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
Specification
The disclosure is objected to because of the following minor informalities:
The phrase “Preio” appears first in ¶ [31] of the Specification (as published0 and throughout the Specification. “Preio” is neither a well-known terminology nor defined by the Applicant.
Appropriate correction is required.
Drawings
Fig. 2 is objected to because the term “Perio” (element 2) has not been defined, therefore, not clear as to its meaning. 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 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)(1) the claimed invention was patented, described in a printed publication, or in public use, on sale or otherwise available to the public before the effective filing date of the claimed invention.
Claims 1-7, 9-10, and 14-20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by Yellin et al., USPGPUB 2021/0329090 (hereinafter “Yellin”).
Regarding claim 1, Yellin discloses a method comprising:
determining, for a first set of digital content to be provided to a user device (User device 24 as shown in exemplary Fig. 1, connected to a network 40, to receive content from sources 36; ¶ [77]), (i) whether to establish network connections for obtaining data of the first set (¶¶ [77]-[81]; and based on prefetch policy as described in ¶¶ [146]-[153]) and (ii) a connection time indicating when to establish the network connections (Connection type/ time as determined by the policy, ¶¶ [146]-[153]);
establishing each of the network connections at the respective connection time (¶¶ [77]-[81], [146]-[153]);
determining, for at least a portion of the first set of digital content, (i) whether to preload an item of the first set of digital content using an established network connection (Preloading/ Prefetching is based on the policies described in ¶¶ [146]-[153]) and (ii) a preloading time indicating when to preload the digital content item (¶¶ [146]-[153]), [192], [220]);
preloading one or more items of the first set of digital content using an established network connection at the respective preloading time (¶¶ [146]-[153]), [192], [255]);
determining, for a previously stored set of digital content, (i) pre-processing operations for an item of the previously stored set of digital content (¶¶ [847]-[850]) and (ii) a pre-processing time indicating when to perform the pre-processing operations on the previously stored item, wherein the previously stored set of digital content includes the preloaded one or more items of the first set of digital content (¶¶ [847]-[850]); and
providing one or more pre-processed items of the previously stored set of digital content to the user device (¶¶ [128], [847]-[850]).
Regarding claim 2: Yellin discloses wherein establishing each of the network connections at the respective connection time comprises:
establishing a data transfer channel between the user device and a data source, wherein the data source includes a portion of the first set of digital content (¶¶ [80], [147], [320]).
Regarding claim 3, Yellin discloses wherein preloading one or more items of the first set of digital content at the respective preloading time comprises:
storing header data of the first set of digital content in memory of the user device (¶ [281]).
Regarding claim 4, Yellin discloses wherein preloading one or more items of the first set of digital content at the respective preloading time comprises:
storing a first frame of data from the first set of digital content in memory of the user device (¶ [211]).
Regarding claim 5, Yellin discloses wherein preloading one or more items of the first set of digital content at the respective preloading time comprises:
storing a first set of data frames from the first set of digital content in memory of the user device (¶ [211]).
Regarding claim 6, Yellin discloses wherein determining one or more of the network connections, preloading of the one or more items, or the pre-processing operations comprises:
obtaining data indicating user behavior (¶¶ [173], [219], [227]; and determining, using the obtained data, one or more actions (¶¶ [211], [403], [591], [1010])).
Regarding claim 7, Yellin discloses wherein obtaining the data indicating user behavior comprises:
obtaining data indicating a rate of content requests by the device (¶¶ [77], [546]-[550], [552]-[553], [591]), and wherein determining the one or more actions comprises:
determining, using the obtained data indicating the rate of content requests, to establish the network connections (¶¶ [77], [546]-[550], [552]-[553], [591]; Configuring MCD, and adaptive prefetch per ¶¶ [[557]-[561]).
Regarding claim 9, Yellin discloses wherein determining to establish the network connections using the obtained data indicating the rate of content requests comprises:
determining a first amount of network connections for data indicating a first rate of content requests and a second amount of network connections for data indicating a second rate of content requests, wherein the first amount of network connections is greater than the second amount of network connections, and wherein the first rate of content requests is greater than the second rate of content requests ([219], [255]).
Regarding claim 10, Yellin discloses:
determining an estimated consumption time of content playing on the user device (¶¶ [1272]- [1276]), wherein determining (i) whether to preload an item of the first set of digital content using an established network connection or (ii) a preloading time indicating when to preload the digital content item comprises:
comparing the estimated consumption time with a remaining consumption time (¶¶ [1272]- [1276]); and
determining, using the comparison, (i) whether to preload an item of the first set of digital content using an established network connection or (ii) a preloading time indicating when to preload the digital content item (¶¶ [1272]- [1276]).
Computer program product of claims 14-19 recite similar features as those of the methods of claims 1-6, effectuating the same, therefore, are rejected by the same analysis.
The system of claim 20 recites similar features as those of the method of claim 1, effectuated by the same, therefore, are rejected by the same analysis.
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.
Claim 8 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Yellin, in view of Azout et al., USPGPUB 2018/0365270 (hereinafter “Azout”).
Regarding claim 8, Yellin discloses a context aware environment by obtaining the data indicating the rate of content requests by the device (e.g. scrolling/ rate of access requests, See claim 7). Yellin is not explicit in obtaining data indicating a swipe speed of a user controlling the device.
However, Azout discloses a method, system, and computer program product for context aware media browsing, wherein the user behavior is monitored and content is prefetched/ preloaded (Figs. 7-9 and corresponding descriptions) based on obtaining data indicating a swipe speed of a user controlling the device (¶¶ [1], [26]-[27], [91]).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, to modify the system of Yellin with Azout’s teachings in order to accommodate the ubiquitously available haptic technology in proving best user experience to users browsing content.
Claims 11-13 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Yellin, in view of Huang, USPGPUB 2020/0410034 (hereinafter “Huang”).
Regarding claim 11, Yellin is not explicit in determining whether to perform predemuxing separate from prerendering. Note: predemuxing is defined by the Applicant as “converting preloaded or cached data” (¶ [58] of the Specification as published).
However, Huang discloses a method, system, and computer program product for video processing wherein the process of rendering/ prerendering is stopped and a conversion/ converting preloaded or cached data (predemuxing) is performed separate from prerendering (¶ [105] as further detailed in Fig. 7, ¶¶ [92]-[105])
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, to modify the system of Yellin with Huang’s teachings in order to speed up the flow by not waiting for the cached data to accumulate/ preload to a preset (one) period (See Huang: ¶ [104] for motivation.
Regarding claim 12, the system of Yellin and Huang discloses wherein determining whether to perform predemuxing separate from prerendering (as analyzed in claim 11) comprises:
obtaining context data (Yellin: ¶ [129]; Huang: ¶ [43]; the context of network condition); and
determining, using the context data, whether to perform predemuxing separate from prerendering (Yellin: ¶ [129]; Huang: ¶¶ [43], [92]-[105]).
Regarding claim 13, the system of Yellin and Huang discloses wherein obtaining the context data comprises:
obtaining an indication of processing bandwidth of the user device (Yellin: ¶¶ [295], [340], [539]), and wherein determining whether to perform predemuxing separate from prerendering comprises:
determining, using the indication of processing bandwidth of the user device, whether to perform predemuxing separate from prerendering (Yellin: ¶¶ [129], [295], [340], [539]; Huang: ¶¶ [43], [92]-[105]).
Contacts
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to JAMES R MARANDI whose telephone number is (571)270-1843. The examiner can normally be reached Monday-Friday 8-7 ET flex.
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If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Nathan J Flynn can be reached at 571-272-1915. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/JAMES R MARANDI/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2421
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