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 .
This Office Action is in response to the amendment filed March 22, 2026. Claims 1 and 20-22 have been amended. Claims 1-24 remain pending.
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 1-24 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 101 because the claimed invention is directed to an abstract without significantly more. Claims 1, 21 and 22 are directed to a method, apparatus and computer program product for transcribing audio signals reciting limitations for obtaining a source audio signal; obtaining meta data associated with the audio signal; analyzing the meta data; extracting acoustic features from the source audio signal; determining a difficulty level assessment of transcribing the audio signal, by a machine learning engine using linear regression and taking as input the meta data, the acoustic features, and linguistic factors of previously transcribed signals having similar characteristics to the source audio signal; selecting based on the difficulty level a first transcription option, the first transcription option including transcription by an automatic speech recognition engine; and providing a related audio signal which is related to the source audio signal to the first transcription option over a communication channel, transcribing the related audio signal by the first transcription option to obtain a transcription of the related audio signal; and determining a confidence level of the transcription, using at least a self-reported confidence level of the ASR engine and intrinsic data provided by the ASR engine. The feature for “obtaining a source audio signal” is a data gathering step that can be achieved by a person listening to the audio signal; “obtaining metadata…” is a data gathering step that can be achieved by the person reading metadata information obtained from a source or by mentally understanding the audio and determining the metadata (languages spoken, topics, themes, etc); “analyzing the meta data” can be achieved by the person mentally understanding the audio and determining the metadata; “extracting acoustic features…” can be achieved by the person hearing and mentally analyzing pitch/rate/duration/phoneme information from the audio; “determining a difficulty level…using linear regression.” Can be achieved via mental processing and pen and paper, where the person has determined a language or topics that may be unfamiliar/unknown, deciding that the audio would be difficult them to accurately transcribe by utilizing natural language processing rules and principles and performing mathematical calculations based on the independent and dependent variables applied to the acoustic features, meta data, and previously transcribed signals; “selecting…” can be achieved by the person realizing they cannot perform the transcription from a certain language or topic, choosing from a list of transcribers, the transcriber that speaks or understands the identified language or topic; “providing….” Can be achieved by the person presenting the audio to the chosen transcriber; “transcribing can be achieved by the chosen transcriber, using pen and paper, understanding the audio and writing the words heard and understood on paper; “determining…” can be achieved by the person, observing an analyzing the transcription and determining a confidence level using mathematical calculations. The recited limitations are directed a process that, under its broadest reasonable interpretation, covers performance of the limitation in the mind but for the recitation of the generic apparatus, processor, memory, communication channel, and computer readable medium components. If a claim limitation, under its broadest reasonable interpretation, covers performance of the limitation in the mind but for the recitation of generic computer components, then it falls within the “Mental Processes” grouping of abstract ideas. Accordingly, the claims recite an abstract idea.
This judicial exception is not integrated into a practical application because the recited generic ASR engine, apparatus, processor, memory, communication channel, and computer readable medium amounts to no more than mere instructions to apply the exception using generic computer components. Accordingly, the elements do not integrate the abstract idea into a practical application because they do not impose any meaningful limits on practicing the abstract idea. The claims are directed to an abstract idea. The claims are not patent eligible.
The claim(s) does/do not include additional elements that are sufficient to amount to significantly more than the judicial exception because, as indicated with respect to integration of the abstract idea into a practical application, the additional elements of the generic ASR engine, apparatus, processor, memory, communication channel, and computer readable medium to perform the various steps amounts to no more than mere instructions to apply the exception using generic computer components. Mere instructions to apply an exception using generic computer components cannot provide an inventive concept. The claims are not patent eligible.
Claim 20 is directed to a method for transcribing audio signals reciting limitations for obtaining a source audio signal; obtaining meta data associated with the source audio signal; extracting acoustic features from the source audio signal; analyzing the meta data; receiving output from an ASR engine after transcribing a second audio signal related to the source audio signal; assessing a confidence level by a machine learning engine using linear regression; selecting by a machine learning engine, based at least on the acoustic features, the ASR confidence level, and linguistic factors of the output of the ASR engine, a first selected transcription option for transcribing the source audio signal, the first transcription option including transcription by an Automatic Speech Recognition engine; providing a related audio signal which is related to the source audio signal to the first selected transcription option over a communication channel; transcribing the related audio signal by the first transcription to obtain transcription of the audio signal; determining a confidence level of the transcription using at least a self-reported confidence level of the ASR engine and intrinsic data provided by the ASR engine. The feature for “obtaining a source audio signal” is a data gathering step that can be achieved by a person listening to the audio signal; “obtaining metadata…” is a data gathering step that can be achieved by the person reading metadata information obtained from a source or by mentally understanding the audio and determining the metadata (languages spoken, topics, themes, etc); “analyzing the meta data” can be achieved by the person mentally understanding the audio and determining the metadata; “extracting acoustic features…” can be achieved by the person hearing and mentally analyzing pitch/rate/duration/phoneme information from the audio; “receiving output……” is a data gathering step that can be achieved the person transcribing the audio themselves or asking another person to transcribe the audio; “assessing a confidence level….” Can be achieved via mental processing and pen and paper, where the person has determined a language or topics that may be unfamiliar/unknown, deciding that the audio would be difficult them to accurately transcribe by utilizing natural language processing rules and principles and performing mathematical calculations based on the independent and dependent variables applied to the acoustic features, meta data, and previously transcribed signals; “selecting…” can be achieved by the person deciding that the audio would be difficult them to accurately transcribe by utilizing natural language processing rules and principles applied to the acoustic features, meta data, and previously transcribed signals realizing they cannot perform the transcription from a certain language or topic, choosing from a list of transcribers, the transcriber that speaks or understands the identified language or topic; “providing….” Can be achieved by the person presenting the audio to the chosen transcriber; “transcribing can be achieved by the chosen transcriber, using pen and paper, understanding the audio and writing the words heard and understood on paper; “determining…” can be achieved by the person, observing an analyzing the transcription and determining a confidence level using mathematical calculations. The recited limitations are directed a process that, under its broadest reasonable interpretation, covers performance of the limitation in the mind but for the recitation of the generic ASR and communication channel. If a claim limitation, under its broadest reasonable interpretation, covers performance of the limitation in the mind but for the recitation of generic computer components, then it falls within the “Mental Processes” grouping of abstract ideas. Accordingly, the claims recite an abstract idea.
This judicial exception is not integrated into a practical application because the recited generic ASR and communication channel amounts to no more than mere instructions to apply the exception using generic computer components. Accordingly, the elements do not integrate the abstract idea into a practical application because they do not impose any meaningful limits on practicing the abstract idea. The claim is directed to an abstract idea. The claim is not patent eligible.
The claim does not include additional elements that are sufficient to amount to significantly more than the judicial exception because, as indicated with respect to integration of the abstract idea into a practical application, the additional elements of the generic ASR and communication channel amounts to no more than mere instructions to apply the exception using generic computer components. Mere instructions to apply an exception using generic computer components cannot provide an inventive concept. The claim is not patent eligible.
Dependent claims 2-19 and 23-24 do not integrate the judicial exception into a practical application and do not include additional elements that are sufficient to amount to significantly more than the judicial exception. The limitations of the dependent claims are directed to steps of organizing or manipulating data for selecting and processing, transcription options, data gathering, determining confidence levels, describing and processing acoustic features, describing and processing meta data features, and utilizing rules, principles, and mathematical calculations via pen and paper to determine levels of difficulty of translations.
Response to Arguments
Applicant's arguments filed March 22, 2026 have been fully considered but they are not persuasive.
Applicant argues the “amendments further tie the claims to patentable subject matter, which does not fall under the categorization of a mental process that can be performed entirely in the human mind, with or without a physical aid. “ The Examiner respectfully disagrees. As indicated in the rejection above, the recited limitation of “using linear regression” is a step that can be achieved by a person via mathematical calculations to describe relationships between independent and dependent variables using pen and paper.
Applicant argues “A person cannot practically use linear regression to determine a difficulty level assessment of an audio segment.” The Examiner respectfully disagrees. As indicated in the rejection above, determining a difficulty level using linear regression can be achieved via mental processing and pen and paper, where the person has determined a language or topics that may be unfamiliar/unknown, deciding that the audio would be difficult them to accurately transcribe by utilizing natural language processing rules and principles and performing mathematical calculations based on the independent and dependent variables applied to the acoustic features, meta data, and previously transcribed signals.
The recited claims are directed to an abstract idea reciting limitations that can be achieved via mental processing and mathematical calculations/processing using pen and paper. The rejections under 35 USC 101 are maintained.
Conclusion
Applicant's amendment necessitated the new ground(s) of rejection presented in this Office action. Accordingly, THIS ACTION IS MADE FINAL. See MPEP § 706.07(a). Applicant is reminded of the extension of time policy as set forth in 37 CFR 1.136(a).
A shortened statutory period for reply to this final action is set to expire THREE MONTHS from the mailing date of this action. In the event a first reply is filed within TWO MONTHS of the mailing date of this final action and the advisory action is not mailed until after the end of the THREE-MONTH shortened statutory period, then the shortened statutory period will expire on the date the advisory action is mailed, and any nonprovisional extension fee (37 CFR 1.17(a)) pursuant to 37 CFR 1.136(a) will be calculated from the mailing date of the advisory action. In no event, however, will the statutory period for reply expire later than SIX MONTHS from the mailing date of this final action.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to ANGELA A ARMSTRONG whose telephone number is (571)272-7598. The examiner can normally be reached M,T,TH,F 11:30-8:00.
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ANGELA A. ARMSTRONG
Primary Examiner
Art Unit 2659
/ANGELA A ARMSTRONG/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2659
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