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 .
Continued Examination Under 37 CFR 1.114
A request for continued examination under 37 CFR 1.114, including the fee set forth in 37 CFR 1.17(e), was filed in this application after final rejection. Since this application is eligible for continued examination under 37 CFR 1.114, and the fee set forth in 37 CFR 1.17(e) has been timely paid, the finality of the previous Office action has been withdrawn pursuant to 37 CFR 1.114. Applicant's submission filed on 03/17/2025 has been entered.
Response to Amendment
This Non-Final Rejection is filed in response to Request for Continued Examination (RCE) filed 03/17/2025.
Claims 1, 3, 9, 11, 14, 15, 18, & 20 are amended.
New Claim 21 is added.
Claims 1-7, 9-12, 14-16 & 18-21 remain pending.
Response to Arguments
Argument 1, applicant argues in Applicant Arguments/Remarks Made in an Amendment filed 02/26/2025, pg. 11-13, that Woodings and Imazu fail to teach the primary claim limitation, “while said window is being moved, continuously repeating the steps of: […], displaying a marker on said display to indicate a position of the local peak on said spectrum trace; a position of said marker being thereby updated in real-time in response to said window being moved”.
Response to Argument 1, applicant’s arguments have been considered, however in light of the amendments, a newly found combination of prior art (U.S. Patent Application Publication NO. 20130100154 “Woodings”, U.S. Patent Application Publication NO. 20130207929 “Farmer” in light of U.S. Patent NO. 5617523 “Imazu) is applied to updated rejections.
The examiner notes that Woodings teaches in para. [0053-0054], “User interface system 200 may provide a playback options interface 316 configured to provide playback options such as pause, rewind, advance, live playback of a data stream… Spectral view control group 308 may provide a time scale adjustment control 318 suitable for adjusting the time scale that is displayed. For example, the spectrograph may display a few seconds of data or a few hours of data. As the user adjusts the time scale, the user interface system 200 may update the spectrograph in real-time to show the information for the desired amount of time”. Thus the examiner notes that Woodings teaches the concept of moving a window to encompass more or less of real-time data along the x-axis that represents frequency, wherein such updates to the displayed scale of spectrograph data results in a real-time and therefore continuous update of display information data. The examiner further notes that the BRI for a marker and its position encompasses the display of any data indicating a local peak of a selected range of data, whose display position of numbers would update to indicate where an updated a local peak would be as the user changes the range of displayed data.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
In the event the determination of the status of the application as subject to AIA 35 U.S.C. 102 and 103 (or as subject to pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 102 and 103) is incorrect, any correction of the statutory basis (i.e., changing from AIA to pre-AIA ) for the rejection will not be considered a new ground of rejection if the prior art relied upon, and the rationale supporting the rejection, would be the same under either status.
This application currently names joint inventors. In considering patentability of the claims the examiner presumes that the subject matter of the various claims was commonly owned as of the effective filing date of the claimed invention(s) absent any evidence to the contrary. Applicant is advised of the obligation under 37 CFR 1.56 to point out the inventor and effective filing dates of each claim that was not commonly owned as of the effective filing date of the later invention in order for the examiner to consider the applicability of 35 U.S.C. 102(b)(2)(C) for any potential 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(2) prior art against the later invention.
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(s) 1-7, 9-12, 14-16, 18, & 20-21 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over U.S. Patent Application Publication NO. 20130100154 “Woodings”, U.S. Patent Application Publication NO. 20130207929 “Farmer”, and further in light of U.S. Patent NO. 5617523 “Imazu”.
Claim 1:
Woodings teaches a method for assisting a user in selecting a local peak in a spectrum trace obtained using a RF spectrum analyzer, the method comprising: receiving trace data representing RF signal amplitude values as a function of frequency an obtaining using the RF spectrum analyzer (i.e. para. [0057], Fig. 2-4, “User interface system 200 may provide a display of a frequency versus amplitude plane divided into a grid containing a plurality of frequency-amplitude pairs”, wherein the BRI for trace data encompasses a measurement of the signals strength across a frequency range, which is displayed as data aggregated from spectrum analyzers by user interface system 200), in accordance with a data resolution (i.e. para. [0063], “user interface system 200 may provide marker location to facilitate locating a marker on the display or to following the marker as it is moved left and right across frequencies”, wherein it is noted that the BRI for a data resolution encompasses how in Fig. 4, the graphed spectrum data is displayed on a display device with a resolution),
providing a user interface on said RF spectrum analyzer, comprising a display of said spectrum trace that is generated from said trace data (i.e. para. [0068], Fig. 2-4, “User interface system 200 may also be configured to provide and include instructions for displaying an aggregated display from multiple spectrum analyzers);
from user interaction on said user interface, defining a window along a frequency axis of said spectrum trace, the window comprising a lower edge and an upper edge defined along said frequency axis and visually represented on said display (i.e. para. [0054], Fig. 5, “Spectral view control group 308 may provide a time scale adjustment control 318 suitable for adjusting the time scale that is displayed”, wherein the BRI for a frequency axis encompasses how the user defined time scale x-axis that determines an upper and lower edge of displayed data that may be used to along with the frequency y-axis. The examiner notes that adjusting the time scale would affect the displayed graph window upper and lower bound of displayed amplitude data along the frequency x-axis);
moving said window in real-time along (i.e. para. [0053], “User interface system 200 may provide a playback options interface 316 configured to provide playback options such as pause, rewind, advance, live playback of a data stream”, wherein it is noted that the window data may be moved by a user) said frequency axis in response to a user interaction on said user interface (i.e. para. [0054], “Spectral view control group 308 may provide a time scale adjustment control 318 suitable for adjusting the time scale that is displayed. For example, the spectrograph may display a few seconds of data or a few hours of data. As the user adjusts the time scale, the user interface system 200 may update the spectrograph in real-time to show the information for the desired amount of time”, wherein the BRI for moving along said frequency axis encompasses adjusting a time scale to show more or less data which updates the window display data in real time)
while said window in being moved, continuously repeating the steps (i.e. para. [0054], “the user interface system 200 may update the spectrograph in real-time to show the information for the desired amount of time”, wherein it noted that steps to select and display a window of data is continuously repeated as the display is updated with a new selection of window data) of: selecting a subset of said trace data using said lower edge and said upper edge of said window as defined along said frequency axis (i.e. para. [0095], a window displaying spectral data at a specific time interval. Method 1400 may detect a selected point on a displayed spectrograph and display spectral data information (e.g., frequency, amplitude, popularity) in the window) (i.e. para. [0067], user interface system 200 may provide such information as the average and maximum amplitude for the entire channel; determining a corresponding frequency value for the maximum amplitude value (i.e. para. [0063], “User interface system 200 may provide a marker 402 on the display that may be moved across an axis, such as a frequency axis (typically x-axis). Pertinent information related to that frequency may then be displayed, such as current, average, and maximum amplitude”, wherein a marker may be placed over a maximum amplitude to determine its frequency);
displaying a marker on said display to indicate a position of the local peak on said spectrum trace (i.e. para. [0056], “As shown in FIGS. 3A, 3B and FIG. 5, user interface system 200 may provide a set of user selectable features to allow a user to select from the plurality of features to display, such as the average amplitude 320 or the maximum amplitude 322”, wherein a user may display a marker indicating a local maxima);
a position of said marker being thereby updated in real-time in response to said window being moved (i.e. para. [0054], “As the user adjusts the time scale, the user interface system 200 may update the spectrograph in real-time to show the information for the desired amount of time”, wherein the displayed features such as a maximum amplitude for the selected display window would be updated in real time as a user moves a window).
While Woodings teaches a graphical display for a spectrum trace graph that can be moved in real time and updates to display a max for the local window, Woodings may not explicitly teach a user interaction on said user interface
which drags said window along said frequency axis using a finger gesture on a touchscreen interface
wherein said subset of said trace data comprises trace data for which the frequency values are between a lower frequency value and an upper frequency value as defined respectively by said lower edge and said upper edge of said window on said frequency axis.
However, Farmer teaches
a user interaction on said user interface which drags said window along said frequency axis (i.e. para. [0044], The toolbar 129 may include a graphical representation of a slider (e.g., a directional input) in which the user can place the user's finger over to allow the user to manually transition between one or more frames. For example, the slider may be utilized to move temporally within the graphical representations of the stored data) using a finger gesture on a touchscreen interface (i.e. para. [0034], “A continuous gesture may include, but is not limited to: a single finger touch input, a multi-touch input, a pan input, and so forth. For example, the continuous gesture may include a one finger pan (e.g., an input operation to modify the displayed window transform)”, wherein it is noted that a user may use their finger convey an adjustment that drags the window along a range of frequency axis).
It would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to add a user interaction on said user interface which drags said window along said frequency axis using a finger gesture on a touchscreen interface, to the GUI of Wooding’s real-time spectrum analyzer, with how a user may use a touch screen controls to navigate a frequency axis, as taught by Farmer. One would have been motivated to combine touch screen finger controls for navigating a waveform of Farmer with the real-time and continuous peak analysis of trace waveform data of Woodings, and would have had a reasonable expectation of success in doing so, as the combination may simplify the user experience in establishing an understanding of the viewed data.
While Woodings-Farmer may teach touch screen controls for selecting and continuously updating a subset of a waveform to be analyzed and displayed to a user in real-time, and how a user may adjust a time scale to define a window along a frequency axis of said spectrum trace, wherein the window comprises a lower edge and an upper edge defined along said frequency axis and visually represented on said display and selecting a subset of said trace data along said frequency axis, Woodings-Farmer may not explicitly teach
wherein said subset of said trace data comprises trace data for which the frequency values are between a lower frequency value and an upper frequency value as defined respectively by said lower edge and said upper edge of said window on said frequency axis
However, Imazu teaches
wherein said subset of said trace data comprises trace data for which the frequency values are between a lower frequency value and an upper frequency value as defined respectively by said lower edge and said upper edge of said window on said frequency axis (i.e. Col. 2, lines 1-12, Fig. 2, “in order to facilitate observation of a peak (dip) of a spectrum within a desired frequency range displayed on a display device, a desired frequency range in a measurement frequency region is set as a zone, the zone can be horizontally moved in the measurement frequency region, the zone width is also variable”, wherein it is noted that a displayed subset of trace data may consist of displayed between a lower and upper frequency width that may be adjusted by a user)
It would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to add wherein said subset of said trace data comprises trace data for which the frequency values are between a lower frequency value and an upper frequency value as defined respectively by said lower edge and said upper edge of said window on said frequency axis, to the GUI of Wooding-Farmer’s spectrum analyzer, with how a user may set a subset of trace data by setting width defined in the frequency axis that in turn defines a lower and upper edge of a frequency value, as taught by Imazu. One would have been motivated to combine Imazu with Woodings-Farmer, and would have had a reasonable expectation of success in doing so, as the combination provide greater user granularity and control when analyzing trace data.
Claim 2:
Woodings, Farmer, and Imazu teach the method as claimed in claim 1.
Wooding further teaches further comprising: displaying a marker on said display at said corresponding frequency value (i.e. para. [0063], “User interface system 200 may provide a marker 402 on the display that may be moved across an axis, such as a frequency axis (typically x-axis)”, wherein user may move the marker to the maximum amplitude).
Claim 3:
Woodings, Farmer, and Imazu teach the method as claimed in claim 1.
Wooding further teaches wherein said step of defining a window further comprises: displaying a window at an arbitrary position along the frequency axis, said window having a predetermined width between said first edge and said second edge (i.e. para. [0051], Fig. 2, “user interface system may provide a default display option based on pre-selected options selected by the system or by a user prior to utilizing the user interface system to display and manipulate spectral data”, wherein in an embodiment, Fig. 3 of the user interface system 200 may be a predetermined display of spectral view 302 having a default first and second edge of data displayed);
Claim 4:
Woodings, Farmer, and Imazu teach the method as claimed in claim 3,
Wooding further teaches
wherein said width of said window is fixed (i.e. para. [0072], Fig. 8, “a lock icon 828 for locking a time interval on the time interval indicator 824.”, wherein the user may lock the time interval into a fixed view).
Claim 5:
Woodings, Farmer, and Imazu teach the method as claimed in claim 3.
Wooding further teaches wherein said width of said window is adjustable (i.e. para. [0054], Spectral view control group 308 may provide a time scale adjustment control 318 suitable for adjusting the time scale that is displayed. For example, the spectrograph may display a few seconds of data or a few hours of data. As the user adjusts the time scale, the user interface system 200 may update the spectrograph in real-time to show the information for the desired amount of time) and wherein said step of defining a window further comprises: from user interaction on said user interface, moving a position of at least one edge of the window along said frequency axis (i.e. para. [0053], User interface system 200 playback options interface 316 may be configured to display instantaneous data, and allow a user to pause the display, rewind the data to review previous data segment, and to advance forward or skip to a later data segment).
Claim 6:
Woodings, Farmer, and Imazu teach the method as claimed in claim 1.
Wooding further teaches
wherein said width of said window is variable (i.e. para. [0054], Spectral view control group 308 may provide a time scale adjustment control 318 suitable for adjusting the time scale that is displayed) and wherein said step of defining a window further comprises: defining positions of the lower edge and the upper edge of the window from a user interaction on said user interface in which the user draws the window on the display (i.e. para. [0054], the spectrograph may display a few seconds of data or a few hours of data. As the user adjusts the time scale, the user interface system 200 may update the spectrograph in real-time to show the information for the desired amount of time).
Claim 7:
Woodings, Farmer, and Imazu teach the method as claimed in claim 1.
Wooding further teaches
wherein said steps of selecting a subset, determining a maximum of said amplitude values, determining a corresponding frequency value and outputting said maximum amplitude value are conducted upon an indication that said window is at a chosen position along said frequency axis (i.e. para. [0063], User interface system 200 may provide a marker 402 on the display that may be moved across an axis, such as a frequency axis (typically x-axis). Pertinent information related to that frequency may then be displayed, such as current, average, and maximum amplitudes).
Claim 9:
Woodings, Farmer, and Imazu teach the method as claimed in claim 1.
Wooding further teaches
wherein said display shows said spectrum trace with a display resolution that is lower than said data resolution of said trace data (i.e. para. [0069], “User interface system 200 may provide a magnification function configured to and including instructions to magnify a selected area of the spectrum analyzer display. When analyzing spectrum analyzer data, it may be useful to examine a small area of data in greater detail”, wherein it is noted in Fig. 6 that the user may choose to adjust the spectrum trace devices’ display resolution of the bandwidth resolution to a lower display resolution than that of an initially displayed resolution as seen in Fig. 4. Wherein the GUI display may be zoomed in to display a more detailed view of certain amplitude peaks that represent a lower resolution compared to a whole data resolution of the spectrum trace data)
wherein said subset of said trace data is selected on the lower resolution spectrum trace (i.e. para. [0069], User interface system 200 may provide a user with an overview when the user interface is zoomed in displaying a detailed view);
further comprising:
in response to a user interaction on said user interface to release said window (i.e. para. [0078], “User interface system 200 may allow a note to be embedded after receipt of a pause selection, indicating a desire to pause spectral data collection”, wherein the BRI for a user interaction to release said window encompasses a pause interaction that releases the window from being continuously updated with playback data):
selecting a subset of said trace data user said lower edge and said upper edge of said window as defined along said frequency axis such that said subset of said trace data preserves said data resolution of said trace data (i.e. para. [0053], “User interface system 200 may provide a playback options interface 316 configured to provide playback options such as pause, rewind, advance, live playback of a data stream and the like”, wherein a user may pause the trace data playback after the user has adjusted a display resolution to focus on a smaller portion of the trace data, thus preserving the resolution of the data); and
outputting said maximum amplitude value and said corresponding frequency value on said display (i.e. para. [0084], Magnified view may display an enlarged view of the subset of data as well as display additional information concerning the subset of data (such as average, current, and maximum amplitudes of the frequency/channel being magnified). User interface system may provide a draggable icon such as a magnifying glass icon configured to and including instructions to enlarge an area of data over which the icon is placed, or a clickable icon configured to enlarge an area of data over which, for example a mouse arrow is place after clicking the icon).
Claim 10:
Woodings, Farmer, and Imazu teach the method as claimed in claim 1.
Wooding further teaches
wherein said user interface continuously receives and displays new trace data measured by the RF spectrum analyzer (i.e. para. [0054], as the user adjusts the time scale, the user interface system 200 may update the spectrograph in real-time to show the information for the desired amount of time), and after the window is defined, continuously repeating steps of: determining an updated amplitude value at said frequency value; and outputting said updated amplitude value (i.e. para. [0063], “User interface system 200 may provide a marker 402 on the display that may be moved across an axis, such as a frequency axis (typically x-axis). Pertinent information related to that frequency may then be displayed, such as current, average, and maximum amplitudes”, wherein as the user adjusts the view, the updated pertinent information is output for display).
Claim 11:
Claim 11 is a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium claim reciting similar limitations to Claim 1 and is rejected for similar reasons.
Claim 12:
Claim 12 is a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium claim reciting similar limitations to Claim 2 and is rejected for similar reasons.
Claim 13:
Claim 13 is a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium claim reciting similar limitations to Claim 8 and is rejected for similar reasons.
Claim 14:
Claim 14 is a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium claim reciting similar limitations to Claim 9 and is rejected for similar reasons.
Claim 15:
Claim 15 is a device claim reciting similar limitations to Claim 1 and is rejected for similar reasons.
Woodings further teaches
an IQ data acquisition device and a digital signal processing module for measuring trace data representing RF signal amplitude values as a function of frequency (i.e. para. [0049], “Embodiments of a user interface system 200 may further include software comprising a software interface for remotely or locally displaying and analyzing received spectral data on a computing device received from a spectrum analyzer”, wherein it is noted that User interface system 200 may provide a marker 402 on the display that may be moved across an axis, such as a frequency axis (typically x-axis)); a processing unit receiving the trace data (i.e. para. [0132], the present invention may employ various integrated circuit components, e.g., memory elements, digital signal processing elements)
Claim 16:
Claim 16 is a device claim reciting similar limitations to Claim 2 and is rejected for similar reasons.
Claim 18:
Claim 18 is a device claim reciting similar limitations to Claim 8 and is rejected for similar reasons.
Claim 20:
Claim 20 is a method claim reciting similar limitations to Claim 1 and is rejected for similar reasons.
Claim 21:
Woodings, Farmer, and Imazu teach the method as claimed in claim 1,
Woodings further teaches
wherein said display shows said spectrum trace with a display resolution that is lower than said data resolution of said trace data (i.e. para. [0069], “User interface system 200 may provide a magnification function configured to and including instructions to magnify a selected area of the spectrum analyzer display. When analyzing spectrum analyzer data, it may be useful to examine a small area of data in greater detail”, wherein it is noted in Fig. 6 that the user may choose to adjust the spectrum trace devices’ display resolution of the bandwidth resolution to a lower display resolution than that of an initially displayed resolution as seen in Fig. 4. Wherein the GUI display may be zoomed in to display a more detailed view of certain amplitude peaks that represent a lower resolution compared to a whole data resolution of the spectrum trace data).
Claim(s) 19 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over U.S. Patent Application Publication NO. 20130100154 “Woodings”, U.S. Patent Application Publication NO. 20130207929 “Farmer”, and further in light of U.S. Patent NO. 5617523 “Imazu”, as rejected above in claim 15, and further in light of U.S. Patent NO. 10236031 “Gurijala”.
Claim 19:
Woodings, Farmer, and Imazu teach the RF spectrum analyzer device as claimed in claim 15.
Woodings, Farmer, and Imazu may not explicitly teach
wherein the digital signal processing unit comprises a DSP hardware acceleration unit.
However, Gurijala teaches
wherein the digital signal processing unit comprises a DSP hardware acceleration unit (i.e. Col. 9, lines 7-9, Fig. 5, The embedder software code may be compiled to run in an audio-card DSP or in FPGA/DSP acceleration hardware).
It would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to add wherein the digital signal processing unit comprises a DSP hardware acceleration unit Woodings-Farmer-Imazu’s spectrum analyzer interface, and wherein the digital signal processing unit comprises a DSP hardware acceleration unit, as taught by Gurijala. One would have been motivated to combine Gurijala with Woodings-Farmer-Imazu, and would have had a reasonable expectation of success in doing so, as the combination would increase the efficiency of the computing system by orders of magnitude.
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure.
U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 20210022027 “Khoshgard” teaches in para. [0017], that network providers, for example, Internet service providers, can adjust a resolution parameter or other such parameter to control the resolution mode to zoom in or zoom out on different frequency ranges to view the power spectrum of the input communications signal for those frequency ranges… the resolution mode can be used to program a decimation filter or other appropriate filter, which can be used to zoom in or zoom out on the spectrum
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to DAVID H TAN whose telephone number is (571)272-7433. The examiner can normally be reached M-F 7:30-4:30.
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If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Cesar Paula can be reached on (571) 272-4128. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/D.T./Examiner, Art Unit 2145
/JASON T EDWARDS/Examiner, Art Unit 2145