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 .
DETAILED ACTION
Allowable Subject Matter
Claim 5, 8, 12, 14, 19, 21 is 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.
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) 2-4, 7, 9-11, 13, 15-18, 20 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Woo U.S. Patent/PG Publication 20180107271 in view of Elvesjo U.S. Patent/PG Publication 20060238707.
Regarding claim 2 (independent):
A non-transitory, computer-readable storage medium including instructions that, when executed by a computing system, cause the computing system to perform:
determining a gaze direction of a user wearing a head-mounted device, (Woo [0045] The eye tracking device 400 may track a user's eyes by detecting the eye of the user and tracking eye movement. Accordingly, the eye tracking device 400 may track a user's gaze point on the screen of the display device 500. The eye tracking device 400 may determine a point on the screen of the display device 500, at which the user's eyes are gazing, as the user's gaze point and may display the position of the gaze point as coordinates with respect to the entire screen of the display device 500.)
the head-mounted device having a display positioned a predetermined distance from the user (Woo [0048] video headsets, virtual reality (VR) headsets, and other similar display devices.) since a headset display does not move and remains a fixed distance from the face/eye.
and configured to output an image (Woo [0048] The display device 500 may be implemented, for example, by any type of display capable of displaying images. Examples of the display device 500 include, but are not limited to, televisions, monitors, laptops, tablets, smart phones, projectors, video headsets, virtual reality (VR) headsets, and other similar display devices.).
determining a gaze location on the display based on the gaze direction of the user and (Woo [0045] The eye tracking device 400 may track a user's eyes by detecting the eye of the user and tracking eye movement. Accordingly, the eye tracking device 400 may track a user's gaze point on the screen of the display device 500. The eye tracking device 400 may determine a point on the screen of the display device 500, at which the user's eyes are gazing, as the user's gaze point and may display the position of the gaze point as coordinates with respect to the entire screen of the display device 500.)
determining, for a respective region of a plurality of regions of the image, a set of sampling locations based on the gaze location, (Woo [0063] Referring to FIG. 5, the graphics processing device 100 may set desired or, alternatively, predetermined regions concentric with respect to the user's gaze point on a frame and determine a sampling pattern, which corresponds to a region to which each primitive belongs, as a sampling pattern of the primitive.)
the set of sampling locations being a portion of a sampling pattern (Woo [0084] When a frame is divided into a plurality of areas and a sampling pattern corresponding to each of the areas is determined in advance, the image processing apparatus 1000 may determine a sampling pattern, which corresponds to a region to which the center of the primitive belongs, as a sampling pattern of the primitive.)
computing, for the respective region of the plurality of regions, a color value for the respective region by sampling the portion of the sampling pattern (Woo [0055] Once a sampling pattern is determined, the graphics processing device 100 may render a primitive according to the determined sampling pattern and may perform sampling pattern determination and primitive rendering corresponding to each primitive until rendering is performed on all primitives forming a frame. The graphics processing device 100 may reconstruct pixels, which are not rendered according to a sampling pattern, through a separate process such as interpolation after performing rendering on all the primitives in the frame.)
generating the image using the color value for the respective region of the plurality of regions and outputting the image using the display of the head-mounted device (Woo [0055] The graphics processing device 100 may reconstruct pixels, which are not rendered according to a sampling pattern, through a separate process such as interpolation after performing rendering on all the primitives in the frame. A frame rendered in the graphics processing device 100 may be output to the memory 200 or the display device 500.).
Woo does not teach distance from a user to obtain gaze location although they teach general eye tracking (Woo [0046] The eye tracking device 400 may be implemented by any known type of eye tracking device including, for example, an optical eye tracking device. For example, the eye tracking device 400 may include one or more cameras, video cameras, and/or other sensors for tracking a gaze point of one or more of a user's eyes.) for use with numerous types of devices (Woo [0048] The display device 500 may be implemented, for example, by any type of display capable of displaying images. Examples of the display device 500 include, but are not limited to, televisions, monitors, laptops, tablets, smart phones, projectors, video headsets, virtual reality (VR) headsets, and other similar display devices.). In a related field of endeavor, Elvesjo teaches:
the head-mounted device having a display positioned a predetermined distance from the user and configured to output an image (Elvesjo [0033] In FIG. 1 an installation for determining the point on a monitor 1 at which a computer user is looking/gazing is shown. The determination is performed by tracking the eyes of the user and in particular by determining the gaze angles of the eyes and the distance of the eyes from the monitor.)
determining a gaze location on the display based on the gaze direction of the user and the predetermined distance from the user (Elvesjo [0041] Thus, when the system of FIG. 1 is in operation, it alternates between light setting position (i) and light setting position (ii). It requires information from these two light setting positions to be capable of indicating the position on a monitor at which a user is looking. In light setting position (i) the gaze direction of the user is detected and in light setting position (ii) the position of the user is detected. For a computer user, eye movements are usually significantly much more rapid than movements of the head. This means that it is more important to have recently updated information about the gaze angle of the user than about the position of the user in the depth direction from the photosensor 4 to obtain a good accuracy in the determination of the point on the computer monitor on which the user is looking. Experiments indicate that in the case where four pictures captured in light setting position (i) are analyzed for each picture in light setting position (ii) a system having a good accuracy is obtained. For determining the gaze point information from the last picture taken in light setting position (i) and from the last picture captured in light setting position (ii) is always used.)
Therefore, it would have been obvious before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to use eye distance as taught by Elvesjo. The rationale for doing so would have been that it is a simple substitution of one known element for another to obtain predictable results where Woo is performing eye tracking and Elvesjo is performing a slightly alternative form of eye tracking, where the end result in both is providing eye tracking information for a user looking at a display. Therefore it would have been obvious to combine Elvesjo with Woo to obtain the invention.
Regarding claim 3:
The non-transitory, computer-readable storage medium of claim 2, has all of its limitations taught by Woo in view of Elvesjo. Woo further teaches wherein the sampling pattern is fixed relative to the gaze location (Woo [0062] The graphics processing device 100 may divide a frame into a plurality of areas on the basis of a user's gaze point and determine a sampling pattern of a primitive based on a sampling pattern corresponding to each of the areas. The graphics processing device 100 may determine a sampling pattern that includes a larger number of fragments as the primitive is closer to the user's gaze point.)(Woo [0084] Alternatively, the image processing apparatus 1000 may determine a sampling pattern, which corresponds to a region to which a fragment included in a primitive, which is nearest to a user's gaze point, belongs, as a sampling pattern of the primitive. Alternatively, the image processing apparatus 1000 may determine a sampling pattern, which corresponds to a region to which the largest number of fragments included in a primitive belong, as a sampling pattern of the primitive.)
Regarding claim 4:
The non-transitory, computer-readable storage medium of claim 2, has all of its limitations taught by Woo in view of Elvesjo. Woo further teaches wherein the set of sampling locations associated with the respective region of the plurality of regions is procedurally generated based on a location of the respective region and the gaze location (Woo [0062] The graphics processing device 100 may divide a frame into a plurality of areas on the basis of a user's gaze point and determine a sampling pattern of a primitive based on a sampling pattern corresponding to each of the areas. The graphics processing device 100 may determine a sampling pattern that includes a larger number of fragments as the primitive is closer to the user's gaze point.)
Regarding claim 7:
The non-transitory, computer-readable storage medium of claim 2, has all of its limitations taught by Woo in view of Elvesjo. Woo further teaches wherein the gaze direction of the user is determined based on eye-tracking data captured by one or more sensors of the head-mounted device (Woo [0046] The eye tracking device 400 may be implemented by any known type of eye tracking device including, for example, an optical eye tracking device. For example, the eye tracking device 400 may include one or more cameras, video cameras, and/or other sensors for tracking a gaze point of one or more of a user's eyes.)
Regarding claim 9:
The non-transitory, computer-readable storage medium of claim 2, has all of its limitations taught by Woo in view of Elvesjo. Woo further teaches wherein the set of sampling locations associated with the respective region of the plurality of regions is used for reducing aliasing artifacts in the image (Woo [0004] Foveated rendering is a rendering method using a blind spot. Foveated rendering may reduce the computational complexity and power consumption by rendering only a narrow area at a location of the user's eyes at a relatively high or, alternatively, maximum resolution and gradually rendering an area around this location at a lower resolution.).
Regarding claim 10 (independent):
The claim is a/an parallel version of claim 1. As such it is rejected under the same teachings.
Regarding claim 11:
The claim is a/an parallel version of claim 4. As such it is rejected under the same teachings.
Regarding claim 13:
The claim is a/an parallel version of claim 7. As such it is rejected under the same teachings.
Regarding claim 15:
The claim is a/an parallel version of claim 9. As such it is rejected under the same teachings.
Regarding claim 16 (independent):
The claim is a/an parallel version of claim 1. As such it is rejected under the same teachings.
Regarding claim 17:
The claim is a/an parallel version of claim 3. As such it is rejected under the same teachings.
Regarding claim 18:
The claim is a/an parallel version of claim 4. As such it is rejected under the same teachings.
Claim(s) 6, 20 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Woo U.S. Patent/PG Publication 20180107271 in view of Elvesjo U.S. Patent/PG Publication 20060238707 and Davies U.S. Patent/PG Publication 20200372700.
Regarding claim 6:
The non-transitory, computer-readable storage medium of claim 2, has all of its limitations taught by Woo in view of Elvesjo. Woo in view of Elvesjo does not teach a blue noise pattern. In a related field of endeavor, Davies teaches:
The method of Claim 1, wherein the sampling pattern is a blue noise pattern or a dithering pattern (Davies [0054] In the present embodiment, the initial sampling points are distributed on the image plane in accordance with a Blue Noise distribution. In computer graphics, Blue Noise may be taken to mean a random sampling having minimal low-frequency components, and no concentrated spikes of energy. It is known that low-frequency components may lead to aliasing artifacts. Energy spikes mean that the sampling density is non-uniform.).
Therefore, it would have been obvious before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to use a blue noise pattern as taught by Davies. The rationale for doing so would have been that it is a simple substitution of patterns. Therefore it would have been obvious to combine Davies with Woo in view of Elvesjo to obtain the invention.
Regarding claim 20:
The claim is a/an parallel version of claim 6. As such it is rejected under the same teachings.
Conclusion
For the prior art referenced and the prior art considered pertinent to Applicant’s disclosure but not relied upon, see PTO-892 “Notice of References Cited”.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to JASON PRINGLE-PARKER whose telephone number is (571) 272-5690 and e-mail is jason.pringle-parker@uspto.gov. The examiner can normally be reached on 8:30am-5:00pm est Monday-Friday. If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner's supervisor, King Poon can be reached on (571) 270-0728. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/JASON A PRINGLE-PARKER/
Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2617
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