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 .
Information Disclosure Statement
The information disclosure statement (IDS) submitted on 03/21/2024 and 06/11/2024. The submission is in compliance with the provisions of 37 CFR 1.97. Accordingly, the information disclosure statement is being considered by the examiner.
Election/Restrictions
Applicant’s election with traverse of invention (I) and species (1) drawn to claims 1-10, 17 and 18, and withdrawn claims 11-16 and 19-29 drawn to non-elected inventions and species in the reply filed on 07/07/2025 is acknowledged.
Response to Arguments
Applicant's arguments regarding there is no serious burden of examining all inventions and species have been fully considered but they are not persuasive, because they are different inventions and distinct species having various structural elements that requires different modes of operation.
Claim Objections
Claim 8 is objected to because of the following informalities: the phrase “and/or” in line 3 should be amended to read –or--. Appropriate correction is required.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 112
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 112(b):
(b) CONCLUSION.—The specification shall conclude with one or more claims particularly pointing out and distinctly claiming the subject matter which the inventor or a joint inventor regards as the invention.
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), second paragraph:
The specification shall conclude with one or more claims particularly pointing out and distinctly claiming the subject matter which the applicant regards as his invention.
Claim 10 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 112(b) or 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), second paragraph, as being indefinite for failing to particularly point out and distinctly claim the subject matter which the inventor or a joint inventor (or for applications subject to pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, the applicant), regards as the invention.
Claim 10 recites the limitation "the red spectral range" in line 2. There is insufficient antecedent basis for this limitation in the claim.
Claim 10 recites the limitation "the infrared spectral range" in line 2. There is insufficient antecedent basis for this limitation in the claim.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 102
The following is a quotation of the appropriate paragraphs of 35 U.S.C. 102 that form the basis for the rejections under this section made in this Office action:
A person shall be entitled to a patent unless –
(a)(2) the claimed invention was described in a patent issued under section 151, or in an application for patent published or deemed published under section 122(b), in which the patent or application, as the case may be, names another inventor and was effectively filed before the effective filing date of the claimed invention.
Claim(s) 1-10, 17 and 18 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(2) as being anticipated by Do et al (US 2024/0122507).
As to claims 1 and 17, Do teaches a method and a chest sensor device, comprising: generating, using a biosensor (sensor 4300, par.619, fig.43), a signal correlated with blood perfusion or peripheral oxygen saturation (SpO.sub.2) of a subject at a location and orientation on a body of the subject (PPG signal, par.186 and device 4300 can perform error checking procedures, for example, to raise one or more error conditions to the user in order to obtain good PPG signals for computing or generating good results based on the PPG signals, par.619-620);
determining at least one of a signal quality or signal strength of the signal (par.9 and during the acquisition of image frames, the user's finger (or other body part) can move causing the finger position, orientation or pressure to change, and therefore degrading the quality of the PPG signal, par.297); and
in dependence on at least one of the signal quality or the signal strength, either indicating that at least one of the location or orientation is acceptable for placement of the biosensor on the body of the subject or prompting the subject or other person to reposition the biosensor to a different location or orientation on the body of the subject (par.297, device 4300 can determine if the finger is present near the photodetector and the direction (e.g., based on the vector) the user should reposition the finger to be centered above the photodetector for good quality measurement, responsive to determining a poor quality of the sequence of image frames or poor quality of the PPG signal, par.652-658).
As to claim 2, Do teaches the method, further comprising characterizing the signal strength over time and, in response to the characterization indicating the signal strength is intermittently strong, instructing the subject or other person to improve adherence of the biosensor to the subject at the location and orientation (par.297, par.652-658).
As to claim 3, Do teaches the method, further comprising characterizing the signal strength over time and, in response to the characterization indicating the signal strength is consistently weak or nonexistent, instructing the subject or other person to move the biosensor to at least one of a different location or a different orientation on the body of the subject (par.297, par.652-658).
As to claim 4, Do teaches the method, wherein in dependence on at least one of the signal quality or signal strength the method comprises prompting the subject or other person to reposition the biosensor, the method further comprising: repeating the following until a stop event occurs: determining at least one of a current signal quality or current signal strength of the signal; in response to the current signal quality or the current signal strength being better than an immediately preceding signal quality or signal strength, instructing the subject or other person to move the biosensor to reposition the biosensor to a different location or orientation on the body of the subject again, wherein the stop event comprises determining that the current signal quality or the current signal strength is worse than the immediately preceding signal quality or signal strength; and in response to the stop event, instructing the subject or other person to move the biosensor back to an immediately preceding location or orientation on the body of the subject (repeating until a threshold quality is met, par.13-14, message the state placement, output alert signals/messages regarding the finger or body part placement, par.224, detected finger position is correlated to the quality of the signal, par.374 and the results (e.g., vital signs or health condition), error conditions, or hints to reposition the finger can be displayed, par.658).
As to claim 5, Do teaches the method, wherein instructing the subject or other person to move the biosensor to reposition the biosensor to a different location or orientation on the body of the subject again comprises instructing the subject or other person to move the biosensor in a same direction as an immediately preceding move (par.652-658).
As to claim 6, Do teaches the method, further comprising determining that the signal quality is acceptable, wherein indicating that at least one of the location or orientation is acceptable in dependence on at least one of the signal quality or the signal strength comprises indicating that at least one of the location or the orientation is acceptable for placement of the biosensor on the body of the subject in response to determining that the signal quality is acceptable (par.13-14).
As to claim 7, Do teaches the method, further comprising, in response to determining that the signal quality is not acceptable, prompting the subject or other person to move the biosensor to at least one of a different location or a different orientation on the body of the subject (output alert signals/messages regarding the finger or body part placement, par.224, detected finger position is correlated to the quality of the signal, par.374, and computer system 100 or the signal quality assessment module 508 can abort the data acquisition (or blood pressure measuring) process, and display a message or indication to the user about the termination of the process, par.566).
As to claim 8, Do teaches the method, further comprising: generating a different signal correlated with blood perfusion or SpO.sub.2 of the subject at the different location and/or the different orientation; determining a different signal quality of the different signal; and in response to determining that the different signal quality is acceptable, indicating to the subject or the other person that at least one of the different location or the different orientation is acceptable for placement of the biosensor (repeating until a threshold quality is met, par.13-14, message the state placement, par.224, par.374 and par.566).
As to claim 9, Do teaches the method, wherein determining the signal quality is based on at least one of peak-to-peak values of signal generated from a transmitted or reflected output of an optical emitter of the biosensor or waveform morphology features of the signal generated from the transmitted or reflected output of the optical emitter (photodetector, par.113, and computer system 100 can determine, for each of the PPG pulse segments, one or more respective pulse features determined from the PPG pulse segment, first signal feature and the last signal feature can be from the same family of feature types (e.g., from peak to peak, trough to trough, par.428).
As to claim 10, Do teaches the method, wherein the optical emitter is configured to emit radiation in at least one of the red spectral range, the infrared spectral range, or a white light spectral range (photodetector can include at least one of a red-green-blue (RGB) photodetector, a full light spectrum photodetector, or a combination of a RGB photodetector and an infrared photodetector, par.113).
As to claim 18, Do teaches the chest sensor, wherein the output device comprises at least one of a light emitter, a speaker, or a communication interface (device 4300 can use the speaker to provide a sound, such as an alarm sound or notification to the user, par.657).
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to MAY A ABOUELELA whose telephone number is (571)270-7917. The examiner can normally be reached 8-5.
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/MAY A ABOUELELA/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 3791