DETAILED ACTION
Notice of Pre-AIA or AIA Status
The present application is being examined under the pre-AIA first to invent provisions.
In the response to this Office Action, the Examiner respectfully requests that support be shown for language added to any original claims on amendment and any new claims. That is, indicate support for newly added claim language by specifically pointing to page(s) and line numbers in the specification and/or drawing figure(s). This will assist the Examiner in prosecuting this application.
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 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 1-16 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over U.S. Patent Application Publication 2021/0397260 A1 to Birnbaum et al. (hereinafter "Birnbaum") in view of “Text for Working Draft of ISO/IEC 23090-31: Haptics Coding” (hereinafter "Haptics Coding").
Regarding Claims 1 and 5, Birnbaum teaches a method and a device for encoding haptic data of a haptic sequence (Claim 1; Figs. 1A-3; Para. 31-40 of Birnbaum; computing device 1100 may be configured to facilitate the providing of a haptic effect for experiencing the 3D environment by generating a drive signal 1400 for a haptic output device 1210), the device comprising a processor configured for: obtaining binary haptic data representative of haptic effects and metadata describing the haptic effects (Claim 1; Figs. 1A-3; Para. 31-40, 113 of Birnbaum; computing device 1100 may include one or more processors 1110 that are configured to receive media data 1300 that describes aspects of the 3D environment, and may generate the drive signal 1400 based on the media data 1300. The media data 1300 may have, e.g., an omnidirectional media format (OMAF) for allowing the 3D environment to be viewed in multiple directions, or may have some other format… media data may be generated according to the MPEG-I standard… haptic effect may be defined in metadata at a source and rendered at a device on the client side, such as the computing device 1100 or user peripheral device 1200); encoding tracks and the metadata in access units (Claim 1; Figs. 1A-3; Para. 31-40, 113 of Birnbaum; media data may have been created by encoding various sources of data, such as video data, audio data, and haptic data… media data may be generated according to the MPEG-I standard… a device (e.g., computing device 1500) may encapsulate and/or store the media data, which may include the encoded haptic data, audio data, video data, and/or image data, in a file format such as the International Standards Organization Base Media File Format (ISOBMFF)… haptic effect may be defined in metadata at a source and rendered at a device on the client side, such as the computing device 1100 or user peripheral device 1200).
Birnbaum does not explicitly disclose decomposing the haptic effects in temporal events and frequency bands and grouping them in tracks; and encoding the tracks and the metadata, the metadata comprising perception data pointing to a sub-set of tracks and experience data pointing to a sub-set of perception data.
However, Haptics Coding teaches decomposing the haptic effects in temporal events and frequency bands and grouping them in tracks (Figures 1-3; Section 3.1 to 3.2, 4.1 to 4.7 of Haptics Coding; haptic data of a track is contained in a set of haptic bands defined by their frequency range); and encoding the tracks and the metadata, the metadata comprising perception data pointing to a sub-set of tracks and experience data pointing to a sub-set of perception data (Figures 1-3, 8-9; Section 3.1 to 3.2, 4.1 to 4.8, 5.1, 6.1 to 6.2 of Haptics Coding; In addition to specific metadata, a perception contains a list of tracks where the data is decomposed in frequency bands. Each band defines part of the signal in a given frequency range. The bands are described with a list of Haptic effects each containing a list of keyframes. The haptic signal in a track can then be reconstructed by combining the data in the different bands as illustrated in Figure 3… haptic signals can be encoded on multiple tracks… a haptic track defines a signal to be rendered at a specific body location. Metadata stored at the track level includes information such as the gain associated to the track, the mixing weight, the desired body location of the haptic feedback and optionally the reference device and/or a direction. Additional information such as the desired sampling frequency or sample count can also be provided).
Therefore, at the time when the invention was filed, it would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art to include decomposing the haptic effects in temporal events and frequency bands and grouping them in tracks; and encoding the tracks and the metadata, the metadata comprising perception data pointing to a sub-set of tracks and experience data pointing to a sub-set of perception data using the teachings of Haptics Coding in order to modify the device taught by Birnbaum. The motivation to combine these analogous arts would have been to encode both descriptive and quantized data in a human readable JSON format used for exchange purposes and a compressed bitstream version, optimized for memory usage, for distribution purposes (Section 1 of Haptics Coding).
Regarding Claims 9 and 13, Birnbaum teaches a method and a device for decoding haptic data of a haptic sequence (Claim 1; Figs. 1A-4; Para. 31-45 of Birnbaum; computing device 1100 may be configured to facilitate the providing of a haptic effect for experiencing the 3D environment by generating a drive signal 1400 for a haptic output device 1210… decoding and/or rendering of media data may be performed by the computing device 1100 of FIGS. 1A-1C. FIG. 4 illustrates a computing device 4100, which may be an embodiment of the computing device 1100. In this embodiment, the computing device 4100 may include at least one processor 4110 and a memory 4120… modules 4120 a, 4120 b may include instructions which may be executed by the processor 4110 to execute a haptic decoding operation), the device comprising a processor configured for: obtaining a set of tracks and metadata encoded in access units (Claim 1; Figs. 1A-3; Para. 31-42, 113 of Birnbaum; media data may have been created by encoding various sources of data, such as video data, audio data, and haptic data… media data may be generated according to the MPEG-I standard… a device (e.g., computing device 1500) may encapsulate and/or store the media data, which may include the encoded haptic data, audio data, video data, and/or image data, in a file format such as the International Standards Organization Base Media File Format (ISOBMFF)… computing device 1100 may receive and process (e.g., decapsulate) the file F/Fs, such as the ISOBMFF file, which may include file data that encodes the media data. More particularly, the processed file data may include encoded haptic data E′h, encoded audio data E′a, and/or encoded video data E′v. In some implementations, the OMAF player may be configured to decode various encoded data using a codec… haptic effect may be defined in metadata at a source and rendered at a device on the client side, such as the computing device 1100 or user peripheral device 1200).
Birnbaum does not explicitly disclose the metadata comprising perception data pointing to a sub-set of tracks and experience data pointing to a sub-set of perception data; and accessing the experience data in tracks pointed by perception data associated with the experience data.
However, Haptics Coding teaches metadata comprising perception data pointing to a sub-set of tracks and experience data pointing to a sub-set of perception data; and accessing the experience data in tracks pointed by perception data associated with the experience data (Figures 1-3, 8-9; Section 3.1 to 3.2, 4.1 to 4.8, 5.1, 6.1 to 6.2, 7.1 to 7.2 of Haptics Coding; haptic data of a track is contained in a set of haptic bands defined by their frequency range… In addition to specific metadata, a perception contains a list of tracks where the data is decomposed in frequency bands. Each band defines part of the signal in a given frequency range. The bands are described with a list of Haptic effects each containing a list of keyframes. The haptic signal in a track can then be reconstructed by combining the data in the different bands as illustrated in Figure 3… haptic signals can be encoded on multiple tracks… a haptic track defines a signal to be rendered at a specific body location. Metadata stored at the track level includes information such as the gain associated to the track, the mixing weight, the desired body location of the haptic feedback and optionally the reference device and/or a direction. Additional information such as the desired sampling frequency or sample count can also be provided).
Therefore, at the time when the invention was filed, it would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art to include the metadata comprising perception data pointing to a sub-set of tracks and experience data pointing to a sub-set of perception data; and accessing the experience data in tracks pointed by perception data associated with the experience data using the teachings of Haptics Coding in order to modify the device taught by Birnbaum. The motivation to combine these analogous arts would have been to encode both descriptive and quantized data in a human readable JSON format used for exchange purposes and a compressed bitstream version, optimized for memory usage, for distribution purposes (Section 1 of Haptics Coding).
Regarding Claims 6, 10, 14, and 18, the combination of Birnbaum and Haptics Coding teaches that the access units are Network Abstraction Layer units (Figs. 1A-3; Para. 31-40 of Birnbaum; media data may be generated according to the MPEG-I standard).
Regarding Claims 7, 11, 15, and 19, the combination of Birnbaum and Haptics Coding teaches that the access units are structured depending on whether they comprise metadata or band-data (Figs. 1A-3; Para. 31-40 of Birnbaum; media data may be generated according to the MPEG-I standard… Section 6.1 to 6.2 of Haptics Coding;
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Regarding Claims 8, 12, 16, and 20, the combination of Birnbaum and Haptics Coding teaches that the metadata information describing a haptic effect library, avatars or devices (Section 3.2 to 4.6, 6.1 of Haptics Coding; For each haptic perception, metadata information is provided on the modality, the corresponding avatar representation, and technical characteristics of compatible haptic devices… Metadata stored at the track level includes information such as the gain associated to the track, the mixing weight, the desired body location of the haptic feedback and optionally the reference device and/or a direction).
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to ABHISHEK SARMA whose telephone number is (571)272-9887. The examiner can normally be reached on Mon - Fri 8:00-5:00.
If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Amr Awad can be reached on 571-272-7764. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/ABHISHEK SARMA/
Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2621