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 .
Priority
Receipt is acknowledged of certified copies of papers required by 37 CFR 1.55.
Information Disclosure Statement
The information disclosure statements (IDSs) submitted on 3/10/2023, 5/1/2023, 5/1/2023, 11/25/2024, 11/26/2025 are in compliance with the provisions of 37 CFR 1.97. Accordingly, the information disclosure statements are being considered by the examiner.
Claim Objections
Claim 13 is objected to because of the following informality: In lines 1-2, “The electronic musical instrument according to claim 8” should read, “The method according to claim 8.” Appropriate correction is required.
Claim 14 is objected to because of the following informality: In lines 1-2, “The electronic musical instrument according to claim 8” should read, “The method according to claim 8.” Appropriate correction is required.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
In the event the determination of the status of the application as subject to AIA 35 U.S.C. 102 and 103 (or as subject to pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 102 and 103) is incorrect, any correction of the statutory basis (i.e., changing from AIA to pre-AIA ) for the rejection will not be considered a new ground of rejection if the prior art relied upon, and the rationale supporting the rejection, would be the same under either status.
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 103 which forms the basis for all obviousness rejections set forth in this Office action:
A patent for a claimed invention may not be obtained, notwithstanding that the claimed invention is not identically disclosed as set forth in section 102, if the differences between the claimed invention and the prior art are such that the claimed invention as a whole would have been obvious before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to a person having ordinary skill in the art to which the claimed invention pertains. Patentability shall not be negated by the manner in which the invention was made.
The factual inquiries for establishing a background for determining obviousness under 35 U.S.C. 103 are summarized as follows:
1. Determining the scope and contents of the prior art.
2. Ascertaining the differences between the prior art and the claims at issue.
3. Resolving the level of ordinary skill in the pertinent art.
4. Considering objective evidence present in the application indicating obviousness or nonobviousness.
Claims 1-2, 6-9, and 13-15 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as unpatentable over Kobayashi (US 5352849 A, October 4, 1994), hereinafter Kobayashi, in view of Liu et al. (US 20190341013 A1, November 7, 2019), hereinafter Liu.
Regarding claim 1, Kobayashi teaches an electronic musical instrument (Kobayashi abstract: "A musical tone synthesizing apparatus") comprising: at least one processor (Kobayashi col. 3, lines 33-35:" a string-parameter forming portion which is configured as shown in FIG. 2 by a microprocessor 31") configured to execute processing of: generating, in response to an excitation signal corresponding to a specified pitch, a first string signal to be output (Kobayashi abstract: "In addition, an excitation signal, corresponding to the excitation vibration, is applied to at least one of the loop circuits. Preferably, the non-electronic musical instrument is a piano, so that the sound generating element is a string and the activating element is a hammer which strikes the string. Further, number of the loop circuits is set corresponding to the number of strings to be provided with respect to each key of the piano.") based on a first accumulated signal in which outputs of at least a first closed-loop circuit and a second closed-loop circuit (Kobayashi col. 8, lines 14-19: "The outputs of the loop circuits 510, 520 are respectively passed through the multipliers M11, M12 and then added together in the adder A5, so that the musical tone signal is formed. Then, the filter 6 imparts the resonance effect to the musical tone signal, so that the speaker 7 sounds the corresponding musical tone.") among the first closed-loop circuit, the second closed-loop circuit and a third closed-loop circuit (Kobayashi col. 8, lines 29-34: "the second embodiment further provides a loop circuit 530 corresponding to the third string. In order to simulate the mutual interference to be occurred among three strings, this loop circuit 530 is connected to the other loop circuits 510, 520 by means of multipliers M6 to M9 (having respective multiplication coefficients k6 to k9)."), which are provided to correspond to the specified pitch (Kobayashi abstract: "In addition, an excitation signal, corresponding to the excitation vibration, is applied to at least one of the loop circuits. Preferably, the non-electronic musical instrument is a piano, so that the sound generating element is a string and the activating element is a hammer which strikes the string."), are accumulated (Kobayashi col. 8, lines 14-19: "The outputs of the loop circuits 510, 520 are respectively passed through the multipliers M11, M12 and then added together in the adder A5, so that the musical tone signal is formed. Then, the filter 6 imparts the resonance effect to the musical tone signal, so that the speaker 7 sounds the corresponding musical tone.").
Kobayashi does not explicitly disclose a first string signal to be output from one of right and left channels; and generating a second string signal to be output from the other channel based on a second accumulated signal in which outputs of the second closed-loop circuit and the third closed-loop circuit are accumulated.
However, Liu teaches or suggests a first string signal to be output from one of right and left channels (Liu ¶0066: "The adders 51L, 51R are sound signal outputters and include the function of respectively adding the resonance signals generated by the output adders 50L, 50R to the sound signals supplied from the tone generating circuit 18 and outputting the added sound signals to the DAC 21. The adder 51L handles the sound signal of the L channel, and the adder 51R handles the sound signal of the R channel."); and generating a second string signal to be output from the other channel (Liu ¶0066: The adders 51L, 51R are sound signal outputters and include the function of respectively adding the resonance signals generated by the output adders 50L, 50R to the sound signals supplied from the tone generating circuit 18 and outputting the added sound signals to the DAC 21. The adder 51L handles the sound signal of the L channel, and the adder 51R handles the sound signal of the R channel.") based on a second accumulated signal in which outputs of the second closed-loop circuit and the third closed-loop circuit are accumulated (Liu ¶0065: "The output adder 50L includes the function of adding all of resonance signals L1a to L88a and L1b to L88b of the L channel that are output respectively by the resonance signal generators 30 to one another and generating a resonance signal of the L channel as the output of the resonance signal generating device 20. The output adder 50R includes the function of similarly adding resonance signals R1a to R88a and R1b to R88b to one another and generating a resonance signal of the R channel.").
It would have been prima facie obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art prior to the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have modified the electronic musical instrument of Kobayashi by adding the left and right channels and second accumulated signals of Liu to simulate a physical phenomenon of a non-electronic musical instrument (Kobayashi abstract).
Regarding claim 2, Kobayashi (in view of Liu) teaches an electronic musical instrument comprising the features of claim 1 as discussed above.
Kobayashi further teaches that the excitation signal circulates through the first closed-loop circuit, the second closed-loop circuit and the third closed-loop circuit (Kobayashi col. 8, lines 6-12: "Then, the excitation signal will be circulated through each of the loop circuits 510, 520. In addition, the signal circulating through the loop circuit 510 is introduced into the loop circuit 520 via the multiplier M2, while the signal circulating through the loop circuit 520 is introduced into the loop circuit 510 via the multiplier M1." This also applies to Kobayashi's three-loop embodiment.) with different delay times (Kobayashi col. 4, lines 34-42: "Thus, under consideration of such de-tune effect to be normally occurred in the piano, the delay information T1-T4 is set such that the total delay times of the loop circuits 510, 520 will roughly correspond to the same pitch but they are slightly different from each other. Each pair of the filters 511, 516 and 521, 526 is designed to simulate the acoustic loss to be occurred with respect to each string.").
Regarding claim 6, Kobayashi (in view of Liu) teaches an electronic musical instrument comprising the features of claim 1 as discussed above.
Liu further suggests that the first string signal is generated based on the first accumulated signal and a first stroke sound signal and wherein the second string signal is generated based on the second accumulated signal and a second stroke sound signal (Liu ¶0066: The adders 51L, 51R are sound signal outputters and include the function of respectively adding the resonance signals generated by the output adders 50L, 50R to the sound signals supplied from the tone generating circuit 18 and outputting the added sound signals to the DAC 21. The adder 51L handles the sound signal of the L channel, and the adder 51R handles the sound signal of the R channel.").
Regarding claim 7, Kobayashi (in view of Liu) teaches an electronic musical instrument comprising the features of claim 1 as discussed above.
Kobayashi further teaches that the excitation signal varies according to a specified velocity (Kobayashi col. 3, lines 24-29: "Herein, when a key depression is made in the keyboard 1, the key information generating portion 2 outputs keycode information KC representing the depressed key, a key-on signal KON representing the key-on event and initial-touch information IT representing the key-depression intensity.").
Regarding claim 13, Kobayashi (in view of Liu) teaches a method comprising the features of claim 8 as discussed above.
Liu further suggests that the first string signal is generated based on the first accumulated signal and a first stroke sound signal and wherein the second string signal is generated based on the second accumulated signal and a second stroke sound signal (Liu ¶0066: The adders 51L, 51R are sound signal outputters and include the function of respectively adding the resonance signals generated by the output adders 50L, 50R to the sound signals supplied from the tone generating circuit 18 and outputting the added sound signals to the DAC 21. The adder 51L handles the sound signal of the L channel, and the adder 51R handles the sound signal of the R channel.").
Regarding claim 14, Kobayashi (in view of Liu) teaches a method comprising the features of claim 8 as discussed above.
Kobayashi further teaches that the excitation signal varies according to a specified velocity (Kobayashi col. 3, lines 24-29: "Herein, when a key depression is made in the keyboard 1, the key information generating portion 2 outputs keycode information KC representing the depressed key, a key-on signal KON representing the key-on event and initial-touch information IT representing the key-depression intensity.").
Regarding claim 15, Kobayashi teaches a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium having a program stored thereon which controls a computer (Kobayashi col. 3, lines 44-47: "the microprocessor 31 reads desirable information corresponding to the keycode information KC from the parameter memory 32"), to perform functions comprising: generating, in response to an excitation signal corresponding to a specified pitch, a first string signal to be output (Kobayashi abstract: "In addition, an excitation signal, corresponding to the excitation vibration, is applied to at least one of the loop circuits. Preferably, the non-electronic musical instrument is a piano, so that the sound generating element is a string and the activating element is a hammer which strikes the string. Further, number of the loop circuits is set corresponding to the number of strings to be provided with respect to each key of the piano.") based on a first accumulated signal in which outputs of at least a first closed-loop circuit and a second closed-loop circuit (Kobayashi col. 8, lines 14-19: "The outputs of the loop circuits 510, 520 are respectively passed through the multipliers M11, M12 and then added together in the adder A5, so that the musical tone signal is formed. Then, the filter 6 imparts the resonance effect to the musical tone signal, so that the speaker 7 sounds the corresponding musical tone.") among the first closed-loop circuit, the second closed-loop circuit and a third closed-loop circuit (Kobayashi col. 8, lines 29-34: "the second embodiment further provides a loop circuit 530 corresponding to the third string. In order to simulate the mutual interference to be occurred among three strings, this loop circuit 530 is connected to the other loop circuits 510, 520 by means of multipliers M6 to M9 (having respective multiplication coefficients k6 to k9)."), which are provided to correspond to the specified pitch (Kobayashi abstract: "In addition, an excitation signal, corresponding to the excitation vibration, is applied to at least one of the loop circuits. Preferably, the non-electronic musical instrument is a piano, so that the sound generating element is a string and the activating element is a hammer which strikes the string."), are accumulated (Kobayashi col. 8, lines 14-19: "The outputs of the loop circuits 510, 520 are respectively passed through the multipliers M11, M12 and then added together in the adder A5, so that the musical tone signal is formed. Then, the filter 6 imparts the resonance effect to the musical tone signal, so that the speaker 7 sounds the corresponding musical tone.").
Kobayashi does not explicitly disclose a first string signal to be output from one of right and left channels; and generating a second string signal to be output from the other channel based on a second accumulated signal in which outputs of the second closed-loop circuit and the third closed-loop circuit are accumulated.
However, Liu teaches or suggests a first string signal to be output from one of right and left channels (Liu ¶0066: "The adders 51L, 51R are sound signal outputters and include the function of respectively adding the resonance signals generated by the output adders 50L, 50R to the sound signals supplied from the tone generating circuit 18 and outputting the added sound signals to the DAC 21. The adder 51L handles the sound signal of the L channel, and the adder 51R handles the sound signal of the R channel."); and generating a second string signal to be output from the other channel (Liu ¶0066: The adders 51L, 51R are sound signal outputters and include the function of respectively adding the resonance signals generated by the output adders 50L, 50R to the sound signals supplied from the tone generating circuit 18 and outputting the added sound signals to the DAC 21. The adder 51L handles the sound signal of the L channel, and the adder 51R handles the sound signal of the R channel.") based on a second accumulated signal in which outputs of the second closed-loop circuit and the third closed-loop circuit are accumulated (Liu ¶0065: "The output adder 50L includes the function of adding all of resonance signals L1a to L88a and L1b to L88b of the L channel that are output respectively by the resonance signal generators 30 to one another and generating a resonance signal of the L channel as the output of the resonance signal generating device 20. The output adder 50R includes the function of similarly adding resonance signals R1a to R88a and R1b to R88b to one another and generating a resonance signal of the R channel.").
It would have been prima facie obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art prior to the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have modified the non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of Kobayashi by adding the left and right channels and second accumulated signals of Liu to simulate a physical phenomenon of a non-electronic musical instrument (Kobayashi abstract).
Claims 3-4 and 10-11 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as unpatentable over Kobayashi in view of Liu, and further in view of Takeuchi et al. (US 5256830 A, October 26, 1993), hereinafter Takeuchi.
Regarding claim 3, Kobayashi (in view of Liu) teaches an electronic musical instrument comprising the features of claim 1 as discussed above.
Kobayashi (in view of Liu) does not explicitly disclose that the first and second accumulated signals are generated by accumulating signals tapped out with different tap delay times set in the first closed-loop circuit, the second closed-loop circuit and the third closed-loop circuit.
However, Takeuchi teaches or suggests that the first and second accumulated signals are generated by accumulating signals tapped out (Takeuchi col. 9, lines 11-16: "Each of the adders 81, 82 adds four delay outputs supplied from four closed-loop circuits 71 to 74 together. Then, addition results of the adders 81, 82 are outputted via the all- pass filters 91, 92 respectively as the left channel output 'L' and right channel output 'R'.") with different tap delay times set in the first closed-loop circuit, the second closed-loop circuit and the third closed-loop circuit (Takeuchi col. 9, lines 3-11: "The signal circulating through the closed-loop circuit 71 is picked up at two output terminals each having the different delay time as two delay outputs, which are then supplied to the adders 81, 82 via multipliers 172a, 172b respectively. Similar to the above-mentioned closed-loop circuit 71, each of the other closed-loop circuits 72 to 74 output a pair of two delay outputs each having the different delay phase, which are then supplied to the adders 81, 82 respectively.").
It would have been prima facie obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art prior to the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have modified the electronic musical instrument of Kobayashi (as modified by Liu) by adding the different tap delay times of Takeuchi to simulate a physical phenomenon of a non-electronic musical instrument (Kobayashi abstract).
Regarding claim 4, Kobayashi (in view of Liu and further in view of Takeuchi) teaches an electronic musical instrument comprising the features of claim 3 as discussed above.
Takeuchi further teaches or suggests that the tapped outputs are provided to vary a phase of signals output from the first closed-loop circuit, the second closed-loop circuit and the third closed-loop circuit (Takeuchi col. 9, lines 7-13: "Similar to the above-mentioned closed-loop circuit 71, each of the other closed-loop circuits 72 to 74 output a pair of two delay outputs each having the different delay phase, which are then supplied to the adders 81, 82 respectively. Each of the adders 81, 82 adds four delay outputs supplied from four closed-loop circuits 71 to 74 together.").
Regarding claim 10, Kobayashi (in view of Liu) teaches a method comprising the features of claim 8 as discussed above.
Kobayashi (in view of Liu) does not explicitly disclose that the first and second accumulated signals are generated by accumulating signals tapped out with different tap delay times set in the first closed-loop circuit, the second closed-loop circuit and the third closed-loop circuit.
However, Takeuchi teaches or suggests that the first and second accumulated signals are generated by accumulating signals tapped out (Takeuchi col. 9, lines 11-16: "Each of the adders 81, 82 adds four delay outputs supplied from four closed-loop circuits 71 to 74 together. Then, addition results of the adders 81, 82 are outputted via the all- pass filters 91, 92 respectively as the left channel output 'L' and right channel output 'R'.") with different tap delay times set in the first closed-loop circuit, the second closed-loop circuit and the third closed-loop circuit (Takeuchi col. 9, lines 3-11: "The signal circulating through the closed-loop circuit 71 is picked up at two output terminals each having the different delay time as two delay outputs, which are then supplied to the adders 81, 82 via multipliers 172a, 172b respectively. Similar to the above-mentioned closed-loop circuit 71, each of the other closed-loop circuits 72 to 74 output a pair of two delay outputs each having the different delay phase, which are then supplied to the adders 81, 82 respectively.").
It would have been prima facie obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art prior to the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have modified the method of Kobayashi (as modified by Liu) by adding the different tap delay times of Takeuchi to simulate a physical phenomenon of a non-electronic musical instrument (Kobayashi abstract).
Regarding claim 11, Kobayashi (in view of Liu and further in view of Takeuchi) teaches a method comprising the features of claim 10 as discussed above.
Takeuchi further teaches or suggests that the tapped outputs are provided to vary a phase of signals output from the first closed-loop circuit, the second closed-loop circuit and the third closed-loop circuit (Takeuchi col. 9, lines 7-13: "Similar to the above-mentioned closed-loop circuit 71, each of the other closed-loop circuits 72 to 74 output a pair of two delay outputs each having the different delay phase, which are then supplied to the adders 81, 82 respectively. Each of the adders 81, 82 adds four delay outputs supplied from four closed-loop circuits 71 to 74 together.").
Claims 5 and 12 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as unpatentable over Kobayashi in view of Liu, and further in view of Takeuchi and Smith (US 4984276 A, January 8, 1991), hereinafter Smith.
Regarding claim 5, Kobayashi (in view of Liu and further in view of Takeuchi) teaches an electronic musical instrument comprising the features of claim 3 as discussed above.
Kobayashi (in view of Liu and further in view of Takeuchi) does not explicitly disclose that the tap delay times are calculated by an equation including an index.
However, Smith suggests that the tap delay times (Smith col. 2, lines 40-43: "Some basic building blocks of presently known digital reverberators include… tapped delay lines") are calculated by an equation (col. 20, lines 56-63: "The lossless waveguide 38 includes a lossless delay 45 and a lossless delay 46. The delay 45 delays by a delay, N. With the signal input to the delay on line 43 equal to R.sub.i.sup.- (t), the delayed output signal on line 47 is equal to R.sub.i.sup.- (t-N). Similarly the delay 46 delays the input signal P.sub.i.sup.- (t) by N to form the delayed signal on line 44 equal by definition to P.sub.i.sup.- (t-N), which is equal to the R.sub.i.sup.+ (t) signal.") including an index (col. 23, lines 29-31: "When the waveguide unit 87 of FIG. 22 is a digital reverberator, the waveguide of FIG. 19 is typical with the parameters of TABLE 1.").
It would have been prima facie obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art prior to the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have modified the electronic musical instrument of Kobayashi (as modified by Liu and Takeuchi) by adding the delay equation and index of Smith to simulate a physical phenomenon of a non-electronic musical instrument (Kobayashi abstract).
Regarding claim 12, Kobayashi (in view of Liu and further in view of Takeuchi) teaches a method comprising the features of claim 10 as discussed above.
Kobayashi (in view of Liu and further in view of Takeuchi) does not explicitly disclose that the tap delay times are calculated by an equation including an index.
However, Smith suggests that the tap delay times (Smith col. 2, lines 40-43: "Some basic building blocks of presently known digital reverberators include… tapped delay lines") are calculated by an equation (col. 20, lines 56-63: "The lossless waveguide 38 includes a lossless delay 45 and a lossless delay 46. The delay 45 delays by a delay, N. With the signal input to the delay on line 43 equal to R.sub.i.sup.- (t), the delayed output signal on line 47 is equal to R.sub.i.sup.- (t-N). Similarly the delay 46 delays the input signal P.sub.i.sup.- (t) by N to form the delayed signal on line 44 equal by definition to P.sub.i.sup.- (t-N), which is equal to the R.sub.i.sup.+ (t) signal.") including an index (col. 23, lines 29-31: "When the waveguide unit 87 of FIG. 22 is a digital reverberator, the waveguide of FIG. 19 is typical with the parameters of TABLE 1.").
It would have been prima facie obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art prior to the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have modified the method of Kobayashi (as modified by Liu and Takeuchi) by adding the delay equation and index of Smith to simulate a physical phenomenon of a non-electronic musical instrument (Kobayashi abstract).
Conclusion
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/PHILIP G SCOLES/
Examiner, Art Unit 2837
/DEDEI K HAMMOND/Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 2837