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 .
Continued Examination Under 37 CFR 1.114
A request for continued examination under 37 CFR 1.114, including the fee set forth in 37 CFR 1.17(e), was filed in this application after final rejection. Since this application is eligible for continued examination under 37 CFR 1.114, and the fee set forth in 37 CFR 1.17(e) has been timely paid, the finality of the previous Office action has been withdrawn pursuant to 37 CFR 1.114. Applicant's submission filed on 01/29/2026 has been entered.
Response to Arguments
Applicant's arguments filed 01/29/2026 have been fully considered but they are not persuasive.
Upon further review, the Applicant amended and argued that the prior art references Emadzadeh et al. (US Publication No. 20150172865) and Lal et al. (US Patent No. 10827322) fails to show certain features of Applicant’s invention (i.e. “wherein the different types of connectivity include at least two of a wired connectivity, a wireless connectivity, a cellular connectivity, and an electrical connectivity”). (Emphasis Added).
In response, the Examiner respectfully disagree with the Applicant’s arguments because of the following reasons:
As highlighted above, the at least claimed limitation requires at least two types of connectivity e.g. wireless connectivity and cellular connectivity. As it is readily known and/or understood by any one of ordinary skill in the art, a cellular connectivity is a wireless connectivity. Therefore, the Applicant’s claimed options of at least two of connectivity including at least in part wireless connectivity and cellular connectivity does not overcome the teachings of Emadzadeh wherein mobile device scan and/or communicate (i.e. connect) with different access points (i.e. AP-F and AP-G) to receive different RSSI (i.e. different connection information) within a specific region (see, fig. 5C, ¶ [0068], and ¶ [0080]). Therefore, given the at least claimed limitations (i.e. “wherein the different types of connectivity include at least two of a wired connectivity, a wireless connectivity, a cellular connectivity, and an electrical connectivity”) its’ broadest reasonable interpretations, the Examiner has fairly characterized the connection link between the mobile device and the AP-F as “wireless connectivity”, and the second or different connection link between the mobile device and the AP-G as “cellular connectivity”. Thus, the applied prior art teaches at least two of connectivity including wireless connectivity and cellular connectivity.
Furthermore, Emadzadeh in ¶ [0043] discussed that a mobile device can communicate using multiple and/or different communication standards such as Wi-Fi, Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA), Wideband CDMA (WCDMA), Long Term Evolution (LTE), Bluetooth, etc.
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine the teachings of Emadzadeh with the teachings of Lal to achieve the goal of efficiently and reliably providing augmented reality visualization for presenting a real-time display of signal strength indicia and a live room image based on the one or more signal strength levels at the plurality of locations in the room.
Thus, the previous rejections are maintained.
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(s) 1, 2, 4-15, 19-21, 23-24, is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Emadzadeh et al. (US Publication No. 20150172865) in view of Lal et al. (US Patent No. 10827322).
As to claims 1 and 19, Emadzadeh teaches an integrated connectivity assessment system (fig. 3, fig. 4, fig. 5), the system comprising: a user terminal (fig. 2), wherein the user terminal is configured to define a location of interest within a facility (fig. 5, fig. 6, #602, identify a region within the indoor venue in which a mobile device is located); and a backend query and aggregation system (fig. 2, AP detection module and AD receiving module), wherein the backend query and aggregation system is configured to query a backend infrastructure information system for connectivity information based on the location of interest and determine a plurality of connectivity metrics for the location of interest based on responses from the backend infrastructure information system (fig. 2, fig. 3, fig. 5, pp0068, and pp0080, mobile device scans for Aps within its communication range, and determine different received signal strengths e.g. RSSI for AP-F and AP-G), wherein the plurality of connectivity metrics is associated with a plurality of different types of connectivity (fig. 3, fig. 5C, pp0068, and pp0080, mobile device scans for Aps within its communication range, and determine different received signal strengths e.g. RSSI for AP-F and AP-G), wherein the different types of connectivity include at least two of a wired connectivity, a wireless connectivity, a cellular connectivity, and an electrical connectivity (fig. 3, fig. 5C, pp0068, and pp0080, mobile device scans for Aps within its communication range, and determine different received signal strengths e.g. RSSI for AP-F and AP-G, and pp0043). However, Emadzadeh fails to explicitly teach wherein the user terminal is configured to present the connectivity metrics on a user interface as an augmented reality presentation over an image of the location of interest.
In an analogous field of endeavor, Lal teaches the concept wherein the user terminal is configured to present the connectivity metrics on a user interface as an augmented reality presentation over an image of the location of interest (fig. 1, fig. 8, col. 8, lines 22-36, the one or more signal strength indicia 804 may augment the perception of the room 802 with signal strengths levels determined by the processor 202, 204. The real-time display of the room 802 may be based on one or more images of the room obtained by a camera or similar optical sensor of the wireless device 102. In some embodiments, the processor may present the signal strength indicia 804 as a numerical indication of signal strength (e.g., 1 indicating a lowest signal strength, 10 indicating a highest signal strength, and so forth)). Thus, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine the teachings of Emadzadeh with the teachings of Lal to achieve the goal of efficiently and reliably providing augmented reality visualization for presenting a real-time display of signal strength indicia and a live room image based on the one or more signal strength levels at the plurality of locations in the room (Lal, col. 1, lines 35-37).
As to claims 2 and 21, Emadzadeh in view of Lal teaches the limitations of the independent claims as discussed above. Emadzadeh further teaches wherein the user terminal is configured to define the location of interest within the facility based on a detected location of the user terminal (fig. 5, fig. 6, #602, identify a region within the indoor venue in which a mobile device is located).
As to claim 4, Emadzadeh in view of Lal teaches the limitations of the independent claims as discussed above. Emadzadeh further teaches wherein the backend infrastructure information system comprises a plurality of connectivity data servers that includes at least one of: a wired connectivity data server configured to provide connectivity information for a wired network; a wireless network connectivity data server configured to provide connectivity information for a wireless network (fig. 3, fig. 4, fig. 5, pp0061, pp0062, server 410 is configured to send assistance data pertaining to those APs within a region the mobile device 100 is currently located within. It can be appreciated that while RSSI values are shown in the assistance data entry 540, RTT values may also be shown); a cellular connectivity data server configured to provide connectivity information for a distributed antenna system for a cellular network; and an electrical power distributed data server configured to provide connectivity information regarding a facility electrical distribution infrastructure.
As to claims 5 and 20, Emadzadeh in view of Lal teaches the limitations of the independent claims as discussed above. Emadzadeh further teaches wherein the plurality of connectivity metrics associated with the plurality of different types of connectivity comprise one or more of: a connectivity metric for the location of interest based on signal quality connectivity information for one or more wireless access points of a wireless network (fig. 3, fig. 5C, pp0068, and pp0080, mobile device scans for Aps within its communication range, and determine different received signal strengths e.g. RSSI for AP-F and AP-G); a connectivity metric for the location of interest based on signal quality connectivity information for one or more remote antenna units of a distributed antenna system; a connectivity metric for the location of interest based on connectivity information for a wired network; and a connectivity metric for the location of interest based on connectivity information for electric power availability.
As to claim 6, Emadzadeh in view of Lal teaches the limitations of the independent claims as discussed above. Emadzadeh further teaches wherein the user terminal comprises one of a smart phone, a tablet computer, or a wearable computing device (fig. 2, fig. 7, pp0082).
As to claim 7, Emadzadeh in view of Lal teaches the limitations of the independent claims as discussed above. Emadzadeh further teaches wherein the user terminal further comprises one or more positioning sensors; wherein the user terminal is configured to determine the location of interest within based on measurements from the positioning sensors (fig. 2, #155, pp0045, the SPS signals 159 and uses these SPS signals 159 to determine the location of the mobile device 100, and fig. 5, fig. 6, #602, identify a region within the indoor venue in which a mobile device is located).
As to claim 8, Emadzadeh in view of Lal teaches the limitations of the independent claims as discussed above. Emadzadeh further teaches wherein the user terminal comprises: a processor coupled to a memory, wherein the user interface is coupled to the processor (fig. 2, fig. 7). However, fails to explicitly teach wherein the processor executes an augmented reality (AR) engine, wherein the AR engine is configured to present the connectivity metrics on the user interface.
In an analogous field of endeavor, Lal teaches the concept wherein the processor executes an augmented reality (AR) engine, wherein the AR engine is configured to present the connectivity metrics on the user interface (fig. 2, fig. 3, col. 6, lines 20-22, the processor 202, 204 may employ an augmented reality framework such as ARKit or ARCore that may enable the processor, and fig. 8). Thus, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine the teachings of Emadzadeh with the teachings of Lal to achieve the goal of efficiently and reliably providing augmented reality visualization for presenting a real-time display of signal strength indicia and a live room image based on the one or more signal strength levels at the plurality of locations in the room (Lal, col. 1, lines 35-37).
As to claims 9 and 23, Emadzadeh in view of Lal teaches the limitations of the independent claims as discussed above. However, fails to explicitly teach wherein the AR engine graphically present the connectivity metrics on the user interface.
In an analogous field of endeavor, Lal teaches the concept wherein the AR engine graphically present the connectivity metrics on the user interface (fig. 1, fig. 8, col. 8, lines 22-36, the one or more signal strength indicia 804 may augment the perception of the room 802 with signal strengths levels determined by the processor 202, 204, the processor may present the signal strength indicia 804 graphically). Thus, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine the teachings of Emadzadeh with the teachings of Lal to achieve the goal of efficiently and reliably providing augmented reality visualization for presenting a real-time display of signal strength indicia and a live room image based on the one or more signal strength levels at the plurality of locations in the room (Lal, col. 1, lines 35-37).
As to claim 10, Emadzadeh in view of Lal teaches the limitations of the independent claims as discussed above. However, fails to explicitly teach wherein the user terminal further comprises an image capturing device, wherein the AR engine is configured to present the connectivity metrics on the user interface over and image of the location of interest captured by the image capturing device.
In an analogous field of endeavor, Lal teaches the concept wherein the user terminal further comprises an image capturing device, wherein the AR engine is configured to present the connectivity metrics on the user interface over and image of the location of interest captured by the image capturing device (fig. 1, fig. 8, col. 8, lines 22-36, the one or more signal strength indicia 804 may augment the perception of the room 802 with signal strengths levels determined by the processor 202, 204. The real-time display of the room 802 may be based on one or more images of the room obtained by a camera or similar optical sensor of the wireless device 102. In some embodiments, the processor may present the signal strength indicia 804 as a numerical indication of signal strength (e.g., 1 indicating a lowest signal strength, 10 indicating a highest signal strength, and so forth)). Thus, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine the teachings of Emadzadeh with the teachings of Lal to achieve the goal of efficiently and reliably providing augmented reality visualization for presenting a real-time display of signal strength indicia and a live room image based on the one or more signal strength levels at the plurality of locations in the room (Lal, col. 1, lines 35-37).
As to claim 11, Emadzadeh in view of Lal teaches the limitations of the independent claims as discussed above. Emadzadeh further teaches wherein the user terminal further comprises one or more positioning sensors (fig. 2, #155, and fig. 7), wherein attitude and orientation measurements from the one or more positioning sensors (fig. 2, #155, fig. 7, and pp0034, pp0051, coordinates with respect to earth). However, fails to explicitly teach wherein the AR engine is configured to present the connectivity metrics on the user interface based on [room location].
In an analogous field of endeavor, Lal teaches the concept wherein the AR engine is configured to present the connectivity metrics on the user interface based on [room location] (fig. 1, fig. 8, col. 8, lines 22-36, the one or more signal strength indicia 804 may augment the perception of the room 802 with signal strengths levels determined by the processor 202, 204, the processor may present the signal strength indicia 804 graphically). Thus, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine the teachings of Emadzadeh with the teachings of Lal to achieve the goal of efficiently and reliably providing augmented reality visualization for presenting a real-time display of signal strength indicia and a live room image based on the one or more signal strength levels at the plurality of locations in the room (Lal, col. 1, lines 35-37).
As to claim 12, Emadzadeh in view of Lal teaches the limitations of the independent claims as discussed above. Emadzadeh further teaches wherein the backend query and aggregation system is executed at least in part on the user terminal (fig. 2, AP detection module and AD receiving module).
As to claim 13, Emadzadeh in view of Lal teaches the limitations of the independent claims as discussed above. Emadzadeh further teaches wherein the backend query and aggregation system is executed at least in part by a server of the backend infrastructure information system (fig. 3, fig. 4, fig. 5, pp0013, the assistance data is received from a server computer, and pp0032, data includes information pertaining to APs within a geospace and expected RSSI and/or RTT data for each AP).
As to claim 14, Emadzadeh in view of Lal teaches the limitations of the independent claims as discussed above. Emadzadeh further teaches wherein the backend infrastructure information system is configured with signal quality information maps that correlate signal quality information to physical locations within the facility (fig. 5A-C, pp0062, expected RSSI values for "AP F" are listed at fourteen nodes within the indoor venue, and pp0064, venue 500 also includes a plurality of nodes 530 at various locations within the indoor venue 500.).
As to claims 15 and 24, Emadzadeh in view of Lal teaches the limitations of the independent claims as discussed above. Emadzadeh further teaches wherein the backend infrastructure information system comprises a facility map data server that includes a facility map representing a physical layout of the facility (fig. 4, fig. 5A-C); wherein the backend query and aggregation system is configured to query the facility map data server to correlate the location of interest to a map segment of the facility map, and then query the backend infrastructure information system for connectivity information associated with the map segment to request the connectivity information (fig. 4, fig. 5, pp0031, detected APs in an area of interest, a server containing assistance data about the indoor venue may generate and send the relevant assistance data to the mobile device. Whether the assistance data is relevant may be determined based on a current region of the indoor venue that the mobile device is currently located in).
Claim(s) 3 and 22 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Emadzadeh et al. (US Publication No. 20150172865) in view of Lal et al. (US Patent No. 10827322) and further in view of Yadav et al. (US Publication No. 20160105807).
As to claims 3 and 22, Emadzadeh in view of Lal teaches the limitations of the independent claims as discussed above. However, failed to teach wherein the user terminal is configured to define the location of interest within the facility based on an input entered by a user of the user terminal.
In an analogous field of endeavor, Lal teaches the concept wherein the user terminal is configured to define the location of interest within the facility based on an input entered by a user of the user terminal (fig. 4, location of interest where signal strength quality is to be determined, pp0027, the user may provide information pertaining to his/her location (e.g., information of building/floor number, in which the mobile device 102 is located, and fig. 3, #302). Thus, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine the teachings of Emadzadeh and Lal with the teachings of Yadav to achieve the goal of efficiently and reliably providing signal quality at locations to avoid frequent call drops, degradation of the throughput, and high battery consumption for the mobile users in a communication system (Yadav, pp0002).
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 16-18 and 25-27, are objected to as being dependent upon a rejected base claim, but would be allowable if rewritten in independent form including all of the limitations of the base claim and any intervening claims.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to OMONIYI OBAYANJU whose telephone number is (571)270-5885. The examiner can normally be reached M-Thur 10:30-7pm.
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/OMONIYI OBAYANJU/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2645