Ex parte Yamada

• Decision Date: 26 December 2018
• Docket Number: Application 13/084,883,Appeal 2018-005333
• Court: Patent Trial and Appeal Board
• Parties: Ex parte HIROYUKI YAMADA and DAVID BROSKE[1] Technology Center 2400

Ex parte HIROYUKI YAMADA and DAVID BROSKE^[1] Technology Center 2400

Appeal 2018-005333

Application 13/084, 883^[2]

United States Patent and Trademark Office, Patent Trial and Appeal Board

December 26, 2018

FILING DATE: 04/12/2011

Before JAMES R. HUGHES, ERIC S. FRAHM, and MATTHEW J. McNEILL Administrative Patent Judges.

DECISION ON APPEAL

HUGHES, ADMINISTRATIVE PATENT JUDGE.

STATEMENT OF THE CASE

Appellants seek our review under 35 U.S.C. § 134(a) of the Examiner's final decision rejecting claims 1, 2, 5, 8-18 20, and 21. Final Act. 3-18; App. Br. I.^[3] Claims 3, 4, 6, 7, and 19 have been canceled. We have jurisdiction under 35 U.S.C. § 6(b).

We affirm.

Appellants' Invention

The invention generally relates to a game apparatus for executing a game program and displaying on a screen an image generated by a virtual camera set in a virtual space. Spec. ¶ 29. In particular, the displayed image is a stereoscopically visible image comprised of separate left and right images taken from separate views associated with left and right virtual cameras, where an adjustable distance between the left and right virtual cameras determines the sense of perspective of virtual objects in the virtual space. See Spec. ¶¶ 78-80. The game apparatus can change the viewpoint of a user of the game between a first-person viewpoint and a third-person viewpoint based on the position of a reference point for the virtual cameras, such that the first-person viewpoint is based on a reference point associated with a player object controlled by the user, and the third-person viewpoint is based on a reference point other than that associated with the player object. See Spec. ¶¶ 75, 89. When progressing through the game program, the game apparatus can take a screenshot of a stereoscopic image based on a user operation that causes the game apparatus to switch from the third-person to the first-person viewpoint and take and store the screenshot. See Spec. ¶¶91-92, 105-113.

Representative Claim

Independent claim 1, reproduced below, illustrates the claimed subject matter:

1. An image processing apparatus comprising:

a processing system that includes at least one processor coupled to a memory device, the processing system configured to:

receive an input provided by a user to the image processing apparatus;

locate a virtual object within a virtual space;

locate, for a third-person viewpoint of the virtual object, a left virtual camera and a right virtual camera such that the left virtual camera and the right virtual camera are spaced apart from each other within a virtual space by an interval set in accordance with the received input;

in the third-person viewpoint, control the virtual object to change position and/or direction within the virtual space based on accepted input provided by the user while also maintaining the third-person viewpoint of the virtual object with the left virtual camera and the right virtual camera;

while the left virtual camera and the right virtual camera are maintained in the third-person viewpoint, sequentially output, to a display device, stereoscopic viewing images with a disparity that is set in accordance with the received input, each of the stereoscopic viewing images being generated on the basis of an image for a left eye obtained by taking an image of the virtual space with the located left virtual camera in the third-person viewpoint and an image for a right eye obtained by taking an image of the virtual space with the located right virtual camera in the third-person viewpoint;

in response to a single user operation provided by the user to the image processing apparatus 1) adjust the position and/or orientation of the left virtual camera and the right virtual camera from the third-person viewpoint to a first-person viewpoint with respect to the controlled virtual object, and 2) store, to the memory device, at least one first-person stereoscopic viewing image generated using the first-person viewpoint at the disparity that is set in accordance with the received input;

return, from the first-person viewpoint with respect to the controlled virtual object, the left virtual camera and the right virtual camera to the third-person viewpoint without additional user input after completion of the single user operation and the adjustment of the position and/or orientation of the left virtual camera and the right virtual camera from the third-person viewpoint to the first-person viewpoint;

load, from the memory device, the at least one first-person stereoscopic viewing image generated using the first-person viewpoint that was previously stored to the memory device with a corresponding disparity; and

reproduce and output to a display device, irrespective of current input for adjusting the disparity of the sequentially output stereoscopic viewing images, the at least one first-person stereoscopic viewing image,

wherein a viewpoint to view the virtual space is set to the first-person viewpoint for generation of the at least one first-person stereoscopic viewing image for the virtual object and the viewpoint is otherwise set to the third-person viewpoint for a normal time of control of the virtual object.

Rejections on Appeal Claims

1, 2, 5, 8-10, 12, 14-18, 20, and 21 stand rejected under 35 U.S.C. § 103(a) as being unpatentable over Inoue et al. (US 2011/0018868 A1; pub. Jan. 27, 2011) ("Inoue"), XBOX, Fatal Frame II: Crimson Butterfly, Director's Cut (released for Xbox on Nov. 1, 2004) ("Tecmo"), Kiser et al. (US 2001/0035859 A1; pub. Nov. 1, 2001) ("Kiser"), and How to take in-game 3D stereo screenshots in JPS format, 3D Vision Blog (June 20, 2009), https://3dvision-blog.com/83-how-to-take-in-game-3d-stereo-screenshots-in-jps-format/("Belev").

Claim 11 stands rejected under 35 U.S.C. § 103(a) as being unpatentable over Inoue, Tecmo, Kiser, Belev, and Dyke-Wells (US 7, 585, 224; issued Sept. 8, 2009).

Claim 13 stands rejected under 35 U.S.C. § 103(a) as being unpatentable over Inoue, Tecmo, Kiser, Belev, and Zitnick, III et al. (US 2010/0318914 A1; pub. Dec. 16, 2010) ("Zitnick").

ANALYSIS

We have reviewed the Examiner's obviousness rejections in light of Appellants' contentions in the Appeal Brief and Reply Brief that the Examiner has erred. We disagree with Appellants' contentions. Except as noted below, we adopt as our own the findings and reasons set forth by the Examiner regarding the obviousness rejections in the Final Office Action and in the Examiner's Answer in response to Appellants' Appeal Brief. We concur with the Examiner's conclusions regarding the obviousness rejections, and we highlight the following additional points.

Claims 1, 2, 5, and 8-16

Appellants argue the Examiner fails to provide more than a conclusory rationale for explaining why one of ordinary skill in the art would have been motivated to combine the relied upon references, particularly Tecmo and Kiser, for meeting the claim 1 limitation "in response to a single user operation ... 1) adjust the position and/or orientation of the left virtual camera and the right virtual camera from the third-person viewpoint to a first-person viewpoint. . . and 2) store, to the memory device, at least one first-person stereoscopic viewing image . . . ." See App. Br. 16-18.

We disagree with Appellants because the Examiner explains "[o]ne would have been motivated to modify Inoue and Tecmo's joint invention, by incorporating Kiser's invention, to allow the creation of user-defined actions ([0026]), for assisting in automating repetitive sequences ([0032]) Final Act. 9. This rationale is not merely conclusory, but is drawn from the teachings of Kiser. That is, Kiser teaches defining a macro for use in a computer game, where a macro is a list of actions to perform when a particular event occurs, and notes "[t]his is useful for automating repetitive sequences." Kiser ¶ 32. The Examiner properly applies Kiser's teachings to the combination of Inoue and Tecmo by noting that the game described in Tecmo involves a repetitive sequence specifically, switching to a first-person viewfinder mode and taking a picture:

That is, a player must go to Viewfinder mode to take a picture in order to advance through the game as intended. And because the Viewfinder Mode is a main feature of the game, a user will be expected to take a vast amount of pictures throughout the game in a repetitive fashion. Because it is a repetitive activity that a player must perform, it is a macro that one would have been highly inclined to create to arrive at the claimed invention.

Ans. 20; see also Tecmo 10-11 ("Advance through the game, changing between Field Mode and Viewfinder Mode as circumstances dictate. . . . Look through the camera and take pictures of the ghosts and scenery.").

Appellants argue the Examiner fails to provide a reason why one of ordinary skill in the art would have combined the references particularly Tecmo and Kiser, so as to "return, from the first-person viewpoint with respect to the controlled virtual object, the left virtual camera and the right virtual camera to the third-person viewpoint without additional user input after completion of the single user operation," as recited in claim 1. See App. Br. 18-20.

We agree with the Examiner that the same rationale discussed above applies with respect to the claim 1 feature of returning from the first-person viewpoint to the third-person viewpoint "without additional user input after completion of the single user operation." See Ans. 21-22. Specifically, as the Examiner states,

the [Tecmo] game is designed in such a way that a user must switch between these two viewpoints to advance through the game. In realizing this, one of ordinary skill in the art that has created a macro for switching a viewpoint and then

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