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 . 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, 7-9, and 14-16 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Wedig et al. (US 2019/0362529) in view of Yao et al. (US 2023/0222651).
Regarding claim 1, Wedig teaches/suggests: A computer-implemented method of mesh-deformation
mesh information associated with a mesh of an avatar head, the mesh information including a plurality of first vertex positions of the mesh corresponding to the avatar head being in a neutral pose (Wedig [0152] “rigging includes techniques for transferring information about deformation of the body of an avatar (e.g., facial contortions, arm movements, leg movements, torso movements, head rotations and tilts, hand movements including grasping and pointing, etc.) onto a mesh of vertices” [0224] “a base neutral mesh used for animation of an avatar”);
generating, by the processor (Wedig [0044] “The local processing and data module 260 may comprise a hardware processor”), a set of mesh deformations for another pose of the avatar head based on the mesh information and a pose vector associated with the another pose, the set of mesh deformations being associated with a plurality of second vertex positions of the mesh corresponding to the avatar head in the another pose (Wedig [0224] “The target mesh can share a topology with a base neutral mesh used for animation of an avatar, but which has been deformed into the target pose(s) used for skinning the avatar” [0152] “Animating a mesh (e.g., animating an avatar) may include deforming a mesh by moving some or all of the vertices that form the mesh to new positions in 3D space” [The pose vector is an inherent and/or implicit feature of the deforming.]);
performing, by the processor, a skinning process to generate a plurality of joints and a plurality of joint weights based on the set of mesh deformations (Wedig [0227] “the process 1400 performs constrained optimization … to determine skinning parameters for the target pose of the avatar” [0129] “This can be done by assigning a weight value to each vertex for each joint in the skeletal system”); and
animating, by the processor, the avatar head based on the plurality of joints and the plurality of joint weights (Wedig [0152] “Animating a mesh (e.g., animating an avatar) may include deforming a mesh by moving some or all of the vertices that form the mesh to new positions in 3D space” [0139] “deforming the mesh, using the assigned weights, based on transforms applied to the joints in a skeletal system”).
Wedig does not teach/suggests:
generating, by a processor, a set of global features based on mesh information associated with a mesh of an avatar head;
generating, by the processor, a set of mesh deformations for another pose of the avatar head based on the mesh information, the set of global features, and a pose vector associated with the another pose;
Yao, however, teaches/suggests a set of global features (Yao [0065] “mesh smoothing can be implemented by replacing the coordinates of a vertex with the average coordinates of connected vertices”). Before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, it would have been obvious for one of ordinary skill in the art to modify the mesh of Wedig such that positions of connected vertices are averaged as taught/suggested by Yao for smoothing. As such, Wedig as modified by Yao teaches/suggests:
generating, by a processor, a set of global features based on mesh information associated with a mesh of an avatar head (Wedig [0152] “rigging includes techniques for transferring information about deformation of the body of an avatar (e.g., facial contortions, arm movements, leg movements, torso movements, head rotations and tilts, hand movements including grasping and pointing, etc.) onto a mesh of vertices” Yao [0065] “mesh smoothing can be implemented by replacing the coordinates of a vertex with the average coordinates of connected vertices”);
generating, by the processor, a set of mesh deformations for another pose of the avatar head based on the mesh information, the set of global features, and a pose vector associated with the another pose (Wedig [0224] “The target mesh can share a topology with a base neutral mesh used for animation of an avatar, but which has been deformed into the target pose(s) used for skinning the avatar” Yao [0065] “mesh smoothing can be implemented by replacing the coordinates of a vertex with the average coordinates of connected vertices”);
Wedig and Yao are silent regarding mesh-deformation prediction. However, official notice is taken that the concept and advantages of such prediction are well known and expected in the art. It would have been obvious for the deforming of Wedig as modified by Yao to be predicted for machine learning.
Regarding claim 2, Wedig as modified by Yao teaches/suggests: The method of claim 1, wherein generating the set of global features based on the mesh information comprises:
performing, by the processor, a global averaging of the plurality of first vertex positions to generate the set of global features (Wedig [0224] “a base neutral mesh used for animation of an avatar” Yao [0065] “mesh smoothing can be implemented by replacing the coordinates of a vertex with the average coordinates of connected vertices”).
The same rationale to combine as set forth in the rejection of claim 1 is incorporated herein.
Regarding claim 7, Wedig as modified by Yao teaches/suggests: The method of claim 1, wherein animating the avatar head based on the plurality of joints and the plurality of joint weights comprises animating facial features of the avatar head based on the plurality of joints and the plurality of joint weights (Wedig [0152] “rigging includes techniques for transferring information about deformation of the body of an avatar (e.g., facial contortions, arm movements, leg movements, torso movements, head rotations and tilts, hand movements including grasping and pointing, etc.) onto a mesh of vertices” [0139] “deforming the mesh, using the assigned weights, based on transforms applied to the joints in a skeletal system”).
Claims 8-9 and 14 recite limitation(s) similar in scope to those of claims 1-2 and 7, respectively, and are rejected for the same reason(s). Wedig as modified by Yao further teaches/suggests memory storing instructions (Wedig [0044] “The local processing and data module 260 may comprise a hardware processor, as well as digital memory”).
Claims 15 and 16 recite limitation(s) similar in scope to those of claims 1 and 2, respectively, and are rejected for the same reason(s). Wedig as modified by Yao further teaches/suggests a non-transitory computer-readable medium storing instructions (Wedig [0044] “The local processing and data module 260 may comprise a hardware processor, as well as digital memory”).
Claim(s) 3, 10, and 17 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Wedig et al. (US 2019/0362529) in view of Yao et al. (US 2023/0222651) as applied to claims 2, 9, and 16 above, and further in view of Martin (US 2004/0108999).
Regarding claim 3, Wedig as modified by Yao does not teach/suggest: The method of claim 2, wherein generating the set of global features based on the mesh information further comprises:
performing, by the processor, a diffusion of the plurality of first vertex positions prior to performing the global averaging.
Martin, however, teaches/suggests a diffusion of the plurality of first vertex positions (Martin [0091] “first parameterizing the mesh over a sphere by assigning spherical coordinates (.theta.,.phi.) to each vertex by a diffusion process”). Before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, it would have been obvious for one of ordinary skill in the art to modify the vertices of Wedig as modified by Yao to be diffused as taught/suggested by Martin to assign spherical coordinates to them. As such, Wedig as modified by Yao and Martin teaches/suggests:
performing, by the processor, a diffusion of the plurality of first vertex positions prior to performing the global averaging (Yao [0065] “mesh smoothing can be implemented by replacing the coordinates of a vertex with the average coordinates of connected vertices” Martin [0091] “first parameterizing the mesh over a sphere by assigning spherical coordinates (.theta.,.phi.) to each vertex by a diffusion process”).
Claims 10 and 17 recite limitation(s) similar in scope to those of claim 3, and are rejected for the same reason(s).
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 4-6, 11-13, and 18-20 are objected to as being dependent upon a rejected base claim, but would be allowable if rewritten in independent form including all of the limitations of the base claim and any intervening claims.
The following is a statement of reasons for the indication of allowable subject matter: The limitations “performing, by the processor, conditional diffusion based on the first set of feature information and the set of global features to generate a first set of output features” and “combining, by the processor, the plurality of first vertex positions and the second set of output features to obtain the set of mesh deformations for the another pose of the avatar head,” taken as a whole, render the claims patentably distinct over the prior art.
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure:
US 10909744 – conditional GAN
US 2022/0284677 – mesh meta-handles
US 2024/0331251 – garment deformation
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to ANH-TUAN V NGUYEN whose telephone number is 571-270-7513. The examiner can normally be reached on M-F 9AM-5PM ET. Examiner interviews are available via telephone, in-person, and video conferencing using a USPTO supplied web-based collaboration tool. To schedule an interview, applicant is encouraged to use the USPTO Automated Interview Request (AIR) at http://www.uspto.gov/interviewpractice. If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, JASON CHAN can be reached on 571-272-3022. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/ANH-TUAN V NGUYEN/
Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2619
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