Appeal 2007-0337
Application 09/996,200
Thomas, the claimed invention stores distortion information to permit
extracting a selected distortion component (Br. 10; Reply Br. 1-3).
The Examiner responds that Thomas in Fig. 3 teaches distorting the
corner portion of the image when the user grabs a corner portion with the
mouse. As a result, all four corners are similarly distorted. Such a feature,
according to the Examiner, fully meets the disputed limitations of claim 1
(Answer 17-18).
We will sustain the Examiner’s rejection of claim 1. We agree with
the Examiner that Thomas’ object animation fully meets the claim,
particularly Thomas’ animated scaling operation. As best seen in Fig. 3,
when the user grabs a corner of the image, the mouse controls the part of the
object that is grabbed, but the bulk of the image lags behind. This animation
effectively distorts the image to exaggerate the effect of scaling the image.
Significantly, the image distortion at one corner caused by moving the
mouse is essentially duplicated at the other three corners of the image
(Thomas 5; Fig. 3).
To achieve this distortion, Thomas applies a warping transformation
to the coordinate system and draws the image on the warped coordinate
system (Thomas 6). For each frame of interaction, warp vectors are
calculated and placed at vertexes of the object. A zero magnitude vector is
placed at the vertex that is grabbed by the mouse (Thomas 7; Figs. 7-8).
Thomas’ warp vector calculation, in our view, calculates a distortion
by using plural points local to at least one area of the image as claimed. In
the image shown in Fig. 3, for example, the extent of mouse movement
essentially dictates the amount of distortion. By moving the mouse in an
area adjacent to the corner region of the image, Thomas’ distortion
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