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 .
Claim Status
Claims 1-9, and 12-14 are pending.
Claim 1-6, 9, and 12-14 are rejected.
Claims 7 and 8 are objected.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claim 7 is 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.
Claim 8 is 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.
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, 4, 9, and 12 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Takahashi et al (US 20200225631 A1) hereafter Takahashi in view of Stone (US 20030046615 A1) hereafter Stone
Regarding claim 1, Takahashi teaches a design support device comprising: a project memory to store project data including device information that is information about a device and monitoring information that is information about a monitoring item and is linked to the device information, the project data having information necessary to control the device, stored therein(Para 0073, The aforementioned variables or values stored in the memory may be associated with information of the field device, in addition to a case where each controller 1 is used as a work memory); a specification memory to store, therein, specification data that is data in which a specification serving as a design guideline of a device profile is defined (Para 0178, Such programs can also be recorded in a computer-readable recording medium and be provided as a program product), and device profile generation circuitry to generate a device profile including device-monitoring item information and operation information on the basis of the project data (Para 0064, The terminal device 100 has a function for a user to remotely monitor an object such as a field device), the device-monitoring item information having a description of the monitoring information according to a common format that is not dependent on the device (Para 0064, the terminal device 100 includes, for example, a PC (Personal Computer), but is not limited to a PC. For example, a smart phone, a tablet terminal or the like may be used).
In analogous art, Stone teaches includes an operated monitoring item name defined by a first calculation formula (Para 0026, The MTTF is the time from an initial instant to the next failure event)(“MTTF” teaches “a first calculation formula”); and the operation information having an association of a second calculation formula obtained by modifying the first calculation formula using the monitoring item of the project data (Para 0025, the availability of a service may be calculated as the Mean Time To Failure (MTTF) divided by the sum of the MTTF and the Mean Time To Repair (MTTR), i.e., availability=MTTF/(MTTF+MTTR))(“availability” teaches “a second calculation formula”), with a label attached to a result of operation of the second calculation formula (Para 0040, Larger groups will likely have lower availability ratings)(“availability ratings” teaches “a label”). It would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify Takahashi to include the teaching of Stone. One of ordinary skill in the art would be motivated to implement this modification in order to determine reliability of a system, as taught by Stone (Abs, Exemplary embodiments of the invention provide methods and systems for performing reliability balancing).
Regarding claim 3, Takahashi in view of Stone teaches the design support device according to claim 1, wherein the project data further includes a communication system representing a communication protocol for acquiring the monitoring item, and the device profile generation circuitry generates the device profile further including protocol information that specifies a method of acquiring data of the monitoring item in the device-monitoring item information by the communication system (Takahashi, Para 0018, A communication device includes a display capable of displaying a screen for remotely monitoring the control device, and a control unit for controlling the terminal device).
Regarding claim 4, Takahashi in view of Stone teaches the design support device according to claim 3, wherein the protocol information further includes a method of acquiring a result of operation of the second calculation formula in the operation information (Takahashi, Para 0025, the availability of a service may be calculated as the Mean Time To Failure (MTTF) divided by the sum of the MTTF and the Mean Time To Repair (MTTR), i.e., availability=MTTF/(MTTF+MTTR)).
Regarding claim 9, Takahashi in view of Stone teaches the design support device according to any one of claim 1, further comprising: network analysis circuitry to acquire route information of the device connected via a network (Takahashi, Para 0178, the program can also be provided by downloading from a network via the communication interfaces); and a project data reader to communicate with the device using the route information and read project data held by the device (Takahashi, Para 0179, programmable indicator 4 or the terminal device).
Claim 12 is the computer readable storage medium claim corresponding to the device claim 1, and is analyzed and rejected accordingly.
Claims 2, 5, 6, 13, and 14 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Takahashi et al (US 20200225631 A1) hereafter Takahashi in view of Chassapis et al (US 20050021712 A1) hereafter Chassapis
Regarding claim 2, Takahashi teaches a design support device comprising:
a project memory to store project data including device information that is information about a device, monitoring information that is information about a monitoring item and is linked to the device information (Para 0073, The aforementioned variables or values stored in the memory may be associated with information of the field device, in addition to a case where each controller 1 is used as a work memory), and a communication system representing a communication protocol for acquiring the monitoring item, the project data having information necessary to control the device, stored therein (Para 0018, A communication device includes a display capable of displaying a screen for remotely monitoring the control device, and a control unit for controlling the terminal device); and device profile generation circuitry to generate a device profile including device-monitoring item information and protocol information on the basis of the project data (Para 0064, The terminal device 100 has a function for a user to remotely monitor an object such as a field device), and the protocol information specifying a method of acquiring data of the monitoring item of the device- monitoring item information by the communication system (Para 0063, One or multiple terminal devices 100 can be connected to the programmable indicator 4 via a wired or wireless communication path).
Takahashi does not appear to explicitly teach the device-monitoring item information having a description of the monitoring information according to a common format that is not dependent on the device.
In analogous art, Chassapis teaches the device-monitoring item information having a description of the monitoring information according to a common format that is not dependent on the device (Para 0087, The packet structures follow a common format, and allow the universal controller of the present invention to perform control and monitoring functions on each of the devices connected thereto). It would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify Takahashi to include the teaching of Chassapis. One of ordinary skill in the art would be motivated to implement this modification in order to allow communication with a plurality of devices, as taught by Chassapis (Abs, A multi-user, multi-device remote access system is provided for allowing a plurality of non-homogenous, spatially-distributed devices, such as sensors, actuators, controllers, and other similar devices, to be remotely controlled by a user via a user interface).
Regarding claim 5, Takahashi in view of Chassapis teaches the design support device according to claim 2, wherein the device profile generation circuitry generates the device profile including the protocol information that specifies a method of acquiring data of one of the monitoring items in the device-monitoring item information (Takahashi, Para 0018, A communication device includes a display capable of displaying a screen for remotely monitoring the control device, and a control unit for controlling the terminal device).
Regarding claim 6, Takahashi in view of Chassapis the design support device according to claim 2, wherein the project data further includes information used to group the monitoring items, and the device profile generation circuitry generates the device profile including the protocol information that specifies a method of collectively acquiring data of a plurality of the monitoring items grouped in the device-monitoring item information(Takahashi, Para 0018, A communication device includes a display capable of displaying a screen for remotely monitoring the control device, and a control unit for controlling the terminal device).
Claim 13 is the computer readable storage medium claim corresponding to the device claim 2, and is analyzed and rejected accordingly.
Regarding claim 14, Takahashi in view of Chassapis the design support device according to claim 2, further comprising: network analysis circuitry to acquire route information of the device connected via a network (Takahashi, Para 0178, the program can also be provided by downloading from a network (not shown) via the communication interfaces); and a project data reader to communicate with the device using the route information and read project data held by the device(Takahashi, Para 0179, programmable indicator 4 or the terminal device).
Conclusion
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/B.T.H./Examiner, Art Unit 2166
/VAN H OBERLY/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2166
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