DETAILED ACTION
This communication is in response to applicant’s Amendment which is filed on April 15, 2026.
An amendment to amend the claims 1,10 and 12 has been entered and made of record in the application of Surbayrole et al. for a “method for estimating the time of flight between a first equipment item and a second equipment item” filed on December 15, 2022.
Claim 9 is cancelled.
Claims 1-8 and 10-12 are now pending in the application.
Response to Arguments
Applicant’s arguments, see page 5 to 8, filed on April 15, with respect to the rejection(s) of claim(s) 1-8 and 10-12 under 35 U.S.C 102 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 Therefore, the rejection has been withdrawn.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 Schoenberg et al. (Pub. No. 2021/0072373) and Barnes et al. (US# 8,111,797).
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.
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 1-8 and 10-12 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Schoenberg et al. (Pub. No. 2021/0072373) in view of Barnes et al. (US# 8,111,797).
Referring to Claim 1, Schoenberg et al. disclose an estimation method for estimating a time of flight between a first equipment item (210) and a second equipment item (220) (page 1 paragraphs 0004 to 0006; see Figures 1 to 13), wherein the method is carried out by the first equipment item (210) and comprises:
receiving from the second equipment item (220) a transmission information
item (202) (i.e. ranging response from mobile device 220) representing a time interval between an instant of reception of a message (201) (i.e. a ranging request from mobile 210) from said first equipment item (210) and an instant of transmission by said second
equipment item (220) of a message including said transmission information item (i.e. in response to receiving the ranging request 201, mobile device 220 can transmit ranging response 202. As shown, ranging response 202 is transmitted at time T3, e.g., a transmitted time of a pulse or an average transmission time for a set of pulses. T2 and T3 may also be a set of times for respective pulses. Ranging response 202 can include times T2 and T3 so that mobile device 210 can compute distance information. As an alternative, a delta between the two times (e.g., T3-T2) can be sent. The ranging response 202 can also include an identifier for the first mobile device 210, an identifier for the second mobile device 220, or both. At T4, the first mobile device 210 can receive ranging response 202. Like the other times, T4 can be a single time value or a set of time values) (page 3 paragraphs 0042 to 0043; page 4 paragraph 0059; see Figures 1 and 2), and
estimating the time of flight between the first equipment item (210) and the
second equipment item (220) by using the transmission information item (i.e. the response message can be received by the beacon 702 at time t.sub.3 714. The Round Trip Time (R1) 716 can be calculated as the elapsed time between the t.sub.0 706 and t.sub.3 714. In some embodiments, the device 704 can transmit include the reply time (D1) 712 as part of the information contained in the data packet sent to the beacon 702. The beacon 702 can calculate a time of flight (TOF) by subtracting the Reply Time (D1) 712 from the Round Trip Time (R1) 716. The beacon 702 can calculate a coarse range between the beacon 702 and the device 704 can be calculated by multiplying the TOF by the speed of light (c) or a fixed speed of 299, 794, 458 meters per second) (page 2 paragraph 0026; page 10 paragraph 0129; see Figures 2 and 7).
However, Schoenberg et al. did not explicitly disclose further comprising synchronizing the first equipment item and the second equipment item using the estimated the time of flight.
In the same field of endeavor of a communication system, Barnes et al. teach that synchronizing the first equipment item and the second equipment item using the estimated the time of flight (i.e. because each of the two devices transmits and receives substantially the same signal they can achieve substantial time synchronization using the respective delimiters of their received UWB signals provided they each account for the time between their lock reference time and the leading edge of the receive UWB waveforms. Otherwise, differences in their lock reference times would correspond to a timing error. In other words, the round trip time-of-flight calculation is made more accurate when Device B accounts for an error correction factor ECB that corresponds to the difference in time between its lock reference time and the leading edge of the UWB signal it receives, and Device A also accounts for an error correction factor ECA that corresponds to the difference in time between its lock reference time and the leading edge of the UWB signal it receives) (column 6 lines 17 to 28; column 6 line 48 to column 7 line 10; see Figures 3a and 4a) in order to provide more accurate measurement and timing error free between device A and device B.
At the time of the invention, it would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art to recognize the need for a method of synchronization the device A to the device B using the respective delimiters of their received UWB signals provided they each account for the time between their lock reference time and the leading edge of the receive UWB waveforms taught by Barnes et al. in the synchronization is used when ranging is requested in order to facilitate the estimation of distance between two devices using the round trip time measurement of Schoenberg et al. because synchronization the device A to the device B using estimated the time of flight would provide more accurate measurement and timing error free between device A and device B.
Referring to Claim 2, Schoenberg et al. in view of Barnes et al. disclose the estimation method according to Claim 1, Schoenberg et al. disclose furthermore including transmitting said estimated time of flight (i.e. the beacon 702 generates and transmits an acknowledgement message at time t.sub.5 718. The Reply Time (D2) can include the elapsed time between t.sub.5 718 and t.sub.3 714. The Reply Time (D2) can include the processing time to receive the response message, generate, and transmits the acknowledgement message. In some embodiments, the acknowledgement message can include the information such as the round trip time (R1) 716 and the Reply Time (D2) 720.) (page 10 paragraph 0130; see Figure 7).
Referring to Claim 3, Schoenberg et al. in view of Barnes et al. disclose the estimation method according to Claim 1, Schoenberg et al. disclose furthermore including transmitting a reception information item representative of an instant starting from which said first equipment item is configured in order to receive messages, the second equipment item taking this reception information item into account in order to determine the instant of transmission of the message including said transmission information item (i.e. the duration of each of the timeslots can also be specified in the broadcast message 610. By specifying a number and duration of each of the timeslots, the devices 604, 606 can select from a number of different defined time periods to conduct ranging to reduce the potential for missed messages from collisions between messages on the same channel. The parameters for a ranging round 608 can be communicated from the beacon 602 to the plurality of computing devices via the broadcast message 610. ) (page 8 paragraphs 0108 to 0110; see Figures 6 and 7).
Referring to Claim 4, Schoenberg et al. in view of Barnes et al. disclose the estimation method according to Claim 2, Schoenberg et al. disclose furthermore including transmitting a transmission information item representing a time interval between an instant of reception of a message received from the second equipment item and an instant of transmission of a message including said transmission information item (i.e. in response to receiving the ranging request 201, mobile device 220 can transmit ranging response 202. As shown, ranging response 202 is transmitted at time T3, e.g., a transmitted time of a pulse or an average transmission time for a set of pulses. T2 and T3 may also be a set of times for respective pulses. Ranging response 202 can include times T2 and T3 so that mobile device 210 can compute distance information. As an alternative, a delta between the two times (e.g., T3-T2) can be sent. The ranging response 202 can also include an identifier for the first mobile device 210, an identifier for the second mobile device 220, or both. At T4, the first mobile device 210 can receive ranging response 202. Like the other times, T4 can be a single time value or a set of time values) (page 3 paragraphs 0042 to 0043; page 4 paragraph 0059; see Figures 1 and 2).
Referring to Claim 5, Schoenberg et al. in view of Barnes et al. disclose the estimation method according to Claim 1, Schoenberg et al. disclose furthermore including receiving the time of flight between the first equipment item (702) and the second equipment item (704), estimated by the second equipment item (704) (i.e. the device 704 can receive the acknowledgement message containing the round trip time (R1) 716, the reply time (D1) 712, and reply time (D2) 720 to calculate a precise range between the beacon 702 and the device 704. The device 704 can calculate a time of flight (TOF) or a time difference by subtracting the reply time (D2) 720, from the round trip time (R2) 724.) (page 10 paragraph 0131; see Figure 7).
Referring to Claim 6, Schoenberg et al. in view of Barnes et al. disclose the estimation method according to Claim 5, Schoenberg et al. disclose furthermore including determining an average of a previously estimated time of flight and the estimated time of flight received from the second equipment item, the average determined being the time of flight (i.e. the process can be repeated to perform multiple measurements over a time interval as part of a ranging session, where such measurements can be averaged or otherwise analyzed to provide a single distance value, e.g., for each antenna) (page 3 paragraphs 0039-0042; see Figure 2).
Referring to Claim 7, Schoenberg et al. in view of Barnes et al. disclose the estimation method according to Claim 1, Schoenberg et al. disclose the first and the second equipment item respectively including application programming interfaces, wherein the method if carried out by at least one of the application programming interfaces of the first equipment item (i.e. The time period for conducting ranging between the beacon device and the multiple computing devices is a ranging round. The ranging round can be repeated one or more times based on requirements for an application executing on the devices) (page 7 paragraph 0102; see Figure 6).
Referring to Claim 8, Schoenberg et al. in view of Barnes et al. disclose the estimation method according to Claim 1, Schoenberg et al. disclose further comprising determining a distance between the first equipment item and the second equipment item using the estimated the time of flight (i.e. a mobile device can include ranging circuitry that can determine the relative distance between the mobile device and another mobile device. For example, time of flight measurements can be performed using ultra-wideband (UWB) pulses transmitted between the mobile devices) (page 2 paragraph 0026; page 3 paragraphs 0036-0037; see Figures 2, 3 and 7).
Referring to Claims 10-12, Schoenberg et al. in view of Barnes et al. disclose an estimation device and a non-transitory computer readable information medium, the claims 10-12 same in that the claims 1 and 2 already addressed above therefore claims 10-12 are also rejected for the same reasons given with respect to claims 1-2.
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure. Refer to the enclosed PTO-892 for details.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to NAM V NGUYEN whose telephone number is 571-272-3061. Fax number is (571) 273-3061. The examiner can normally be reached on 8:00AM-5:00PM Monday to Friday.
If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Quan-Zhen Wang can be reached on 571-272-3114. The fax phone numbers for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned are 571-273-8300 for regular communications.
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/NAM V NGUYEN/
Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2685
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