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
Information Disclosure Statement
The information disclosure statement (IDS) submitted on. The submission is in compliance with the provisions of 37 CFR 1.97. Accordingly, the information disclosure statement is being considered by the examiner.
Response to Arguments
Election Restriction:
Claims 12-20 withdrawn from further consideration pursuant to 37 CFR 1.142(b), as being drawn to a nonelected Group II 12-20, there being no allowable generic or linking claim. Applicant timely traversed the restriction (election) requirement in the reply filed on 6/30/2026. The election is made final.
Applicant’s traversed the restriction requirement because Applicant submit that the subject matter of the claim in Group I and 2 lends itself to search together without creating undue burden on search.
Examiner respectfully disagrees. As already indicated in the Requirement for Restriction/Election Office Action filed on 6/11/2026 that
Group 2 discussed once received an media, determined a payload header extension heptic media RTP packets includes importance value from plurality important values, and decoded the payload based on the important value.
Group 1 focuses on determine the media characteristics, and generate the haptic media.
Group I and Group II are related as subcombination usable together in a single combination and are two separate utilities for the reason discussed above and create serious search/examination burden if not restricted. Therefore, the arguments are not persuasive.
Claim Objections
Claims 1-20 objected to because of the following informalities:
Abbreviations such as “RTP”, “PDU”, “MIHS” must be introducing first time and defined in the claim language.
Appropriate correction is required.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
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 (i.e., changing from AIA to pre-AIA ) 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.
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) 1-11 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Pan (US 2025/0081182) in view of “Heptics coding – International Standard: Information Technology – Coded Representation of immersie media” 2025-01, pg 1-120 hereinafter “ISO”
Referring to Claim 1. Pan discloses a method comprising: determining, with an electronic processor, haptic media characteristics (determine the characteristics of the media, refer to par 0650-0655); generating, with the electronic processor, a haptics media RTP packets/PDUs based on the haptic media characteristics, the haptics media RTP packets/PDUs including a payload with haptic data and a payload header extension including an importance value from a plurality of importance values, the importance value indicating an importance of the haptic data and assign based on the haptic media characteristics (refer to par 0651-0680); and outputting, with the electronic processor, the haptics media RTP packets/PDUs (transmitted out the media, refer to par 0891).
Although Pan disclosed the invention substantially as claimed such as use of RTP extension header protocol and when the stream package is hectic, Pan did not explicitly disclosing the hectic streaming package format.
ISO, in analogous art, disclosing the details of hactic media and format (Table 29 and 30)
It would have been obvious for one of ordinary skill in the art to combine the teaching of Pan and ISO because utilizing the haptics coding would increase immersive experiences in wide variety of scenario by meeting the expectation for compatibility with both descriptive and quantize formats required by the market and interoperability between devices for 3D experiences, mobile application and other distribution purposes.
Referring to Claim 2. Pan and ISO disclosed the method of claim 1, ISO further discloses wherein the haptic media characteristics include a MIHS unit type, a dependent MIHS unit, and MIHS unit layer information (refer to pg 39-42, Table 29).
It would have been obvious for one of ordinary skill in the art to combine the teaching of Pan and ISO because utilizing the haptics coding would increase immersive experiences in wide variety of scenario by meeting the expectation for compatibility with both descriptive and quantize formats required by the market and interoperability between devices for 3D experiences, mobile application and other distribution purposes.
Referring to Claim 3. Pan and ISO disclosed the method of claim 2, ISO further discloses wherein the plurality of importance values includes an independent importance value and a dependent importance value (Table 31 pg 42, 43), and wherein, based on the dependent MIHS unit indicating that a MIHS unit is independently decodable by a haptics media decoder, assigning, with the electronic processor, the importance value of the payload header extension to the independent importance value that is higher in importance than the dependent importance value (refer to pg 42, 43, Table 31).
It would have been obvious for one of ordinary skill in the art to combine the teaching of Pan and ISO because utilizing the haptics coding would increase immersive experiences in wide variety of scenario by meeting the expectation for compatibility with both descriptive and quantize formats required by the market and interoperability between devices for 3D experiences, mobile application and other distribution purposes.
Referring to Claim 4. Pan and ISO disclosed the method of claim 3, ISO further discloses wherein, based on the dependent MIHS unit indicating that the MIHS unit is not independently decodable by the haptics media decoder, assigning, with the electronic processor, the importance value of the payload header extension to the dependent importance value (7.3.8 pg 71 and pg 59).
It would have been obvious for one of ordinary skill in the art to combine the teaching of Pan and ISO because utilizing the haptics coding would increase immersive experiences in wide variety of scenario by meeting the expectation for compatibility with both descriptive and quantize formats required by the market and interoperability between devices for 3D experiences, mobile application and other distribution purposes.
Referring to Claim 5. Pan and ISO disclosed the method of claim 2, ISO discloses wherein the MIHS unit type indicates a MIHS unit is one of an initialization MIHS unit, a temporal MIHS unit, a spatial MIHS unit, a silent MIHS unit, a first aggregation packet (STAP), a second aggregation packet (MTAP), or a fragmentation unit (Initialization MIHS unit, pg 38).
It would have been obvious for one of ordinary skill in the art to combine the teaching of Pan and ISO because utilizing the haptics coding would increase immersive experiences in wide variety of scenario by meeting the expectation for compatibility with both descriptive and quantize formats required by the market and interoperability between devices for 3D experiences, mobile application and other distribution purposes.
Referring to Claim 6. Pan and ISO disclosed the method of claim 5, ISO discloses wherein the plurality of importance values includes an initialization importance value and a non-initialization importance value (Sync unit or Non-Sync unit, pg 38), and wherein, based on the MIHS unit type indicating that the MIHS unit is the initialization MIHS unit, assigning, with the electronic processor, the importance value of the payload header extension to the initialization importance value that is higher in importance than the non-initialization importance value (refer to Initialization section of the pg 38).
It would have been obvious for one of ordinary skill in the art to combine the teaching of Pan and ISO because utilizing the haptics coding would increase immersive experiences in wide variety of scenario by meeting the expectation for compatibility with both descriptive and quantize formats required by the market and interoperability between devices for 3D experiences, mobile application and other distribution purposes.
Referring to Claim 7. Pan and ISO disclosed the method of claim 5, ISO further discloses wherein the plurality of importance values includes a spatial importance value, a dependent temporal importance value, and an initialization importance value (refer to 7.4.1. and 7.4.2 table 30, pg 41-43), and wherein, based on the MIHS unit type indicating that the MIHS unit is the spatial MIHS unit, assigning, with the electronic processor, the importance value of the payload header extension to the spatial importance value, the spatial importance value that is higher in importance than the dependent temporal importance value and lower in importance than the initialization importance value (refer to Table 30).
It would have been obvious for one of ordinary skill in the art to combine the teaching of Pan and ISO because utilizing the haptics coding would increase immersive experiences in wide variety of scenario by meeting the expectation for compatibility with both descriptive and quantize formats required by the market and interoperability between devices for 3D experiences, mobile application and other distribution purposes.
Referring to Claim 8. Pan and ISO disclosed the method of claim 5, ISO further discloses wherein the plurality of importance values includes an independent temporal importance value, a dependent temporal importance value, and a spatial importance value (refer to Table 30, pg 42 and 43), and wherein, based on the MIHS unit type indicating that the MIHS unit is the temporal MIHS unit and the dependent MIHS unit indicating that the MIHS unit is independent, assigning, with the electronic processor, the importance value of the payload header extension to the independent temporal importance value that is higher in importance than the dependent temporal importance value and the spatial importance value (refer to Pg 42 and 43, Table 30 and 31).
It would have been obvious for one of ordinary skill in the art to combine the teaching of Pan and ISO because utilizing the haptics coding would increase immersive experiences in wide variety of scenario by meeting the expectation for compatibility with both descriptive and quantize formats required by the market and interoperability between devices for 3D experiences, mobile application and other distribution purposes.
Referring to Claim 9. Pan and ISO disclosed the method of claim 5, ISO further discloses wherein the plurality of importance values includes a dependent temporal importance value, an initialization importance value, a spatial importance value, and an independent temporal importance value (Table 30 and 31, and pg 42 and 43), and wherein, based on the MIHS unit type indicating that the MIHS unit is the temporal MIHS unit and the dependent MIHS unit indicating that the MIHS unit is dependent, assigning, with the electronic processor, the importance value of the payload header extension to the dependent temporal importance value that is lower in importance than the initialization importance value, the spatial importance value, and the independent temporal importance value (refer to Table 30 and 31, pg 42 and 43).
It would have been obvious for one of ordinary skill in the art to combine the teaching of Pan and ISO because utilizing the haptics coding would increase immersive experiences in wide variety of scenario by meeting the expectation for compatibility with both descriptive and quantize formats required by the market and interoperability between devices for 3D experiences, mobile application and other distribution purposes.
Referring to Claim 10. Pan and ISO disclosed the method of claim 5, ISO further discloses wherein the plurality of importance values includes a silent importance value and a non-silent importance value (silence and tactile sensation in Temporal/Spatial, the Temporal/Spatial/non-silent important value are higher order of silent value, 3.1.8, Table pg 42), and wherein, based on the MIHS unit type indicating that the MIHS unit is the silent MIHS unit, assigning, with the electronic processor, the importance value of the payload header extension to the silent importance value that is lower in importance than the non-silent importance value (refer to Table 30, pg 42 and 43 – silent has lower important than non-silent/emporal/spartial).
It would have been obvious for one of ordinary skill in the art to combine the teaching of Pan and ISO because utilizing the haptics coding would increase immersive experiences in wide variety of scenario by meeting the expectation for compatibility with both descriptive and quantize formats required by the market and interoperability between devices for 3D experiences, mobile application and other distribution purposes.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claim 11 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 KAREN C TANG whose telephone number is (571)272-3116. The examiner can normally be reached on 7am - 4pm.
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If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Joon H Hwang can be reached on (571) 272-4036. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/KAREN C TANG/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2447
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