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 Amendment
The amendments filed March 9th, 2026 have been entered. Claims 1, 7, 10, 16, and 19 have been amended. Claim 8 has been cancelled. Claim 22 has been added. Claims 1-4, 6, 7, and 9-22 are pending and have been examined. Applicant’s amendments to the claims have overcome all rejections under 35 U.S.C. 112 previously set forth.
Response to Arguments
Applicant’s arguments with respect to claim(s) 1-4, 6, 7, 9, and 21 have been considered but are moot because the new ground of rejection does not rely on any reference applied in the prior rejection of record for any teaching or matter specifically challenged in the argument. However, the new ground of rejection relies upon a reference applied to the other independent claims in the prior rejection of record. While the teaching of this reference was specifically challenged in the argument, the arguments were not persuasive, as further explained below with regards to claims 10 and 19.
Applicant's arguments regarding the rejection of claims 10-21 under 35 U.S.C. 103, filed March 9th, 2026, have been fully considered but they are not persuasive.
Regarding claim 10, the applicant argues that Vandyke fails to teach or suggest “upon receiving an acknowledging signal from the second mobile device, establishing the wireless communication channel between the first device and the second device”. The examiner respectfully disagrees. As outlined in the previous rejection, Vandyke teaches a method of establishing a wireless communication channel between two devices after a process of requesting and accepting the communication. The examiner holds that Vandyke teaches at least the broadest reasonable interpretation of the claimed limitation. Additionally, regarding the amendment to the claim specifying the use of mobile devices, Col. 5, lines 32-35 of Vandyke discloses that the devices used can include mobile devices such as smartphones or head mounted displays. Furthermore, the base reference, Brielmann also discloses the use of mobile devices at [0043] and [0045]. As such, claim 10 remains rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103.
Regarding claim 19, the claim recites limitations comparable to those of claim 10, and therefore remains rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 for the same reasons as discussed above with regards to claim 10.
Regarding claims 11-18, and 20, each of these claims depends on claim 10, claim 19, or another dependent claim, and therefore recite all limitations therefrom. As such, the claims remain rejected for the same reasons as discussed above with regards to claims 10 and 19.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
In the event the determination of the status of the application as subject to AIA 35 U.S.C. 102 and 103 (or as subject to pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 102 and 103) is incorrect, any correction of the statutory basis (i.e., changing from AIA to pre-AIA ) for the rejection will not be considered a new ground of rejection if the prior art relied upon, and the rationale supporting the rejection, would be the same under either status.
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 103 which forms the basis for all obviousness rejections set forth in this Office action:
A patent for a claimed invention may not be obtained, notwithstanding that the claimed invention is not identically disclosed as set forth in section 102, if the differences between the claimed invention and the prior art are such that the claimed invention as a whole would have been obvious before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to a person having ordinary skill in the art to which the claimed invention pertains. Patentability shall not be negated by the manner in which the invention was made.
Claim(s) 1-3, 6, 10-12, 14-15, and 19-21 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Brielmann, in view of Vandyke et al. (US Pat. No. 11,812,194 B1 hereinafter Vandyke).
Regarding claim 1, Brielmann discloses a computer-implemented method comprising: receiving, from a wireless communication interface of a first device of a first user and at a first mobile device associated with the first device and the first user, a first signal indicating that the first device detected an audio signal in an environment, the audio signal being associated with a second user; determining, that the second user is a known contact of the first user (Brielmann, [0059]: “In a first step S100 of the method, the user's acoustic environment is being monitored by the at least one microphone 20 and analyzed so as to recognize one or more speaking persons based on their content-independent speaker voiceprints saved in the hearing system 10 (“speaker recognition”).”); determining, based at least in part on the second user being the known contact, a second device and a second mobile device associated with the second user (Brielmann, [0060]: "In a second step S200 of the method, this speaker recognition is used as a trigger to automatically establish, join or leave a wireless personal communication connection between the user's hearing device 12 and respective communication devices (such as hearing devices or wireless microphones) used by the one or more speaking persons (also denoted as “other conversation participants”) and capable of wireless communication with the user's hearing device 12."); receiving, from the wireless communication interface of the first device at the first mobile device, a signal to request approval from the first user to establish a wireless communication channel between the first device and the second device associated with the second user; receiving, via a user interface of the first mobile device, the approval from the first user to establish the wireless communication channel between the first device and the second device (Brielmann, [0061]: "In step S200 it also may be that firstly a user interface is presented to the user, which notifies the user about a recognized speaking person and for establishing. With the user interface, the hearing device also may be trigger by the user for joining or leaving a wireless personal communication connection between the hearing device (12) and one or more communication devices used by the one or more recognized speaking persons."; Here, the notification and trigger by the user is seen as notification and approval of establishing a wireless communication channel.); and upon receiving the acknowledging signal, wirelessly searching, by the first mobile device, for the second device; and upon locating the second device, establishing, at least in part by the first mobile device, the wireless communication channel between the first device and the second device (Brielmann, [0060]: "In a second step S200 of the method, this speaker recognition is used as a trigger to automatically establish, join or leave a wireless personal communication connection between the user's hearing device 12 and respective communication devices (such as hearing devices or wireless microphones) used by the one or more speaking persons (also denoted as “other conversation participants”) and capable of wireless communication with the user's hearing device 12."; Here, establishing a connection with another device is seen as including wirelessly searching for the second device.). However, Brielmann fails to expressly recite receiving, from the second mobile device and at the first mobile device, an acknowledging signal associated with the second user to establish the wireless communication channel between the first device and the second device.
Vandyke teaches receiving, from the second mobile device and at the first mobile device (Vandyke, Col. 5, lines 32-35: “Electronic devices 130 and 131 can include any type of device with a display, such as a smart phone, tablet computer, laptop, desktop computer, HMD, or the like.”), an acknowledging signal associated with the second user to establish the wireless communication channel between the first device and the second device (Vandyke, Col. 20, lines 54-59: "upon determining that the first user is requesting to engage in the private conversation (based on the movement and/or explicit command), the electronic device 130 may transmit (via a computer network) a request message to the electronic device (e.g., 131) of the second user to initiate a private conversation."; Col. 20, lines 50-54: "Once accepted, the second user's electronic device may transmit an acceptance message to the electronic device 130, and the process 400 may proceed.").
Brielmann and Vandyke are analogous arts because they both belong to the same field of communication. It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have modified the personal communication system of Brielmann to incorporate the teachings of Vandyke to allow users to request joining a communication channel with the other users. This allows users to communicate with each other only with the permission of all users in the conversation (Vandyke, Col. 21).This ensures that users can effectively communicate, but prevents unwanted connections with other users.
Regarding claim 2, the rejection of claim 1 is incorporated. Brielmann, in view of Vandyke, discloses all of the elements of the current invention as stated above. Brielmann further discloses wherein determining that the second user is the known contact of the first user further comprises (Brielmann, [0019]: "the method comprises monitoring and analyzing the user's acoustic environment by the hearing device to recognize one or more speaking persons based on content-independent speaker voiceprints saved in the hearing system."): inputting the audio signal to a machine learning model trained to perform voice recognition (Brielmann, [0022]: "Speaker recognition also may be based on classification methods, such as GMM, SVM, k-NN, Parzen window and other machine learning and/or deep learning classification method such as DNN."); and receiving an output from the machine learning model, the output indicating the audio signal being generated by the known contact (Brielmann, [0020]: "this speaker recognition is used as a trigger to possibly automatically establish, join or leave a wireless personal communication connection between the user's hearing device and respective communication devices used by the one or more speaking persons").
Regarding claim 3, the rejection of claim 2 is incorporated. Brielmann, in view of Vandyke, discloses all of the elements of the current invention as stated above. Brielmann further discloses wherein the machine learning model is implemented on the first device (Brielmann, [0043]: "The computer program also may be executed by a processor of a connected user device, such as a smartphone or any other type of mobile device, which may be a part of the hearing system, and the computer-readable medium may be a memory of the connected user device.").
Regarding claim 6, the rejection of claim 1 is incorporated. Brielmann, in view of Vandyke, discloses all of the elements of the current invention as stated above. Brielmann further discloses wherein the wireless communication channel includes a first peer-to-peer wireless channel that connects the first device to the first mobile device and a second peer-to-peer wireless channel that connects the second device to the first mobile device (Brielmann, [0032]: "pairing between hearing devices of different users may be done manually or automatically, e.g. using Bluetooth").
Regarding claim 10, Brielmann discloses a first device associated with a first user comprising: a processor (Brielmann, [0043]: “the computer program may be executed in a processor of a hearing device”), a memory (Brielmann, [0043]: “The computer-readable medium may be a memory of this hearing device”), a network interface (Brielmann, [0044]: “A computer-readable medium may also be a data communication network”), a microphone array configured to detect an audio signal in an environment, the audio signal being associated with a second user (Brielmann, [0042]: “a hearing device worn by a user and provided with at least one microphone”; [0019]: "the method comprises monitoring and analyzing the user's acoustic environment by the hearing device to recognize one or more speaking persons based on content-independent speaker voiceprints saved in the hearing system."). However, Brielmann fails to expressly recite a controller configured to: initiate, over a telecommunication network, a request for establishing a wireless communication channel between the first device and a second device, the second device associated with the second user; upon receiving an acknowledging signal from the second device, establishing the wireless communication channel between the first device and the second device; receiving, from a third device, a request to join the wireless communication channel; and in response to receiving, from the second device, an approval to join the third device to the wireless communication channel between the first device and the second device, joining the third device to the wireless communication channel between the first device and the second device.
Vandyke teaches a controller configured to: initiate, over a telecommunication network, a request for establishing a wireless communication channel between the first device and a second device, the second device associated with the second user (Vandyke, Col. 20, lines 54-59: "upon determining that the first user is requesting to engage in the private conversation (based on the movement and/or explicit command), the electronic device 130 may transmit (via a computer network) a request message to the electronic device (e.g., 131) of the second user to initiate a private conversation."); upon receiving an acknowledging signal from a second mobile device (Vandyke, Col. 5, lines 32-35: “Electronic devices 130 and 131 can include any type of device with a display, such as a smart phone, tablet computer, laptop, desktop computer, HMD, or the like.”), establishing the wireless communication channel between the first device and the second device (Vandyke, Col. 20, lines 50-54: "Once accepted, the second user's electronic device may transmit an acceptance message to the electronic device 130, and the process 400 may proceed."); receiving, from a third device, a request to join the wireless communication channel (Vandyke, Col. 21, lines 47-50: "The process 500 detects that the third user (e.g., the user of avatar 145) who is not participating in the private conversation is requesting to join the private conversation (at block 510)."); and in response to receiving, from the second device, an approval to join the third device to the wireless communication channel between the first device and the second device, joining the third device to the wireless communication channel between the first device and the second device (Vandyke, Col. 22, lines 1-12: "In one aspect, the electronic device may alert a user by presenting an alert on the display screen and/or may alert the user by outputting an audio signal that informs the user of the request. In one aspect, one or more users who are participating in the private conversation may be alerted of the request. Thus, in this example, users 1 and 2 may also be alerted. The process 500 determines whether authorization has been received to allow the third user to join the private conversation (at decision block 520). For instance, user 1 120 may provide authorization through a voice command, or a selection of a UI item (e.g., a virtual UI item in the CGR Setting)."; Col. 22, lines 21-26: "when user 1 120 and/or user 2 125 provide authorization, the process 500 adds avatar 145 of the third user into the privacy cloak (at block 525). Specifically, along with adding the third user, the electronic device 130 establishes a 3-way communication between the three users.").
Brielmann and Vandyke are analogous arts because they both belong to the same field of communication. It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have modified the personal communication system of Brielmann to incorporate the teachings of Vandyke to allow users to request joining a communication channel with the other users. This allows users to communicate with each other only with the permission of all users in the conversation (Vandyke, Col. 21).This ensures that users can effectively communicate, but prevents unwanted connections with other users.
Regarding claim 11, the rejection of claim 10 is incorporated. Brielmann, in view of Vandyke, discloses all of the elements of the current invention as stated above. Brielmann further discloses wherein the controller is further configured to determine the second user being a known contact of the first user (Brielmann, [0019]: "the method comprises monitoring and analyzing the user's acoustic environment by the hearing device to recognize one or more speaking persons based on content-independent speaker voiceprints saved in the hearing system."), including: inputting the audio signal to a machine learning model trained to perform voice recognition (Brielmann, [0022]: "Speaker recognition also may be based on classification methods, such as GMM, SVM, k-NN, Parzen window and other machine learning and/or deep learning classification method such as DNN."), and receiving an output from the machine learning model, the output indicating the audio signal being generated by the known contact (Brielmann, [0020]: "this speaker recognition is used as a trigger to possibly automatically establish, join or leave a wireless personal communication connection between the user's hearing device and respective communication devices used by the one or more speaking persons").
Regarding claim 12, the rejection of claim 11 is incorporated. Brielmann, in view of Vandyke, discloses all of the elements of the current invention as stated above. Brielmann further discloses wherein the machine learning model is implemented on the first device (Brielmann, [0043]: "The computer program also may be executed by a processor of a connected user device, such as a smartphone or any other type of mobile device, which may be a part of the hearing system, and the computer-readable medium may be a memory of the connected user device.").
Regarding claim 14, the rejection of claim 10 is incorporated. Brielmann, in view of Vandyke, discloses all of the elements of the claimed invention as stated above. Brielmann further discloses the first device of claim 10, wherein the controller is further configured to: send an instruction to a first mobile device associated with the first device, causing the first mobile device to perform actions (Brielmann, [0043]: "The computer program also may be executed by a processor of a connected user device, such as a smartphone or any other type of mobile device, which may be a part of the hearing system, and the computer-readable medium may be a memory of the connected user device."). However, Brielmann fails to expressly recite sending the request for establishing the wireless communication channel to the second device; receiving the acknowledging signal from the second device, and establishing the wireless communication channel between the first device and the second device through the first mobile device.
Vandyke teaches sending the request for establishing the wireless communication channel to the second device (Vandyke, Col. 20, lines 54-59: "upon determining that the first user is requesting to engage in the private conversation (based on the movement and/or explicit command), the electronic device 130 may transmit (via a computer network) a request message to the electronic device (e.g., 131) of the second user to initiate a private conversation."); receiving the acknowledging signal from the second device, and establishing the wireless communication channel between the first device and the second device through the first mobile device (Vandyke, Col. 20, lines 50-54: "Once accepted, the second user's electronic device may transmit an acceptance message to the electronic device 130, and the process 400 may proceed."; Col. 5, lines 32-35: “Electronic devices 130 and 131 can include any type of device with a display, such as a smart phone, tablet computer, laptop, desktop computer, HMD, or the like.”). The same motivation for claim 10 applies equally to claim 14.
Regarding claim 15, the rejection of claim 14 is incorporated. Brielmann, in view of Vandyke, disclose all of the elements of the current invention as stated above. Brielmann further discloses wherein the wireless communication channel includes a first peer-to-peer channel that connects the first device to the first mobile device and a second peer-to-peer channel that connects the second device to the first mobile device (Brielmann, [0032]: "pairing between hearing devices of different users may be done manually or automatically, e.g. using Bluetooth").
Regarding claim 19, Brielmann discloses a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium storing computer-readable instructions (Brielmann, [0044]: “In general, a computer-readable medium may be a floppy disk, a hard disk, an USB (Universal Serial Bus) storage device, a RAM (Random Access Memory), a ROM (Read Only Memory), an EPROM (Erasable Programmable Read Only Memory) or a FLASH memory. A computer-readable medium may also be a data communication network, e.g. the Internet, which allows downloading a program code. The computer-readable medium may be a non-transitory or transitory medium.”), that when executed by a processor (Brielmann, [0043]: “the computer program may be executed in a processor of a hearing device”), cause the processor to perform actions comprising: detecting, by a microphone array of a first device of a first user, an audio signal in an environment; determining, by the first device, that the audio signal is associated with a second user (Brielmann, [0042]: “a hearing device worn by a user and provided with at least one microphone”; [0019]: "the method comprises monitoring and analyzing the user's acoustic environment by the hearing device to recognize one or more speaking persons based on content-independent speaker voiceprints saved in the hearing system."); determining, based at least in part on the second user, a second device and a second mobile device associated with the second user (Brielmann, [0060]: "In a second step S200 of the method, this speaker recognition is used as a trigger to automatically establish, join or leave a wireless personal communication connection between the user's hearing device 12 and respective communication devices (such as hearing devices or wireless microphones) used by the one or more speaking persons (also denoted as “other conversation participants”) and capable of wireless communication with the user's hearing device 12."). However, Brielmann fails to expressly recite initiating, from the first device and over a telecommunication network, a request for establishing a wireless communication channel between the first device and the second device associated with the second user, upon receiving, via the telecommunication network, an acknowledging signal from the second mobile device, establishing the wireless communication channel between the first device and the second device; receiving, from a third device, a request to join the wireless communication channel; sending, from the first device, a signal to a first mobile device, a signal to request approval from the first user to join the third device to the wireless communication channel between the first device and the second device; and in response to receiving, from the first mobile device, the approval to join the third device to the wireless communication channel between the first device and the second device, joining the third device to the wireless communication channel between the first device and the second device.
Vandyke teaches initiating, from the first device and over a telecommunication network, a request for establishing a wireless communication channel between the first device and the second device associated with the second user (Vandyke, Col. 20, lines 54-59: "upon determining that the first user is requesting to engage in the private conversation (based on the movement and/or explicit command), the electronic device 130 may transmit (via a computer network) a request message to the electronic device (e.g., 131) of the second user to initiate a private conversation."), upon receiving, via the telecommunication network, an acknowledging signal from the second mobile device (Vandyke, Col. 5, lines 32-35: “Electronic devices 130 and 131 can include any type of device with a display, such as a smart phone, tablet computer, laptop, desktop computer, HMD, or the like.”), establishing the wireless communication channel between the first device and the second device (Vandyke, Col. 20, lines 50-54: "Once accepted, the second user's electronic device may transmit an acceptance message to the electronic device 130, and the process 400 may proceed."); receiving, from a third device, a request to join the wireless communication channel (Vandyke, Col. 21, lines 47-50: "The process 500 detects that the third user (e.g., the user of avatar 145) who is not participating in the private conversation is requesting to join the private conversation (at block 510)."); sending, from the first device, a signal to a first mobile device, a signal to request approval from the first user to join the third device to the wireless communication channel between the first device and the second device; and in response to receiving, from the first mobile device, the approval to join the third device to the wireless communication channel between the first device and the second device, joining the third device to the wireless communication channel between the first device and the second device (Vandyke, Col. 22, lines 1-12: "In one aspect, the electronic device may alert a user by presenting an alert on the display screen and/or may alert the user by outputting an audio signal that informs the user of the request. In one aspect, one or more users who are participating in the private conversation may be alerted of the request. Thus, in this example, users 1 and 2 may also be alerted. The process 500 determines whether authorization has been received to allow the third user to join the private conversation (at decision block 520). For instance, user 1 120 may provide authorization through a voice command, or a selection of a UI item (e.g., a virtual UI item in the CGR Setting)."; Col. 22, lines 21-26: "when user 1 120 and/or user 2 125 provide authorization, the process 500 adds avatar 145 of the third user into the privacy cloak (at block 525). Specifically, along with adding the third user, the electronic device 130 establishes a 3-way communication between the three users.").
Brielmann and Vandyke are analogous arts because they both belong to the same field of communication. It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have modified the personal communication system of Brielmann to incorporate the teachings of Vandyke to allow users to request joining a communication channel with the other users. This allows users to communicate with each other only with the permission of all users in the conversation (Vandyke, Col. 21).This ensures that users can effectively communicate, but prevents unwanted connections with other users.
Regarding claim 20, the rejection of claim 19 is incorporated. Brielmann, in view of Vandyke, discloses all of the elements of the current invention as stated above. Brielmann discloses the non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 19, wherein initiating, from the first device, the request for establishing the wireless communication channel further comprises: sending an instruction to a first mobile device associated with the first device, causing the first mobile device to perform actions including (Brielmann, [0043]: "The computer program also may be executed by a processor of a connected user device, such as a smartphone or any other type of mobile device, which may be a part of the hearing system, and the computer-readable medium may be a memory of the connected user device."): establishing, via the first mobile device, the wireless communication channel between the first device and the second device through the first mobile device (Brielmann, [0060]: "In a second step S200 of the method, this speaker recognition is used as a trigger to automatically establish, join or leave a wireless personal communication connection between the user's hearing device 12 and respective communication devices (such as hearing devices or wireless microphones) used by the one or more speaking persons (also denoted as “other conversation participants”) and capable of wireless communication with the user's hearing device 12."), wherein the communication channel includes a first peer-to-peer channel that connects the first device to the first mobile device (Brielmann, [0018]: “The hearing system may optionally further comprise at least one connected user device, such as a smartphone, smartwatch or other devices carried by the user and/or a personal computer etc.”) and a second peer-to-peer channel that connects the second device to the first mobile device (Brielmann, [0060]: “In a second step S200 of the method, this speaker recognition is used as a trigger to automatically establish, join or leave a wireless personal communication connection between the user's hearing device 12 and respective communication devices (such as hearing devices or wireless microphones) used by the one or more speaking persons (also denoted as “other conversation participants”) and capable of wireless communication with the user's hearing device 12.”). However, Brielmann fails to expressly recite sending an instruction to a first mobile device associated with the first device, causing the first mobile device to perform actions including: sending, via the telecommunication network, the request for establishing the wireless communication channel to the second device; receiving, via the telecommunication network, the acknowledging signal from the second device.
Vandyke teaches sending an instruction to a first mobile device associated with the first device, causing the first mobile device to perform actions including: sending, via the telecommunication network, the request for establishing the wireless communication channel to the second device (Vandyke, Col. 20, lines 54-59: "upon determining that the first user is requesting to engage in the private conversation (based on the movement and/or explicit command), the electronic device 130 may transmit (via a computer network) a request message to the electronic device (e.g., 131) of the second user to initiate a private conversation."); receiving, via the telecommunication network, the acknowledging signal from the second device (Vandyke, Col. 20, lines 50-54: "Once accepted, the second user's electronic device may transmit an acceptance message to the electronic device 130, and the process 400 may proceed."). The same motivation for claim 19 applies equally to claim 20.
Regarding claim 21, the rejection of claim 1 is incorporated. Brielmann discloses all of the elements of the current invention as stated above. However, Brielmann fails to expressly recite receiving, from a third device, a request to join the wireless communication channel; sending, from the first device, a signal to the first mobile device, a signal to request approval from the first user to join the third device to the wireless communication channel between the first device and the second device; and in response to receiving, from the first mobile device, the approval to join the third device to the wireless communication channel between the first device and the second device, joining the third device to the wireless communication channel between the first device and the second device.
Vandyke teaches receiving, from a third device, a request to join the wireless communication channel (Vandyke, Col. 21, lines 47-50: "The process 500 detects that the third user (e.g., the user of avatar 145) who is not participating in the private conversation is requesting to join the private conversation (at block 510)."); sending, from the first device, a signal to the first mobile device, a signal to request approval from the first user to join the third device to the wireless communication channel between the first device and the second device; and in response to receiving, from the first mobile device, the approval to join the third device to the wireless communication channel between the first device and the second device, joining the third device to the wireless communication channel between the first device and the second device (Vandyke, Col. 22, lines 1-12: "In one aspect, the electronic device may alert a user by presenting an alert on the display screen and/or may alert the user by outputting an audio signal that informs the user of the request. In one aspect, one or more users who are participating in the private conversation may be alerted of the request. Thus, in this example, users 1 and 2 may also be alerted. The process 500 determines whether authorization has been received to allow the third user to join the private conversation (at decision block 520). For instance, user 1 120 may provide authorization through a voice command, or a selection of a UI item (e.g., a virtual UI item in the CGR Setting)."; Col. 22, lines 21-26: "when user 1 120 and/or user 2 125 provide authorization, the process 500 adds avatar 145 of the third user into the privacy cloak (at block 525). Specifically, along with adding the third user, the electronic device 130 establishes a 3-way communication between the three users.").
Brielmann and Vandyke are analogous arts because they both belong to the same field of communication. It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have modified the personal communication system of Brielmann to incorporate the teachings of Vandyke to allow users to request joining a communication channel with the other users. This allows users to communicate with each other only with the permission of all users in the conversation (Vandyke, Col. 21).This ensures that users can effectively communicate, but prevents unwanted connections with other users.
Claim(s) 4 and 13 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Brielmann, in view of Vandyke, as applied to claims 1-3, 6, 10-12, 14-15, and 19-21 above, and further in view of Kim et al. (US Pat. Pub. No. 2015/0255068 hereinafter Kim J).
Regarding claim 4, the rejection of claim 2 is incorporated. Brielmann, in view of Vandyke discloses all of the elements of the current invention as stated above. Brielmann further discloses collecting voice data from past voice conversations with the first user (Brielmann, [0035]: "the user's own content-independent voiceprint may also be obtained by using the user's hearing device and/or the connected user device for voice feature extraction during real use cases (also called Own Voice Pick Ups, OVPU) in which the user is speaking (such as phone calls). In particular, beamformers provided in the hearing devices may be tuned to pick-up the user's own voice and filter out ambient noises during real use cases of this kind. This approach may have an advantage that the voiceprint/model can be improved over time in real life situations.") and building a set of training data based at least in part on one or more characteristics of the voice data (Brielmann, [0071]: "the training phase S110 may include a sub-step S111 of “Features Extraction”, where voice features of the speaker are extracted from his voice sample"). However, Brielmann, in view of Vandyke, fails to expressly recite downloading the machine learning model from a server; labeling the set of training data based at least in part on identities of people involved in the past voice conversations; and training the machine learning model based at least in part on the labeled set of training data.
Kim J teaches downloading the machine learning model from a server (Kim J, "one or more of the voice models and/or social models 114 can be identified for proactive retrieval or use and downloaded to a client device/system”); labeling the set of training data based at least in part on identities of people involved in the past voice conversations (Kim J, [0034]: “the process 200 at 206 can employ a speaker recognition algorithm on each voice model as part of identifying a speaking participant or speaker, such as Participant A, Participant B, and/or Participant C.”); and training the machine learning model based at least in part on the labeled set of training data (Kim J, [0035]: “It will be appreciated that training data can be used to create a new voiceprint or update an existing voiceprint, whether generated while user(s) are speaking or based on previously collected voice data.”).
Brielmann, Vandyke, and Kim J are analogous arts because they all belong to the same field of communication. It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have modified the personal communication system of Brielmann, as modified by the private conversation method of Vandyke, to incorporate the teachings of Kim J to allow for downloading of the voice model and using labels when training the models. This allows for proactive retrieval or sharing of models (Kim J, [0005]), and allows the training data to be stored and updated when necessary (Kim J, [0035]). These features help improve the quality and accuracy of voice recognition systems.
Regarding claim 13, the rejection of claim 11 is incorporated. Brielmann, in view of Vandyke, discloses all of the elements of the current invention as stated above. Brielmann further discloses collecting voice data from past voice conversations with the first user (Brielmann, [0035]: "the user's own content-independent voiceprint may also be obtained by using the user's hearing device and/or the connected user device for voice feature extraction during real use cases (also called Own Voice Pick Ups, OVPU) in which the user is speaking (such as phone calls). In particular, beamformers provided in the hearing devices may be tuned to pick-up the user's own voice and filter out ambient noises during real use cases of this kind. This approach may have an advantage that the voiceprint/model can be improved over time in real life situations.") and building a set of training data based at least in part on one or more characteristics of the voice data (Brielmann, [0071]: "the training phase S110 may include a sub-step S111 of “Features Extraction”, where voice features of the speaker are extracted from his voice sample"). However, Brielmann, in view of Vandyke, fails to expressly recite wherein the controller is further configured to download the machine learning model from a server; labeling the set of training data based at least in part on identities of people involved in the past voice conversations; and training the machine learning model based at least in part on the labeled set of training data.
Kim J teaches wherein the controller is further configured to download the machine learning model from a server (Kim J, "one or more of the voice models and/or social models 114 can be identified for proactive retrieval or use and downloaded to a client device/system”); labeling the set of training data based at least in part on identities of people involved in the past voice conversations (Kim J, [0034]: “the process 200 at 206 can employ a speaker recognition algorithm on each voice model as part of identifying a speaking participant or speaker, such as Participant A, Participant B, and/or Participant C.”); and training the machine learning model based at least in part on the labeled set of training data (Kim J, [0035]: “It will be appreciated that training data can be used to create a new voiceprint or update an existing voiceprint, whether generated while user(s) are speaking or based on previously collected voice data.”).
Brielmann, Vandyke, and Kim J are analogous arts because they all belong to the same field of communication. It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have modified the personal communication system of Brielmann, as modified by the private conversation method of Vandyke, to incorporate the teachings of Kim J to allow for downloading of the voice model and using labels when training the models. This allows for proactive retrieval or sharing of models (Kim J, [0005]), and allows the training data to be stored and updated when necessary (Kim J, [0035]). These features help improve the quality and accuracy of voice recognition systems.
Claim(s) 7-8 and 16-17 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Brielmann, in view of Vandyke, as applied to claim1-3, 6, 10-12, 14-15, and 19-21 above, and further in view of Weng, Fuliang (US Pat. Pub. No. 2023/0217194 A1 hereinafter Weng).
Regarding claim 7, the rejection of claim 1 is incorporated. Brielmann, in view of Vandyke, discloses all of the elements of the current invention as stated above. Brielmann further discloses receiving a subsequent speech audio signal generated by the second user on the wireless communication channel (Brielmann, [0055]: “Further, the transceiver 32 of the hearing device 12 is adapted to allow a wireless personal communication by voice between the user's hearing device 12 and other persons' hearing devices, in order to improve/enable their conversation (which includes not only a conversation of two people, but also talking in a group or listening to someone's speech etc.) under adverse acoustic conditions such as a noisy environment.”). However, Brielmann, in view of Vandyke, fails to expressly recite determining a direction of the subsequent speech audio signal; amplifying, based at least in part on the direction, a strength of the subsequent speech audio signal; performing noise cancellation on environmental noise in the subsequent speech audio signal; and playing the subsequent speech audio signal to the first user.
Weng teaches determining a direction of the subsequent speech audio signal; amplifying, based at least in part on the direction, a strength of the subsequent speech audio signal; performing noise cancellation on environmental noise in the subsequent speech audio signal (Weng, [0033]: “The algorithm in earbuds or other devices collects intended speech from multiple channel microphone arrays and algorithms, such as GSC, TD-GSC beamforming or neural beamforming, reduce or remove noises from the collected speech signals in real time. This step may reduce or remove noises by amplifying the signal along the identified direction (DOA) and reducing the signals in the rest directions.”); and playing the subsequent speech audio signal to the first user (Weng, [0037]: "The per-frame PDL representation in combination with certain reliably recognized speaker characteristics, such as speaker embeddings, F0, and VUV, is used to synthesize mono-channel speech of the speaker in real time.").
Brielmann, Vandyke, and Weng are analogous arts because they both belong to the same field of communication. It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have modified the personal communication system of Brielmann, as modified by the private conversation method of Vandyke, to incorporate the teachings of Weng to amplify the audio from a given direction while reducing other noise. This allows the user to more clearly hear speech while in a noisy environment (Weng, [0006]). Being able to better hear speech improves the user experience of the system.
Regarding claim 16, the rejection of claim 14 is incorporated. Brielmann, in view of Vandyke, discloses all of the elements of the current invention as stated above. Brielmann further discloses a digital signal processing (DSP) module configured to perform actions including: receiving a subsequent speech audio signal generated by the second user on the wireless communication channel (Brielmann, [0055]: “Further, the transceiver 32 of the hearing device 12 is adapted to allow a wireless personal communication by voice between the user's hearing device 12 and other persons' hearing devices, in order to improve/enable their conversation (which includes not only a conversation of two people, but also talking in a group or listening to someone's speech etc.) under adverse acoustic conditions such as a noisy environment.”). However, Brielmann, in view of Vandyke, fails to expressly recite determining a direction of the subsequent speech audio signal; amplifying, based at least in part on the direction, strength of the subsequent speech audio signal; and performing noise reduction on environmental noise in the subsequent speech audio signal; and a speaker configured to play the subsequent speech audio signal to the first user.
Weng teaches determining a direction of the subsequent speech audio signal; amplifying, based at least in part on the direction, strength of the subsequent speech audio signal; and performing noise reduction on environmental noise in the subsequent speech audio signal (Weng, [0033]: “The algorithm in earbuds or other devices collects intended speech from multiple channel microphone arrays and algorithms, such as GSC, TD-GSC beamforming or neural beamforming, reduce or remove noises from the collected speech signals in real time. This step may reduce or remove noises by amplifying the signal along the identified direction (DOA) and reducing the signals in the rest directions.”); and a speaker configured to play the subsequent speech audio signal to the first user (Weng, [0037]: "The per-frame PDL representation in combination with certain reliably recognized speaker characteristics, such as speaker embeddings, F0, and VUV, is used to synthesize mono-channel speech of the speaker in real time.").
Brielmann, Vandyke, and Weng are analogous arts because they both belong to the same field of communication. It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have modified the personal communication system of Brielmann, as modified by the private conversation method of Vandyke, to incorporate the teachings of Weng to amplify the audio from a given direction while reducing other noise. This allows the user to more clearly hear speech while in a noisy environment (Weng, [0006]). Being able to better hear speech improves the user experience of the system.
Regarding claim 17, the rejection of claim 16 is incorporated. Brielmann, in view of Vandyke, discloses all of the elements of the current invention as stated above. Brielmann further discloses wherein at least one of the first device or the second device is implemented as at least one of a wearable device or a wearable material (Brielmann, [0014]: "using a hearing device worn by a user").
Claim(s) 9 and 18 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Brielmann, in view of Vandyke and Weng, as applied to claims 7-8 and 16-17 above, and further in view of Kim et al. (US Pat. Pub. No. 2022/0147722 A1 hereinafter Kim S).
Regarding claim 9, the rejection of claim 7 is incorporated. Brielmann, in view of Vandyke and Weng, discloses all of the elements of the current invention as stated above. However, Brielmann, in view of Vandyke and Weng, fails to expressly recite determining that the subsequent speech audio signal uses a language different from a preset language in the first device; translating the subsequent speech audio signal using the preset language; generating speech in the preset language based at least in part on the translation; and playing the speech to the first user through the first device.
Kim S teaches determining that the subsequent speech audio signal uses a language different from a preset language in the first device; translating the subsequent speech audio signal using the preset language (Kim S, [0144]: " the automatic translator 110 of the automatic speech translation server 100 automatically translates the acquired speech recognition result into a counterpart's target language."); generating speech in the preset language based at least in part on the translation; and playing the speech to the first user through the first device (Kim S, [0144]: "The automatic speech translation server 100 may convert the automatic translation result into a medium (e.g., subtitles or speech) that can be understood by the counterpart and transmits the medium to the counterpart terminal").
Brielmann, Vandyke, Weng, and Kim S are analogous arts because they all belong to the same field of communication. It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have modified the personal communication system of Brielmann, as modified by the private conversation method of Vandyke and the clear hearing system of Weng, to incorporate the teachings of Kim S to include a communication request and acceptance process and translation system. A request and acceptance process is a standard step in establishing a wireless communication channel, and can help ensure selection of the correct user to connect to (Kim S, [0009]). Adding a translation system facilitates real time translations of conversations (Kim S, [0009]), which allow users speaking in different languages to communicate effectively.
Regarding claim 18, the rejection of claim 16 is incorporated. Brielmann, in view of Vandyke and Weng, discloses all of the elements of the current invention as stated above. However, Brielmann, in view of Vandyke and Weng, fails to expressly recite determining that the subsequent audio speech signal uses a language different from a preset language in the first device; translating the subsequent speech audio signal using the preset language; generating speech in the preset language based at least in part on the translation.
Kim S teaches determining that the subsequent audio speech signal uses a language different from a preset language in the first device; translating the subsequent speech audio signal using the preset language (Kim S, [0144]: " the automatic translator 110 of the automatic speech translation server 100 automatically translates the acquired speech recognition result into a counterpart's target language."); generating speech in the preset language based at least in part on the translation (Kim S, [0144]: "The automatic speech translation server 100 may convert the automatic translation result into a medium (e.g., subtitles or speech) that can be understood by the counterpart and transmits the medium to the counterpart terminal").
Brielmann, Vandyke, Weng, and Kim S are analogous arts because they all belong to the same field of communication. It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have modified the personal communication system of Brielmann, as modified by the private conversation method of Vandyke and the clear hearing system of Weng, to incorporate the teachings of Kim S to include a communication request and acceptance process and translation system. A request and acceptance process is a standard step in establishing a wireless communication channel, and can help ensure selection of the correct user to connect to (Kim S, [0009]). Adding a translation system facilitates real time translations of conversations (Kim S, [0009]), which allow users speaking in different languages to communicate effectively.
Claim(s) 22 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Brielmann, in view of Vandyke, as applied to claim1-3, 6, 10-12, 14-15, and 19-21 above, and further in view of Weng, Kim S, and Kim J.
Regarding claim 22, the rejection of claim 1 is incorporated. Brielmann, in view of Vandyke, discloses all of the elements of the current invention as stated above. Brielmann further discloses collecting voice data from past voice conversations with the first user (Brielmann, [0035]: "the user's own content-independent voiceprint may also be obtained by using the user's hearing device and/or the connected user device for voice feature extraction during real use cases (also called Own Voice Pick Ups, OVPU) in which the user is speaking (such as phone calls). In particular, beamformers provided in the hearing devices may be tuned to pick-up the user's own voice and filter out ambient noises during real use cases of this kind. This approach may have an advantage that the voiceprint/model can be improved over time in real life situations."); building a set of training data based at least in part on one or more characteristics of the voice data (Brielmann, [0071]: "the training phase S110 may include a sub-step S111 of “Features Extraction”, where voice features of the speaker are extracted from his voice sample"); wherein determining that the second user is the known contact of the first user further comprises (Brielmann, [0019]: "the method comprises monitoring and analyzing the user's acoustic environment by the hearing device to recognize one or more speaking persons based on content-independent speaker voiceprints saved in the hearing system."): inputting the audio signal to a machine learning model trained to perform voice recognition (Brielmann, [0022]: "Speaker recognition also may be based on classification methods, such as GMM, SVM, k-NN, Parzen window and other machine learning and/or deep learning classification method such as DNN."); and receiving an output from the machine learning model, the output indicating the audio signal being generated by the known contact (Brielmann, [0020]: "this speaker recognition is used as a trigger to possibly automatically establish, join or leave a wireless personal communication connection between the user's hearing device and respective communication devices used by the one or more speaking persons"). However, Brielmann fails to expressly recite determining a direction of the audio signal in the environment; amplifying, based at least in part on the direction, a strength of the audio signal; performing noise cancellation on environmental noise in the audio signal; determining that the audio signal uses a language different from a preset language in the first device; translating the audio signal using the preset language; generating speech in the preset language based at least in part on the translation; playing the subsequent speech audio signal to the first user; downloading a machine learning model from a server, the machine learning model being trained by performing actions including: labeling the set of training data based at least in part on identities of people involved in the past voice conversations; training the machine learning model based at least in part on the labeled set of training data.
Weng teaches determining a direction of the audio signal in the environment; amplifying, based at least in part on the direction, a strength of the audio signal; and performing noise cancellation on environmental noise in the audio signal (Weng, [0033]: “The algorithm in earbuds or other devices collects intended speech from multiple channel microphone arrays and algorithms, such as GSC, TD-GSC beamforming or neural beamforming, reduce or remove noises from the collected speech signals in real time. This step may reduce or remove noises by amplifying the signal along the identified direction (DOA) and reducing the signals in the rest directions.”); and playing the subsequent speech audio signal to the first user (Weng, [0037]: "The per-frame PDL representation in combination with certain reliably recognized speaker characteristics, such as speaker embeddings, F0, and VUV, is used to synthesize mono-channel speech of the speaker in real time.").
Brielmann, Vandyke, and Weng are analogous arts because they both belong to the same field of communication. It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have modified the personal communication system of Brielmann, as modified by the private conversation method of Vandyke, to incorporate the teachings of Weng to amplify the audio from a given direction while reducing other noise. This allows the user to more clearly hear speech while in a noisy environment (Weng, [0006]). Being able to better hear speech improves the user experience of the system. However, Brielmann, in view of Vandyke and Weng, fails to expressly recite determining that the audio signal uses a language different from a preset language in the first device; translating the audio signal using the preset language; generating speech in the preset language based at least in part on the translation; downloading a machine learning model from a server, the machine learning model being trained by performing actions including: labeling the set of training data based at least in part on identities of people involved in the past voice conversations; training the machine learning model based at least in part on the labeled set of training data.
Kim S teaches determining that the audio signal uses a language different from a preset language in the first device; translating the audio signal using the preset language (Kim S, [0144]: " the automatic translator 110 of the automatic speech translation server 100 automatically translates the acquired speech recognition result into a counterpart's target language."); generating speech in the preset language based at least in part on the translation (Kim S, [0144]: "The automatic speech translation server 100 may convert the automatic translation result into a medium (e.g., subtitles or speech) that can be understood by the counterpart and transmits the medium to the counterpart terminal").
Brielmann, Vandyke, Weng, and Kim S are analogous arts because they all belong to the same field of communication. It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have modified the personal communication system of Brielmann, as modified by the private conversation method of Vandyke and the clear hearing system of Weng, to incorporate the teachings of Kim S to include a communication request and acceptance process and translation system. A request and acceptance process is a standard step in establishing a wireless communication channel., and can help ensure selection of the correct user to connect to (Kim S, [0009]). Adding a translation system facilitates real time translations of conversations (Kim S, [0009]), which allow users speaking in different languages to communicate effectively. However, Brielmann, in view of Vandyke, Weng, and Kim S, fails to expressly recite downloading a machine learning model from a server, the machine learning model being trained by performing actions including: labeling the set of training data based at least in part on identities of people involved in the past voice conversations; training the machine learning model based at least in part on the labeled set of training data.
Kim J teaches downloading a machine learning model from a server (Kim J, "one or more of the voice models and/or social models 114 can be identified for proactive retrieval or use and downloaded to a client device/system”), the machine learning model being trained by performing actions including: labeling the set of training data based at least in part on identities of people involved in the past voice conversations (Kim J, [0034]: “the process 200 at 206 can employ a speaker recognition algorithm on each voice model as part of identifying a speaking participant or speaker, such as Participant A, Participant B, and/or Participant C.”); training the machine learning model based at least in part on the labeled set of training data (Kim J, [0035]: “It will be appreciated that training data can be used to create a new voiceprint or update an existing voiceprint, whether generated while user(s) are speaking or based on previously collected voice data.”).
Brielmann, Vandyke, Weng, Kim S, and Kim J are analogous arts because they all belong to the same field of communication. It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have modified the personal communication system of Brielmann, as modified by the private conversation method of Vandyke, the clear hearing system of Weng, and the speech translation system of Kim S, to incorporate the teachings of Kim J to allow for downloading of the voice model and using labels when training the models. This allows for proactive retrieval or sharing of models (Kim J, [0005]), and allows the training data to be stored and updated when necessary (Kim J, [0035]). These features help improve the quality and accuracy of voice recognition systems.
Conclusion
THIS ACTION IS MADE FINAL. 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 TYLER J BECKER whose telephone number is (703)756-1271. The examiner can normally be reached M-Th, 7:15am-5:45pm PT.
Examiner interviews are available via telephone, in-person, and video conferencing using a USPTO supplied web-based collaboration tool. To schedule an interview, applicant is encouraged to use the USPTO Automated Interview Request (AIR) at http://www.uspto.gov/interviewpractice.
If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Daniel Washburn can be reached at (571) 272-5551. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
Information regarding the status of published or unpublished applications may be obtained from Patent Center. Unpublished application information in Patent Center is available to registered users. To file and manage patent submissions in Patent Center, visit: https://patentcenter.uspto.gov. Visit https://www.uspto.gov/patents/apply/patent-center for more information about Patent Center and https://www.uspto.gov/patents/docx for information about filing in DOCX format. For additional questions, contact the Electronic Business Center (EBC) at 866-217-9197 (toll-free). If you would like assistance from a USPTO Customer Service Representative, call 800-786-9199 (IN USA OR CANADA) or 571-272-1000.
/TYLER BECKER/ Examiner, Art Unit 2657
/DANIEL C WASHBURN/ Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 2657
Prosecution Insights