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 .
Claims 1, 3, 5, 14, and 17 have been cancelled.
Claims 2, 4, 6-13, 15, 16, and 18 have been examined.
Election/Restrictions
Applicant's election with traverse of Species I in the reply filed on 8/10/2025 is acknowledged. The traversal is on the ground(s) that “the alleged "distinct inventions" do have a common mode of operation, and should be used together. The common mode of operation is: the invention is an enhancement to an outdoor exercise device and all allegedly distinct inventions can therefore be used together”. This is not found persuasive because the distinct inventions being used together each of the identified inventions have mutually exclusive characteristics (as previously set forth) and there is no evidence of record that the identified species are not patentably distinct nor has applicant admitted that the two species are not patentably distinct. Moreover, the search for the respective species would involve different search queries.
The requirement is still deemed proper and is therefore made FINAL.
Claim Objections
Claims 2, 6-10, 13, and 15 are objected to because of the following informalities:
Claim 2, Lines 14-15: There is not proper antecedent basis for “the possible current users Wearable Computing Devices”.
Claim 2, Line 17: There is not proper antecedent basis for “the previous stage”.
Claim 2, Line 21: “the said training routine information” should be changed to --the at least one training routine information--.
Claim 6, Lines 1-2: There is not proper antecedent basis for “the sensory information and plurality of inputs from the user”.
Claim 7, Lines 2-3: There is not proper antecedent basis for “the plurality of inputs from the user and the information”.
Claim 8, Line 1: “some of the sensors” renders the claim unclear as it is not certain as to which sensors are being referred.
Claim 9, Line 1: There is not proper antecedent basis for “the training routines information”.
Claim 10, Line 4: There is not proper antecedent basis for “the said network of systems”.
Claim 13, Line 21: “the training routine” should be changed to --the at least one training routine--.
Claim 15, Line 2: There is not proper antecedent basis for “the Exercise Data Structures”.
Similarly regarding Claim 15, line 1 makes references to “not limited to outdoor gym environment”. However, there is no outdoor gym environment set forth in Claim 2.
Claim 15, Lines 3-4: There is not proper antecedent basis for “the possible training environments” and “the possible training routines”.
Appropriate correction is required.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 103 which forms the basis for all obviousness rejections set forth in this Office action:
A patent for a claimed invention may not be obtained, notwithstanding that the claimed invention is not identically disclosed as set forth in section 102, if the differences between the claimed invention and the prior art are such that the claimed invention as a whole would have been obvious before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to a person having ordinary skill in the art to which the claimed invention pertains. Patentability shall not be negated by the manner in which the invention was made.
Claim 2 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Rolley (US Patent Application Publication 2014/0330408) in view of Chen et al (US Patent Application Publication 2018/0078182).
2. Rolley discloses a system for monitoring performance of a training routine, comprising:
a computing device (16);
at least one of: motion sensor, and/or position sensor, and/or image sensor (Par. 0060);
a database containing at least one training routine information, and at least one user recognition data (Par. 007); and
the system is further configured to monitor and feedback the said training activity performance based on a method comprising:
b. filtering possible current users based on location and/or interaction with the possible current users Wearable Computing Devices "WCD" (Par. 0080);
c. filtering user recognition data in a database to include only the possible current users from the previous stage, and then identifying at least one user performing a training activity, using face recognition method, and/or one of the said image sensors and/or interaction with the users WCDs (Par. 0080);
d. identifying the training activity performed by the user using at least one of the said sensor/s and the said training routine information (Par. 0082);
e. deducing a training activity attribute (Par. 0083);
f. giving feedback to the user (Figs 8-12; Par. 0084);
g. guiding the user to a next training routine and when a current training routine is done (Fig 3D: 492);
h. repeating steps b-g as long as a training session is not done (Par. 0009).
However, Rolley does not explicitly disclose the system being configured to calibrate at least one of: the motion and/or position sensor/s.
Chen et al teach a similar workout monitor interface for monitoring a workout and for generating improved interfaces for the same wherein user interface detects when a workout of a particular type is started and begins generating activity data via calibrated sensors (Par. 0099) related to workout metrics associated with the type of workout selected. It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time of the effective filing date of the invention to modify the system of Rolley to be configured to calibrate sensors as taught by Chen et al to improve the accuracy, reliability and consistency of the sensor so that the sensors can provide precise and reliable data.
Claims 4, 6-13, 15, 16, and 18 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Rolley in view of Chen et al as applied to Claim 2 above, and further in view of Watterson et al (US Patent 7,166,062) and Chien (US Patent Application Publication 2018/0157067).
4 and 18. Rolley in view of Chen et al discloses the system significantly as claimed, but does not disclose the at least one camera and/or image sensor, the said camera and/or image sensor configured to take images of at least one training device; the said database containing at least one reference image of the said training device; the said system further configured to compare the said reference image stored in the database, to a later taken image of the training device, to detect at least dissimilarities between these images; and based on the detected dissimilarities automatically identify failure or maintenance requirement; where the feedback is provided by at least one of a sound generating device, a speech generating device, a display, a touch screen, a mobile device.
Watterson et al teach a similar system for interaction with exercise devices which has the functionality of informing a user that an error has occurred and advise that the user obtain maintenance of the hardware components of exercise device (Par. 48).
Further, Chien teaches a similar quality control device for automatic optic inspection (Par. 0065). In particular, Chien discloses equipment for inspecting and positioning a defect of a to-be-detected device based on an optical principle. When performing an automatic inspection, the AOI machine uses a camera to automatically scan the to-be-detected device, capture an image, compare the captured image data with qualified parameters stored in a database, determine a defective position by image processing, and display or mark the defective position by a monitor or an automatic mark respectively for subsequent repair by maintenance personnel.
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time of the effective filing date of the invention was made to modify the system of Rolley in view of Chen et al to include the feedback in case of failure or required maintenance as taught by Watterson et al triggered by the automatic optic inspection as taught by Chien as this would assist in the monitoring, notification, and subsequent required maintenance of exercise equipment in real time.
6. Rolley discloses the system of claim 4, further configured to use the sensory information and plurality of inputs from the user as inputs to machine learning methods, these said methods are used for at least sorting and/or filtering of at least one training routine information in the database (Par. 0089-0091).
7. Rolley discloses the system of claim 4, further configured to evaluate a difficulty level required in at least one training routine, based on the sensory information, the plurality of inputs from the user, and the information in the database (Par. 0089-0091).
8. Rolley discloses the system of claim 4, where some of the sensors are at least one of position sensors, motion sensors, accelerometers, optical sensors, electromagnetic or acoustic based sensors, microphones, strain gauges, pressure and mechanical sensors (Par. 0061).
9. Rolley discloses the system of claim 4, further configured to modify the training routines information in the database based on social media interaction (Par. 0049 and Par. 0089-0091).
10. Rolley discloses the system of claim 4, further configured to modify at least one training routine information in the database based on information from a network of systems of big data and machine learning methods, by using at least one of: routine attributes, user attributes, training attributes, routine information, recorded or produced by the said network of systems (Par. 0089-0091).
11. Rolley discloses the system of claim 4 further configured to track a rate of movements and to count a number of physical exercise routine repetitions (Par. 0032-0045).
12-13. Rolley discloses the system significantly as claimed, but does not explicitly disclose being further configured to determine a trainee weight and to calculate a resistance level in case of body weight-based training device andd to calculate a number of burnt calories during a performance of the training routine.
Chen et al teach a similar workout monitor interface for monitoring a workout and for generating improved interfaces for the same wherein sensors are configured to update a number of calories burned during a workout based on a user’s age, gender, and weight (Par. 0218) in order to provide indications of work accomplished. It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time of the effective filing date of the invention to modify the system of Rolley to include a sensor to calculate weight and calories burned to provide the user with an indication of progress during a workout.
15. Rolley discloses the system of claim 4, where the training environment is not limited to outdoor gym environment, further configured to filter the Exercise Data Structures (EDS) based on at least one of: identifying the possible users, identifying the possible training environments, identifying the possible training routines (Par. 0007-0009, 0053).
16. Rolley discloses the system of claim 4, further configured to automatically change difficulty level in an exercise device (Par. 0089-0091).
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure. Rao et al, Toth, Shavit, and Kashyap all disclose similar fitness networking systems which monitor a user’s workout.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to JOSHUA T KENNEDY whose telephone number is (571)272-8297. The examiner can normally be reached M-F 7a-4:30p MST.
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/JOSHUA T KENNEDY/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 3784 10/7/2025