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and the fee set forth in 37 CFR 1.17(e) has been timely paid, the finality of the previous Office action has been withdrawn pursuant to 37 CFR 1.114.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 05/26/2026 has been entered.
Response to Amendment
The Examiner acknowledges the receipt of the Applicant’s amendment filed on 05/26/2026. Claims 1, and 4 have been amended. Claims 3 and 5 have been canceled. Claims 1-2, 4, and 6-7 are currently pending in the present application.
Response to Arguments
Applicant’s arguments, see Applicant Arguments/Remarks, filed 05/26/2026, with respect to the rejection(s) of claims 1-2, 4, and 6-7 have been fully considered and are persuasive. Therefore, the rejection has been withdrawn. However, upon further consideration, a new ground(s) of rejection is made in view of Choi et al. (US 9,571,974 B2 herein Choi), and further in view of Wagner et al. (US 11,195,072 B2 herein Wagner).
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.
The factual inquiries for establishing a background for determining obviousness under 35 U.S.C. 103 are summarized as follows:
1. Determining the scope and contents of the prior art.
2. Ascertaining the differences between the prior art and the claims at issue.
3. Resolving the level of ordinary skill in the pertinent art.
4. Considering objective evidence present in the application indicating obviousness or nonobviousness.
Claims 1-2, 4, and 6-7 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Choi et al. (US 9,571,974 B2 herein Choi), and further in view of Wagner et al. (US 11,195,072 B2 herein Wagner).
Regarding claim 1, Choi teaches a wireless sensor module (read as sensor module 5440) (Choi – Figure 54, column 47 lines 24-32), comprising:
a plurality of terminals, each configured to be detachably connected to a respective sensor (read as sensor hub 180 may be connected at least one sensor, activate necessary sensors and collect sensor information to provide it to the processor 120) (Choi – column 10 lines 4-18);
a sensor interface integrated circuit (IC) for driving a sensor connected to at least one of the plurality of terminals (read as interface 5470) (Choi – Figure 54, column 49 lines 26-33);
a control IC that controls the sensor interface IC to drive the connected sensor and obtains sensing data of the connected sensor (read as sensor module 5440 may include a control circuit for controlling at least one sensor) (Choi – Figure 54, column 48 liens 40-62); and
a wake-up IC configured to receive a wake-up signal from at least one external device while the control IC is in a standby state (read as control the sensor module 5440 separately from the AP 5410 and thus may control the sensor module 5440 while the AP 5410 is in a sleep state) (Choi – Figure 54, column 48 lines 40-62),
wherein the control IC is configured to transmit the obtained sensing data to the at least one external device based on a Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) method (read as processor may operate the first communication module to at least one of transmit and receive a specified pattern signal based on a Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) (Choi – column 15 lines 1-4),
wherein the control IC is configured to selectively drive only one of a plurality of sensors connected to the plurality of terminals based on parameter information received from the at least one external device (read as the processor may obtain changed state information by using sensor information obtained by at least one sensor based on sensor information corresponding to a specified state) (Choi – column 29 lines 52-56);
wherein the wake-up IC is configured to broadcast an advertising signal including information about the sensor connected to the at least one of the plurality of terminals (read as may output a specified signal such as an advertisement packet; may transmit an advertisement packet) (Choi – column 16 lines 24-32, column 16 lines 52-62).
However, Choi fails to teach wherein the wake-up IC is configured to including information about the sensor connected to the at least one of the plurality of terminals while the control IC is in the standby state, and wherein the wake-up IC is configured to, upon receiving the wake-up signal from the at least one external device, activate the control IC from the standby state to an operating state.
In the related art, Wagner teaches wherein the wake-up IC is configured to including information about the sensor connected to the at least one of the plurality of terminals while the control IC is in the standby state, and wherein the wake-up IC is configured to, upon receiving the wake-up signal from the at least one external device, activate the control IC from the standby state to an operating state (read as a method 400 for performing a low-power wake-up and data interrogation (by the RFID reader 200), according to an embodiment. The method 400 may include an instruction set to communicate with a population of N RFID tags 500 that may already be in a low-power sleep state; RFID reader 200 may be configured such that it does not disturb the RFID tag’s hibernation or “sleep” state; following this initialization, when the RFID reader 200 is ready to begin acquiring data, it iterates through each of the N tags and instructs/commands one or more of the RFID tags 500 to wake up, as at 404) (Wagner – Figure 4, column 7 lines 32-60).
Therefore it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date to incorporate the teachings of Wagner into the teachings of Choi for the purpose of the wakeup period to be adjusted to provide the desired latency in decoding and acting upon configuration commands wherein the time taken to read the configuration register may be much shorter than the connection time of a BLE protocol.
Regarding claim 2 as applied to claim 1, Choi as modified by Wagner further teaches wherein the control IC transmits the sensing data to the at least one external device while operating in one of an advertising mode and a beacon mode (read as may output a specified signal such as an advertisement packet; may transmit an advertisement packet) (Choi – column 16 lines 24-32, column 16 lines 52-62).
Regarding claim 4 as applied to claim 1, Choi as modified by Wagner further teaches wherein the control IC determines whether there is a change in how one or more sensors connected to the plurality of terminals are combined after the control IC is put in a standby mode compared to how they were combined before standby, and, when there is a change, the control IC transmits information on the changed combination of the connected sensors to the at least one external device (read as the MCU may be configured to periodically wakeup and read the contents of a fixed block of tag memory for new configuration commands; the time taken to read the configuration register may be much shorter than the connection time of a protocol such as BLE, so the average time spent in the active period checking for new configuration commands is much shorter; wakeup period can be adjusted to provide the desired latency in decoding and acting upon configuration commands) (Wagner – column 4 lines 40-64).
Regarding claim 6 as applied to claim 1, Choi as modified by Wagner further teaches further comprising a battery connected to at least one energy harvesting module for collecting energy, wherein the battery supplies the energy collected by the energy harvesting module to at least one of the control IC, the sensor interface IC, and the wake-up IC (read as power source 540 may be or include a consumable battery; the power source 540 may be or include a power harvester coupled with a power storage device) (Wagner – column 8 lines 54-64).
Regarding claim 7 as applied to claim 1, Choi as modified by Wagner further teaches wherein the plurality of terminals are connected to analog sensors, wherein the sensor interface IC converts an output of an analog sensor connected to at least one of the plurality of terminals into a digital form and inputs the converted output to the control IC, and wherein the control IC is directly connected to at least one terminal that can be connected to a digital sensor (read as sensor module 5440 measures physical qualities or detects an operating state of the electronic device 5401, thereby converting the measured or detected information into electrical signals) (Choi – column 48 lines 40-62, column 49 lines 34-40).
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to APRIL GUZMAN GONZALES whose telephone number is (571)270-1101. The examiner can normally be reached Monday - Friday 8:00 am to 4:00 pm EST. The examiner’s email address is april.guzman@uspto.gov.
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If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Wesley L. Kim can be reached at (571) 272-7867. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/APRIL G GONZALES/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2648
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