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 § 112
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 112(b):
(b) CONCLUSION.—The specification shall conclude with one or more claims particularly pointing out and distinctly claiming the subject matter which the inventor or a joint inventor regards as the invention.
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), second paragraph:
The specification shall conclude with one or more claims particularly pointing out and distinctly claiming the subject matter which the applicant regards as his invention.
Claim 4 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 112(b) or 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), second paragraph, as being indefinite for failing to particularly point out and distinctly claim the subject matter which the inventor or a joint inventor (or for applications subject to pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, the applicant), regards as the invention.
Claim 4 recites, “wherein at least one of a location of the indicator or the see-through partial screen on the content reproduction screen may be determined based on at least one of a location, a movement direction, or a movement speed of the identified object.” Here the phrase “may be” is not definite term. Therefore the limitation is indefinite.
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.
Claim(s) 1-2, and 9-12 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by Sutherland et al. ( US patent publication: 20160025982, “Sutherland”)..
Regarding claim 11, Sutherland teaches, A virtual reality device ( HMD) comprising:
at least one memory configured to store one or more instructions; at least one processor; at least one image sensor; a display engine; and a display, wherein the at least one processor is configured to execute the one or more instructions (*”[0039] Method 1000 shown in FIG. 10 may be performed by a HMD device having one or more processors, a display for rendering a mixed reality or virtual reality environment using a variable field of view, a sensor package, and one or more memory devices that store computer-readable instructions such as software code that can be utilized to implement the method. In step 1005, head tracking of the HMD device user is performed using the onboard sensor package”). to:
based on space information obtained by scanning a space in which content is to be viewed and content information about the content, set a first area and a second area different from the first area in the space; (“[0004] An HMD device is configured with a sensor package that enables head tracking to determine the device user's proximity to holographic objects in a mixed reality or virtual reality environment. A fade volume including concentrically-arranged volumetric shells is placed around the user including a near shell that is closest to the user, and a far shell that is farthest from the user. When a holographic object is beyond the far shell, the HMD device renders the object with full opacity (i.e., with no transparency).” [0008] FIG. 2 shows an illustrative real world environment in which a user of an HMD device is located;
[0009] FIG. 3 depicts surface reconstruction data associated with real world objects being captured by an HMD device;”
The first area is Fig.5 (far shell) and the second area is near shell of Fig. 5)
sense the first area and the second area by using the at least one image sensor, while the content is being reproduced; track an object located in the first area or the second area based on a result of the sensing; and control a display of a screen of the virtual reality device by using the display engine and the display, based on a result of the tracking. (“[0004]… As the user moves towards a holographic object and it intersects the far shell, its opacity begins to fade out with increasing transparency to reveal the background behind it. The transparency of the holographic object increases as the object gets closer to the near shell and the object becomes fully transparent when the near shell reaches it so that the background becomes fully visible.” “[0031] As the user moves in the virtual reality environment 100 (FIG. 1) the distance from the fade volume 500 to a given holographic object is continuously determined. In an illustrative example, an alpha value is set by the HMD device in an alpha compositing process to render the object with full opacity, full transparency, or some degree of transparency depending on the object's proximity to the near and far shells. For example, as shown in FIG. 6, a wall 605 in the virtual world 100 is rendered on the HMD's field of view 110 with full opacity when it is located beyond the far shell 510 (FIG. 5) of the fade volume 500. As the user moves towards the wall, when the wall reaches the near shell 505 of the fade volume, the HMD device will render the wall with full transparency (full transparency is indicated with dotted lines in the drawings) so that whatever is behind the wall (e.g., other objects and/or the ground) is visible, as illustratively depicted in FIG. 7.
[0032] As shown in FIG. 8, as the user moves and the wall 605 passes between the far and near shells in the fade volume, the wall is rendered with increasing transparency as it gets closer to the near shell. That is, the wall is fully opaque beyond the far shell. As the user moves towards the wall, the wall becomes more transparent as the user draws closer (so the user can begin to see what is behind the wall), until the wall becomes fully transparent when the user becomes so close that the wall intersects the near shell (so the user has complete visibility of the virtual world that is behind the wall). See Fig. 7 and 8)
Claim 1 is directed ta method and its steps are similar in scope and functions of the elements of the device claim 11 and therefore claim 1 is rejected with same rationales as specified in the rejection of claim 11.
Claim 10 is directed to a computer-readable recording medium (“ [0039] Method 1000 shown in FIG. 10 may be performed by a HMD device having one or more processors, a display for rendering a mixed reality or virtual reality environment using a variable field of view, a sensor package, and one or more memory devices that store computer-readable instructions such as software code that can be utilized to implement the method.”) and its elements are similar in scope and functions of the elements of the device claim 11 and therefore claim 10 is rejected with same rationales as specified in the rejection of claim 11.
Regarding claims 2 and 12, Sutherland teaches, wherein the at least one processor is further configured to execute the one or more instructions to:
determine whether the object is located in the first area (near shell) or the second area;(far shell) and
display the screen of the virtual reality device by controlling the display engine and the display, according to a screen display mode based on a result of the determining.(“ [0032] As shown in FIG. 8, as the user moves and the wall 605 passes between the far and near shells in the fade volume, the wall is rendered with increasing transparency as it gets closer to the near shell. That is, the wall is fully opaque beyond the far shell. As the user moves towards the wall, the wall becomes more transparent as the user draws closer (so the user can begin to see what is behind the wall), until the wall becomes fully transparent when the user becomes so close that the wall intersects the near shell (so the user has complete visibility of the virtual world that is behind the wall). See Fig. 7 and 8”)
Regarding claim 9, Sutherland teaches, wherein the setting further comprises: determining the first area and the second area, based on the space information and the content information about the content; and adjusting the first area and the second area, according to an input of a user of the virtual reality device. (“[0067]….. In another example, the method further includes sizing the fade volume according to the height of the user's head. In another example, the method further includes configuring a radius of the far shell to be between one and one-half and two and one-half times a radius of the near shell.”)
Allowable Subject Matter
Claim 3-8 and 13-15 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.
Claims 3 and 13 are objected because the combination of prior arts fails to expressly teach as a whole the limitations of claims 3 and 13.
Dependent claims 4 is objected based on dependency.
Claims 5 and 14 are objected because the combination of prior arts fails to expressly teach as a whole the limitations of claims 5 and 14.
Claims 6 and 15 are objected because the combination of prior arts fails to expressly teach as a whole the limitations of claims 6 and 15.
Claim 7 is objected because the combination of prior arts fails to expressly teach as a whole the limitations of claim 7.
Claim 8 is objected because the combination of prior arts fails to expressly teach as a whole the limitations of claim 8.
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure.
Bamba et al. ( US patent Publication: 20200356332) Paragraph [0111] discloses execution history of VR display.
Yamakaki et al. ( US patent publication: US 20180214007) Para [0140-0141] teaches switching between see-through and full screen display.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to Tapas Mazumder whose telephone number is (571)270-7466. The examiner can normally be reached M-F 8:00 AM-5:00 PM PST.
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/TAPAS MAZUMDER/ Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2615
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