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 § 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.
Use of indicates a limitation is not explicitly disclosed by the reference alone.
Claim(s) 1-15 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Karakotsios (US Patent 9,094,576) in view of Kumar (US Patent 9,024,997).
Claim 1
Karakotsios discloses a display device (Fig. 1(a); Fig. 5(a); Col. 2: “computing device 100 for rendered audiovisual communication in accordance with various embodiments.”) comprising:
a communication unit comprising communication circuitry (Fig. 8; wireless circuitry and similar connection types);
a display (Col. 2: “device 100 has a display screen”);
a memory storing one or more instructions (Fig. 8; general computing elements); and
at least one processor, comprising processing circuitry, individually and/or collectively, configured to execute the one or more instructions,wherein at least one processor, individually and/or collectively, is configured to (Fig. 8; general computing elements):
obtain a first user image captured of a first user, control the communication unit to (“For example, a system in accordance with such embodiments can broadcast rendered audiovisual information tailored for multiple types of viewing devices. A viewer with a 2D display element can receive rendered data of one of the types of 2D models, a viewer capable of stereoscopic display can receive the stereoscopic image data, and a viewer capable of 3D display can receive rendered data for the 3D model for 3D display.”),
obtain a first avatar image and a second avatar image corresponding to a user of another display device, based on the received information, and control the display to display a group image comprising the first avatar image and the second avatar image (“For example, a system in accordance with such embodiments can broadcast rendered audiovisual information tailored for multiple types of viewing devices. A viewer with a 2D display element can receive rendered data of one of the types of 2D models, a viewer capable of stereoscopic display can receive the stereoscopic image data, and a viewer capable of 3D display can receive rendered data for the 3D model for 3D display.”).
Karakotsios does not explicitly disclose, but Kumar discloses transmit capability information about the display device to a server (Kumar, “the videoconference is accepted, the mobile device determines S454 the capabilities and preferences of the mobile device and sends these capabilities and preferences to the videoconferencing server… The junior associate may also receive a video stream from the manager. As the junior associate may not have a computer or television nearby, and the device's display is fairly small, the junior associate uses projection capabilities of his phone to display the manager's video. This allows both parties to "meet" and participate in the phone conference.”)
Before the effective filing date of this application, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art to consider capabilities
One of ordinary skill in the art would have motivation to adjust content to different device types. One of ordinary skill in the art would have had a reasonable expectation of success because both references consider use of avatars in virtual conferencing and the like.
Claim 2
Karakotsios discloses wherein the capability information of the display device comprises at least one of: type information, capacity information, information about the number of cores and performance information, with respect to at least one processor included in the display device; and type information, capacity information, and performance information, with respect to the memory included in the display device (e.g. based on device type tailoring content server side as opposed to standard content: “a system in accordance with such embodiments can broadcast rendered audiovisual information tailored for multiple types of viewing devices”).
Claim 3
Karakotsios discloses wherein the configuration method of the group service is determined as any one of:
a device-based configuration method by which the display device generates the first avatar image corresponding to the first user image (“In another embodiment, the user may want more of his body to be displayed and the user's computing device can assist with the scan of the user's entire body using some of the techniques described above, discussed in FIGS. 4(a)-4(b), or similar approaches. The computing device can be located at a distance and location sufficient to capture one perspective of the user's body, and the computing device can direct the user (such as by voice command) to turn at various angles to capture a 360.degree. perspective of the user's body.”); and
a server-based configuration method by which the server generates the first avatar image and the second avatar image corresponding to the user of the other display device connected to the group service (“FIG. 5(a) illustrates an example situation of rendered audiovisual communication for multiple users in accordance with an embodiment. In this example, a first user 502 interacts with users 552, 554, and 556 in a virtual conference room. The perspective 550 of the virtual conference room is from that of the first user 502 of a computing device, such as the one illustrated as computing device 500 in FIG. 5(b). The computing device 500 may be in a form factor such as eyeglasses, but can also comprise helmets, goggles, headsets, conventional electronic devices paired with headphones, etc. The computing device 500 can include a display element 508 to enable the user 502 to visualize users 552, 554, and 556 according to various types of renderings, including 2D or 3D.”).
Claim 4
Karakotsios discloses wherein at least one processor, individually and/or collectively, is configured to:
based on determination of the configuration method of the group service as the device-based configuration method, detect the first user from the first user image and generate the first avatar image, based on tracking information about the first user (“In other embodiments, additional or alternative user facial features are tracked, such as the user's hairline, forehead, brow lines, eye brows, nose, cheeks, chin, neck, ears, upper lip, lower lip, teeth, tongue, etc. In general, tracking motion of more user features can more effectively bridge the realism gap, i.e., more accurately model user facial expressions and speech. But it will be appreciated that tracking additional features can also result in additional processing requirements, and systems are preferably designed to capture a suitable number of features to enable streaming of audiovisual data in substantially real time”),
control the communication unit to receive at least one of the second avatar image and information about the second avatar image from the other display device, and generate the second avatar image, based on reception of information about the second avatar image (“FIG. 5(a) illustrates an example situation of rendered audiovisual communication for multiple users in accordance with an embodiment. In this example, a first user 502 interacts with users 552, 554, and 556 in a virtual conference room…user 502 to visualize users 552, 554, and 556 according to various types of renderings, including 2D or 3D…a system in accordance with such embodiments can broadcast rendered audiovisual information tailored for multiple types of viewing devices”).”.
Claim 5
Karakotsios does not explicitly disclose, but Kumar discloses wherein at least one processor, individually and/or collectively, is configured to generate the group image by combining the first avatar image, the second avatar image, and a virtual background image (Kumar, “In embodiments of the invention, the videoconferencing server removes the background from the video and may replace the background such that the images of participants are placed in front of each other's background or a new background”)
Before the effective filing date of this application, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art to consider combining virtual imagery and virtual backgrounds.
One of ordinary skill in the art would have motivation to generate a virtual conference room simulating a real environment. One of ordinary skill in the art would have had a reasonable expectation of success because both references consider use of avatars in virtual conferencing and the like.
Claim 6
Karakotsios does not explicitly disclose, but Kumar discloses wherein at least one processor, individually and/or collectively, is configured to control the communication unit to request the server for device information about the other display device and receive the device information about the other display device from the server (Kumar, “the videoconference is accepted, the mobile device determines S454 the capabilities and preferences of the mobile device and sends these capabilities and preferences to the videoconferencing server… The junior associate may also receive a video stream from the manager. As the junior associate may not have a computer or television nearby, and the device's display is fairly small, the junior associate uses projection capabilities of his phone to display the manager's video. This allows both parties to "meet" and participate in the phone conference.”)
Before the effective filing date of this application, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art to consider capabilities
One of ordinary skill in the art would have motivation to adjust content to different device types. One of ordinary skill in the art would have had a reasonable expectation of success because both references consider use of avatars in virtual conferencing and the like.
Claim 7
Karakotsios discloses wherein at least one processor, individually and/or collectively, is configured to control the communication unit to transmit at least one of the first avatar image or information about the first avatar image to the other display device, based on the device information about the other display device (““FIG. 5(a) illustrates an example situation of rendered audiovisual communication for multiple users in accordance with an embodiment. In this example, a first user 502 interacts with users 552, 554, and 556 in a virtual conference room…user 502 to visualize users 552, 554, and 556 according to various types of renderings, including 2D or 3D…a system in accordance with such embodiments can broadcast rendered audiovisual information tailored for multiple types of viewing devices”).”
.
Claim 8
Karakotsios discloses wherein at least one processor, individually and/or collectively, is configured to:
based on determination of the configuration method of the group service as the server-based configuration method, control the communication unit to transmit at least one of the first user image and information about the first user detected from the first user image to the server, and receive the group image comprising the first avatar image and the second avatar image from the server (Fig. 5(a)
PNG
media_image1.png
528
543
media_image1.png
Greyscale
“FIG. 5(a) illustrates an example situation of rendered audiovisual communication for multiple users in accordance with an embodiment. In this example, a first user 502 interacts with users 552, 554, and 556 in a virtual conference room. The perspective 550 of the virtual conference room is from that of the first user 502 of a computing device, such as the one illustrated as computing device 500 in FIG. 5(b). The computing device 500 may be in a form factor such as eyeglasses, but can also comprise helmets, goggles, headsets, conventional electronic devices paired with headphones, etc. The computing device 500 can include a display element 508 to enable the user 502 to visualize users 552, 554, and 556 according to various types of renderings, including 2D or 3D”
Claim 9
Karakotsios discloses wherein at least one processor, individually and/or collectively, is configured to receive an input that selects avatar information corresponding to the first avatar image, and wherein the first avatar image comprises an avatar image generated based on the selected avatar information (“Various embodiments also enable a user to modify the appearance of the model, such as by changing/removing an article of clothing or a characteristic of the model such as hairstyle, eye color, wrinkles, etc. In at least some systems or services of various embodiments, the model can be saved and reused for other audiovisual conferencing sessions.”).
Claim 10
Karakotsios discloses wherein the display device further comprises a camera configured to obtain the first user image by capturing an image of the first user (Col. 2: “he computing device 100 in this example includes an image capture element 106 positioned on the device such that at least a portion of a user, such as user 102, operating the computing device 100 is imaged by the image capture element 106.”).
Claim 11
The same teachings and rationales in claim 1 are applicable to claim 11.
Claim 12
The same teachings and rationales in claim 2 are applicable to claim 12.
Claim 13
The same teachings and rationales in claim 3 are applicable to claim 13.
Claim 14
The same teachings and rationales in claim 4 are applicable to claim 14.
Claim 15
Examiner’s Interpretation:
Machine readable media can encompass forms of signal transmission media that falls outside of the four statutory categories of invention. MPEP 2106; citing In re Nuijten, 500 F.3d 1346, 84 USPQ2d 1495 (Fed. Cir. 2007). A claim whose BRI covers both statutory and non-statutory embodiments embraces subject matter that is not eligible for patent protection and therefore is directed to non-statutory subject matter. MPEP 2106.
Claim 15 as drafted recites a non-transitory computer-readable medium…
Because non-transitory without additional definition excludes signal media and the like, the broadest reasonable interpretation of the claimed medium in view of Applicant’s specification covers only eligible subject matter.
Claim Mapping:
The same teachings and rationales in claims 1 and 11 are appliable to claim 15.
Additional Prior Art
Additional prior art relevant to Applicant’s disclosure but not relied upon:
Tysso (US Patent 8,345,082) considers combination of virtual images with a virtual background:
PNG
media_image2.png
262
403
media_image2.png
Greyscale
Karaoguz (US 2004/0133701) also considers service side device capability handling:
“In accordance with another embodiment of the present invention, media parameter adaptation of files of media content may be performed by a media exchange server on the media exchange network. If a media file is to be transferred from a source device to an end-user device, then the media exchange server may serve as an intermediary to obtain and process device capability profiles and to adapt digital media parameters of media content of the files accordingly. The media exchange server also may coordinate the push of the media file in a channel.” (¶ 52).
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to RYAN M GRAY whose telephone number is (571)272-4582. The examiner can normally be reached on Monday through Friday, 9:00am-5:30pm (EST).
Examiner interviews are available via telephone, in-person, and video conferencing using a USPTO supplied web-based collaboration tool. To schedule an interview, applicant is encouraged to use the USPTO Automated Interview Request (AIR) at http://www.uspto.gov/interviewpractice.
If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Kee Tung can be reached on (571)272-7794. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
Information regarding the status of an application may be obtained from the Patent Application Information Retrieval (PAIR) system. Status information for published applications may be obtained from either Private PAIR or Public PAIR. Status information for unpublished applications is available through Private PAIR only. For more information about the PAIR system, see https://ppair-my.uspto.gov/pair/PrivatePair. Should you have questions on access to the Private PAIR system, contact the Electronic Business Center (EBC) at 866-217-9197 (toll-free). If you would like assistance from a USPTO Customer Service Representative or access to the automated information system, call 800-786-9199 (IN USA OR CANADA) or 571-272-1000.
/RYAN M GRAY/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2611
Prosecution Insights