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 .
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.
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.
Claim(s) 1-20 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over US 20060114113 A1 (Yokosawa) in view of US 20220120702 A1 (Udrea).
Regarding claims 1 and 11: Yokosawa teaches a sensing device comprising: a sensing element (sensor module 100, Figs. 1-2); a power supply (power supply system 300, Fig. 2); and a processor (control module 200, Fig. 2) that controls application of power from the power supply to the sensing element and measures a response of the sensing element to the application of power (Figs. 1-2; Paragraph [0037]: “A sensor node 3 comprises a sensor module 100, a communication control module 200 and a power supply system 300. The sensor module 100 is constituted with a gas sensor 101, a driving circuit 102 for the gas sensor, a heater 103, a temperature meter 104, and a driving circuit 105 for the temperature meter”); wherein the processor controls the application of power from the power supply to the sensing element according to an adaptive duty cycle in which power is applied to the sensing element repeatedly for a steady-state time period and, for each application of power for a steady- state time period, power is applied to the sensing element for a time period (Paragraph [0038]: “The controller 201 is programmed such that it sends the ON signal to the heater 103, and then sends an OFF signal to the heater 103 automatically at a timing the gas sensor is enabled for predetermined measurement at high accuracy and has completed acquisition of the data for the high accuracy measurement”, Paragraph [0045]: “Usually, the sensor node 3 conducts measurement in a stationary state, that is, at low accuracy and moderate level monitoring. That is, as shown in Fig. 5, the heater 103 is not supplied with power in each sensor node 3 in order to prevent power consumption, in which the temperature of the gas sensor 101 is low and the controller 201 is in a stand-by state”).
Yokosawa does not explicitly teach that the processor controls the application of power from the power supply to the sensing element according to an adaptive duty cycle in which power is applied to the sensing element repeatedly for a steady-state time period and, for each application of power for a steady- state time period, power is applied to the sensing element two or more times for a non-steady- state time period; wherein the steady-state time period is a time period which is long enough for the sensing element to reach a steady state response; and wherein the non-steady-state time period is a time period which is not long enough for the sensing element to reach a steady state response.
However, Udrea teaches a fluid sensor arrangement which is able to measure the composition of the fluid based on the different thermal conductivity of each of the components of the fluid (Paragraph [0025]). The arrangement comprises a first and second heating element (Paragraph [0028]) which can be operated simultaneously (Paragraph [0046]), a unit to apply a bias to the heating elements (Paragraph [0033]) and a feedback control circuit (Paragraph [0034]) including a microprocessor to include control algorithms for the mentioned elements (Paragraph [0181]). The arrangement uses thermopiles as temperature sensing elements (Paragraph [0091]). The heaters are operated in an adaptive PWM mode controlled by the control circuit in order to reduce power consumption (Paragraph [0168]). The applied driving signal is such that different power levels are applied to the heaters to obtain different sensitivity and selectivity levels of the sensor by operating at different temperatures (Paragraph [0167]).
Therefore, before the effective filing date of the claimed invention it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art to modify the application of power of Yokosawa with the measuring phases with different temperatures and adapted power control of Udrea. This is because they are both thermal sensing devices. This is important in order to reduce power consumption.
Claim 11 is a method with steps corresponding to features described in claim 1. Therefore, the rejection of claim 1 is also applied to claim 11, mutatis mutandis.
Regarding claims 2 and 12: Modified Yokosawa teaches the sensing device of claim 1 and the method of claim 11(see above), wherein the sensing element comprises a heated sensing element and the measured response is a temperature of the sensing element (Yokosawa: heater 103, temperature meter 104; Fig. 3)(Udrea: Paragraphs [0028] and [0091]-[0094]: The sensor arrangement comprises heated elements with thermopiles for temperature measurement).
Regarding claims 3 and 13: Modified Yokosawa teaches the sensing device of claim 2 and the method of claim 12 (see above), wherein the sensing element comprises a thermopile; and wherein the measured temperature of the sensing element is based on a voltage output of the thermopile (Yokosawa: temperature meter 104; Fig. 3).
Regarding claims 4 and 14: Modified Yokosawa teaches the sensing device of claim 1 and the method of claim 11 (see above), wherein the processor applies power from the power supply to the sensing element at predetermined intervals of time (Yokosawa: Paragraphs [0038], [0045]: power application at predetermined time intervals).
Regarding claims 5 and 15: Modified Yokosawa teaches the sensing device of claim 1 and the method of claim 11 (see above), wherein, after each application of power, the processor compares the measured response to detect a change from a prior application of power (Yokosawa: Paragraph [0049]: “… since the heater 103 is turned ON in the sensor node 31, the temperature of the gas sensor 101 is increased to enable measurement at high accuracy … to confirm that the gas sensor 101 has reached a predetermined temperatures, A/D conversion data for the temperature data is taken together with the A/D conversion data for the gas sensor output into the controller 201”)(Udrea: Paragraph [0166]: “The temperature of the second heater may be modulated and the voltage difference between the first and second temperature sensing elements at the different temperatures may be assessed against reference values, and the difference between the two may be indicative of the flow composition”).
Regarding claims 6 and 16: Modified Yokosawa teaches the sensing device of claim 5 and the method of claim 15 (see above), wherein, after each application of power for a non- steady-state time period, the processor compares the measured response to a measured response for a corresponding portion of a prior steady-state time period to detect a change from the corresponding portion of the prior steady-state time period (Udrea: Paragraph [0038]: “A comparator 205 compares the output from the gas sensor 101 with a threshold value of the threshold value setting circuit 204”).
Regarding claims 7 and 17: Modified Yokosawa teaches the sensing device of claim 5 and the method of claim 15 (see above), wherein, if the processor detects a change from a prior application of power for a non-steady-state time period, the processor controls the application of power from the power supply to the sensing element according to a fixed duty cycle in which power is applied to the sensing element repeatedly only for the steady-state time period until a change from the prior application of power is no longer detected (Udrea: Paragraph [0038]: “in a case where the output from the gas sensor 101 exceeds the threshold value, sends a signal to the controller 201, and the controller 201 sends an ON signal to the heater 103. The controller 201 is programmed such that it sends the ON signal to the heater 103, and then sends an OFF signal to the heater 103 automatically at a timing the gas sensor is enabled for predetermined measurement at high accuracy and has completed acquisition of the data for the high accuracy measurement.”).
Regarding claims 8 and 18: Modified Yokosawa teaches the sensing device of claim 5 and the method of claim 15 (see above), wherein the non-steady-state time period is variable; and wherein each non-steady-state time period ends if a change in the measured response from a prior application of power is detected (Udrea: Paragraph [0056]:“When the controller 201 judges leakage by the method as described for FIG. 4A, the sensor node 3.sub.1 does not inform no leakage different from the case of FIG. 4A. Further, as a result that the heater 101 is turned OFF, the sensor node 3.sub.1 once returns to the monitoring state at low accuracy and moderate level, since the excess of threshold value is detected again, the process described above is repeated”).
Regarding claims 9 and 19: Modified Yokosawa teaches the sensing device of claim 5 and the method of claim 15 (see above), wherein the non-steady-state time period is variable; and wherein each non-steady-state time period ends when sufficient response data is measured to determine that no change in the measured response from a prior application of power has occurred (Udrea: Paragraph [0052]: “Server 1 judges the absence or presence of leakage… When the server 1 collectively judges no leakage, it judges that the information for the excess of threshold value from the sensor node 3.sub.1 is erroneous information and sends an instruction for returning the threshold value to the sensor nodes 3.sub.A1 to 3.sub.An in the vicinity. In response to the instruction, the sensor nodes 3.sub.A1 to 3.sub.An return the threshold value to the original high value and return to the moderate level monitoring”).
Regarding claims 10 and 20: Modified Yokosawa teaches the sensing device of claim 1 and the method of claim 11 (see above), wherein the processor controls a display of the response of the sensing element to the application of power based on one of (i) a response of the sensing element to a most recent application of power for a steady-state time period, (ii) an average of responses to prior applications of power for steady-state time periods, or (iii) a weighted average of responses to prior applications of power for steady-state time periods and non-steady-state time periods (Yokosawa: Paragraph [0184]: “Readings from the sensor may be averaged in several ways, for example using a moving mean average or a moving median average. A moving mean average is useful for removing random noise from the signal.”, where the moving mean average is interpreted as a weighted average).
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure:
EP 3567367 B1 teaches a steady-state test method for in-plane heat-conducting performance of a sheet test sample.
CN 108414909 B teaches a Darlington tube steady-state thermal resistance measuring method.
DE 102015218237 A1 teaches a timepiece comprising an assembly which changes its state over time and an evaluation unit in which a reference state is deposited, characterized in that - the assembly comprises a structure whose electrical resistance changes over time and - the evaluation unit is provided for determining a time span (t) by comparing a value representing the electrical resistance of the structure with the reference state.
CN 103954900 A teaches a method for measuring stable thermal resistance of IGBT.
WO 2013075111 A9 teaches a thermally active device as a flow meter, where a flow rate may be calculated as a function of temperature measurements taken at different steady-state conditions.
US 20050026294 A1 teaches a method for determining the breakthrough times and steady state permeation rates of a chemical sample.
US 20040011403 A1 teaches a system that senses for fluid and activates a controller in response to sensing the fluid.
US 6129673 A teaches an IR thermometer that comprises a processing circuit which analyzes the response to predict the steady-state response of the at least one IR sensing element and temperature of the object.
US 5044764 A teaches a sensor comprising a heating element and a temperature detecting element wherein the fluid state is determined on the basis of the differential temperature between the temperatures of the sensor and the temperatures of the fluid.
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/JULIA FITZPATRICK/ Examiner, Art Unit 2855
/LAURA MARTIN/ SPE, Art Unit 2855