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 .
Information Disclosure Statement
The information disclosure statement (IDS) submitted on 1/10/2025 is in compliance with the provisions of 37 CFR 1.97. Accordingly, the information disclosure statement has been considered by the examiner.
Claim Objections
Claims 9, 18 and 20 are objected to because of the following informalities: The claims recites the limitation “the first the first”. Appropriate correction is required.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 102
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.
Claims 1-2, 4-11 and 13-20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by Long et al. (U.S. Patent No. 9,573,062).
Referring to claim 1, Long discloses a method for generating an immersive three-dimensional virtual venue performed by a computer device (see Column 12, Lines 4-47).
Long also discloses constructing a three-dimensional virtual venue (see Figure 9), the three-dimensional virtual venue comprising a three-dimensional virtual sandbox (see Column 12, Lines 4-47 and Column 13, Lines 29-55) and a virtual screening room (see Column 13, Line 56 through Column 14, Line 21), the three-dimensional virtual sandbox being a three-dimensional virtual environment in which a virtual object is located (see Column 12, Lines 4-12 for the 3D virtual sandbox being a 3D world where such as Minecraft, which has multiple objects available to build and store within an inventory), and the virtual screening room being configured for livestreaming a player controlling the virtual object to participate a current competition in the three-dimensional virtual sandbox (see Column 13, Line 56 through Column 14, Line 21).
Long also discloses dynamically updating a location of the virtual object in the three-dimensional virtual sandbox based on an update to the current competition (see Column 15, Lines 16-22, Column 15, Lines 60-64 and Column 16, Lines 4-10).
Long also discloses generating a first livestreaming video of the virtual object participating the current competition in the three-dimensional virtual sandbox by capturing a three-dimensional full field-of-view video of the virtual object in the three-dimensional virtual venue by using a first virtual camera (see Column 13, Lines 17-28).
Long also discloses playing the first livestreaming video in the virtual screening room and pushing the first livestreaming video to a terminal associated with a virtual viewer in the virtual screening room (see Column 13, Line 56 through Column 14, Line 21).
Referring to claim 2, Long also discloses constructing a main body structure of the three-dimensional virtual venue, wherein the main body structure comprises a first carrying region and a second carrying region (see Figures 9-12).
Long also discloses constructing the virtual screening room in the first carrying region (see region 800 in Figure 10 for displaying the perspective of a single player) and constructing the three-dimensional virtual sandbox in the second carrying region (see region 830 and the area outside of the virtual screening room in Figure 10 for displaying the entire playing environment).
Referring to claim 4, Long discloses that dynamically updating a location of the virtual object in the three-dimensional virtual sandbox based on an update to the current competition comprises:
determining an initial location of the virtual object in the three-dimensional virtual sandbox (see Column 15, Lines 60-64 for monitoring proceeding gameplay, thereby determining multiple locations of a player avatar, including an initial position);
constructing the virtual object at the initial location in the three-dimensional virtual sandbox (see Column 15, Lines 60-64 and Column 16, Lines 4-10 for drawing the initial location the player avatar started from);
obtaining live competition data of the current competition (see Column 15, Lines 16-23, Column 15, Lines 60-64 and Column 16, Lines 4-10 for capturing actions and movement from a player avatar in a game); and
controlling the virtual object to perform a target action in the three-dimensional virtual sandbox based on the live competition data of the current competition, wherein the target action comprises a movement action (see Column 15, Lines 16-23, Column 15, Lines 60-64 and Column 16, Lines 4-10 for the player controlling actions and movement from a player avatar in a game).
Referring to claim 5, Long also discloses that dynamically updating a location of the virtual object in the three-dimensional virtual sandbox based on an update to the current competition comprises:
determining an initial location of the virtual object in the three-dimensional virtual sandbox (see Column 21, Line 29 through Column 12, Line 38 for monitoring proceeding gameplay, and determining multiple locations of multiple players, including an initial position);
displaying an identifier of the virtual object at the initial location in the three-dimensional virtual sandbox (see Column 21, Line 12 through Column 22, Line 38 for displaying multiple objects and players in a game environment, where player and object movements are tracked at an initial location and multiple locations as the game proceeds);
obtaining live competition data of the current competition (see Column 21, Line 12 through Column 22, Line 38 for capturing multiple virtual camera angles during gameplay that spectators can view); and
controlling the identifier of the virtual object to move in the three-dimensional virtual sandbox according to a target movement path based on the live competition data of the current competition (see Column 21, Line 12 through Column 22, Line 38 for displaying multiple virtual camera angles during gameplay that spectators can view).
Referring to claim 6, Long also discloses that a first player container is arranged in the virtual screening room (see Figures 9-10 for displaying multiple players and containers that the players are hiding behind in the virtual screening room) and the playing the first livestreaming video in the virtual screening room comprises:
displaying the first livestreaming video in the first player container (see Figures 9-10 and Column 21, Lines 40-67).
Referring to claim 7, Long also discloses obtaining a second livestreaming video of the current competition and switching the first livestreaming video displayed in the first player container to the second livestreaming video (see Column 21, Lines 12-67 and Figures 8-10 for displaying multiple virtual camera angles that players can choose to view).
Referring to claim 8, Long also discloses that the three-dimensional full field-of-view video is captured from the three-dimensional virtual venue within a field-of-view range of a first horizontal angle and a first vertical angle (see Figures 8-10 for the virtual venue’s field of view having three axes, therefore having a first horizontal and vertical angle).
Referring to claim 9, Long also discloses that capturing a three-dimensional full field-of-view video of the three-dimensional virtual sandbox by using a second virtual camera, to generate a second livestreaming video (see Column 9, Lines 52-65 for combining or stitching game play recordings with game environment recordings captured by the SILVER server) and pushing the second livestreaming video together with the first livestreaming video to the terminal associated with the virtual viewer in the virtual screening room (see Column 13, Line 56 through Column 14, Line 21 for sending viewing the game play created by the SILVER server).
Referring to claims 10-11 and 13-18, see the rejection of claims 1-2 and 4-9, respectively.
Referring to claims 19-20, see the rejection of claims 1 and 9, respectively.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 3 and 12 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.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to JASON P SALCE whose telephone number is (571)272-7301. The examiner can normally be reached 5:30am-10:00pm M-F (Flex Schedule).
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/Jason Salce/Senior Examiner, Art Unit 2421
Jason P Salce
Senior Examiner
Art Unit 2421
April 6, 2026
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