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 .
Status of Claims
The amendment filed on 3/18/2025 has been entered. In the amendment, Applicant amended claims 1-10. Currently claims 1-10 are pending.
Priority
Receipt is acknowledged of certified copies of papers required by 37 CFR 1.55.
Drawings
The drawings are objected to under 37 CFR 1.83(a). The drawings must show every feature of the invention specified in the claims. Therefore, the feature “the display image of the first device corresponds to a display interface of the second device” in claim 2 must be shown or the feature(s) canceled from the claim(s). No new matter should be entered.
Corrected drawing sheets in compliance with 37 CFR 1.121(d) are required in reply to the Office action to avoid abandonment of the application. Any amended replacement drawing sheet should include all of the figures appearing on the immediate prior version of the sheet, even if only one figure is being amended. The figure or figure number of an amended drawing should not be labeled as “amended.” If a drawing figure is to be canceled, the appropriate figure must be removed from the replacement sheet, and where necessary, the remaining figures must be renumbered and appropriate changes made to the brief description of the several views of the drawings for consistency. Additional replacement sheets may be necessary to show the renumbering of the remaining figures. Each drawing sheet submitted after the filing date of an application must be labeled in the top margin as either “Replacement Sheet” or “New Sheet” pursuant to 37 CFR 1.121(d). If the changes are not accepted by the examiner, the applicant will be notified and informed of any required corrective action in the next Office action. The objection to the drawings will not be held in abeyance.
Claim Interpretation
This application includes one or more claim limitations that do not use the word “means,” but are nonetheless being interpreted under 35 U.S.C. 112(f) or pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, sixth paragraph, because the claim limitation(s) uses a generic placeholder that is coupled with functional language without reciting sufficient structure to perform the recited function and the generic placeholder is not preceded by a structural modifier. Such claim limitation(s) is/are: “first acquiring module”, “transforming module”, “generating module” and “first determining module” in claim 6, “second acquiring module” and “executing module” in claim 7 and “communication module” in claim 10.
Because this/these claim limitation(s) is/are being interpreted under 35 U.S.C. 112(f) or pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, sixth paragraph, it/they is/are being interpreted to cover the corresponding structure described in the specification as performing the claimed function, and equivalents thereof.
A review of the specification shows that the following appears to be the corresponding structure described in the specification for the 35 U.S.C. 112(f) or pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, sixth paragraph limitation:
first acquiring module: Fig. 10, first acquiring module 1001 (no structure disclosed); [00111] (no structure disclosed);
transforming module: Fig. 10, transforming module 1002 (no structure disclosed); [00112] (no structure disclosed);
generating module: Fig. 10, generating module 1003 (no structure disclosed); [00113] (no structure disclosed);
first determining module: Fig. 10, first determining module 1004 (no structure disclosed); [00114] (no structure disclosed);
second acquiring module: [00116] (no structure disclosed);
executing module: [00117] (no structure disclosed);
communication module: Fig. 11, communication module 1103 (no structure disclosed).
If applicant does not intend to have this/these limitation(s) interpreted under 35 U.S.C. 112(f) or pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, sixth paragraph, applicant may: (1) amend the claim limitation(s) to avoid it/them being interpreted under 35 U.S.C. 112(f) or pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, sixth paragraph (e.g., by reciting sufficient structure to perform the claimed function); or (2) present a sufficient showing that the claim limitation(s) recite(s) sufficient structure to perform the claimed function so as to avoid it/them being interpreted under 35 U.S.C. 112(f) or pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, sixth paragraph.
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 6-10 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 6, the elements “first acquiring module”, “transforming module”, “generating module” and “first determining module” have been interpreted under 35 U.S.C. 112(f) or pre-AIA 35 §U.S.C. 112, sixth paragraph.
However, for each of “first acquiring module”, “transforming module”, “generating module” and “first determining module”, there is no clear supporting structural or material description in the specification performing the corresponding function (see the section of “Claim Interpretation” for identified relevant portions). For rebuttal of this rejection, Applicant must point out supporting portion(s) in the specification that covers the corresponding structure that achieves the claimed function, and equivalents thereof. Applicant may identify the corresponding structure with reference to the specification by page and line number, and to the drawing, if any, by reference characters in response to this Office action.
Claims 7-9 are rejected because they depend on claim 6.
Further regarding Claim7, the elements ““second acquiring module” and “executing module” have been interpreted under 35 U.S.C. 112(f) or pre-AIA 35 §U.S.C. 112, sixth paragraph.
However, for each of “second acquiring module” and “executing module”, there is no clear supporting structural or material description in the specification performing the corresponding function (see the section of “Claim Interpretation” for identified relevant portions). For rebuttal of this rejection, Applicant must point out supporting portion(s) in the specification that covers the corresponding structure that achieves the claimed function, and equivalents thereof. Applicant may identify the corresponding structure with reference to the specification by page and line number, and to the drawing, if any, by reference characters in response to this Office action.
Regarding Claim 10, the element “communication module” has been interpreted under 35 U.S.C. 112(f) or pre-AIA 35 §U.S.C. 112, sixth paragraph.
However, for “communication module”, there is no clear supporting structural or material description in the specification performing the corresponding function (see the section of “Claim Interpretation” for identified relevant portion). For rebuttal of this rejection, Applicant must point out supporting portion(s) in the specification that covers the corresponding structure that achieves the claimed function, and equivalents thereof. Applicant may identify the corresponding structure with reference to the specification by page and line number, and to the drawing, if any, by reference characters in response to this Office action.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 102
The following is a quotation of the appropriate paragraphs of 35 U.S.C. 102 that form the basis for the rejections under this section made in this Office action:
A person shall be entitled to a patent unless –
(a)(2) the claimed invention was described in a patent issued under section 151, or in an application for patent published or deemed published under section 122(b), in which the patent or application, as the case may be, names another inventor and was effectively filed before the effective filing date of the claimed invention.
Claims 1-10 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(2) as being anticipated by Ohashi et al. (WO 2022176450, machine translation of which is used in this examination).
Regarding claim 1, Ohashi teaches an interaction method (abstract), comprising:
acquiring posture information (Fig. 9: steps S409, S412; Fig. 12: posture information interpreted as orientation information of operating terminal 20; page 16, 2nd paragraph: “Next, the operating terminal 20 … transmits the position and orientation information of the operating terminal 20 and the operation information to the AR display device 10 (step S409)”; page 16, 3rd paragraph: “Next, the AR display device 10 determines processing for the virtual object according to the position/orientation information and the operation information of the operation terminal 20 (step S412)”; Page 17, 7th paragraph: “as shown in FIGS. 12 and 13 , the position of the virtual object 51b in the selected state can be changed by changing the orientation of the operation terminal 20 up, down, left, right, or moving it horizontally while the user keeps tapping”; Examiner’s Note: the orientation information/posture information of the operating terminal 20 must have been acquired by operating terminal 20 in order for the operating terminal 20 to achieve transmission of the position and orientation information to AR display device 10) of a second device (Figs. 1-5, 7, 9-18: operating terminal 20, which may be a dedicated controller, a wearable device worn on a user's hand or foot, or a smart phone (a general-purpose communication terminal) according to section “Operation terminal 20” on page 4), wherein the current posture information is configured to characterize a first direction (Figs. 3 and 12: first direction interpreted as orientation of operating terminal 20) representing an orientation of the second device;
transforming the first direction to obtain a second direction (Figs. 3 and 12: second direction represented by indication image L, which is inherently determined by transforming from orientation of operation terminal 20);
generating a virtual identifier (Figs. 3 and 12: indication image L) according to the second direction, wherein the virtual identifier extends along the second direction and points to a display image (Figs. 3 and 12: display image including virtual objects 50a-50d) of a first device (Fig. 1: AR display device 10); and
determining an intersection point (Figs. 3, 12: exemplary intersection point where instruction image L interests with a virtual object) between the virtual identifier and the display image within a preset first coordinate system (page 4, last paragraph: “the AR display device 10 or the operation terminal 20 transmits to the position estimation server 30 the captured image of the surroundings (or the information of the feature points extracted from the captured image) geographic coordinate information (latitude/longitude/altitude information) and attitude information (for example, azimuth), and the corresponding virtual space position coordinate information (xyz coordinates) and attitude information (for example, rotation matrix) can be obtained”; page 5, 3rd paragraph: “virtual object related information (virtual object ID, 3D image data, placed geographic coordinate information and posture information, sound data, movement of the virtual object, etc. defined scripts, etc.)”, “information on virtual objects is also handled as information on locations (virtual objects are fixed at locations in real space by geographic coordinate information)”) and displaying a preset icon (Figs. 3, 12: highlighted virtual object) at the intersection point.
Regarding claim 2, Ohashi further teaches the method according to claim 1, further comprises activating a wireless streaming (Page 7, section “Configuration example”: “The AR display device 10 and the operation terminal 20 are connected for communication by wire or wirelessly, and transmit and receive data”), where the display image of the first device corresponds to a display interface of the second device (Fig. 3).
Regarding claim 3, Ohashi further teaches the method according to claim 1, wherein after said "determining an intersection point between the virtual identifier and the display image within a preset first coordinate system, and displaying a preset icon at the intersection point", the method further comprises:
acquiring first location information (Fig. 3: location information of virtual object 50c; Fig. 12: location information of virtual object 50b) of the intersection point upon receiving a control instruction (Figs. 3, 12: control instruction from operating terminal 20); and
executing an interaction event (Fig. 12: exemplary interaction event of moving virtual object 50b) triggered by the intersection point according to the first location information.
Regarding claim 4, Ohashi further teaches the method according to claim 1, wherein said "acquiring posture information of a second devices" comprises:
acquiring posture variation information (Fig. 12: posture variation of operating terminal 20) and initial posture information (Fig. 3, 12: starting posture information of operating terminal 20 for selecting a virtual object) of the second device, wherein the initial posture information is configured to characterize posture information of the second device being in a preset initial direction (Figs. 3, 12: preset initial direction according to a virtual object to be selected), and the posture variation information is configured to characterize posture information of variations of the second device relative to the initial direction (Fig. 12: target location for selected virtual object); and
determining the posture information according to the posture variation information and the initial posture information (Fig. 12).
Regarding claim 5, Ohashi further teaches the method according to claim 1, wherein said "transforming the first direction to obtain a second direction' comprises:
transforming the first direction according to a preset transformation relationship to obtain the second direction (Fig. 3: necessary preset transformation relationship involved to derive instruction image L corresponding to orientation of operating terminal 20);
wherein the preset transformation relationship is a correspondence between a coordinate system (Fig. 1: position estimation server 30 provides position information (geographical coordinate information) of the current location of AR display device 10) of the first device in use and a coordinate system (Fig. 1: position estimation server 30 provides position information (geographical coordinate information) of the current location of operating terminal 20) of the second device in use.
Claim 6 is rejected for substantially the same rationale applied to claim 1 (Note: “first acquiring module”, “transforming module”, “generating module” and “first determining module” are not provided with specific structures by Applicant).
Claim 7 is rejected for substantially the same rationale applied to claim 2 (Note: “second acquiring module” and “executing module” are not provided with specific structures by Applicant).
Claim 8 is rejected for substantially the same rationale applied to claim 4 (Note: “first acquiring module” is not provided with specific structures by Applicant).
Claim 9 is rejected for substantially the same rationale applied to claim 5 (Note: “transforming module” is not provided with specific structures by Applicant).
Regarding claim 10, Ohashi further teaches a display device (Figs. 1, 4: AR display device 10), comprising:
a communication module (Fig. 4: communication unit 110);
a memory (Fig. 4: storage section 160) for storing executable computer instructions; and
a processor (Fig. 4: control section 120), communicatively coupled to the communication module and the memory, for executing the interaction method according to claim 1 under the executable computer instructions stored in the memory;
wherein the communication module is configured for establishing a communication connection with an electronic device (Figs. 1, 4: operating terminal 20).
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure:
US 2024/0029377 by O’Leary et al. teaches in Figs. 7A-7N three-dimensional environments including virtual objects that are controlled by input device 7024.
US Patent No. 11,861,136 by Faulkner et al., teaches in Figs. 5A1-5A48 displaying a view of at least a portion of a simulated three-dimensional space and a view of a user interface object located within the simulated three-dimensional space, the user interface object being a representation of a computing device that has a non-immersive display environment that provides access to a plurality of different applications and a pose of the user interface object in the simulated three-dimensional space corresponding to a pose of the input device in a physical space surrounding the input device.
CN 115617164 A by the same Applicant discloses related technique to this instant application.
CN 115576419 A by the same Applicant discloses related technique to this instant application.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to XUEMEI ZHENG whose telephone number is (571)272-1434. The examiner can normally be reached Monday-Friday: 9:30 pm-6:00 pm.
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/XUEMEI ZHENG/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2629