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 .
Specification
The disclosure is objected to because of the following informalities:
Paragraph 112, Line 2: A word –be—is needed after “may not”.
Paragraph 217, Line 9: The word “nay” should be replaced with –may--.
Appropriate correction is required.
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, 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, 5-7, 12, 15-18, and 20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Park et al [KR 2014-0106996] (supplied by applicant) in view of Lee et al [KR 2014-0115648] (supplied by applicant).
For claim 1, the electronic device (No. 100) taught by Park includes the following claimed subject matter, as noted, 1) the claimed haptic driver is met by the vibration motor (No. 164), 2) the claimed memory is met by the memory (No. 120) storing instructions (Paragraph 96: The application processor 111 may control execution of various applications stored in memory), and 3) the at least one processor is met by the controller (No. 110) connected to the haptic driver and the memory (Fig. 1), wherein the instructions executed by the processor causes the electronic device to 4) sense playback of haptic content by the electronic device (Paragraph 62: When the input unit 168 receives the haptic signal from the electronic device), and 5) provide the haptic feedback based on the vibration data using the haptic driver (Paragraph 122: the memory 120 provide various haptic effects; Paragraph 62: the input unit may control the actuator of the input unit 168 to vibrate, thereby providing the haptic 909). The Park reference does mention an index (Paragraph 72: the haptic signal may include an index indicating one of at least one haptic pattern representing a pattern of vibration intensity over time) corresponding to a vibration pattern. However, this is not described as corresponding to a combination of minimum unit vibration patterns for the haptic feedback to be combined based on the index.
The combination of unit vibration patterns has been taught in the prior art. The Lee reference, which shares a common inventor and applicant with the Park reference, also controls a terminal apparatus providing a haptic effect (Abstract). More importantly, the Lee reference states (Paragraph 4) that only haptics that generate vibration with simple intensity and time are provided, leaving application makers no choice but to provide only haptics that generate this simple vibration. In the Lee reference, Figure 7 presents three separate haptic patterns (A1-A3) that can be combined to form other, more detailed patterns (B1-C3). This can produce a variety of different haptic patterns having different various intensities and times available to application makers and designers.
The Lee reference presents plain evidence that combinations of simple haptic patterns may be used to produce a variety of more complex haptic patterns that can convey a plurality of intensities over time. And the Park reference also produces haptic effects that may be improved with a variety of outputs. More outputs mean a more diverse effect felt by the user, conveying more diverse senses. It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to use the indices of Park to correspond to a combination of unit vibrations for the purpose of providing more varied and complex outputs available to a user or designer of the electronic device.
For claim 2, the haptic function taught in the Lee reference is expressed as a function named HapticNP(V1,V2,V3), wherein V1-V3 are category variables. Figures 5 and 10 of Lee depict an image corresponding to the haptic content. The content to produce the haptic effect in Park is a bent image (Fig. 9c). Also, the vibration pattern information presented in Figure 7 of Lee depicts combinations of the simple patterns A1-A3 to produce the patterns B1-C3.
For claim 3, the haptic signal of Park may include an index indicating the haptic pattern, an offset of the haptic pattern, a start vibration intensity, an end vibration intensity, a vibration on command, or a vibration off command (Paragraph 161).
For claim 5, the haptic signal of Park may include an index indicating the haptic pattern from a memory (No. 570) to control an actuator (No. 520), previously stored in a mapping table for the indices to be mapped to the pattern (Paragraph 192).
For claim 6, the pattern C1 in Figure 7 of Lee is a combination of two patterns of the same type, in this case A1.
For claim 7, the pattern B1 seen in Figure 7 of Lee is a combination of two patterns of different types, in this case A2 and A3.
For claim 12, the method (Title: method) of operating an electronic device (No. 100) taught by Park comprises the following claimed steps, as noted, 1) sensing playback of haptic content by the electronic device (Paragraph 62: When the input unit 168 receives the haptic signal from the electronic device), and 2) providing the haptic feedback based on the vibration data using the haptic driver (Paragraph 122: the memory 120 provide various haptic effects; Paragraph 62: the input unit may control the actuator of the input unit 168 to vibrate, thereby providing the haptic 909). The Park reference does mention an index (Paragraph 72: the haptic signal may include an index indicating one of at least one haptic pattern representing a pattern of vibration intensity over time) corresponding to a vibration pattern. However, this is not described as corresponding to a combination of minimum unit vibration patterns for the haptic feedback to be combined based on the index.
The claim is interpreted and rejected for the same reasons and rationale as is mentioned in the rejection of claim 1 above.
For claim 15, the haptic signal of Park may include an index indicating the haptic pattern from a memory (No. 570) to control an actuator (No. 520), previously stored in a mapping table for the indices to be mapped to the pattern (Paragraph 192).
For claim 16, the pattern C1 in Figure 7 of Lee is a combination of two patterns of the same type, in this case A1.
For claim 17, the pattern B1 seen in Figure 7 of Lee is a combination of two patterns of different types, in this case A2 and A3.
For claim 18, the non-transitory computer-readable medium having instructions stored thereon (Paragraph 204: the program for one embodiment described in FIGS. 6 to 8 may be comprised of software, hardware or a combination of hardware and software), when executed by a processor (No. 110) of an electronic device (No. 100) causes the processor to execute a method comprising the following claimed steps, as noted, 1) sensing playback of haptic content by the electronic device (Paragraph 62: When the input unit 168 receives the haptic signal from the electronic device), and 2) providing the haptic feedback based on the vibration data using the haptic driver (Paragraph 122: the memory 120 provide various haptic effects; Paragraph 62: the input unit may control the actuator of the input unit 168 to vibrate, thereby providing the haptic 909). The Park reference does mention an index (Paragraph 72: the haptic signal may include an index indicating one of at least one haptic pattern representing a pattern of vibration intensity over time) corresponding to a vibration pattern. However, this is not described as corresponding to a combination of minimum unit vibration patterns for the haptic feedback to be combined based on the index.
The claim is interpreted and rejected for the same reasons and rationale as is mentioned in the rejection of claim 1 above.
For claim 20, the haptic signal of Park may include an index indicating the haptic pattern, an offset of the haptic pattern, a start vibration intensity, an end vibration intensity, a vibration on command, or a vibration off command (Paragraph 161).
Claims 4, 13, 14, and 19 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Park et al in view of Lee et al as applied to claims 1, 12, and 18 above, and further in view of Kim [KR 2014-0004510] (supplied by applicant).
For claim 4, neither the Park reference nor the Lee reference mention a basic pattern that forms a vibration pattern to express an emotion corresponding to the haptic content.
The prior art has taught haptic devices that produce emotional messages corresponding to haptic output. The message service editor system taught by Kim teaches a device having a vibration module (No. 105) and message analyzer (No. 106) that analyzes information of a received message created from another user (Paragraph 42). This message is synchronized with a tactile expression, visual expression, and temporal expression. A control unit (No. 107) that controls the vibration device to vibrate the device corresponding to the emotional message. Furthermore, the system also includes a message creating unit (No. 201) for creating text to be transferred in conjunction with a tactile pattern message generator (No. 202). A combination manager (No. 205) then generates an emotional message by combining one or more of a message, tactile pattern, and visual GUI element (Paragraph 53). The display screen of Kim even includes an emotion message creation interface (No. 501) for emotion message creation.
The Kim reference plainly shows that tactile and haptic effects can be used to convey emotions and even gives the user the ability to create messages with emotions. The Kim reference even allows the user to determine sensation pattern (Paragraph 77). A plurality of patterns can be used to determine whatever emotion the user wants to convey. And both the Park and Lee references contain a plurality of haptic patterns to convey messages. It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to use the haptic patterns of both Park and Lee in order to add emotion selected by the user to convey their message using the patterns at their disposal.
For claim 13, the haptic function taught in the Lee reference is expressed as a function named HapticNP(V1,V2,V3), wherein V1-V3 are category variables. Figures 5 and 10 of Lee depict an image corresponding to the haptic content. The content to produce the haptic effect in Park is a bent image (Fig. 9c). Also, the vibration pattern information presented in Figure 7 of Lee depicts combinations of the simple patterns A1-A3 to produce the patterns B1-C3. However, neither the Park reference nor the Lee reference mention a basic pattern that forms a vibration pattern to express an emotion corresponding to the haptic content.
The claim is interpreted and rejected for the same reasons and rationale as is mentioned in the rejection of claim 4 above.
For claim 14, the haptic signal of Park may include an index indicating the haptic pattern, an offset of the haptic pattern, a start vibration intensity, an end vibration intensity, a vibration on command, or a vibration off command (Paragraph 161).
For claim 19, the haptic function taught in the Lee reference is expressed as a function named HapticNP(V1,V2,V3), wherein V1-V3 are category variables. Figures 5 and 10 of Lee depict an image corresponding to the haptic content. The content to produce the haptic effect in Park is a bent image (Fig. 9c). Also, the vibration pattern information presented in Figure 7 of Lee depicts combinations of the simple patterns A1-A3 to produce the patterns B1-C3. However, neither the Park reference nor the Lee reference mention a basic pattern that forms a vibration pattern to express an emotion corresponding to the haptic content.
The claim is interpreted and rejected for the same reasons and rationale as is mentioned in the rejection of claim 4 above.
Claims 8-11 are objected to as being dependent upon a rejected base claim, but would be allowable if rewritten in independent form including all of the limitations of the base claim and any intervening claims.
The following is a statement of reasons for the indication of allowable subject matter:
Each objected dependent claim mentions some specific element not found in any obvious combination of the prior art. For example, the prior art does not teach or suggest combining the minimum unit vibration patterns identified by an index found in claim 1 wherein the processor also extracts a designated feature point from the content and generates at least one individual index based on a minimum unit vibration pattern corresponding to the feature point to generate a vibration pattern for haptic content. Also, while the Park reference does mention a connector (No. 165) used as an interface for connecting the electronic device and an external device (Paragraph 116), the prior art does not also cause the electronic device to transmit to the external device content comprising pattern identifier information of minimum unit vibration patterns capable of being combined or receiving haptic content from an external device and analyzing an index included in the haptic content to combine individual indices corresponding to pre-stored minimum unit vibration patterns. This is considered unobvious subject matter.
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure.
Park et al [U.S. 10,551,922] offers an optimized and differentiated haptic feedback to a user.
Araujo et al [U.S. 11,003,252] captures haptic content of an object involving a plurality of communication devices.
Park et al [U.S. 12,388,944] teaches feature point extraction in a camera module.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to JOHN A. TWEEL JR whose telephone number is (571)272-2969. The examiner can normally be reached M-F 8-4.
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If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Davetta W Goins can be reached at 571-272-2957. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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JAT
8/4/2026
/JOHN A TWEEL JR/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2689
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