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and the fee set forth in 37 CFR 1.17(e) has been timely paid, the finality of the previous Office action has been withdrawn pursuant to 37 CFR1.114. Applicant's submission filed on 11/28/2025 has been entered.
Response to Amendment
The amendment filed 11/28/2025 has been entered. Claims 1-8, 10-21 remain pending in the application. Claims 4, 5, 12-16 are withdrawn from consideration.
Response to Arguments
Applicant’s arguments with respect to rejections under 35 USC 103 have been considered but are moot because the new ground of rejection does not rely on any reference applied in the prior rejection of record for any teaching or matter specifically challenged in the argument.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
The text of those sections of Title 35, U.S. Code not included in this action can be found in a prior Office action.
Claim(s) 1-3, 6, 17-20 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over of US20250127362A1 Ding et a ("Ding") in view of US20220111522A1 Ko et al ("Ko") and Classification of dog barks: a machine learning approach, Molnar et al, Springer-Verlag 2008.
As per claims 1 and 17, Ding teaches the limitations of the method and product:
A method of controlling a robot vacuum cleaner: detecting a Ding at least the abstract, [0110], [0294], [0110], [0157], [0304]).
Ding does not disclose:
receiving, by a plurality of ultra wideband (UWB) antennas, a UWB signal from a first UWB device; obtaining location information about a pet based on the UWB signal received by the plurality of UWB antennas; moving the robot vacuum cleaner based on the obtained location information so that the robot vacuum cleaner is located to monitor the pet;
Ko teaches the aforementioned limitations (Ko at least the abstract, [0028]: “UWB antenna mounted on the moving object…recognize the position of the moving object, and control the main drive unit to move the main body based on the position of the moving object”, [0248]: “moving object…animal…pet”, [0025]: “the controller may control the drive unit to rotate or move the main body toward the sensed position of the moving object with an operation corresponding to the sensing.”)
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine Ding with the aforementioned limitations taught by Ko with a reasonable expectation of success. One of ordinary skill would have been motivated to combine these references in order to monitor a pet for safety (Ko [0014]).
Ding does not disclose detecting a barking sound of a pet.
Molnar teaches the aforementioned limitation (Molnar at least the abstract).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine Ding with the aforementioned limitations taught by Molnar with a reasonable expectation of success. One of ordinary skill would have been motivated to combine these references in order to analyze and identify the behavior of dogs.
As per claim 2, Ding in combination with the other reference teaches the invention as described above. Ding does not disclose:
moving the robot vacuum cleaner to a periphery of the pet based on the obtained location information about the pet.
Ko teaches the aforementioned limitation (Ko at least [0028], [0025],[0248], [0033-0035]) .
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine Ding with the aforementioned limitations taught by Ko with a reasonable expectation of success. The motivation to combine these references is the same as above in claim 1.
As per claim 3, Ding in combination with the other reference teaches the invention as described above. Ding does not disclose:
first UWB device is mounted on the pet, and the obtaining the location information about the pet comprises: identifying a location of the first UWB device; and identifying the location of the first UWB device as a location of the pet.
Ko teaches the aforementioned limitation (Ko at least [0028], [0248]).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine Ding with the aforementioned limitations taught by Ko with a reasonable expectation of success. The motivation to combine these references is the same as above in claim 1.
As per claim 6, Ding in combination with the other reference teaches the invention as described above. Ding does not disclose:
the plurality of UWB antennas are provided in a main body of the robot vacuum cleaner.
Ko teaches the aforementioned limitation (Ko at least FIG. 1, 103, [0055]: “UWB sensors”).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine Ding with the aforementioned limitations taught by Ko with a reasonable expectation of success. The motivation to combine these references is the same as above in claim 1.
As per claim 18, Ding in combination with the other reference teaches the invention as described above. Ding does not disclose:
execute the at least one instruction to control the moving assembly to move the robot vacuum cleaner to a periphery of the pet based on the obtained location information about the pet.
Ko teaches the aforementioned limitation (Ko at least [0028], [0248], [0033-0035]).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine Ding with the aforementioned limitations taught by Ko with a reasonable expectation of success. The motivation to combine these references is the same as above in claim 1.
As per claim 19, Ding in combination with the other reference teaches the invention as described above. Ding does not disclose:
first UWB device is mounted on the pet, and the at least one processor is further configured to execute the at least one instruction to: identify the location of the first UWB device, and identify the location of the first UWB device as a location of the pet.
Ko teaches the aforementioned limitation (Ko at least [0028], [0248]).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine Ding with the aforementioned limitations taught by Ko with a reasonable expectation of success. The motivation to combine these references is the same as above in claim 1.
As per claim 20, Ding in combination with the other reference teaches the invention as described above. Ding additionally teaches:
A non-transitory computer-readable recording medium having stored therein a program performing the method of claim 1 in a computer. (Ding at least [0019])
Claim(s) 7 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Ding, Ko, and Molnar in view of US20200029768A1 Mellinger et al ("Mellinger").
Regarding claim 7, Ding in combination with the other references teaches the invention as described above. Ding does not disclose:
plurality of UWB antennas are provided in a charger of the robot vacuum cleaner.
However, Mellinger teaches the aforementioned limitation (Mellinger at least [0028]: "hub device…wireless communications device", [0029]: “plurality of carrier signals, frequencies or frequency bands”).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine Ding with the aforementioned limitations taught by Mellinger with a reasonable expectation of success. One of ordinary skill would have been motivated to combine these references in order to improve the effectiveness of cleaning operations (Mellinger [0018]).
Claim(s) 8, 11 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Ding, Ko, and Molnar in view of US20240214670A1 Pak et al ("Pak").
Regarding claim 8, Ding in combination with the other reference teaches the invention as described above. Ding does not disclose:
monitoring of the pet comprises: photographing the pet using a camera of the robot vacuum cleaner, to thereby produce a photographed image and transmitting the photographed image to an external device.
However, Pak teaches the aforementioned limitation (Pak at least [0049-0050]: "nose print of a companion animal is newly registered…transmitted to the server and the identification information…previously stored…images").
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine Ding with the aforementioned limitations taught by Pak with a reasonable expectation of success. One of ordinary skill would have been motivated to combine these references in order to improve image quality for identifying a companion animal (Pak abstract).
Regarding claim 11, Ding in combination with the other reference teaches the invention as described above. Ding does not disclose:
inputting monitoring information collected by an operation of monitoring the pet into a model; and obtaining identification information about the pet from the model.
However, Pak teaches the aforementioned limitation (Pak at least the abstract: "images…identification of the companion animals…artificial intelligence-based learning").
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine Ding with the aforementioned limitations taught by Pak with a reasonable expectation of success. The motivation to combine these references is the same as above in claim 8.
Claim(s) 10 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Ding, Ko, and Molnar in view of US20210200234A1 Song ("Song").
Regarding claim 10, Ding in combination with the other reference teaches the invention as described above. Ding does not disclose:
determining a cleaning region of the robot vacuum cleaner based on the obtained location information about the pet.
However, Song teaches the aforementioned limitation (Song at least [0020]: "setting a travelling path of the robot vacuum cleaner based on the shape information and size information related to the object").
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine Ding with the aforementioned limitations taught by Song with a reasonable expectation of success. One of ordinary skill would have been motivated to combine these references in order to efficiently detect and identify objects (Song [0010]).
Claim(s) 21 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Ding, Ko, and Molnar in view of US20150181840A1 Tupin et al ("Tupin").
Regarding claim 21, Ding in combination with the other reference teaches the invention as described above. Ding does not disclose:
receive expected location information about the pet from a second UWB device that includes at least one microphone, wherein the second UWB device is configured to generate the expected location information about the pet based on a barking sound detected by the at least one microphone.
However, Tupin teaches the aforementioned limitation (Tupin at least [0075]: "microphone… barking", [0229]: “using on or more devices…external to the DMS”).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine Ding with the aforementioned limitations taught by Tupin with a reasonable expectation of success. One of ordinary skill would have been motivated to combine these references in order to monitor an animal (Tupin abstract).
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to OLIVER TAN whose telephone number is (703)756-4728. The examiner can normally be reached M-F 10-7.
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/O.T./ Examiner, Art Unit 3669
/NAVID Z. MEHDIZADEH/ Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 3669