to be rendered (10:38-42, client rendering image frames, rendering server executed games).
Minalia discloses an order (3:20-26, draw order to view order).
Cerny and Minalia are analogous art because they are from the same field of endeavor in rendering three-dimensional space scene. Before the time of the filing, it would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art, having the teaching of Cerny and Minalia before him or her to modify the object rendering ordering of Cerny to include the perspective view order of Minalia, thereafter a perspective view of three-dimensional scene is rendered. The suggestion and/or motivation for doing so would be obtaining the advantage of dynamically adjusting how objects are drawn within a three-dimensional scene (6:30-34) as suggested by Minalia. Therefore, it would have been obvious to combine Cerny with Minalia to obtain the invention as specified in the instant application claims.
As to claims 21, 28 and 35, Cerny discloses the method of claim 1, comprising:
for each of the virtual objects, determining, by the cloud servers, whether a portion of the virtual object is occluded (16:10-14, rasterization stage 420); and
transmitting, by the cloud server and to the user device, data identifying any portion of any of the virtual objects that is determined to be occluded (16:10-14, objects occluded).
As to claims 22, 29 and 36, Minalia discloses the method of claim 1, comprising:
comparing a characteristic (fig. 3, object pixel depth 318) of a first virtual object (fig. 1, object A) with a corresponding character (fig. 3, depth in depth buffer 318) of a second virtual object (fig. 1, object B),
wherein the order for the first virtual object and the order for the second virtual object are determined based on comparing the character of a first virtual object with the corresponding character of a second virtual object (fig. 3, comparing current object’s pixel depth against pixel depth in depth buffer 318). (See TSM analysis above)
As to claims 23, 30 and 37, Minalia discloses the method of claim 1, comprising:
comparing depth (fig. 3, comparing current object’s pixel depth against pixel depth in depth buffer 318) characteristic of a first virtual object with a corresponding characteristic of a second virtual object,
wherein the order for the first virtual object and the order for the second virtual object are determined based on comparing the depth characteristic of a first virtual object with the corresponding characteristic of a second virtual object (fig. 3, comparing current object’s pixel depth against pixel depth in depth buffer 318). (See TSM analysis above)
As to claims 24, 31 and 38, Minalia discloses the method of claim 1, comprising:
for each of the virtual objects, determining by the cloud server, whether a portion of the virtual object is occluded (fig. 1B, sort object A in front of object B; 4:41-61); and
determining, by the cloud server, a characteristic of a portion of the virtual object that is determined to be occluded (fig. 1B, portion of object B occluded). (See TSM analysis above)
As to claims 25, 32 and 39, Minalia discloses the method of claim 1, comprising:
comparing color (fig. 3, color 324; 10:57-67, determining color value of pixel) characteristic of a first virtual object (fig. 1, object A) with a corresponding color (10:57-67) characteristic of a second virtual object (fig. 1, object B),
wherein the order for the first virtual object and the order for the second virtual object are determined based on comparing the color or hue characteristics of a first virtual object with the corresponding characteristics of a second virtual object (fig. 3, test pixel 318, determining color 324). (See TSM analysis above)
As to claims 26 and 33, Minalia discloses the method of claim 1, wherein assigning each of the multiple objects to a respective plane from among multiple planes comprises determining a proximity (1:53-56, view of three-dimensional scene; fig. 4, z-axis distance to view point) of each of the multiple virtual objects to a virtual camera (4:33-35, virtual camera) with in the virtual scene. (See TSM analysis above)
Contact Information
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to examiner Cheng-Yuan Tseng whose telephone number is (571)272-9772, and fax number is (571)273-9772. The examiner can normally be reached on Monday through Friday from 09:00 to 17:30 Eastern Time. If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Alicia Harrington can be reached on (571)272-2330. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is (571)273-8300. Information regarding the status of an application may be obtained from the Patent Application Information Retrieval (PAIR) system. Status information for published applications may be obtained from either Private PAIR or Public PAIR. Status information for unpublished applications is available through Private PAIR only. Should you have questions on access to the Private PAIR system, contact the Electronic Business Center (EBC) at (866)217-9197 (toll-free). If you would like assistance from a USPTO Customer Service Representative or access to the automated information system, call (800)786-9199 (IN USA OR CANADA) or (571)272-1000.
/CHENG YUAN TSENG/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2615
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