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 .
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 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.
The factual inquiries set forth in Graham v. John Deere Co., 383 U.S. 1, 148 USPQ 459 (1966), that are applied for establishing a background for determining obviousness under 35 U.S.C. 103 are summarized as follows:
1. Determining the scope and contents of the prior art.
2. Ascertaining the differences between the prior art and the claims at issue.
3. Resolving the level of ordinary skill in the pertinent art.
4. Considering objective evidence present in the application indicating obviousness or nonobviousness.
Claim 1 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Faulkner (Publication: US 2018/0295158 A1) in view of Cappello et al. (Publication: US 2022/0011860 A1).
Regarding claim 1, An avatar control method comprising ([0004] The techniques disclosed herein provide for the display of group expressions for teleconference sessions. Using the techniques described herein, a teleconference system determines that an indication of an expression (e.g., clapping, waving, smiling, frowning, raising a hand, agreeing, disagreeing, and the like) is provided by a group of users participating in the conference.):
generating each avatar by drawing an avatar corresponding to each user ([0006] - the system provides an avatar that represents the user within the graphical user interface element. During the time of the group expression, the teleconference system can provide for display of a representation of the users that provided the indication of the expression along with an emoticon that graphically represents the indication of the expression.); and
setting such that, when the number of the generated avatars is more than a predetermined number, motions of some of the users selected the number of other avatars are not reflected on the avatars ([0049] - when the server module 136 determines that the number of users providing the indication of the expression exceeds a first threshold (e.g., two, three, four, . . . ) “more than a predetermined number”, but is below a second threshold, (e.g., three, four . . . ) the system 102 generates teleconference data 146 that is associated with a first set of display characteristics (e.g., size, color, animation effect).)
[0050] - when the system 102 determines that the number of users within the group providing the indication of the expression exceed the second threshold, the system 102 changes the display characteristics of the group expression and/or provides some other display effects. The display characteristics that can change include, but are not limited to a size of the graphical user interface element.
changing size is not “motions” so read on ” motions of some of the users selected the number of other avatars are not reflected on the avatars”).
Faulkner does not disclose; however Cappello discloses
Motions of some of the users selected the number of other avatars looking at an avatar in question ([0123] - for a group of avatars in which a number of respective avatars are talking at the same time, “motion”, when one particular avatar, “an avatar in question”, is watched by at least a threshold number of users an audio signal for that particular avatar can be raised in volume with respect to the other audio signals associated with the other avatars in the group to thereby enhance communication between the users.)
Before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art to modify Faulkner with Motions of some of the users selected the number of other avatars looking at an avatar in question as taught by Cappello. The motivation for doing is to enhance communication between the users.
ALLOWABLE SUBJECT MATTER
Claims 2 and 3 are allowed.
The following is an examiner's statement of reasons for allowance: Examiner has not discovered any additional prior art which fully teaches claim 2, either singly or in an obvious combination of references, in particular,
“generating each avatar by drawing an avatar corresponding to each user; setting whether to reflect a motion of each user on the avatar; detecting an off-tracking state in which a motion detection signal corresponding to the motion of each user is no longer generated; holding specific posture data for causing the avatar to be in a stationary state or causing the avatar to make a specific motion in a specific posture data holding unit; among avatars corresponding to users in which the off- tracking state has been detected, setting an avatar in question who is looked at by a predetermined number or less of other avatars to be in the stationary state based on the specific posture data held in the specific posture data holding unit; and, among avatars corresponding to users in which the off- tracking state has been detected, setting an avatar in question who is looked at by more than the predetermined number of other avatars to make a specific motion based on the specific posture data held in the specific posture data holding unit.”.
The closest prior art discovered is the combination of Faulkner (Publication: US 2018/0295158 A1) in view of Cappello et al. (Publication: US 2022/0011860 A1), Charnock et al. (Publication: US 2022/0164643 A1) and Munoz et al. (Publication: US 2021/0136137 A1).
However, none of the prior art cited above, nor any other prior art discovered by Examiner, fully teaches claim 2, either singly or in an obvious combination. Accordingly, claim 2 is allowed.
The following is an examiner's statement of reasons for allowance: Examiner has not discovered any additional prior art which fully teaches claim 3, either singly or in an obvious combination of references, in particular,
“generating each avatar by drawing an avatar corresponding to each user; setting whether to reflect a motion of each user on the avatar; detecting an off-tracking state in which a motion detection signal corresponding to the motion of each user is no longer generated; holding specific posture data for causing the avatar to be in a stationary state or causing the avatar to make a specific motion in a specific posture data holding unit; among avatars corresponding to users in which the off- tracking state has been detected, setting an avatar whose motion immediately before detection of the off-tracking state is equal to or smaller than a predetermined magnitude to be in the stationary state based on the specific posture data held in the specific posture data holding unit; and among avatars corresponding to users in which the off- tracking state has been detected, setting an avatar whose motion immediately before the detection of the off-tracking state is larger than the predetermined magnitude to make the specific motion based on the specific posture data held in the specific posture data holding unit.”.
The closest prior art discovered is the combination of Faulkner (Publication: US 2018/0295158 A1) in view of Cappello et al. (Publication: US 2022/0011860 A1), Charnock et al. (Publication: US 2022/0164643 A1) and Munoz et al. (Publication: US 2021/0136137 A1).
However, none of the prior art cited above, nor any other prior art discovered by Examiner, fully teaches claim 3, either singly or in an obvious combination. Accordingly, claim 3 is allowed.
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 MING WU whose telephone number is (571)270-0724. The examiner can normally be reached on Monday - Thursday and alternate Fridays: 9:30am - 6:00pm EST .
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If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Devona Faulk can be reached on 571-272-7515. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/MING WU/
Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2618
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