DETAIL OFFICE ACTIONS
The United States Patent & Trademark Office appreciates the response filed for the current application that is submitted on 08/07/2025. The United States Patent & Trademark Office reviewed the following documents submitted and has made the following comments below.
Amendment
Applicant submitted amendments on 08/07/2025. The Examiner acknowledges the amendment and has reviewed the claims accordingly.
Applicant Arguments:
In regards to the argument on Argument 1, Applicant/s state/s that claim 2 has been incorporated into claim 1 and the typographical error has been corrected.
In regards to the argument on Argument 2, Applicant/s state/s that the terms in claim 9 have been correctly identified as terms that should be given their plain and ordinary meaning and not to be interpreted under §112(f).
In regards to the argument on Argument 3, Applicant/s state/s Chen and Chu do not teach on the amended claims, specifically the application of beamforming and selective or conditional microphone activation, therefore, the rejection of Chen and Chu should be removed.
Examiner’s Responses:
In response to Argument 1, Applicant’s arguments, see Remarks, filed 08/07/25, with respect to the claim objection, have been fully considered and are persuasive, the objection is removed.
In response to Argument 2, Applicant’s arguments, see Remarks, filed 08/07/25, with respect to the claim interpretation of claim 6, the examiner agrees with the applicant as terms that should be given their plain and ordinary meaning and not to interpreted under §112(f), the section remains for clarity of the record.
In response to Argument 3, Applicant’s arguments, see Remarks, filed 07/31/25, with respect to the rejection(s) of claim(s) 1-16 under 35 U.S.C. 103 have been fully considered and are persuasive. Therefore, the rejection has been withdrawn due to the amendment. However, upon further consideration, a new ground(s) of rejection is made for claims 1, 3-9, and 11-16 under 35 U.S.C. 103 in view of Chen et al (US Patent Pub No. 2022/0415003, hereafter referred to as Chen) in view of Visser et al (U.S Patent Pub. No 2013/0282372 A1, hereafter referred to as Visser).
The Examiner finds that Chen teaches on the amendment claim language “first number of microphone devices” and “second number of microphone devices” in claims 1 and 9.
Specifically, Chen teaches a plurality of microphones in Fig 2, ¶0015, and ¶0019 with one microphone being connected to a voice activity detection circuit and an additional microphone being connected to a sound direction detection unit, under broadest reasonable interpretation this could be a first and second microphone configuration. Chen teaches a voice activity circuit that detects where there is a voice component or not and if it does not it goes back to the previous step if no voice is detected in ¶0026, therefore under broadest reasonable interpretation the circuit connected to the microphone is not activated.; Applicant argues that Chen does not teach a two stage microphone activation or only preforming beamforming on a second bigger number of microphones to reduce power consumption. However, the Examiner interprets that Chen teaches the main concept of multiple microphone activation on the voice signals, the additional details of the functions of the main concepts as stated above by the applicant in the amendments is taught by Vissar in the details of the rejection below. The Examiner will maintain prior art Chen and details of the rejection are below.
Claim Interpretation
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 112(f):
(f) Element in Claim for a Combination. – An element in a claim for a combination may be expressed as a means or step for performing a specified function without the recital of structure, material, or acts in support thereof, and such claim shall be construed to cover the corresponding structure, material, or acts described in the specification and equivalents thereof.
The claims in this application are given their broadest reasonable interpretation using the plain meaning of the claim language in light of the specification as it would be understood by one of ordinary skill in the art. The broadest reasonable interpretation of a claim element (also commonly referred to as a claim limitation) is limited by the description in the specification when 35 U.S.C. 112(f), is invoked.
As explained in MPEP § 2181, subsection I, claim limitations that meet the following three-prong test will be interpreted under 35 U.S.C. 112(f):
(A) the claim limitation uses the term “means” or “step” or a term used as a substitute for “means” that is a generic placeholder (also called a nonce term or a non-structural term having no specific structural meaning) for performing the claimed function;
(B) the term “means” or “step” or the generic placeholder is modified by functional language, typically, but not always linked by the transition word “for” (e.g., “means for”) or another linking word or phrase, such as “configured to” or “so that”; and
(C) the term “means” or “step” or the generic placeholder is not modified by sufficient structure, material, or acts for performing the claimed function.
Absence of the word “means” (or “step”) in a claim creates a rebuttable presumption that the claim limitation is not to be treated in accordance with 35 U.S.C. 112(f). The presumption that the claim limitation is not interpreted under 35 U.S.C. 112(f), is rebutted when the claim limitation recites function without reciting sufficient structure, material or acts to entirely perform the recited function.
This application includes one or more claim limitations that do not use the word “means” or “step” but use a generic placeholder are nonetheless not being interpreted under 35 U.S.C. 112(f) or pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, sixth paragraph because the claim limitation(s) recite(s) sufficient structure, materials, or acts to entirely perform the recited function.
Such claim limitation(s) is/are:
• “image capturing device” and “microphone array” and “a processing circuit” in claim 9. The corresponding structure disclosed in the specification is “may include optical sensors and/or space sensors, such as time-of-flight sensors (ToF sensors) or mmWave sensors. Accordingly, the image detecting apparatus 100may detect 2D or 3D images, and thus the ROI of the 2D or 3D images can be determined according to the ROI setting signal.”(¶ 0034). “The microphone array 120 has a plurality of microphone devices arranged in an array” (¶0028) “In the disclosure, the circuit blocks of the processing circuit 130may be a hardware circuit designed through Hardware Description Language (HDL) or any other design methods for digital circuit well-known to persons with ordinary skill in the art and may be implemented in from of Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA), Complex Programmable Logic Device (CPLD) or Application-specific Integrated Circuit (ASIC). The circuit blocks of the processing circuit 130may be, for example, a central processing unit (CPU), a programmable general-purpose or special- purpose microprocessor, a digital signal processor (DSP), a programmable controller, any other similar device, or a combination of said devices, and may be loaded to perform computer programs.” (¶0051).
Because this/these claim limitation(s) is/are not being interpreted under 35 U.S.C. 112(f) or pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, sixth paragraph, it/they is/are not being interpreted to cover only the corresponding structure, material, or acts described in the specification as performing the claimed function, and equivalents thereof.
If applicant intends to have this/these limitation(s) interpreted under 35 U.S.C. 112(f) or pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, sixth paragraph, applicant may: (1) amend the claim limitation(s) to remove the structure, materials, or acts that performs the claimed function; or (2) present a sufficient showing that the claim limitation(s) does/do not recite sufficient structure, materials, or acts to perform the claimed function.
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, 3-9, and 11-16 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Chen et al (US Patent Pub No. 2022/0415003 A1 hereafter referred to as Chen) in view of Visser et al (U.S Patent Pub. No 2013/0282372 A1, hereafter referred to as Visser).
Regarding Claim 1, Chen teaches an image detecting method, adapted to an image detecting apparatus (¶0005, Chen, "According to one embodiment of the present invention, a system on chip comprising a person recognition circuit, a sound detection circuit and a processing circuit is disclosed."), wherein the image detecting apparatus comprises an image capturing device (¶0005, Chen, "obtain image data from an image capturing device,") and a microphone array, and the microphone array has a plurality of microphone devices (¶0005, Chen, "receive a plurality of sound signals from a plurality of microphones,"), the image detecting method comprising:
performing a voice activity detection (VAD) on a first number (¶0019, Chen, "can determine an azimuth of the main sound in the first conference room according to a time difference of the sound signals from the Microphones") of voice signals captured by the corresponding microphone devices (¶0018, Chen, "The voice activity detection circuit 220 is used to receive the sound signals from the microphones 204_") to determine whether the voice source is a preset type voice (¶0018, Chen, "characteristic value of is compared with a reference value to determine whether the sound signal is a voice signal."), wherein the voice signals are from the voice source (¶0018, Chen, "characteristic value of is compared with a reference value to determine whether the sound signal is a voice signal.");
on a second number of voice signals (¶0019, Chen, "multiple people talking at the same time in the first conference room, it will be determined from which direction the main sound comes from according to some characteristics (e.g., signal strength) of the multiple received sound signals.") captured by the corresponding microphone devices to generate a region of interest (ROI) setting signal when the voice source is the preset type voice (¶0005, Chen "The processing circuit is coupled to the person recognition circuit and the sound detection circuit, and is configured to determine a specific region in the image data according to the recognition result"), wherein the ROI setting signal indicates a location of the voice source in an image captured by the image capturing device (¶0005, Chen, "the sound characteristic value of the main sound, and process the image data to highlight the specific region."); and
performing an image detecting operation on a ROI image (¶0020, Chen, "so that the person recognition circuit 210 starts to perform person recognition on the received image data to determine whether there is a person in the received image data, and to determine the characteristic value of each person and the position/region of each person in the image." and ¶0021, Chen “the processing circuit 240 determines which person in the image (image frame) is speaking by using the regions where each person is located in the frame determined by the person recognition circuit 210”), wherein the ROI image is determined according to the image and the ROI setting signal (¶0005, Chen, "the sound characteristic value of the main sound, and process the image data to highlight the specific region."), wherein the first number is smaller than the second number (¶0006, Chen, "receiving a plurality of sound signals from a plurality of microphones, to determine a sound characteristic value of a main sound;").
Chen does not explicitly disclose by only activating the first number of the microphone devices, performing a beamforming operation, by only activating the second number of the microphone devices.
Vissar is in the same field of voice processing. Further, Vissar teaches by only activating (Vissar ¶0189 discloses selecting a primary microphones ¶0060 discloses deactivating some processes to save on computational and network bandwidth Vissar ¶0255 discloses a power management that can be connected to all devices that manages the power consumption of the device) the first number of the microphone devices (Vissar ¶0066-0067 discloses a first and second microphone device that are connected to a an inter-microphone subtraction or suppression module and ¶0070 discloses differentiating between the first and second microphone ¶0189 discloses selecting a primary microphones) performing a beamforming operation (Vissar ¶0052, ¶0182, ¶0231, disclose using a beamform operation, specifically an adaptive beamforming operation on multiple microphones) by only activating (Vissar ¶0189 discloses selecting a primary microphones ¶0060 discloses deactivating some processes to save on computational and network bandwidth Vissar ¶0255 discloses a power management that can be connected to all devices that manages the power consumption of the device) the second number of the microphone devices (Vissar ¶0066-0067 discloses a first and second microphone device that are connected to a an inter-microphone subtraction or suppression module and ¶0070 discloses differentiating between the first and second microphone ¶0189 discloses selecting a primary microphones).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the invention of Chen by incorporating a beamforming process to create fusion voice data and an activation of a first and second microphone that is taught by Vissar to make an invention that can use voice determination to determine if the signal is human and the direction of the signal and if so can perform facial recognition on the source; thus, one of ordinary skilled in the art would be motivated to combine the references since there is a need for increased efficiency when using voice signals in a multiple voice or distraction environment (¶0005, ¶0051 Vissar)
Thus, the claimed subject matter would have been obvious to a person having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention.
Regarding Claim 3 Chen in view of Vissar discloses the image detecting method of claim 2, wherein the step of performing the VAD on the first number of voice signals captured by the corresponding microphone devices to determine whether the voice source is the preset type voice (¶0018, Chen "The voice activity detection circuit 220 is used to receive the sound signals from the microphones 204_1-204_N, and to determine whether there are voice components in the sound signals.") comprises:
controlling the first number of the microphone devices to detect the voice source in a periodic time (¶0019, Chen, "can determine an azimuth of the main sound in the first conference room according to a time difference of the sound signals from the microphones 204_1-204_N"). See rational for Claim 1 (it’s parent claim).
Regarding Claim 4 Chen in view of Vissar discloses the image detecting method of claim 1, further comprising:
performing the VAD to further confirm whether the voice source is the preset type voice on a voice fusion (¶0018, Chen "Specifically, the voice activity detection circuit 220 can mainly perform the following operations: perform noise reduction operation on the received sound signal, convert the sound signal into a frequency domain, and process blocks to obtain characteristic values; and the characteristic value of is compared with a reference value to determine whether the sound signal is a voice signal."), wherein the voice fusion is generated from the beamforming operation (Vissar ¶0052, ¶0182, ¶0231, disclose using a beamform operation, specifically an adaptive beamforming operation on multiple microphones). See rational for Claim 1 (it’s parent claim).
Regarding Claim 5 Chen in view of Vissar discloses the image detecting method of claim 1, wherein when the location of the voice source and a type of the voice source are not confirmed for a preset time length (¶0024, Chen "the processing circuit 240 can track the region/person whose characteristic value is similar to those of the region 440 in the following received frames (for example, the characteristic value difference is within a range), so as to continuously highlight the person in the subsequent frames, even if the highlighted person does not speak for a short period of time in the subsequent frames, and the sound direction detection circuit 230 does not detect any sound in the direction of the person."), a whole region of the image is determined as the ROI image (¶0021, Chen "if the processing circuit 240 determines that the person in the region 440 is the main speaker, the processing circuit 240 can process the image data to enlarge the person in the region 440, or add label(s)/arrow (s) to the region 440, or any other image processing method to enhance the visual effect of the person in the region 440."). See rational for Claim 1 (it’s parent claim).
Regarding Claim 6 Chen in view of Vissar discloses the image detecting method of claim 1, wherein the step of performing the image detecting operation on the ROI image (¶0020, Chen, "so that the person recognition circuit 210 starts to perform person recognition on the received image data to determine whether there is a person in the received image data, and to determine the characteristic value of each person and the position/region of each person in the image.") comprises:
capturing the whole image (¶0022, Chen "do not necessarily need to visually enhance the entire region 440, but may only perform visual enhancement on a part of the region"), and determining the ROI image according to the ROI setting signal and the received whole image (¶0005, Chen, "the sound characteristic value of the main sound, and process the image data to highlight the specific region."). See rational for Claim 1 (it’s parent claim).
Regarding Claim 7 Chen in view of Vissar discloses the image detecting method of claim 1, wherein the step of performing the image detecting operation on the ROI image (¶0020, Chen, "so that the person recognition circuit 210 starts to perform person recognition on the received image data to determine whether there is a person in the received image data, and to determine the characteristic value of each person and the position/region of each person in the image.") comprises: capturing the ROI of the image according to the ROI setting signal (¶0005, Chen, "the sound characteristic value of the main sound, and process the image data to highlight the specific region."). See rational for Claim 1 (it’s parent claim).
Regarding Claim 9, Chen teaches an image detecting apparatus (¶0016, Chen "electronic device 110."), comprising:
an image capturing device (¶0015, Chen, "image capturing device 202"), configured to capture an image (¶0015, Chen, "can be a camera or a video camera to continuously capture images");
a microphone array, having a plurality of microphone devices (¶0015, Chen, "and a plurality of microphones"), configured to detect a voice source (¶0026, Chen, "detects the direction and angle of the main speaker relative to the electronic device"); and
a processing circuit, coupled to the image capturing device and the microphone array, (¶0016, Chen "the image capturing device 202 and the microphones 204_1- 204_N are positioned within the electronic device 110.") and configured to:
perform a voice activity detection (VAD) on a first number of voice signals captured by the corresponding microphone devices to determine whether the voice source is a preset type voice (¶0018, Chen "The voice activity detection circuit 220 is used to receive the sound signals from the microphones 204_1-204_N, and to determine whether there are voice components in the sound signals."), wherein the voice signals are from the voice source (¶0018, Chen, "characteristic value of is compared with a reference value to determine whether the sound signal is a voice signal.")
on a second number of voice signals (¶0019, Chen, "multiple people talking at the same time in the first conference room, it will be determined from which direction the main sound comes from according to some characteristics (e.g., signal strength) of the multiple received sound signals.") captured by the corresponding microphone devices to generate a region of interest (ROI) setting signal when the voice source is the preset type voice (¶0005, Chen "The processing circuit is coupled to the person recognition circuit and the sound detection circuit, and is configured to determine a specific region in the image data according to the recognition result" and ¶0021, Chen “the processing circuit 240 determines which person in the image (image frame) is speaking by using the regions where each person is located in the frame determined by the person recognition circuit 210”), wherein the ROI setting signal indicates a location of the voice source in the image (¶0005, Chen, "the sound characteristic value of the main sound, and process the image data to highlight the specific region."); and
perform an image detecting operation on a ROI image (¶0020, Chen, "so that the person recognition circuit 210 starts to perform person recognition on the received image data to determine whether there is a person in the received image data, and to determine the characteristic value of each person and the position/region of each person in the image."), wherein the ROI image is determined according to the image and the ROI setting signal (¶0005, Chen, "the sound characteristic value of the main sound, and process the image data to highlight the specific region." ¶0021, Chen “the processing circuit 240 determines which person in the image (image frame) is speaking by using the regions where each person is located in the frame determined by the person recognition circuit 210”), wherein the first number is smaller than the second number(¶0006, Chen, "receiving a plurality of sound signals from a plurality of microphones, to determine a sound characteristic value of a main sound;").
Chen does not explicitly disclose by only activating the first number of the microphone devices, performing a beamforming operation, by only activating the second number of the microphone devices.
Vissar is in the same field of voice processing. Further, Vissar teaches by only activating (Vissar ¶0189 discloses selecting a primary microphones ¶0060 discloses deactivating some processes to save on computational and network bandwidth Vissar ¶0255 discloses a power management that can be connected to all devices that manages the power consumption of the device) the first number of the microphone devices (Vissar ¶0066-0067 discloses a first and second microphone device that are connected to a an inter-microphone subtraction or suppression module and ¶0070 discloses differentiating between the first and second microphone ¶0189 discloses selecting a primary microphones) performing a beamforming operation (Vissar ¶0052, ¶0182, ¶0231, disclose using a beamform operation, specifically an adaptive beamforming operation on multiple microphones) by only activating (Vissar ¶0189 discloses selecting a primary microphones ¶0060 discloses deactivating some processes to save on computational and network bandwidth Vissar ¶0255 discloses a power management that can be connected to all devices that manages the power consumption of the device) the second number of the microphone devices (Vissar ¶0066-0067 discloses a first and second microphone device that are connected to a an inter-microphone subtraction or suppression module and ¶0070 discloses differentiating between the first and second microphone ¶0189 discloses selecting microphones).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the invention of Chen by incorporating a beamforming process to create fusion voice data and an activation of a first and second microphone that is taught by Vissar to make an invention that can use voice determination to determine if the signal is human and the direction of the signal and if so can perform facial recognition on the source; thus, one of ordinary skilled in the art would be motivated to combine the references since there is a need for increased efficiency when using voice signals in a multiple voice or distraction environment (¶0005, ¶0051 Vissar)
Thus, the claimed subject matter would have been obvious to a person having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention.
Regarding Claim 11 Chen in view of Vissar discloses the image detecting apparatus of claim 10, wherein the processing circuit controls the first number of the microphone devices (¶0018, Chen "The voice activity detection circuit 220 is used to receive the sound signals from the microphones 204_1-204_N, and to determine whether there are voice components in the sound signals.") to detect the voice source in a periodic time (¶0019, Chen, "can determine an azimuth of the main sound in the first conference room according to a time difference of the sound signals from the microphones 204_1-204_N"). See rational for Claim 9 (it’s parent claim).
Regarding Claim 12 Chen in view of Vissar discloses the image detecting apparatus of claim 9, wherein the processing circuit performs the VAD to further confirm whether the voice source is the preset type voice on a voice fusion (¶0018, Chen "Specifically, the voice activity detection circuit 220 can mainly perform the following operations: perform noise reduction operation on the received sound signal, convert the sound signal into a frequency domain, and process blocks to obtain characteristic values; and the characteristic value of is compared with a reference value to determine whether the sound signal is a voice signal.") , wherein the voice fusion is generated from the beamforming operation (Vissar ¶0052, ¶0182, ¶0231, disclose using a beamform operation, specifically an adaptive beamforming operation on multiple microphones). See rational for Claim 9 (it’s parent claim).
Regarding Claim 13 Chen in view of Vissar discloses the image detecting apparatus of claim 9, wherein when the location of the voice source and a type of the voice source are not confirmed for a preset time length (¶0024, Chen "the processing circuit 240 can track the region/person whose characteristic value is similar to those of the region 440 in the following received frames (for example, the characteristic value difference is within a range), so as to continuously highlight the person in the subsequent frames, even if the highlighted person does not speak for a short period of time in the subsequent frames, and the sound direction detection circuit 230 does not detect any sound in the direction of the person."), the processing circuit determines a whole region of the image as the ROI image (¶0021, Chen "if the processing circuit 240 determines that the person in the region 440 is the main speaker, the processing circuit 240 can process the image data to enlarge the person in the region 440, or add label(s)/arrow (s) to the region 440, or any other image processing method to enhance the visual effect of the person in the region 440."). See rational for Claim 9 (it’s parent claim).
Regarding Claim 14 Chen in view of Vissar discloses the image detecting apparatus of claim 9, wherein the processing circuit controls the image capturing device to capture the whole image, and determines the ROI image according to the ROI setting signal (¶0005, Chen, "the sound characteristic value of the main sound, and process the image data to highlight the specific region.") and the received whole image (¶0022, Chen "do not necessarily need to visually enhance the entire region 440, but may only perform visual enhancement on a part of the region"). See rational for Claim 9 (it’s parent claim).
Regarding Claim 15 Chen in view of Vissar discloses the image detecting apparatus of claim 9, wherein the processing circuit controls the image capturing device to capture the ROI image (¶0015, Chen, "In this embodiment, the image capturing device 202 can be a camera or a video camera to continuously capture images in the first conference room in real time to generate image data to the SoC") according to the ROI setting signal (¶0005, Chen, "the sound characteristic value of the main sound, and process the image data to highlight the specific region."). See rational for Claim 9 (it’s parent claim).
Regarding Claim 16 Chen in view of Vissar discloses the image detecting apparatus of claim 9, wherein the processing circuit performs a face recognition operation (¶0006, Chen, "a video processing method comprises the steps of: obtaining image data from an image capturing device, and performing a person recognition operation on the image data to generate a recognition result;") according to the ROI image (¶0005, Chen, "The person recognition circuit is configured to obtain image data from an image capturing device, and perform a person recognition operation on the image data to generate a recognition result."). See rational for Claim 9 (it’s parent claim).
Conclusion
36. 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).
37. 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.
38. Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to RACHEL LYNN ROBERTS whose telephone number is (571)272-6413. The examiner can normally be reached Monday- Friday 7:30am- 5:00pm. 32. 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. 33. If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Oneal Mistry can be reached on 313-446-4912. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300. 34. 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.
/RACHEL L ROBERTS/Examiner, Art Unit 2674
/ONEAL R MISTRY/Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 2674