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 .
Response to Remark(s)
Applicant's amendment filed December 11th, 2025 have been fully entered and considered. Applicant’s amendment to the claims have overcome each and every objection previously set forth in the Non-Final Office Action mailed on October 02nd, 2025. Regarding the arguments to the previous prior art rejections, the examiner respectfully finds the arguments to be some non-persuasive, see response to remarks section below, no argument was given for the 101 rejection, the examiner finds the amendment to not overcome the 101 rejection, see response and 101 rejection sections below for more details. Accordingly, this action is made final.
Status of Claims
Claims 1-17 are pending, claims 1-15 have been amended, claims 16-17 have been added. Claims 1-17 remains rejected.
Response to Argument(s)
101 rejections:
The amended features still reflect processes of what a human can perform implemented using generic devices, and further included generic devices recited to perform generic functions, see 101 rejections below for more details. therefore, the 101 rejection remains.
Prior art rejections:
The amendments have overcome the previous prior rejections. However, the examiner respectfully finds the Applicants’ argument to be non-persuasive regarding the teachings of the proposed prior arts, and find the amended features to be taught by the same prior arts.
In pages 9-12 of the remarks, the Applicants argue that the proposed prior arts in combination do not teach or suggest the features of the claims:
“updating of status information;
the capturing of an image by a camera;
and the display of a first user interface and a second user interface by a clothing treatment device that receives laundry information sent by a washing machine and dry information sent by a dryer,”
as recited in the amended claim 1
In support of the above argument, the Applicants assert that the proposed Catwall, instead, discloses that a washer and dryer can be retrofitted to be able to alert a user via a text message when clothes are done (page 3/20 of Catwall). And Li, instead, discloses a camera and RFID system for identifying and tracking different people (see “System Overview” of page 4934 of Li). Furthermore, Iqbal, instead, is directed to using RFIC tagging and automated laundry collection drop boxes to track the collection and deliver process of laundry such as, the use of a Kiosk for picking up and delivering laundry.
Same comments are applied for the analogous independent claim 10, hence, is also allowable under Applicants’ view and argument.
Examiner’s reply:
The examiner respectfully disagree with the Applicants’ arguments. The Applicants are respectfully reminded that the claims are construed based on BRI (broadest reasonable interpretation) in light of the specification. Therefore, features of the claims such as “updating status information” was previously mapped to Catwell’s page 3, 1st par., which discloses the system can send a reminder to the user when the clothes have been left for a long time, hence it can be understood to be sent an updated message to the user (a new message about the status of the clothes still being left without being picked up) which is analogous to the recited “update status information” as claimed, and moreover, since the updates message is being sent from the device of Catwell’s Raspberry Pi 3. Therefore, it is being sent from the memory associated with the laundry information obtained by the Raspberry Pi 3. used in conjunction with the laundry machine and the dryer machine hence, the updated information are indicated to be status information of the clothes being left in the laundry machine and the dryer machine and the Raspberry Pi 3 acting as the server.
Regarding the features of “capturing of an image by a camera” which is a newly added feature to the claims, the examiner finds the proposed Li to teach this features, since Li teaches a system that uses camera and RFID system to track and identify multiple people, it also perform capturing an image by a camera as recited in the claim, and Li’s camera system helps track and identify people in the image based on the tag being worn on cloth of each person in the people, such as shown in figure 1. Therefore, this system can be used in combination with the system of Catwell and Lqbal to use RFID tagging on clothes to identify which person is wearing the cloth based on the person’s saved identity and the corresponding RFID tag, through the use of a camera.
Regarding the features of “and the display of a first user interface and a second user interface by a clothing treatment device that receives laundry information sent by a washing machine and dry information sent by a dryer,” the examiner finds the claims to not recite these features, the closest limitations are “control the display to provide a first user interface for providing the first status information based on the object in the image capture by the camera determine to be the first user, and control the display to provide a second user interface for providing the second status information based on the object in the image captured by the camera determined to be the second user” which the examiner finds the proposed Catwell to teach the features of “control the display to provide a first user interface for providing the first status information, and control the display to provide a second user interface for providing the second status information”, such as Catwell discloses, in page 3/20, that the user will receive the updated information the status information through text message on the phone, hence, the phone screen is the user interface as claimed being through a display, since the washing machine and the dryer can be understood to be used by multiple users, hence, any of which can be understood to be the first user as claimed and their phone to be the first user interface and any of the other users can be understood to be the second user as claimed to be provided in their phone a test message regarding the cycles of the washing machine and the dryer, therefore, by BRI, covers the scope of the claimed limitation, any of the other users and their phones can be understood to be analogous to the recited second user and the second user interface. Furthermore, Li to teach “based on the object in the image capture by the camera determine to be the first user,…. based on the object in the image captured by the camera determined to be the second user,” since Li teaches a system that uses camera and RFID system to track and identify multiple people, it also perform capturing an image by a camera as recited in the claim, and Li’s camera system helps track and identify people in the image based on the tag being worn on cloth of each person in the people, such as shown in figure 1. Therefore, this system can be used in combination with the system of Catwell and Lqbal to use RFID tagging on clothes to identify which person is wearing the cloth based on the person’s saved identity and the corresponding RFID tag, through the use of a camera. Therefore, in combination of arts of Catwell in view of Lqbal and Li, the system can use camera to identify which person is recognized to be the owner of the clothes being worn based on their RFID tag by the use of camera system, and Lqbal teaches the laundry system can use RFID for associating clothing piece being serviced with an owner, the Catwell teaches to notify an owner when their clothes being done with laundry service, therefore, in combination Catwell’s updated information about the clothes being services can be recognized which specific user is for which clothing pieces by the use of Lqbal’s RFID tagging for laundry service and Li’s RFID tagging recognized by camera system to send the updated information of Catwell to that specific user’s phone. Importantly, Lqbal also specifically teaches that the laundry service can be directly sent messages to smartphone apps of the user when done using RFID tags and scanner through technology integration such as shown in Table 1 of Lqbal.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 101
35 U.S.C. 101 reads as follows:
Whoever invents or discovers any new and useful process, machine, manufacture, or composition of matter, or any new and useful improvement thereof, may obtain a patent therefor, subject to the conditions and requirements of this title.
Claims 1-17 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 101
Regarding Independent Claim 1 and its dependent claims 2-9,
Step 1 Analysis: Claim 1 is directed to a system/device, which falls within one of the four statutory categories.
Step 2A Prong 1 Analysis: Claim 1 recites, in part, “wash clothes owned by a plurality of users, the plurality of users including a first user and a second user and the laundry information including at least one of a washing date and a washing time of the washed clothes; dry the clothes owned by a plurality of users; update the status information stored in the memory based on the laundry information and dry information received from the server; control the display; control the display.” The limitations of “wash clothes owned by a plurality of users, the plurality of users including a first user and a second user and the laundry information including at least one of a washing date and a washing time of the washed clothes; dry the clothes owned by a plurality of users; update the status information stored in the memory based on the laundry information and dry information received from the server; determine whether the object in the image captured by the camera is the first user or the second user; control the display; control the display,” as drafted, are processes that, under broadest reasonable interpretation, covers the performance of the limitation in the mind which falls within the “Mental Processes” and/or “Certain Method of Organizing Human Activities” grouping of abstract ideas. The limitations of:
“wash clothes owned by a plurality of users, the plurality of users including a first user and a second user and the laundry information including at least one of a washing date and a washing time of the washed clothes” and “dry the clothes owned by a plurality of users” is a step that a human can do with mental processes of observation and evaluation to wash/dry clothes of different people/users, this step, under another BRI scope, can be understood to be certain method of organizing human activities to follow certain instructions of washing/drying clothes by a plurality of users;
“update the status information stored in the memory based on the laundry information and dry information received from the server” is a step that the human can perform with mental processes of observation and evaluation, by BRI (broadest reasonable interpretation) such as the human mind can perform updating status information or information/data such as recited in the claim, moreover, in another BRI scope, the step can be certain method of organizing human activities such as following instructions or rules since updating information requires certain understanding of following instructions and rules;
“determine whether the object in the image captured by the camera is the first user or the second user” is a step, under BRI, a human mind can perform through process of observation and evaluation such as the human mind can observe image captured by a camera to determine if the object in the image is a certain user of the other;
“control the display; control the display” is a step, under BRI, is a certain method of organizing human activities the human can follow instructions to control a display.
Accordingly, the claim recites an abstract idea.
Step 2A Prong 2 Analysis: This judicial exception is not integrated into a practical application. particular, the claim recites the following additional element(s) –
A clothing treatment system comprising:
a washing machine configured to send laundry information of the washed clothes to a server;
and a dryer configured to send dry information of the dried clothes to the server, the dry information including at least one of a drying date and a drying time of the dried clothes;
a clothing treatment device including:
a camera,
a display,
memory storing status information of the clothes owned by the plurality of users, the status information including first status information corresponding to first clothes owned by the first user and second status information corresponding to second clothes owned by the second user,
at least one processor configured to perform control to:
receive, from the server, the laundry information sent by the washing machine to the server and the dry information sent by the dryer to the server,
control the camera to capture an image of an object,
provide a first user interface for providing the first status information based on the object in the image captured by the camera determined to be the first user, and
provide a second user interface for providing the second status information based on the object in the image captured by the camera determined to be the second user.
The additional elements as shown above includes generic device and components such as clothing treatment system, a washing machine, a dryer, a clothing treatment device, a camera, a display, memory, processor, a server, a first user interface, a second user interface, recited to perform generic well-known functions of these components and device; and further additional elements of insignificant extra-solution activities of data gathering such as storing data/information, sending data/information, receiving data/information, providing data/information, capturing data/information, hence, still merely data gathering steps, and the user is recited in the limitation to have an intended use additional element. Accordingly, these additional element does not integrate the abstract idea into a practical application because it does not impose any meaningful limits on practicing the abstract idea. Please see MPEP §2106.04.(d).III.C.
Step 2B Analysis: there are no additional elements that amount to significantly more than the judicial exception. Please see MPEP §2106.05. The claim is directed to an abstract idea.
For all of the foregoing reasons, claim 1 does not comply with the requirements of 35 USC 101.
Accordingly, the dependent claims 2-9 do not provide elements that overcome the deficiencies of the independent claim 1.
Moreover, claim 2 recites, in part, “request laundry information of the first clothes from the server and request dry information of the first clothes from the server based on the object in the image captured by the camera determined to be the first user” are all steps that the human can perform with mental processes of observation, the human mind can make request for certain task, moreover, these information/data being requested and sent are just data gathering insignificant extra-solution activity additional elements, moreover, the capturing of the image performed by the camera is just a generic camera performing generic function recited at high level of generality, same for the generic recited server recited at high level of generality, hence, not indicative of an integration of the judicial exceptions into a practical application, nor being considered significantly more.
Claim 3 recites, in part, “create recommended coordinates information for the first user based on the first status information and control the display provide the recommended coordinates information for the first user based on the object in the image captured by the camera determined to be the first user” are all steps that the human can perform with mental processes of observation, the human mind can make request for certain task, moreover, these information/data being requested and sent are just data gathering insignificant extra-solution activity additional elements such as creating information/data, providing information/data, moreover, the display is being recited at high level of generality being generic device performing generic function, moreover, the capturing of the image performed by the camera is just a generic camera performing generic function recited at high level of generality hence, not indicative of an integration of the judicial exception into a practical application, nor being considered significantly more.
Claim 4 recites, in part, “recognize clothing worn by an object in the image captured by the camera and update at least one of information about a date of wearing and information about a number of wearing times of the recognized clothing” are just steps that the human mind can perform mentally, based on BRI, through processes of observation and evaluation such as, the human mind can observe data/information of an image captured by a camera to recognize clothing worn such as recited in the claim, and the human mind can update the information/data about a date of wearing and a number of wearing times such as recited in the claim, moreover, the updating step can be understood to be an insignificant extra-solution activity additional element of data gathering/updating data.
Claim 5 recites, in part, “determine clothing required to be washed among the clothes owned by the plurality of users based on at least one of the laundry information, the dry information, information about a number of wearing times, and information about a date of wearing of the clothes owned by the plurality of users” is a step that the human mind can perform, based on BRI, such as the human mind can observe data/information and make a determination such as recited in the claim, therefore, mental process “and control the display provide information about the clothing required to be washed among the first clothes based on the object in the image captured by the camera determined to be the first user” is a series of insignificant extra-solution activity additional elements such as providing data/information, displaying data/information hence, not an indication of an integration of the judicial exceptions into a practical application, nor being considered significantly more.
Claim 6 recites, in part, “send information about the clothing required to be washed among the first clothes to at least one of the washing machine and the dryer through the server” is a step of insignificant extra-solution activity of data gathering of sending data/information to generic devise recited at high level of generality such as a washing machine, a dryer, a server hence, not indicative of an integration of the judicial exceptions into a practical application nor being considered significantly more.
Claim 7 recites, in part, “update location information of the clothes owned by the plurality of users based on at least one of the laundry information of the clothes owned by the plurality of users and dry information of the clothes owned by the plurality of users” is a step of an insignificant extra-solution activity of data gathering of updating data/information based on certain data/information and condition therefore, not an indication of an integration of judicial exceptions into a practical application nor being considered significantly more.
Claim 8 recites, in part, “the washing machine” being a generic device recited at high level of generality, as discussed above in claim 1, “send maintenance information of the washing machine to the clothing treatment device through the server” is a step of insignificant extra-solution activity of data gathering of sending information/data, “at least one processor is configured to perform control to: control the display” is a recitation of generic processor recited at high level of generality recited to perform generic function, and the step of control the display being the step, under BRI, is a certain method of organizing human activities the human can follow instructions to control a display, such as discussed above in claim 1, “provide the maintenance information of the washing machine to the first user based on the object in the image captured by the camera determined to be the first user and a maintenance type of the washing machine corresponding to a first type” is a step of insignificant extra-solution activity of data gathering of providing information/data and the additional elements of generic devices performing generic functions recited at high level of generality, “and provide the maintenance information of the washing machine to the second user based on the object in the image captured by the camera determined to be the second user and a maintenance type of the washing machine corresponding to a second type” is a step of insignificant extra-solution activity of data gathering of providing data/information and displaying data/information and further additional elements of generic devices, components performing generic functions.
Claim 9 recites, in part, “the dryer is configured to” is a generic device recited at high level of generality, “send maintenance information of the dryer to the clothing treatment device through the server, and the at least one processor is configured to provide the maintenance information of the dryer to the first user based on the object captured by the camera determined to be the first user and a maintenance type of the dryer corresponding to a first type, and control the display provide the maintenance information of the dryer to the second user based on the object in the image captured by the camera determined to be the second user and a maintenance type of the dryer corresponding to a second type” recites a series of insignificant extra-solution activity additional elements of data gathering of providing information/data, displaying data/information, capturing information/data and further additional elements of generic devices, components performing generic functions recited at high level of generality hence, not an indication of an integration of the judicial exceptions into a practical application, nor being considered significantly more, “control the display; control the display” is a step, under BRI, is a certain method of organizing human activities the human can follow instructions to control a display.
Accordingly, the dependent claims 2-9 are not patent eligible under 101.
Regarding independent claim 10 and its dependent claims 11-17:
The independent claim 10 is a device claim which falls under one of the statutory categories, moreover, claim 10 recites analogous limitations to the independent claim 1 and some limitations of claim 7 hence, are analyzed under the same approach to be 101 ineligible, moreover, claim 10 recites further additional elements of generic devices and components recited at high level of generality to perform generic functions such as storage storing data/information, a communicator to communicate with data/information, a controller to control data/information, hence, not an indication of an integration of the judicial exceptions into a practical application, not being considered significantly more.
Same for the dependent claims 11-15 which recite analogous limitations to the dependent claims 2-9 hence, are analyzed under the same approach to be 101 ineligible. Moreover, the newly added claim 16 recites, in part, “send information about the clothing required to be washed among the first clothes to at least one of the washing machine and the dryer through the server” includes insignificant extra solution activity of data gathering of sending data/information through a generic recited at high level of generality “the server;” claim 17 recites, in part, “update location information of the clothes owned by the plurality of users based on at least one of the laundry information of the clothes owned by the plurality of users and the dry information of the clothes owned by the plurality of users” includes steps of insignificant extra-solution activity of data updating.
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, 7, 10-11 and 17 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Catwell (“[Project] Raspberry Pi Washer/Dryer Text Alert System – IoT Retrofit Appliances, Aug. 2017, Element14/An Avnet Community, community.element14.com” hereinafter as “Catwell”) in view of Sarwat Iqbal et. al. (“RFID-Based Automated Shared Drop Box for Laundry Business: A Process Model, Jan. 2019, Mehran Univ. Research Journal of Engineering & Technology, Vol. 38, No. 1, 37-52” hereinafter as “Iqbal”) and Hanchuan Li et. al. (“ID-Match: A Hybrid Computer Vision and RFID System for Recognizing Individuals in Groups, 2016, #chi4good, CHI 2016, San Jose, CA, USA” hereinafter as “Li”).
Regarding claim 1, Catwell discloses a clothing treatment system comprising (page 1 and title disclose a laundry system): a washing machine configured to wash clothes owned by a plurality of users (page 3, 1st par., discloses the washer top wash clothes, which are used by people [according to page 3/20, 1st par., indicating a plurality of users and the clothes belong to the plurality of people]) and send laundry information of the washed clothes to a server (page 3, 1st par., discloses the washer can send notification about cycle finished to the user regarding the clothes, by BRI [broadest reasonable interpretation] covers the scope of the claim, wherein the notification regarding the clothes being done washing is analogous to the laundry information of the clothes as claimed, the text message receiver such as a phone and the text is sent to the phone by Raspberry Pi 3 therefore the Raspberry Pi 3 is analogous to the server as claimed, by BRI), the plurality of users including a first user and a second user (any of the people using the washing machine can be understood to be a first user and any of the other people can be understood to be a second user) and the laundry information including at least one of a washing date and a washing time of the washed clothes (“at least one of” indicates a selection, therefore, only one of the options is the instant scope of the claim, the examiner selects “a washing time” to be mapped, which is disclosed in Catwell’s page 18/20 of the figure of the screenshot of the received text on phone, which includes the time of the laundry is done indicating “5:52 PM” which is analogous to the recited “a washing time of the washed clothes”); and a dryer configured to dry the clothes owned by the plurality of users (page 3/20, 1st par., discloses the dryer is to dry clothes of people, indicating clothes owned by a plurality of users) and send dry information of the dried clothes to the server (page 3, 1st par., discloses the dryer can send notification about cycle finished to the user regarding the clothes, by BRI [broadest reasonable interpretation] covers the scope of the claim, wherein the notification regarding the clothes being done washing is analogous to the dry information of the clothes as claimed), the dry information including at least one of a drying date and a drying time of the dried clothes (“at least one of” indicates a selection, therefore, only one of the options is the instant scope of the claim, the examiner selects “a drying time” to be mapped, which is disclosed in Catwell’s page 18/20 of the figure of the screenshot of the received text on phone, which includes the time of the laundry is done indicating “5:52 PM” which is analogous to the recited “a drying time of the dried clothes”), wherein the clothing treatment device is configured to receive, from the server, the laundry information sent by the washing machine to the server and the dry information sent by the dryer to the server (here the phone with the messaging system linked to the washing machine and the dryer all together are analogous to being part of the clothing treatment device as claimed, by BRI, moreover, the phone is to receive the messaged from the server regarding the laundry information and the dry information from), a clothing treatment device including (the system of Catwell is a clothing treatment device): memory (the raspberry Pi device of Catwell includes a memory to store information such as disclosed in page 3/20, last par.), and at least one processor (the raspberry pi device includes a processor to execute the code of page 8/20) configured to perform control to: receive, from the server, the laundry information sent by the washing machine to the server and the dry information sent by the dryer to the server (since the system of Catwell includes the raspberry pi device which communicates with a phone device to transmit and exchange information regarding the washing machine and the dry information of the dryer, it can be understood to receive the information from a server, ), update the status information stored in the memory based on the laundry information and dry information received from the server (page 3, 1st par., discloses, the system can send a reminder to the user when the clothes been left for a long time, hence it can be understood to be send an updated message to the user, by BRI, is analogous to update status in formation of the clothes as claimed, from both the washing machine and the dryer, in other words, the laundry information and the dry information as claimed, and these information received from the Raspberry Pi 3/the server as claimed, by BRI), provide a first user interface for providing the first status information of clothes (the user will receive the updated information the status information through text message on the phone, hence, the phone screen is the user interface as claimed being through a display, since the washing machine and the dryer can be understood to be used by multiple users, hence, any of which can be understood to be the first user as claimed and their phone to be the first user interface), and provide a second user interface for providing the second status information (any of the other users can be understood to be the second user as claimed to be provided in their phone a test message regarding the cycles of the washing machine and the dryer, therefore, by BRI, covers the scope of the claimed limitation, any of the other users and their phones can be understood to be analogous to the recited second user and the second user interface).
However, Catwell does not explicitly disclose storing status information of the clothes owned by the plurality of users, the status information including first status information corresponding to first clothes owned by the first user and second status information corresponding to second clothes owned by the second user, a camera, a display, control the camera to capture an image of an object, determine whether the object in the image captured by the camera is the first user or the second user; control the display to provide a first user interface for providing the first status information based on the object in the image captured by the camera determined to be the first user, and control the display to provide a second user interface for providing the second status information based on the object in the image captured by the camera determined to be the second user.
In the same field of Laundry system (title and abstract, Iqbal), Iqbal discloses storing status information of the clothes owned by the plurality of users, the status information including first status information corresponding to first clothes owned by the first user and second status information corresponding to second clothes owned by the second user (page 41, 1st par., discloses the system of the current invention which includes the laundry devices such as a washer and the dryer, the associated computer, and also include the locker cabinet to receive and distribute cloth all together can be understood to be a system of a clothing treatment device, by BRI, which is to store information regarding the tracking of laundry on rea-time basis [store status information of clothes] for customers [any of which can be understood to be the first user and the other to be the second user as claimed] to send messages regarding the status [analogous to the messaging status of Catwell], moreover, this system uses RFID tags to identify the customers belonging to which clothes).
Thus, it would have been obvious for a person of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date to modify Catwell to have a system that perform storing status information of the clothes owned by the plurality of users, the status information including first status information corresponding to first clothes owned by the first user and second status information corresponding to second clothes owned by the second user as taught by Iqbal to arrive at the claimed invention discussed above. Such a modification is the result of combing prior art elements according to known methods to yield predictable results. The motivation for the proposed modification would have been to enhance user experience and laundry system interaction more effectively (abstract, Iqbal).
However, Catwell in view of Iqbal does not explicitly disclose camera, a display, control the camera to capture an image of an object, determine whether the object in the image captured by the camera is the first user or the second user; control the display to provide a first user interface for providing the first status information based on the object in the image captured by the camera determined to be the first user, and control the display to provide a second user interface for providing the second status information based on the object in the image captured by the camera determined to be the second user.
In the same field RFID tagging system (title, Li) Li discloses providing status information based on a camera, a display, control the camera to capture an image of an object (a system that uses camera and RFID system to track and identify multiple people, it also perform capturing an image by a camera as recited in the claim, and Li’s camera system helps track and identify people in the image based on the tag being worn on cloth of each person in the people, such as shown in figure 1. Therefore, this system can be used in combination with the system of Catwell and Lqbal to use RFID tagging on clothes to identify which person is wearing the cloth based on the person’s saved identity and the corresponding RFID tag, through the use of a camera; the system further includes a display to show the result [page 4935, 2nd column, 3rd par.]), determine whether the object in the image captured by the camera is the first user or the second user (page 4934, “System Overview” section, discloses the system uses camera and RFID system to track and identify multiple people and which tag is worn on cloth of which person, such as shown in FIG. 1; therefore, the RFID system of Liu is analogous to the RFID system of Iqbal wherein Iqbal uses RFID tag to identify which cloth belongs to which customer for the laundry system; therefore, Li further teaches that the RFID system can be used in a camera vision system to use camera to identify which perform the RFID tag belongs to); the object in the image captured by the camera determined to be the first user (page 4934, “System Overview” section, discloses the system uses camera and RFID system to track and identify multiple people and which tag is worn on cloth of which person, such as shown in FIG. 1; therefore, the RFID system of Liu is analogous to the RFID system of Iqbal wherein Iqbal uses RFID tag to identify which cloth belongs to which customer for the laundry system; therefore, Li further teaches that the RFID system can be used in a camera vision system to use camera to identify which perform the RFID tag belongs to hence, is analogous to the recited limitation wherein the laundry treatment system can identify through an object [the RFID tag] captured by a camera to be determined as the first user of the second user for the status information of the clothes); providing the second status information based on based on the object in the image captured by the camera determined to be the second user (as discussed previously, the same process is applied for any customers, any of which can be understood to be the second user being recognized to be the owner of the cloth based on the image captured by the camera to provide status information regarding the clothing and the belonging to that user, as claimed, by BRI).
Thus, it would have been obvious for a person of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date to modify Catwell in view of Iqbal to have a system that performs providing status information based on the object in the image captured by the camera determined to be the first user; providing the second status information based on based on the object in the image captured by the camera determined to be the second user and includes camera, a display, control the camera to capture an image of an object, determine whether the object in the image captured by the camera is the first user or the second user as taught by Li to arrive at the claimed invention discussed above. Such a modification is the result of combing prior art elements according to known methods to yield predictable results. The motivation for the proposed modification would have been to identify people effectively (abstract, Li).
Regarding claim 2, Catwell in view of Iqbal and Li discloses the clothing treatment system of claim 1 (as discussed above in claim 1), wherein at least one processor (the laundry system of Catwell as discussed above in claim 1) is configured to perform control to: request laundry information of the first clothes from the server and request dry information of the first from the server (Iqbal, section 3.1.2 disclose the customers can request a locker through a website or App to have the laundry be collected and delivered to that locker when finished through messaging for the status of the laundry, hence, by BRI, covers the scope of the claim such as the customer can request laundry information [booking of the laundry locker and the laundry status regarding being inside the locker to be requested and messaged to the user’s phone with the app. or the clothing treatment device as claimed, by BRI]) based on the object in the image captured by the camera determined to be the first user (as discussed above in claim 1 and disclosed in Li’s page 4934, “System Overview” section, discloses the system uses camera and RFID system to track and identify multiple people and which tag is worn on cloth of which person, such as shown in FIG. 1; therefore, the RFID system of Liu is analogous to the RFID system of Iqbal wherein Iqbal uses RFID tag to identify which cloth belongs to which customer for the laundry system; therefore, Li further teaches that the RFID system can be used in a camera vision system to use camera to identify which perform the RFID tag belongs to hence, is analogous to the recited limitation wherein the laundry treatment system can identify through an object [the RFID tag] captured by a camera to be determined as the first user of the second user for the status information of the clothes). The motivation for combination of arts is the same as for claim 1 above.
Regarding claim 7, Catwell in view of Iqbal and Li discloses the clothing treatment system of claim 1, wherein the at least one processor is configured to perform control to: update location information of the clothes owned by the plurality of users based on at least one of the laundry information of the clothes owned by the plurality of users and the dry information of the clothes owned by the plurality of users (Iqbal, page 43, 1st par., discloses the customer can update location to be delivered of the finished laundry [based on the laundry information and the dry information as claimed, by BRI], therefore, it can be understood as the customer request specific location, the clothing treatment device update the location information accordingly, by BRI, covers the scope of the claimed limitation). The motivation for combination of arts is the same as for claim 1 above.
Regarding claim 10, Catwell discloses a clothing treatment device comprising: memory storing wherein the status information includes at least one of a washing date, a washing time, a drying date, and a drying time of the first clothes, and the second status information includes at least one of a washing date, a washing time, a drying date, and a drying time of the second clothes (page 3, 1st par., discloses the washer top wash clothes, which are used by people [according to page 3/20, 1st par., indicating a plurality of users and the clothes belong to the plurality of people]; page 3, 1st par., discloses the washer can send notification about cycle finished to the user regarding the clothes, by BRI [broadest reasonable interpretation] covers the scope of the claim, wherein the notification regarding the clothes being done washing is analogous to the laundry information of the clothes as claimed, the text message receiver such as a phone and the text is sent to the phone by Raspberry Pi 3 therefore the Raspberry Pi 3 is analogous to the server as claimed, by BRI; any of the people using the washing machine can be understood to be a first user and any of the other people can be understood to be a second user; “at least one of” indicates a selection, therefore, only one of the options is the instant scope of the claim, the examiner selects “a washing time” to be mapped, which is disclosed in Catwell’s page 18/20 of the figure of the screenshot of the received text on phone, which includes the time of the laundry is done indicating “5:52 PM” which is analogous to the recited “a washing time of the washed clothes”; page 3/20, 1st par., discloses the dryer is to dry clothes of people, indicating clothes owned by a plurality of users); a communicator configured to receive at least one of laundry information (page 3, 1st par., discloses the washer can send notification about cycle finished to the user regarding the clothes, by BRI [broadest reasonable interpretation] covers the scope of the claim, wherein the notification regarding the clothes being done washing is analogous to the laundry information of the clothes as claimed, the text message receiver such as a phone and the text is sent to the phone by Raspberry Pi 3 therefore the Raspberry Pi 3 is analogous to the server as claimed, by BRI, the system send information between processes can be understood to have the use of a communicator); dry information dry information, and location information of the clothes owned by the plurality of users, from a server (page 3, 1st par., discloses the dryer can send notification about cycle finished to the user regarding the clothes, by BRI [broadest reasonable interpretation] covers the scope of the claim, wherein the notification regarding the clothes being done washing is analogous to the dry information of the clothes as claimed), wherein the laundry information includes at least one of a washing date and a washing time of clothes washed by a washing machine, and the dry information includes at least one of a drying date and a drying time of clothes dried by a dryer (page 3, 1st par., discloses the dryer can send notification about cycle finished to the user regarding the clothes, by BRI [broadest reasonable interpretation] covers the scope of the claim, wherein the notification regarding the clothes being done washing is analogous to the dry information of the clothes as claimed; “at least one of” indicates a selection, therefore, only one of the options is the instant scope of the claim, the examiner selects “a drying time” to be mapped, which is disclosed in Catwell’s page 18/20 of the figure of the screenshot of the received text on phone, which includes the time of the laundry is done indicating “5:52 PM” which is analogous to the recited “a drying time of the dried clothes”), at least one processor configured to perform control to (the raspberry Pi device of Catwell includes a memory to store information such as disclosed in page 3/20, last par.; the raspberry pi device includes a processor to execute the code of page 8/20): update the status information stored in the memory based on receiving at least one of the laundry information, the dry information, and the location information of the clothes owned by the plurality of users via the communicator (“at least one of” indicates a selection, only one option of the list is the instant scope of the claim; page 3, 1st par., discloses, the system can send a reminder to the user when the clothes been left for a long time, hence it can be understood to be send an updated message to the user, by BRI, is analogous to update status in formation of the clothes as claimed, from both the washing machine and the dryer, in other words, the laundry information and the dry information as claimed, and these information received from the Raspberry Pi 3/the server as claimed, by BRI), control the display to provide a first user interface for providing the first status information (the user will receive the updated information the status information through text message on the phone, hence, the phone screen is the user interface as claimed being through a display, since the washing machine and the dryer can be understood to be used by multiple users, hence, any of which can be understood to be the first user as claimed and their phone is analogous to the first user interface as claimed), control the display to provide a second user interface for providing the second status information (any of the other users can be understood to be the second user as claimed to be provided in their phone a test message regarding the cycles of the washing machine and the dryer, therefore, by BRI, covers the scope of the claimed limitation, for any other users, any of which can be understood to be analogous to the recited second user as claimed and their phones to be the second user interface as claimed).
However, Catwell does not explicitly disclose a camera; a display; control the camera to capture an image of an object, determine whether the object in the image captured by the camera is the first user or the second user; providing the first status information based on the object captured by the camera determined to be the first user; providing the second status information based on the object captured by the camera determined to be the second user; and the information include location information, wherein the clothing treatment device is configured to update location information of the clothes owned by the plurality of users.
In the same field of Laundry system (title and abstract, Iqbal), Iqbal discloses storing status information of the clothes owned by the plurality of users, the status information including first status information corresponding to first clothes owned by the first user and second status information corresponding to second clothes owned by the second user (page 41, 1st par., discloses the system of the current invention which includes the laundry devices such as a washer and the dryer, the associated computer, and also include the locker cabinet to receive and distribute cloth all together can be understood to be a system of a clothing treatment device, by BRI, which is to store information regarding the tracking of laundry on rea-time basis [store status information of clothes] for customers [any of which can be understood to be the first user and the other to be the second user as claimed] to send messages regarding the status [analogous to the messaging status of Catwell], moreover, this system uses RFID tags to identify the customers belonging to which clothes).
Thus, it would have been obvious for a person of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date to modify Catwell to have a system that perform storing status information of the clothes owned by the plurality of users, the status information including first status information corresponding to first clothes owned by the first user and second status information corresponding to second clothes owned by the second user as taught by Iqbal to arrive at the claimed invention discussed above. Such a modification is the result of combing prior art elements according to known methods to yield predictable results. The motivation for the proposed modification would have been to enhance user experience and laundry system interaction more effectively (abstract, Iqbal).
However, Catwell in view of Iqbal does not explicitly disclose camera, a display, control the camera to capture an image of an object, determine whether the object in the image captured by the camera is the first user or the second user; control the display to provide a first user interface for providing the first status information based on the object in the image captured by the camera determined to be the first user, and control the display to provide a second user interface for providing the second status information based on the object in the image captured by the camera determined to be the second user.
In the same field RFID tagging system (title, Li) Li discloses providing status information based on a camera, a display, control the camera to capture an image of an object (a system that uses camera and RFID system to track and identify multiple people, it also perform capturing an image by a camera as recited in the claim, and Li’s camera system helps track and identify people in the image based on the tag being worn on cloth of each person in the people, such as shown in figure 1. Therefore, this system can be used in combination with the system of Catwell and Lqbal to use RFID tagging on clothes to identify which person is wearing the cloth based on the person’s saved identity and the corresponding RFID tag, through the use of a camera; the system further includes a display to show the result [page 4935, 2nd column, 3rd par.]), determine whether the object in the image captured by the camera is the first user or the second user (page 4934, “System Overview” section, discloses the system uses camera and RFID system to track and identify multiple people and which tag is worn on cloth of which person, such as shown in FIG. 1; therefore, the RFID system of Liu is analogous to the RFID system of Iqbal wherein Iqbal uses RFID tag to identify which cloth belongs to which customer for the laundry system; therefore, Li further teaches that the RFID system can be used in a camera vision system to use camera to identify which perform the RFID tag belongs to); the object in the image captured by the camera determined to be the first user (page 4934, “System Overview” section, discloses the system uses camera and RFID system to track and identify multiple people and which tag is worn on cloth of which person, such as shown in FIG. 1; therefore, the RFID system of Liu is analogous to the RFID system of Iqbal wherein Iqbal uses RFID tag to identify which cloth belongs to which customer for the laundry system; therefore, Li further teaches that the RFID system can be used in a camera vision system to use camera to identify which perform the RFID tag belongs to hence, is analogous to the recited limitation wherein the laundry treatment system can identify through an object [the RFID tag] captured by a camera to be determined as the first user of the second user for the status information of the clothes); providing the second status information based on based on the object in the image captured by the camera determined to be the second user (as discussed previously, the same process is applied for any customers, any of which can be understood to be the second user being recognized to be the owner of the cloth based on the image captured by the camera to provide status information regarding the clothing and the belonging to that user, as claimed, by BRI).
Thus, it would have been obvious for a person of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date to modify Catwell in view of Iqbal to have a system that performs providing status information based on the object in the image captured by the camera determined to be the first user; providing the second status information based on based on the object in the image captured by the camera determined to be the second user and includes camera, a display, control the camera to capture an image of an object, determine whether the object in the image captured by the camera is the first user or the second user as taught by Li to arrive at the claimed invention discussed above. Such a modification is the result of combing prior art elements according to known methods to yield predictable results. The motivation for the proposed modification would have been to identify people effectively (abstract, Li).
Regarding claim 11, Catwell in view of Iqbal and Li discloses the clothing treatment device of claim 10 (as discussed above in claim 10), wherein the at least one processor is configured to perform control to: control the communicator to (the laundry system of Catwell as discussed above in claim 10) request laundry information, dry information, and location information of the first clothes from the server (Iqbal, section 3.1.2 disclose the customers can request a locker through a website or App to have the laundry be collected and delivered to that locker when finished through messaging for the status of the laundry, hence, by BRI, covers the scope of the claim such as the customer can request laundry information [booking of the laundry locker and the laundry status regarding being inside the locker to be requested and messaged to the user’s phone with the app. or the clothing treatment device as claimed, by BRI]) is based on the object captured by the camera determined to be the first user (as discussed above in claim 10 and disclosed in Li’s page 4934, “System Overview” section, discloses the system uses camera and RFID system to track and identify multiple people and which tag is worn on cloth of which person, such as shown in FIG. 1; therefore, the RFID system of Liu is analogous to the RFID system of Iqbal wherein Iqbal uses RFID tag to identify which cloth belongs to which customer for the laundry system; therefore, Li further teaches that the RFID system can be used in a camera vision system to use camera to identify which perform the RFID tag belongs to hence, is analogous to the recited limitation wherein the laundry treatment system can identify through an object [the RFID tag] captured by a camera to be determined as the first user of the second user for the status information of the clothes). The motivation for combination of arts is the same as for claim 10 above.
Regarding claim 17, Catwell in view of Iqbal and Li discloses the clothing treatment device of claim 10 update location information of the clothes owned by the plurality of users based on at least one of the laundry information of the clothes owned by the plurality of users and the dry information of the clothes owned by the plurality of users (Iqbal, page 43, 1st par., discloses the customer can update location to be delivered of the finished laundry [based on the laundry information and the dry information as claimed, by BRI], therefore, it can be understood as the customer request specific location, the clothing treatment device update the location information accordingly, by BRI, covers the scope of the claimed limitation). The motivation for combination of arts is the same as for claim 10 above.
Claims 3 and 12 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Catwell (“[Project] Raspberry Pi Washer/Dryer Text Alert System – IoT Retrofit Appliances, Aug. 2017, Element14/An Avnet Community, community.element14.com” hereinafter as “Catwell”) in view of Sarwat Iqbal et. al. (“RFID-Based Automated Shared Drop Box for Laundry Business: A Process Model, Jan. 2019, Mehran Univ. Research Journal of Engineering & Technology, Vol. 38, No. 1, 37-52” hereinafter as “Iqbal”) and further in view of Hanchuan Li et. al. (“ID-Match: A Hybrid Computer Vision and RFID System for Recognizing Individuals in Groups, 2016, #chi4good, CHI 2016, San Jose, CA, USA” hereinafter as “Li”) and Ankur Chandra et. al. (“GPS Locator: An Application for Location Tracking and Sharing Using GPS for Java Enabled Handhelds, Oct 2011, 2011 International Conference on Computational Intelligence and Communication Networks, Gwalior, India” hereinafter as “Chandra”).
Regarding claim 3, Catwell in view of Iqbal and Li discloses the clothing treatment system of claim 1, wherein the at least one processor is configured to perform control to: create recommended location information for the first user based on the first status information and control the display to provide the recommended location information for the first user (as discussed above in claim 1, the system can provide drop box locker to the user to pick a location to be delivered the laundry when finished through the app on the mobile phone regarding the status information of the clothes, by BRI, covers the scope of the claim, as taught by Lqbal) based on the object in the image captured by the camera determined to be the first user (as discussed above in claim 1 and as disclosed in Li’s page 4934, “System Overview” section, discloses the system uses camera and RFID system to track and identify multiple people and which tag is worn on cloth of which person, such as shown in FIG. 1; therefore, the RFID system of Liu is analogous to the RFID system of Iqbal wherein Iqbal uses RFID tag to identify which cloth belongs to which customer for the laundry system; therefore, Li further teaches that the RFID system can be used in a camera vision system to use camera to identify which perform the RFID tag belongs to hence, is analogous to the recited limitation wherein the laundry treatment system can identify through an object [the RFID tag] captured by a camera to be determined as the first user of the second user for the status information of the clothes). The motivation for combination of arts is the same as for claim 1 above.
However, Catwell in view of Iqbal and Li does not explicitly disclose the location being coordinates.
In the same field of location identification (title, Chandra), Chandra discloses the location being coordinates (as disclosed in section III.B, 2nd par., wherein the location is based on GPS coordinates).
Thus, it would have been obvious for a person of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date to modify Catwell in view of Iqbal and Li to have a clothing treatment system wherein the clothing treatment device is configured to create recommended coordinates information for the first user based on status information of the clothes owned by the first user and provide the recommended coordinates information for the first user and the coordinate information here being taught by Chandra to arrive at the claimed invention discussed above. Such a modification is the result of combing prior art elements according to known methods to yield predictable results. The motivation for the proposed modification would have been to identify location on map more effectively using GPS coordinates (abstract, Chandra).
Regarding claim 12, Catwell in view of Iqbal and Li discloses the clothing treatment device of claim 10, wherein the at least one processor is configured to perform control to: create recommended location information for the first user based on the first status information and provide the recommended location information for the first user through the display (as discussed above in claim 10, the system can provide drop box locker to the user to pick a location to be delivered the laundry when finished through the app on the mobile phone regarding the status information of the clothes, by BRI, covers the scope of the claim, as taught by Lqbal) based on the object in the image captured by the camera determined to be the first user (as discussed above in claim 10 and as disclosed in Li’s page 4934, “System Overview” section, discloses the system uses camera and RFID system to track and identify multiple people and which tag is worn on cloth of which person, such as shown in FIG. 1; therefore, the RFID system of Liu is analogous to the RFID system of Iqbal wherein Iqbal uses RFID tag to identify which cloth belongs to which customer for the laundry system; therefore, Li further teaches that the RFID system can be used in a camera vision system to use camera to identify which perform the RFID tag belongs to hence, is analogous to the recited limitation wherein the laundry treatment system can identify through an object [the RFID tag] captured by a camera to be determined as the first user of the second user for the status information of the clothes). The motivation for combination of arts is the same as for claim 1 above.
However, Catwell in view of Iqbal and Li does not explicitly disclose the location being coordinates.
In the same field of location identification (title, Chandra), Chandra discloses the location being coordinates (as disclosed in section III.B, 2nd par., wherein the location is based on GPS coordinates).
Thus, it would have been obvious for a person of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date to modify Catwell in view of Iqbal and Li to have a clothing treatment system wherein the clothing treatment device is configured to create recommended coordinates information for the first user based on status information of the clothes owned by the first user and provide the recommended coordinates information for the first user and the coordinate information here being taught by Chandra to arrive at the claimed invention discussed above. Such a modification is the result of combing prior art elements according to known methods to yield predictable results. The motivation for the proposed modification would have been to identify location on map more effectively using GPS coordinates (abstract, Chandra).
Claims 4-6 and 13-15 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Catwell (“[Project] Raspberry Pi Washer/Dryer Text Alert System – IoT Retrofit Appliances, Aug. 2017, Element14/An Avnet Community, community.element14.com” hereinafter as “Catwell”) in view of Sarwat Iqbal et. al. (“RFID-Based Automated Shared Drop Box for Laundry Business: A Process Model, Jan. 2019, Mehran Univ. Research Journal of Engineering & Technology, Vol. 38, No. 1, 37-52” hereinafter as “Iqbal”) and further in view of Hanchuan Li et. al. (“ID-Match: A Hybrid Computer Vision and RFID System for Recognizing Individuals in Groups, 2016, #chi4good, CHI 2016, San Jose, CA, USA” hereinafter as “Li”) and Neeraj Singh (“How is Blockchain Transforming the Fashion Industry, May 2020, Linkedin.com” hereinafter as “Singh”).
Regarding claim 4, Catwell in view of Iqbal and Li discloses the clothing treatment system of claim 1 (as discussed above in claim 1), wherein the cat least one processor is configured to perform control to: recognize clothing worn by an object in the image captured by the camera (Iqbal, page 4934, “System Overview” section, discloses the system uses camera and RFID system to track and identify multiple people and which tag is worn on cloth of which person, such as shown in FIG. 1; therefore, the RFID system of Liu is analogous to the RFID system of Iqbal wherein Iqbal uses RFID tag to identify which cloth belongs to which customer for the laundry system; therefore, Li further teaches that the RFID system can be used in a camera vision system to use camera to identify which perform the RFID tag belongs to hence, is analogous to the recited limitation wherein the laundry treatment system can identify through an object [the RFID tag] captured by a camera to be determined as the first user of the second user for the status information of the clothes; therefore, the clothing treatment system can recognize an object captured by a camera).
However, Catwell in view of Iqbal and Li does not explicitly disclose and update at least one of information about a date of wearing and information about a number of wearing times of the recognized clothing.
In the same field clothing treatment system (title and page 1, Singh), Singh discloses and update at least one of information about a date of wearing and information about a number of wearing times of the recognized clothing (page 1 and page 2 discloses that by inserting a small chip into the clothing, the clothing can be identified if the product has been returned [can be understood to have a number of return or a number of wearing time as claimed, by BRI] and the date of return such as the timestamp as disclosed in page 6, 2nd par.; therefore, by BRI, the clothing can be installed a chip to track the return number and timestamp of the product, can be combined with the previous arts to teach that the tracking of clothing can be done through using a small chip as well as taught in Singh).
Thus, it would have been obvious for a person of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date to modify Catwell in view of Iqbal and Li to have a clothing treatment system wherein the clothing treatment device is configured to recognize clothing worn by an object captured by the camera and update at least one of information about a date of wearing and information about a number of wearing times of the recognized clothing as taught by Singh to arrive at the claimed invention discussed above. Such a modification is the result of combing prior art elements according to known methods to yield predictable results. The motivation for the proposed modification would have been to track garment pieces easier (page 1, 1st par., Singh).
Regarding claim 5, Catwell in view of Iqbal further in view of Li and Singh discloses the clothing treatment system of claim 1 (as discussed above in claim 1), wherein the at least one processor is configured to perform control to: determine clothing required to be washed among the clothes owned by the plurality of users based on at least one of the laundry information, the dry information (Iqbal, section 3.1.2 disclose the customers can request a locker through a website or App to have the laundry be collected and delivered to that locker when finished through messaging for the status of the laundry, hence, by BRI, covers the scope of the claim such as the customer can request laundry information [booking of the laundry locker and the laundry status regarding being inside the locker to be requested and messaged to the user’s phone with the app. or the clothing treatment device as claimed, by BRI], hence, send information about clothes requiring washing to the laundry system which includes the washing machine and the dryer [based on laundry information and dry information] through the server/the website on the phone app), and control the display to provide information about the clothing required to be washed among the first clothes (Catwell, the user will receive the updated information the status information through text message on the phone, hence, the phone screen is the user interface as claimed being through a display, since the washing machine and the dryer can be understood to be used by multiple users, hence, any of which can be understood to be the first user as claimed) based on the object in the image captured by the camera determined to be the first user (Li, page 4934, “System Overview” section, discloses the system uses camera and RFID system to track and identify multiple people and which tag is worn on cloth of which person, such as shown in FIG. 1; therefore, the RFID system of Liu is analogous to the RFID system of Iqbal wherein Iqbal uses RFID tag to identify which cloth belongs to which customer for the laundry system; therefore, Li further teaches that the RFID system can be used in a camera vision system to use camera to identify which perform the RFID tag belongs to hence, is analogous to the recited limitation wherein the laundry treatment system can identify through an object [the RFID tag] captured by a camera to be determined as the first user of the second user for the status information of the clothes).
However, Catwell in view of Iqbal and Li does not explicitly disclose information about the number of wearing times, and wearing date information of the clothes owned by the plurality of users.
In the same field clothing treatment system (title and page 1, Singh), Singh discloses information about the number of wearing times, and wearing date information of the clothes owned by the plurality of users (page 1 and page 2 discloses that by inserting a small chip into the clothing, the clothing can be identified if the product has been returned [can be understood to have a number of return or a number of wearing time as claimed, by BRI] and the date of return such as the timestamp as disclosed in page 6, 2nd par.; therefore, by BRI, the clothing can be installed a chip to track the return number and timestamp of the product, can be combined with the previous arts to teach that the tracking of clothing can be done through using a small chip as well as taught in Singh, moreover, these information will be provided to the user requiring it, therefore, can be understood to be “based on the information about the number of wearing times and wearing date”).
Thus, it would have been obvious for a person of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date to modify Catwell in view of Iqbal and Li to have a clothing treatment system wherein the clothing treatment device is configured to providing information to the user including information about the number of wearing times, and wearing date information of the clothes owned by the plurality of users as taught by Singh to arrive at the claimed invention discussed above. Such a modification is the result of combing prior art elements according to known methods to yield predictable results. The motivation for the proposed modification would have been to track garment pieces easier (page 1, 1st par., Singh).
Regarding claim 6, Catwell in view of Iqbal further in view of Li and Singh discloses the clothing treatment system of claim 5, wherein the at least one processor is configured to perform control to: send information about the clothing required to be washed among the first clothes to at least one of the washing machine and the dryer through the server (Iqbal, section 3.1.2 disclose the customers can request a locker through a website or App to have the laundry be collected and delivered to that locker when finished through messaging for the status of the laundry, hence, by BRI, covers the scope of the claim such as the customer can request laundry information [booking of the laundry locker and the laundry status regarding being inside the locker to be requested and messaged to the user’s phone with the app. or the clothing treatment device as claimed, by BRI], hence, send information about clothes requiring washing to the laundry system which includes the washing machine and the dryer through the server/the website on the phone app). The motivation for combination of arts is the same as for claim 1 above.
Regarding claim 13, Catwell in view of Iqbal and Li discloses the clothing treatment device of claim 10 (as discussed above in claim 10), wherein the at least one processor is configured to perform control to: recognize clothing worn by the object in the image captured by the camera (Iqbal, page 4934, “System Overview” section, discloses the system uses camera and RFID system to track and identify multiple people and which tag is worn on cloth of which person, such as shown in FIG. 1; therefore, the RFID system of Liu is analogous to the RFID system of Iqbal wherein Iqbal uses RFID tag to identify which cloth belongs to which customer for the laundry system; therefore, Li further teaches that the RFID system can be used in a camera vision system to use camera to identify which perform the RFID tag belongs to hence, is analogous to the recited limitation wherein the laundry treatment system can identify through an object [the RFID tag] captured by a camera to be determined as the first user of the second user for the status information of the clothes; therefore, the clothing treatment system can recognize an object captured by a camera).
However, Catwell in view of Iqbal and Li does not explicitly disclose at least one of and update at least one of information about a date of wearing and information about a number of wearing times of the recognized clothing.
In the same field clothing treatment system (title and page 1, Singh), Singh discloses and update at least one of information about a date of wearing and information about a number of wearing times of the recognized clothing (page 1 and page 2 discloses that by inserting a small chip into the clothing, the clothing can be identified if the product has been returned [can be understood to have a number of return or a number of wearing time as claimed, by BRI] and the date of return such as the timestamp as disclosed in page 6, 2nd par.; therefore, by BRI, the clothing can be installed a chip to track the return number and timestamp of the product, can be combined with the previous arts to teach that the tracking of clothing can be done through using a small chip as well as taught in Singh).
Thus, it would have been obvious for a person of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date to modify Catwell in view of Iqbal and Li to have a clothing treatment system wherein the clothing treatment device is configured to recognize clothing worn by an object captured by the camera and update at least one of information about a date of wearing and information about a number of wearing times of the recognized clothing as taught by Singh to arrive at the claimed invention discussed above. Such a modification is the result of combing prior art elements according to known methods to yield predictable results. The motivation for the proposed modification would have been to track garment pieces easier (page 1, 1st par., Singh).
Regarding claim 14, Catwell in view of Iqbal further in view of Li and Singh discloses the clothing treatment device of claim 10 (as discussed above in claim 10), wherein the at least one processor is configured to perform control to: determine clothing required to be washed among the clothes owned by the plurality of users based on at least one of the laundry information, the dry information (Iqbal, section 3.1.2 disclose the customers can request a locker through a website or App to have the laundry be collected and delivered to that locker when finished through messaging for the status of the laundry, hence, by BRI, covers the scope of the claim such as the customer can request laundry information [booking of the laundry locker and the laundry status regarding being inside the locker to be requested and messaged to the user’s phone with the app. or the clothing treatment device as claimed, by BRI], hence, send information about clothes requiring washing to the laundry system which includes the washing machine and the dryer [based on laundry information and dry information] through the server/the website on the phone app), and control the display to provide information about the clothing required to be washed among the first clothes owned by the first user through the display (Catwell, the user will receive the updated information the status information through text message on the phone, hence, the phone screen is the user interface as claimed being through a display, since the washing machine and the dryer can be understood to be used by multiple users, hence, any of which can be understood to be the first user as claimed) based on the object in the image captured by the camera determined as the first user (Li, page 4934, “System Overview” section, discloses the system uses camera and RFID system to track and identify multiple people and which tag is worn on cloth of which person, such as shown in FIG. 1; therefore, the RFID system of Liu is analogous to the RFID system of Iqbal wherein Iqbal uses RFID tag to identify which cloth belongs to which customer for the laundry system; therefore, Li further teaches that the RFID system can be used in a camera vision system to use camera to identify which perform the RFID tag belongs to hence, is analogous to the recited limitation wherein the laundry treatment system can identify through an object [the RFID tag] captured by a camera to be determined as the first user of the second user for the status information of the clothes).
However, Catwell in view of Iqbal and Li does not explicitly disclose at least one of information about the number of wearing times, and information about a date of wearing of the clothes owned by the plurality of users.
In the same field clothing treatment system (title and page 1, Singh), Singh discloses at least one of information about the number of wearing times, and information about a date of wearing of the clothes owned by the plurality of users (“at least one of” indicates a selection, therefore, only one option is the instant scope of the claim, page 1 and page 2 discloses that by inserting a small chip into the clothing, the clothing can be identified if the product has been returned [can be understood to have a number of return or a number of wearing time as claimed, by BRI] and the date of return such as the timestamp as disclosed in page 6, 2nd par.; therefore, by BRI, the clothing can be installed a chip to track the return number and timestamp of the product, can be combined with the previous arts to teach that the tracking of clothing can be done through using a small chip as well as taught in Singh, moreover, these information will be provided to the user requiring it, therefore, can be understood to be “based on the information about the number of wearing times and wearing date”).
Thus, it would have been obvious for a person of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date to modify Catwell in view of Iqbal and Li to have a clothing treatment system wherein the clothing treatment device is configured to providing information to the user including information about the number of wearing times, and wearing date information of the clothes owned by the plurality of users as taught by Singh to arrive at the claimed invention discussed above. Such a modification is the result of combing prior art elements according to known methods to yield predictable results. The motivation for the proposed modification would have been to track garment pieces easier (page 1, 1st par., Singh).
Regarding claim 15, Catwell in view of Iqbal further in view of Li and Singh discloses the clothing treatment device of claim 10, wherein the at least one processor is configured to perform control to: determine clothing required to be washed among the clothes owned by the plurality of users based on at least one of the laundry information, the dry information (Iqbal, section 3.1.2 disclose the customers can request a locker through a website or App to have the laundry be collected and delivered to that locker when finished through messaging for the status of the laundry, hence, by BRI, covers the scope of the claim such as the customer can request laundry information [booking of the laundry locker and the laundry status regarding being inside the locker to be requested and messaged to the user’s phone with the app. or the clothing treatment device as claimed, by BRI], hence, send information about clothes requiring washing to the laundry system which includes the washing machine and the dryer [based on laundry information and dry information] through the server/the website on the phone app), and control the display to provide information about the clothing required to be washed among the first clothes owned by the first user through the display (Catwell, the user will receive the updated information the status information through text message on the phone, hence, the phone screen is the user interface as claimed being through a display, since the washing machine and the dryer can be understood to be used by multiple users, hence, any of which can be understood to be the first user as claimed) based on the object in the image captured by the camera determined as the first user (Li, page 4934, “System Overview” section, discloses the system uses camera and RFID system to track and identify multiple people and which tag is worn on cloth of which person, such as shown in FIG. 1; therefore, the RFID system of Liu is analogous to the RFID system of Iqbal wherein Iqbal uses RFID tag to identify which cloth belongs to which customer for the laundry system; therefore, Li further teaches that the RFID system can be used in a camera vision system to use camera to identify which perform the RFID tag belongs to hence, is analogous to the recited limitation wherein the laundry treatment system can identify through an object [the RFID tag] captured by a camera to be determined as the first user of the second user for the status information of the clothes).
However, Catwell in view of Iqbal and Li does not explicitly disclose at least one of information about the number of wearing times, and information about a date of wearing of the clothes owned by the plurality of users.
In the same field clothing treatment system (title and page 1, Singh), Singh discloses at least one of information about the number of wearing times, and information about a date of wearing of the clothes owned by the plurality of users (“at least one of” indicates a selection, therefore, only one option is the instant scope of the claim, page 1 and page 2 discloses that by inserting a small chip into the clothing, the clothing can be identified if the product has been returned [can be understood to have a number of return or a number of wearing time as claimed, by BRI] and the date of return such as the timestamp as disclosed in page 6, 2nd par.; therefore, by BRI, the clothing can be installed a chip to track the return number and timestamp of the product, can be combined with the previous arts to teach that the tracking of clothing can be done through using a small chip as well as taught in Singh, moreover, these information will be provided to the user requiring it, therefore, can be understood to be “based on the information about the number of wearing times and wearing date”).
Thus, it would have been obvious for a person of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date to modify Catwell in view of Iqbal and Li to have a clothing treatment system wherein the clothing treatment device is configured to providing information to the user including information about the number of wearing times, and wearing date information of the clothes owned by the plurality of users as taught by Singh to arrive at the claimed invention discussed above. Such a modification is the result of combing prior art elements according to known methods to yield predictable results. The motivation for the proposed modification would have been to track garment pieces easier (page 1, 1st par., Singh).
Claims 8-9 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable overCatwell (“[Project] Raspberry Pi Washer/Dryer Text Alert System – IoT Retrofit Appliances, Aug. 2017, Element14/An Avnet Community, community.element14.com” hereinafter as “Catwell”) in view of Sarwat Iqbal et. al. (“RFID-Based Automated Shared Drop Box for Laundry Business: A Process Model, Jan. 2019, Mehran Univ. Research Journal of Engineering & Technology, Vol. 38, No. 1, 37-52” hereinafter as “Iqbal”) and further in view of Hanchuan Li et. al. (“ID-Match: A Hybrid Computer Vision and RFID System for Recognizing Individuals in Groups, 2016, #chi4good, CHI 2016, San Jose, CA, USA” hereinafter as “Li”) and K. Seklou et. al. (“Monitoring and Management of Home Appliances with NETCONF and YANG, Nov. 2019, 2019 Association for Computing Machinery, ACM ISBN 978-4503-7292-3” hereinafter as “Seklou”).
Regarding claim 8, Catwell in view of Iqbal and Li discloses the clothing treatment system of claim 1 (as discussed above in claim 1), the at least one processor is configured to perform control to: to the first based on the object in the image captured by the camera determined to be the first user, based on the object in the image captured by the camera determined to be the second user (as discussed above in claim 1, the clothing treatment system has information being transferred to the user when the user is recognized as the owner of the clothing pieces being recognized by the camera as discussed in Lqbal of using the RFID tag to recognize the owner and the laundry piece belonging to that owner therefore, include information regarding the cycles and the tracking of the cloth and the washing machine and the dryer machine, moreover, Li teaches that the RFID tag can be recognized using a camera system, hence, by BRI, covers the scope of the claim; as discussed previously, the same process is applied for any customers, any of which can be understood to be the second user as claimed, by BRI).
However, Catwell in view of Iqbal and Li does not explicitly disclose wherein the washing machine is configured to send maintenance information of the washing machine to the clothing treatment device through the server, and the cat least one processor is configured to provide the maintenance information of the washing machine and a maintenance type of the washing machine corresponding to a first type, and provide the maintenance information of the washing machine to the second user and a maintenance type of the washing machine corresponding to a second type.
In the same field of clothing treatment system (abstract, Seklou), Seklou discloses wherein the washing machine is configured to send maintenance information of the washing machine to the clothing treatment device through the server (section 3, “Remote Diagnosis” section, discloses that a remote diagnosis can be performed on the washing machine to obtain maintenance information from the washing machine, therefore, by BRI, covers the scope of the claimed limitation wherein the washing machine send diagnosis information [maintenance information as claimed, by BRI] to the a remote device [the clothing treatment device as claimed, by BRI]), and the at least one processor is configured to provide the maintenance information of the washing machine and a maintenance type of the washing machine corresponding to a first type (as shown in FIG. 2 when the diagnosis information being sent from the washing machine to the remote device [the clothing treatment device, by BRI], the intelligence can analyze the result and provide [the clothing treatment device to provide the maintenance information of the washing machine] appropriate service [maintenance type, by BRI] to perform the interaction also being the first type, by BRI), and provide the maintenance information of the washing machine to the second user and a maintenance type of the washing machine corresponding to a second type (different services are presented to the users of the washing machine being diagnosed, any of which can be understood to be the second type and the second user as claimed, by BRI, covers the scope of the claimed limitation).
Thus, it would have been obvious for a person of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date to modify Catwell in view of Iqbal and Li to have a clothing treatment system wherein the washing machine is configured to send maintenance information of the washing machine to the clothing treatment device through the server, and the clothing treatment device is configured to provide the maintenance information of the washing machine to the first user through the display in response to an object captured by the camera determined as the first user and a maintenance type of the washing machine corresponding to a first type, and provide the maintenance information of the washing machine to the second user through the display in response to an object captured by the camera determined as the second user and a maintenance type of the washing machine corresponding to a second type as taught by Seklou to arrive at the claimed invention discussed above. Such a modification is the result of combing prior art elements according to known methods to yield predictable results. The motivation for the proposed modification would have been to manage devices effectively (abstract, Seklou).
Regarding claim 9, Catwell in view of Iqbal and Li discloses the clothing treatment system of claim 1 (as discussed above in claim 1), to the first user based on the object in the image captured by the camera determined to be the first user, based on the object in the image captured by the camera determined to be the second user (as discussed above in claim 1, the clothing treatment system has information being transferred to the user when the user is recognized as the owner of the clothing pieces being recognized by the camera as discussed in Lqbal of using the RFID tag to recognize the owner and the laundry piece belonging to that owner therefore, include information regarding the cycles and the tracking of the cloth and the washing machine and the dryer machine, moreover, Li teaches that the RFID tag can be recognized using a camera system, hence, by BRI, covers the scope of the claim; as discussed previously, the same process is applied for any customers, any of which can be understood to be the second user as claimed, by BRI).
However, Catwell in view of Iqbal and Li does not explicitly disclose wherein the dryer is configured to send maintenance information of the dryer to the clothing treatment device through the server, and the at least one processor is configured to provide the maintenance information of the dryer to the first user and a maintenance type of the dryer corresponding to a first type, and provide the maintenance information of the dryer to the second user and a maintenance type of the dryer corresponding to a second type.
In the same field of clothing treatment system (abstract, Seklou), Seklou discloses wherein the dryer is configured to send maintenance information of the dryer to the clothing treatment device through the server (section 3, “Remote Diagnosis” section, discloses that a remote diagnosis can be performed on the dyer to obtain maintenance information from the dyer, therefore, by BRI, covers the scope of the claimed limitation wherein the dyer machine send diagnosis information [maintenance information as claimed, by BRI] to the a remote device [the clothing treatment device as claimed, by BRI]), and the at least one processor is configured to provide the maintenance information of the dryer to the first user and a maintenance type of the dryer corresponding to a first type (as shown in FIG. 2 when the diagnosis information being sent from the dyer machine to the remote device [the clothing treatment device, by BRI], the intelligence can analyze the result and provide [the clothing treatment device to provide the maintenance information of the dyer machine] appropriate service [maintenance type, by BRI] to perform the interaction also being the first type, by BRI), and provide the maintenance information of the dryer to the second user and a maintenance type of the dryer corresponding to a second type (different services are presented to the users of the dyer machine being diagnosed, any of which can be understood to be the second type and the second user as claimed, by BRI, covers the scope of the claimed limitation).
Thus, it would have been obvious for a person of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date to modify Catwell in view of Iqbal and Li to have a clothing treatment system wherein the washing machine is configured to send maintenance information of the dyer machine to the clothing treatment device through the server, and the clothing treatment device is configured to provide the maintenance information of the dyer machine to the first user through the display in response to an object captured by the camera determined as the first user and a maintenance type of the dyer machine corresponding to a first type, and provide the maintenance information of the dyer machine to the second user through the display in response to an object captured by the camera determined as the second user and a maintenance type of the dyer machine corresponding to a second type as taught by Seklou to arrive at the claimed invention discussed above. Such a modification is the result of combing prior art elements according to known methods to yield predictable results. The motivation for the proposed modification would have been to manage devices effectively (abstract, Seklou).
Claim 16 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Catwell (“[Project] Raspberry Pi Washer/Dryer Text Alert System – IoT Retrofit Appliances, Aug. 2017, Element14/An Avnet Community, community.element14.com” hereinafter as “Catwell”) in view of Sarwat Iqbal et. al. (“RFID-Based Automated Shared Drop Box for Laundry Business: A Process Model, Jan. 2019, Mehran Univ. Research Journal of Engineering & Technology, Vol. 38, No. 1, 37-52” hereinafter as “Iqbal”) and further in view of Hanchuan Li et. al. (“ID-Match: A Hybrid Computer Vision and RFID System for Recognizing Individuals in Groups, 2016, #chi4good, CHI 2016, San Jose, CA, USA” hereinafter as “Li”) and Neeraj Singh (“How is Blockchain Transforming the Fashion Industry, May 2020, Linkedin.com” hereinafter as “Singh”) and Silviu Nistor et. al. (“Capability of Smart Appliances to Provide Reserve Services, Applied Energy, Vol. 138, Jan. 2015, pp. 590-597” hereinafter as “Nistor”).
Regarding claim 16, Catwell in view of Iqbal further in view of Li and Singh discloses the clothing treatment device of claim 15, wherein the at least one processor is configured to perform control to: send information (as discussed above in claim 15).
However, Catwell in view of Iqbal further in view of Li and Singh does not explicitly disclose about the clothing required to be washed among the first clothes to at least one of the washing machine and the dryer through the server.
In the same field of washing machine communication (abstract and figure 1, Nistor) Nistor discloses about the clothing required to be washed among the first clothes to at least one of the washing machine and the dryer through the server (figure 1 shows the between the home appliances and the user; moreover, the appliances can be remotely turned on/off [page 591, 4th par.] therefore, it indicates when the user needs to wash their clothes, it can send signal through the communication module to remotely turn on the washing machine or dryer [which is analogous to information about the clothing required to be washed to the washing machine or dryer through the server/the communication module]).
Thus, it would have been obvious for a person of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date to modify Catwell in view of Iqbal further in view of Li and Singh to have a system that send information about the clothing required to be washed among the first clothes to at least one of the washing machine and the dryer through the server as taught by Nistor to arrive at the claimed invention discussed above. Such a modification is the result of combing prior art elements according to known methods to yield predictable results. The motivation for the proposed modification would have been to
Conclusion
THIS ACTION IS MADE FINAL. Applicant is reminded of the extension of time policy as set forth in 37 CFR 1.136(a).
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/PHUONG HAU CAI/Examiner, Art Unit 2673
/CHINEYERE WILLS-BURNS/Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 2673