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 § 102
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.
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.
(a)(2) the claimed invention was described in a patent issued under section 151, or in an application for patent published or deemed published under section 122(b), in which the patent or application, as the case may be, names another inventor and was effectively filed before the effective filing date of the claimed invention.
Claim(s) 1, 4, 6-7, 8, 11, 13-14, 15, 18, 20 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) and/or 102(a)(2) as being anticipated by Tong et al. (US 20170069124 A1, hereinafter Tong).
Regarding claim 1, Tong discloses a method of cage generation for animation (abstract, ¶0015, ¶0078, claim 15 and dependents, fig. 3), comprising:
identifying, by a processor (502, fig. 9, ¶0075-0076, 0088), a correspondence between an input geometry of an avatar head and a template cage (At block 312, a deformed mesh may be generated for the avatar to be animated, from the template mesh 302, and the blend shapes of the template mesh 302 may be transferred to the deformed mesh….In embodiments, the deformed mesh may be derived from the template mesh 302 using Radial Basis Function (RBF) interpolation. In embodiments, the blend shapes (such a brow up and down, eye close, mouth open, smile, etc.) may be transferred from the template mesh 302 onto the deform mesh, component by component, using a working sparse mesh (similar to 404 of FIG. 8). The sparse mesh (similar to 404 of FIG. 8) may be generated for the avatar via triangulation operations connecting the pre-defined landmarks, ¶0062.
Next, at block 314, on receipt of the facial expression and head pose parameters and blend shape weights 304, the blend shape weights may be applied, and the facial component movements as well as head rotations of the avatar may be calculated, ¶0062);
generating, by the processor, an initial cage based on the correspondence (In embodiments, as described earlier, the blend shapes may be applied as a linear blending operation as set forth by equation (1), which may be re-stated as
A* = A0+Σi=1Nα I * Δ Ai (2); where A* is the target mesh, A0 is the base mesh, ¶0063-0065);
generating, by the processor, a final cage by adjusting a shape of the initial cage based on input geometry of the avatar head (Abstract, ¶0062-0067, ibid); and
animating, by the processor, the avatar head based on the input geometry and the final cage (title, abstract, Referring now to FIGS. 7-8, wherein an example process for animating an avatar, including the dense and sparse meshes employed, according to various embodiments, is shown. As illustrated, process 300 for animating an avatar may include operations performed at block 312 and 314. Process 300 may be performed e.g., by earlier described avatar animation engine 104 of FIG. 1, ¶0061-0062).
Regarding claim 4, Tong discloses the method of claim 1, wherein identifying the correspondence between the input geometry of the avatar head and the template cage comprises:
identifying, by the processor, a set of UV coordinates for vertices of the input geometry, the set of UV coordinates being the correspondence (¶0062, ¶0074).
Regarding claim 6, Tong discloses the method of claim 1, wherein generating the final cage by adjusting the shape of the initial cage based on the input geometry of the avatar head comprises:
positioning, by the processor, a set of vertex positions of the initial cage to a location outside of the input geometry of the avatar head; and adjusting, by the processor, the set of vertex positions of the initial cage relative to the input geometry of the avatar head to generate the final cage (Further, the texture uv coordinates of each vertex for the template mesh 302 may be set to be same as the location xy coordinates, and z set to zero. In other words, the template mesh 302, and therefore, the deformed mesh are effectively 2D meshes. In embodiments, the deformed mesh may be derived from the template mesh 302 using Radial Basis Function (RBF) interpolation. In embodiments, the blend shapes (such a brow up and down, eye close, mouth open, smile, etc.) may be transferred from the template mesh 302 onto the deform mesh, component by component, using a working sparse mesh (similar to 404 of FIG. 8). The sparse mesh (similar to 404 of FIG. 8) may be generated for the avatar via triangulation operations connecting the pre-defined landmarks., ¶0062).
Regarding claim 7, Tong discloses the method of claim 1, wherein animating the avatar head based on the input geometry and the final cage comprises animating at least one of hair or clothing associated with the avatar head (¶0090-0092, ¶0117).
Regarding claim 8, Tong discloses a computing device comprising:
a processor (unit 502, fig. 9, ¶0075); and
a memory, coupled to the processor and storing instructions (units 504 and 506), which when executed by the processor, cause the processor to perform operations comprising:
identifying, by a processor (502, fig. 9, ¶0075-0076, 0088), a correspondence between an input geometry of an avatar head and a template cage (At block 312, a deformed mesh may be generated for the avatar to be animated, from the template mesh 302, and the blend shapes of the template mesh 302 may be transferred to the deformed mesh….In embodiments, the deformed mesh may be derived from the template mesh 302 using Radial Basis Function (RBF) interpolation. In embodiments, the blend shapes (such a brow up and down, eye close, mouth open, smile, etc.) may be transferred from the template mesh 302 onto the deform mesh, component by component, using a working sparse mesh (similar to 404 of FIG. 8). The sparse mesh (similar to 404 of FIG. 8) may be generated for the avatar via triangulation operations connecting the pre-defined landmarks, ¶0062.
Next, at block 314, on receipt of the facial expression and head pose parameters and blend shape weights 304, the blend shape weights may be applied, and the facial component movements as well as head rotations of the avatar may be calculated, ¶0062);
generating, by the processor, an initial cage based on the correspondence (In embodiments, as described earlier, the blend shapes may be applied as a linear blending operation as set forth by equation (1), which may be re-stated as
A* = A0+Σi=1Nα I * Δ Ai (2); where A* is the target mesh, A0 is the base mesh, ¶0063-0065);
generating, by the processor, a final cage by adjusting a shape of the initial cage based on input geometry of the avatar head (Abstract, ¶0062-0067, ibid); and
animating, by the processor, the avatar head based on the input geometry and the final cage (title, abstract, Referring now to FIGS. 7-8, wherein an example process for animating an avatar, including the dense and sparse meshes employed, according to various embodiments, is shown. As illustrated, process 300 for animating an avatar may include operations performed at block 312 and 314. Process 300 may be performed e.g., by earlier described avatar animation engine 104 of FIG. 1, ¶0061-0062).
Regarding claim 15, Tong discloses a non-transitory computer-readable medium storing instructions (¶0079), which when executed by a processor (502, fig. 9, ¶0075-0076, 0088), cause the processor to perform operations comprising:
identifying a correspondence between an input geometry of an avatar head and a template cage; generating an initial cage based on the correspondence; generating a final cage by adjusting a shape of the initial cage based on input geometry of the avatar head; and animating the avatar head based on the input geometry and the final cage (for this portion of the claim, see substantively similar claim 1 above).
Regarding claims 11, 13, 14, 18, 20, although wording is different, the material is substantively similar to the claims 4, 6, 7, 4, 6 respectively as discussed above.
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 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 of this title, 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) 5, 12, 19 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Tong in view of Sharma et al. (US 20240193328 A1, hereinafter Sharma).
Regarding claim 5, Tong discloses the method of claim 4, except, wherein generating the initial cage based on the correspondence comprises:
generating, by the processor, the initial cage based on the UV coordinates identified for the vertices of the input geometry using a diffusion network.
However, Shama discloses that parameterized mesh is generated based on UV coordinate from input mesh using diffusion neural network (abstract, ¶0074).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention (AIA ) to modify the invention of Tong with the teaching of Shama of generating parameterized mesh based on UV coordinate from input mesh using diffusion neural network, to obtain, wherein generating the initial cage based on the correspondence comprises: generating, by the processor, the initial cage based on the UV coordinates identified for the vertices of the input geometry using a diffusion network, because, combining prior art elements ready to be improved according to known method to yield predictable results is obvious (see MPEP §2143.I). Furthermore, such combination would enhance the efficiency of the overall system by improving automation by means of incorporating machine learning system therein.
Regarding claims 12 and 19, although wording is different, the material is substantively similar to the independent claim 5 above.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 2-3, 9-10, 16-17 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:
Regarding claim 2, Tong discloses the method of claim 1, wherein identifying the correspondence between the input geometry of the avatar head and the template cage comprises (see claim 1 rejection):
identifying, by the processor, two-dimensional (2D) landmarks associated with the input geometry, the input geometry including a textured mesh (¶0047, ¶0052-0054, 204 in fig. 6. ¶0061-0067).
However Tong is not found disclosing expressly the limitation of,
identifying, by the processor, three-dimensional (3D) landmarks associated with the textured mesh by raycasting the 2D landmarks onto a 3D template geometry;
deforming, by the processor, 3D template geometry so that template landmarks of the 3D template geometry align with 3D landmarks of the input geometry to obtain a deformed geometry; and
identifying, by the processor, a deformation field based on the deformation geometry, the deformation field being a radial basis function (RBF), the RBF being the correspondence.
Regarding claims 9 and 16, although wording is different, the material is substantively similar to claim 2 above and are objected for similar reason.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to NURUN FLORA whose telephone number is (571)272-5742. The examiner can normally be reached M-F 9:30 am -5:00 pm.
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If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Jason Chan can be reached at (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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/NURUN FLORA/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2619
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