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 .
Claims 1-20 are present for examination.
Claim Interpretation
The following terms have been interpreted according to the special definitions disclosed in Specification, para. [0085]:
Whole-body bone resource: point cloud data of an entire object model of the virtual object.
Part bone resource: point cloud data of a part separated from the whole-body bone resource.
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.
Claims 1-20 are 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.
Regarding claim 1, it recites “loading, by an electronic device, a whole-body bone resource of a virtual object and a part bone resource of each of a plurality of parts of the virtual object; configuring, by the electronic device for each part and based on whole-body animation information of the whole-body bone resource, part animation information of the part bone resource of the part, the part animation information inheriting an animation behavior of the part in the whole- body animation information”.
As discussed above, the whole-body bone resource has been defined as “point cloud data of an entire object model of the virtual object” and the part bone resource has been defined as “point cloud data of a part separated from the whole-body bone resource”. Accordingly, a person skilled in the art will understand that the whole-body bone resource and the part-bone resources loaded by the electronic device will be a collection of point cloud data. It is not clear how the “whole-body animation information of the whole-body bone resource” is obtained because the whole-body bone resource loaded by the electronic device only refers to “point cloud data of an entire object model of the virtual object”, which does not have any “animation information”. It is not clear whether the “whole-body animation information of the whole-body bone resource” is part of the whole-body bone resource (which appears to only includes point cloud data).
Also, claim 1 further recites “loading, by the electronic device and based on appearance resource indication information of the part, an appearance resource of the part”. It is not clear how the “appearance resources indication information of the part” is obtained and what information are “appearance resources indication information of the part” because claim 1 only loads a whole-body bone resource and part bone resources (which are point cloud data) prior to loading an appearance resource of the part. It is not clear whether the “appearance resources indication information of the part” is part of the part bone resources.
Moreover, claim 1 recites “concealing, by the electronic device, the whole-body bone resource”. It is not clear how the “whole-body bone resource” is concealed. Is the “whole-body bone resource” not being displayed, or just covered by some other objects?
Therefore, claim 1 is indefinite. Claims 2-9 depend from claim 1 but fail to cure the deficiencies of claim 1. Claims 10 and 11 recite similar limitations discussed above with respect to claim 1. Claim 20 depends from claim 10 but fail to cure the deficiencies of claim 10. Claims 12-19 depend from claim 11 but fail to cure the deficiencies of claim 11. Therefore, claims 2-20 are indefinite.
Moreover, claim 4 recites “binding, by the electronic device for each part, an appearance resource of the part to a child bone component of the part”. However, claim 1, from which claim 4 ultimately depends, recites “loading, …, an appearance resource of the part.” It is not clear whether the appearance resources recited in claims 1 and 4 are the same or different. Claim 5 depends from claim 4 but fail to cure the deficiencies of claim 4.
Claim 14 recites similar limitations discussed above with respect to claim 4. Claim 15 depends from claim 14 but fail to cure the deficiencies of claim 14.
Claim 6 recites “creating … at least one appearance resource adapted to the part.” However, claim 1, from which claim 6 depends, recites “loading, …, an appearance resource of the part.” It is not clear whether the appearance resources recited in claims 1 and 6 are the same or different.
Claim 16 recites similar limitations discussed above with respect to claim 6.
Claim 9 recites “from a plurality of parts of the virtual object in a current picture frame.” However, claim 1, from which claim 9 depends, recites “each of a plurality of parts of the virtual object”. It is not clear whether the plurality of parts of the virtual object recited in claims 1 and 9 are the same or different.
Claim 19 recites similar limitations discussed above with respect to claim 9.
For examination purposes, the “whole-body animation information of the whole-body bone resource” has been interpreted as part of the point cloud data corresponding to whole-body bone resource, “appearance resources indication information of the part” has been interpreted as part of the point cloud data corresponding to the part bone resources, and “concealing, by the electronic device, the whole-body bone resource” has been interpreted as the whole-body bone resource being covered by other objects, the appearance resources recited in claims 1 and 4 are interpreted to be the same, the appearance resources recited in claims 1 and 6 are interpreted to be the same, and the plurality of parts of the virtual object recited in claims 1 and 9 are interpreted to be the same.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 1-20 would be allowable if rewritten or amended to overcome the rejection(s) under 35 U.S.C. 112(b) or 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), 2nd paragraph, set forth in this Office action.
The following is a statement of reasons for the indication of allowable subject matter:
Regarding claim 1, the closest prior art references the examiner could find are, US Patent Publication No. 20240307779 A1 to Wu et al., US Patent Publication No. 20140274373 A1 to Olshan et al., and US Patent Publication No. 20170172747 A1 to Baske et al., which disclose A virtual object control method (Wu, Abstract, disclosing obtaining target animation data of the target virtual character model, and driving the target virtual character model to execute the corresponding action), comprising: loading, by an electronic device, a whole-body bone structure of a virtual object and a part bone structure of each of a plurality of parts of the virtual object (Wu, para. [0046], disclosing acquiring target motion description information of a target virtual character model, recording position information of a key node skeleton of a character skeleton framework of the target virtual character model in each frame of character animation, the key node skeleton is a partial skeleton in a complete skeleton of the character skeleton framework, para. [0050], disclosing position information of the complete skeleton of the character skeleton framework of the target virtual character model is recorded in each frame of the character animation; Olshan, Fig. 10, 1005 define a generic virtual skeleton, 1010, modify the generic virtual skeleton to include bones of the interchangeable body part); configuring, by the electronic device for each part and based on whole-body animation information of the whole-body bone structure, part animation information of the part bone structure of the part, the part animation information inheriting an animation behavior of the part in the whole-body animation information (Wu, para. [0046], disclosing acquiring target motion description information of a target virtual character model, recording position information of a key node skeleton of a character skeleton framework of the target virtual character model in each frame of character animation, the key node skeleton is a partial skeleton in a complete skeleton of the character skeleton framework, Olshan, FIG. 10, 1015, define animation for the interchangeable body part using the modified virtual skeleton); loading, by the electronic device and based on appearance resource indication information of the part, an appearance resource of the part (Olshan. Para. [0083], disclosing modifying the generic virtual skeleton to reflect the specific features and form of the virtual character’s interchangeable body part, FIG. 11, 1120, determine animations remaining for selected body part, select an animation to apply for selected body part); concealing, by the electronic device, the bone structure (Bake, para. [0136], disclosing virtually placing at least two circular shapes partly overlapping, covering a part or covering the complete bone); and controlling, by the electronic device and based on the part animation information, the appearance resource to perform an animation behavior following the part bone resource (Olshan. FIG. 11, 1130, apply animation to the applicable bones in the selected body part).
However, none of the prior art references on the record, alone or in combination, discloses loading, by an electronic device, a whole-body bone resource of a virtual object and a part bone resource of each of a plurality of parts of the virtual object; configuring, by the electronic device for each part and based on whole-body animation information of the whole-body bone resource, part animation information of the part bone resource of the part, the part animation information inheriting an animation behavior of the part in the whole-body animation information; and concealing, by the electronic device, the whole-body bone resource. Note, as discussed above, the bone resource has been interpreted as point cloud data with corresponding animation information.
Claims 2-9 depend from claim 1 with respective additional limitations. Claims 110 and 11 recite similar limitations discussed above with respect to claim 1. Claim 20 depends from claim 10 with additional limitations. Claims 12-19 depend from claim 11 with respective additional limitations.
Conclusion
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/HAIXIA DU/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2611
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