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
Claims 1-19 are presented for examination.
Claim 2, 7 and 13 were cancelled.
Claims 1, 3, 5, 6, 8, 9, 12, and 14-19 were amended.
This is a Final Action.
Response to Arguments
Applicant’s arguments with respect to claim(s) 1, 3, 5, 6, 8, 9, 12, and 14-15 have been considered but are moot because the new ground of rejection does not rely on any reference applied in the prior rejection of record for any teaching or matter specifically challenged in the argument.
101 with regards to claim 14 has been obviated due to current amendment to the claims.
With respect to claim 16, examiner respectfully disagrees with the applicant and has further clarified his mapping below. Specifically, applicant’s argument in regards to “redesigning the information architecture” and an overly narrow separation between POIs and facilities. The claim only requires that the facility type corresponds to public/convenient facilities, the search results correspond to those facilities, and those facilities are displayed distinctively from the plurality of POIs. The combination of Bailing and Shelby teaches or suggests the emphasized limitations of claim 16. Bailiang teaches indoor public/convenience facility data, including facility type, image and location. Shelby teaches indoor venue searching tby category/specific POI within a selected venue/indoor map, displaying matching search results and distinctively displaying category indicators.
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 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 of this title, 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.
Claims 1, 3-6, 8, 10-12, and 14-15 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Bailiang (US 9,134,886) in view of Shelby et al. (US 2018/0349413) further in view of Beatty (US 6,523,045)
1. A method of providing an indoor map search service (Title – “indoor facility information on a digital map”, Bailiang), the method comprising:
displaying, on a map screen, a background map and an indoor map of a point of interest (POI) on the background map (Abstract, Fig 2/3 – the “geographic area” would be the background including “representation of a building” would be the POI buildings displayed on a geographical area); and
wherein the facilities correspond to at least one of public facilities or convenient facilities; (Col 5: lines 4-9 – teaches public/convenience facilities such as public restrooms, wheelchair ramps, drinking fountains, and lockers, Bailiang);
in response to a user selection of one of the facility types displayed on the facility type selection UI, displaying an identifier at each of locations of one or more facilities within the indoor map corresponding to the selected facility type (Abstract, Fig 4 – teaches rendering map to display indoor facility information at respective indoor locations within the structures, further teaching zoom levels having first value, and the one or more indicators of indoor facilities available at the building are displayed inside the representation of the build at respective location of these indoor facilities, Bailiang).
Bailiang does not explicitly teach,
displaying, in an area of the map screen, a plurality of category selection user interface (UI) corresponding to the plurality of POI;
displaying, in an area of the map screen, a facility information search UI that facilitates a search for facility information about facilities included in the indoor map;
in response to receiving a user selection of the facility information search UI, displaying a facility type selection UI from which one or more facility types corresponding to the facilities are selectable by changing a portion of the plurality of category selection UI to the facility type selection UI;
wherein, the facilities are set to be displayed distinctively from the plurality of POI;
However, Shelby teaches,
displaying, in an area of the map screen, a facility information search user interface (UI) that facilitates a search for facility information about facilities included in the indoor map (
displaying, in an area of the map screen, a plurality of category selection user interface (UI) corresponding to the plurality of POI; (Fig 5 / Venue directory, Paragraph 132 – teaches a category selection UI corresponding to POIs in an indoor venue, Shelby)
displaying, in an area of the map screen, a facility information search UI that facilitates a search for facility information about facilities included in the indoor map (Paragraph 132 , Fig 6 – discloses a search interface while in indoor map mode displays indoor facility “Westfield San Francisco Centre”, Shelby);
in response to receiving a user selection of the facility information search UI, displaying a facility type selection UI from which one or more facility types corresponding to the facilities are selectable (Paragraph 260 – teaches that the UI provides an indoor directory with selectable POI/category selectors and a manual search selector, Shelby - In combination with Bailiang’s public/convenience facility type, the selectable indoor directory/category controls corresponds to facility-type selection UI) and
wherein, the facilities are set to be displayed distinctively from the plurality of POI (Paragraph 132 – teaches category based distinctive display using color-coded category selectors and matching category indicators, Shelby).
It would have been obvious before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to a person having ordinary skill in the art to which said subject matter pertains to allow Bailiang’s invention to be combined with Shelby as taught by Shelby, because both Bailiang and Shelby are in the same field of endeavor of UI design and mapping. This would allow Bailing’s invention the ability to search in the UI based on user query thereby enhancing user experience.
Beatty teaches,
by changing a portion of the plurality of category selection UI to the facility type selection UI; (Col 44 – teaches changing/repopulating a menu/button bar portion with different display buttons, Beatty – in combination with Shelby’s indoor venue directory/category selector area, Beatty teaches or suggests changing a portion of the category selection UI in a different button set, i.e., a facility type selection UI)
It would have been obvious before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to a person having ordinary skill in the art to which said subject matter pertains to modify the combination of Bailiang and Shelby with Beatty’s teaching of reusable/repopulated button-bar technique to Shelby’s indoor venue directory/category selector region so that, after selection of the facility information search UI, the same displayed category-selection portion could be changed to present facility-type buttons. This would conserver screen space, reduce programming overhead and provide context-appropriate controls for selecting Bailing’s indoor public/convenience facility types.
3. The combination of Bailiang, Shelby and Beatty teach, The method of claim 1, wherein the displaying of the facility type selection UI comprises at least one of:
displaying the facility type selection UI as an extension of the facility information search UI;
displaying the facility information search UI in replacement of a UI previously displayed on the map screen; or displaying the facility information search UI in an area of the map screen (Paragraphs 142, 260, Figs 5-20, focusing on Figure 6-7 – discloses the facility information search UI in the UI of the map screen, Shelby).
4. The combination of Bailiang, Shelby and Beatty teach, The method of claim 3, wherein, in response to receiving an additional user selection of the facility information search UI while the facility type selection UI is being displayed, the facility type selection UI is removed (Paragraph 148-149 and Fig 14 and 15 – discloses that when a user clicks on a type of POI information (i.e. clothing stores) the facility type UI is removed and the stores are displayed).
5. The combination of Bailiang, Shelby and Beatty teach, The method of claim 1, wherein the facility type selection UI is displayed as scrollable (Paragraphs 156 – 157 and Figs 15-16 – discloses the facility type selection UI subsection where once a clothing section is selected, it is subdivided into women’s were men’s wear, children’s wear – one can see that this is a scrollable section to display if there are more section after children’s wear, furthermore as the paragraphs recite that if the search results are more then what is shown on the screen, then user would have to scroll to the next result set, Shelby).
6. The combination of Bailiang, Shelby and Beatty teach, The method of claim 1, wherein the one or more facility types displayed on the facility type selection UI comprises at least one of a restroom, an elevator, an escalator, stairs, a medical facility, an information desk, or a stroller rental place (Figs 1-20 – discloses that the maps display most of these elements, Shelby).
8. The combination of Bailiang, Shelby and Beatty teach, The method of claim 1, further comprising:
when there is a plurality of facilities within the indoor map corresponding to the selected facility type, displaying any one of a plurality of identifiers respectively corresponding to the plurality of facilities is displayed distinctively from remaining identifiers (Paragraph 11 – recites that the category selectors are color coded and described textually in the same manner that the POI are represented and identified on the venue map, Shelby).
10. The combination of Bailiang, Shelby and Beatty teach, The method of claim 1, further comprising:
displaying, in an area of the map screen, detailed information about a facility corresponding to the one of the identifiers (Fig 20 – explicitly recites detail information about a facility corresponding to an identifier “Fossil”, Shelby).
11. The combination of Bailiang, Shelby and Beatty teach, The method of claim 1, wherein the map screen comprises a floor level display UI for displaying floor information of the indoor map, and wherein the facility information search UI is displayed near the floor level display UI (Paragraph 183-182 - Figs 15 and 21 – discloses, once a search is conducted and stores displayed, if the stores are on different floor, a Floor level detail (Fig. 21) can be displayed).
12. The combination of Bailiang, Shelby and Beatty teach, The method of claim 1, wherein the map screen comprises a search bar, and the plurality of category selection UI are adjacent to the search bar, and wherein the plurality of category selection UI comprises the facility information search UI (Fig 2: 220 ; Fig 31, Paragraph 222– teaches the search bar which is in the same tray as the results, once an indoor map is activated, the search bar area also contains facility information search UI “Venue directory”).
Claims 14-15 are similar to claim 1 hence rejected similarly.
Claim 9 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Bailiang (US 9,134,886) in view of Shelby et al. (US 2018/0349413) and Beatty (US 6,336,053) further in view of Porcella (US 2017/0123618)
All the limitations of claim 8 are taught above.
9. The combination of Bailiang and Shelby do not explicitly teach or recite, the displaying comprising displaying an identifier corresponding to a facility closest to a current location of a user.
However, Porcella teaches,
the displaying comprising displaying an identifier corresponding to a facility closest to a current location of a user. (Fig 2 and Paragraph 50 – teaches when a user searches, in response to the search, the system displays POI icons, and the closest POI location is displayed with a different identifier).
It would have been obvious before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to a person having ordinary skill in the art to which said subject matter pertains to modify the combination of Bailiang/Shelby/Beatty with Porcella because all the prior arts are in the same field of endeavor of UI design and mapping. This would allow the combined system of Bailiang and Shelby’s invention the ability to display the closest search result in the unique visual manner thereby enhancing user experience by letting the user easily notice the POI.
Claim 16-19 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Shelby et al. (US 2018/0349413) in view of Bailiang (US 9,134,886)
16. Shelby teaches, A method of searching for a point on an indoor map (Fig 66 – teaches searching in an indoor venue/map context, Shelby), the method comprising:
transmitting a search request corresponding to a search word associated with a facility type (Paragraph 232 – teaches entering a search word, such as “coffee” to initiate a manual search for a category/facility type, Shelby), wherein in response to an indoor map being displayed on a map screen, the search request includes identification information of the indoor map including a plurality of points of interest (POI) (paragraph 231 – teaches an indoor map associated with a selected venue and POIs within that indoor map. Shelby’s in-venye search is performed in the context of a selected indoor venue/map, so the request would obviously include venue/indoor map context to restrict results to that indoor map, Shelby);
receiving search results corresponding to the search request, the search results comprising first search results corresponding to facilities corresponding to the facility type, distinctively from the plurality of POI included in the indoor map (paragraph 232 and 338 – teaches search results matching the selected category /search within the venue and visually textually identifies the selected category, Shelby); and
displaying the search result (Paragraph 338, Fig 62 – teaches displaying search results on the user device/terminal).
Shelby does not explicitly teach,
and wherein the facility type corresponds to at least one of public facilities or convenient facilities that are displayed distinctly from the plurality of POI on a user terminal;
However, Bailiang teaches,
and wherein the facility type corresponds to at least one of public facilities or convenient facilities that are displayed distinctly from the plurality of POI on a user terminal ( Col 5: lines 4-19 – teaches public/convenience facilities such as public restrooms, elevators, escalators, wheelchair ramps, drinking fountains, and lockers with facility type/location data, Bailiang).
It would have been obvious before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to a person having ordinary skill in the art to which said subject matter pertains to modify the Shelby’s indoor venue search functionality with Bailing’s indoor facility map system because both references relate to indoor map/venue interface, and Shelby’s search field/category search interface would predictability be improve with Bailing’s search query for specific indoor public/convenience facility type, such as restrooms, elevators, lockers, and receive corresponding facility results within the indoor map.
17. The combination of Shelby and Bailiang teach, The method of claim 16,
wherein the displaying the first search results comprises: displaying the first search results distinctively from remaining search results (Paragraph 129 – teaches that the POI (search results) may be displayed differently based on size or type of POI; Paragraph 187-189, 212 – teaches displaying results via different color or text or order based on which floor the venue is on; Paragraph 227 – teaches that the ranks of search results could change if the venue has included a indoor map or not, Shelby).
18. The combination of Shelby and Bailiang teach, The method of claim 17, wherein the displaying of the first search results distinctively from the remaining search results comprises:
displaying a selected number of results among the first search results above the remaining search results (Paragraphs 211 and 212 – teaches that the placecard holds subset of search results such as based on floor, Shelby).
19. The combination of Shelby and Bailiang teach, The method of claim 17, wherein the displaying of the first search results distinctively from the remaining search results comprises:
displaying the first search results fully on the screen of the user terminal (Paragraphs 211 – explicitly recites that the placecard will display all the search results matching the selected POI even if the POI is on a different floor of POI, Shelby).
Conclusion
THIS ACTION IS MADE FINAL. Applicant is reminded of the extension of time policy as set forth in 37 CFR 1.136(a).
A shortened statutory period for reply to this final action is set to expire THREE MONTHS from the mailing date of this action. In the event a first reply is filed within TWO MONTHS of the mailing date of this final action and the advisory action is not mailed until after the end of the THREE-MONTH shortened statutory period, then the shortened statutory period will expire on the date the advisory action is mailed, and any nonprovisional extension fee (37 CFR 1.17(a)) pursuant to 37 CFR 1.136(a) will be calculated from the mailing date of the advisory action. In no event, however, will the statutory period for reply expire later than SIX MONTHS from the mailing date of this final action.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to AMRESH SINGH whose telephone number is (571)270-3560. The examiner can normally be reached Monday-Friday 8am-5pm.
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If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Ann J. Lo can be reached at (571) 272-9767. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/AMRESH SINGH/ Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2159
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