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 .
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 101
35 U.S.C. 101 reads as follows:
Whoever invents or discovers any new and useful process, machine, manufacture, or composition of matter, or any new and useful improvement thereof, may obtain a patent therefor, subject to the conditions and requirements of this title.
Claim 12 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 101 because the claimed invention is directed to non-statutory subject matter. Claim 12 fails to fall within a statutory category of the invention. Though claim 12 discloses, “computer readable medium”, the original specification does not explicitly define or limit “computer-readable medium” to only non-transitory medium, but just generally mentioned non-transitory computer readable medium storage without limiting computer readable medium to just non-transitory computer readable medium (paragraphs 5, 15, 50). Therefore the phrase “computer-readable medium” can be reasonably interpreted to comprise a non-transitory computer-readable medium and a transitory computer-readable medium. The transitory computer readable medium is considered to be transmission medium. Therefore “computer readable medium” in claim 12 is considered to be non-statutory. Claims that recite nothing but the physical characteristics of a form of energy, such as a frequency, voltage, or the strength of a magnetic field, define energy or magnetism, per se, and as such are nonstatutory natural phenomena (O’Reilly, 56 U.S. (15 How.) at 112-14). Moreover, it does not appear that a claim reciting a signal encoded with functional descriptive material falls within any of the categories of patentable subject matter set forth in § 101.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 1 – 11 are allowed.
The following is an examiner’s statement of reasons for allowance:
Bevis et al, (US 2016/0147408) discloses <<does not disclose>> a method, comprising: at a computer system with a display device and one or more cameras (Figures 1, 2):
receiving a first input corresponding to a request to display an annotation placement user interface (paragraph 28: Figures 3A-3M: one of the user interface elements may be an icon 35 (or other equivalent element) for selecting/initiating operation of the virtual measurement tool);
in response to receiving the first input, displaying, via the display device, the annotation placement user interface, the annotation placement user interface including:
a representation of a field of view of the one or more cameras, including a representation of a portion of a three-dimensional physical environment that is in the field of view of the one or more cameras (Figures 3A-3M), wherein the representation of the field of view is updated over time based on changes in the field of view (paragraph 33: when the virtual ruler is anchored to an object, the headset by default may adjust its display so that it appears to the user to remain fixed to that object in the same orientation, even if the user moves around the move, unless the user provides input to modify that functionality);
a placement user interface element that indicates a location at which a virtual annotation would be placed in the representation of the field of view in response to receiving an annotation placement input (paragraph 31: after the user selects the virtual measurement tool, the user provides input to the headset to specify two points 317 to create a virtual ruler); and
<<a session history user interface element;>>
while displaying the annotation placement user interface:
receiving a set of inputs corresponding to a plurality of requests to annotate the representation of the field of view (paragraph 33: when the virtual ruler is anchored to an object, the headset by default may adjust its display so that it appears to the user to remain fixed to that object in the same orientation, even if the user moves around the move, unless the user provides input to modify that functionality) ; and
in response to receiving the set of inputs, adding a first annotation and a second annotation to the representation of the field of view of the one or more cameras (paragraph 38 and Figure 3I: the virtual ruler 58 is made of two connected linear segments 61, defined by three endpoints 63, where the length of each segment and the sum of the lengths of the two segments are shown);
<<after adding the first annotation and the second annotation to the representation of the field of view of the one or more cameras, receiving an input corresponding to activation of the session history user interface element; >> and
<<in response to receiving the input corresponding to activation of the session history user interface element, displaying at least a portion of a list of annotations that includes the first annotation and the second annotation, including concurrently displaying a representation of the first annotation and a representation of the second annotation.>>
Heinen et al. (US 2020/0312029) discloses a user add new annotations relative to an object in an image and displaying a list of annotations that relates to the object (paragraphs 231 – 237).
Any comments considered necessary by applicant must be submitted no later than the payment of the issue fee and, to avoid processing delays, should preferably accompany the issue fee. Such submissions should be clearly labeled “Comments on Statement of Reasons for Allowance.”
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to JEFFREY J CHOW whose telephone number is (571)272-8078. The examiner can normally be reached 11AM-7PM.
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If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Devona Faulk can be reached at 571-272-7515. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/JEFFREY J CHOW/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2618
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