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 Objections
Claim 10 is objected to because of the following informalities: the limitation “whereby not performing the additional testing sequence in the environment” appears to be redundant since an unselected testing technique would presumably not be performed. Appropriate correction is required.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 102
The following is a quotation of the appropriate paragraphs of 35 U.S.C. 102 that form the basis for the rejections under this section made in this Office action:
A person shall be entitled to a patent unless –
(a)(1) the claimed invention was patented, described in a printed publication, or in public use, on sale, or otherwise available to the public before the effective filing date of the claimed invention.
Claim(s) 1-15 and 17-20 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by Roth et al. U.S. PGPub 2016/0364313 (hereinafter “Roth”).
Regarding claims 1, 17 and 20, Roth discloses an apparatus (Fig. 1, "a system for power consumption estimation and prediction of an HVAC unit", "system 100", ¶38-39) comprising a processor (Fig. 1, "processor 104", ¶41, 46) and coupled memory ("a storage device 116" ¶46, 103), said processor (Fig. 1, "processor 104", ¶41, 46) being adapted to perform, in an environment where a Heating, Ventilation, or Air Conditioning (HVAC) unit is deployed (Fig. 1, ¶46, 53, 82, 101), the steps of:
performing a testing phase ("a baseline behavior of the HVAC unit or model", ¶26), wherein the testing phase is configured to test an influence of the HVAC unit on a temperature of the environment (¶27-29, 35), wherein the testing phase comprises: performing at least one testing sequence, wherein a testing sequence of the at least one testing sequence comprises a sequence of two or more actions (¶26-27, "measurement sets, related for example to different target temperatures, different seasons or hours,
different occupancy levels of the area, or other changing conditions."), wherein at least one action of the two or more actions comprises instructing the HVAC unit to change its target temperature (¶27, 28, 37), and performing measurements of effects of the two or more actions on the temperature of the environment (¶27-28); based on the testing phase, generating a temperature profile, wherein the temperature profile indicates the influence of the HVAC unit on the temperature of the environment (¶26); and based on the temperature profile, generating a recommendation for a utilization of the HVAC
unit (¶28).
Regarding claim 2, Roth further discloses obtaining one or more properties of the environment, wherein said generating the recommendation is based on the one or more properties of the environment (¶22, 23, 28, 82, 101).
Regarding claim 3, Roth further discloses that the properties of the environment comprise: a location of the HVAC unit in the environment (¶4, 6, 29, 39); a location of sensors used to obtain the measurements within the environment (¶25, 39, 40, 43, 93); a two-dimensional area of the environment or a three-dimensional volume of the environment (¶6, 40, 53, 66).
Regarding claims 4 and 18, Roth further discloses performing a comparison between the temperature profile (¶27) and one or more additional temperature profiles (¶27), wherein the one or more additional temperature profiles comprise temperature profiles of multiple HVAC units in other
environments having environment profiles that are within a similarity measurement threshold
to an environment profile of the environment (¶26, "baseline behavior of the HVAC unit or model"),
wherein the environment profile of the environment is based on measurements of the one or more properties, the method further comprising determining based on said comparison at least one of: an isolation level of the environment, and a performance measurement of the HVAC unit (¶29-32).
Regarding claim 5, Roth further discloses that said obtaining comprises: presenting to a user via a graphical user interface a visual illustration of the environment; and receiving user instructions defining the one or more properties of the environment with respect to the visual illustration of the environment (¶42, 43, 49, 82, 98).
Regarding claims 6 and 19, Roth further discloses that the measurements are performed based on sensor readings from one or more sensors that are deployed in the environment, wherein at least one sensor of the one or more sensors is external to the HVAC unit (¶43, 66).
Regarding claim 7, Roth further discloses that the sequence of two or more actions comprises an evacuation action, wherein the evacuation action is an instruction to vacate living subjects from the environment (¶22, 26-27, 33, 39, 69, 93).
Regarding claim 8, Roth further discloses that the sequence of two or more actions comprises an action to adjust external influence on the environment, wherein the action to adjust external influence on the environment comprises an instruction that modifies a state of an object within the environment in order to affect external influence on the temperature within the environment (¶18, 22, 29, 33, 35, 37, 66, 69).
Regarding claim 9, Roth further discloses that the environment comprises a room, wherein the action to affect the external influence on the environment comprises instructing to adjust a state of an opening of the room, wherein the opening is one of: a window, and a door (¶18, 35, 22, 29, 95).
Regarding claim 10, Roth discloses selecting the at least one testing sequence from a set of multiple testing sequences, wherein the set of multiple testing sequences comprises an additional testing sequence that is not comprised in the at least one testing sequence, whereby not performing the additional testing sequence in the environment (¶26-27, "measurement sets, related for example to different target temperatures, different seasons or hours, different occupancy levels of the area, or other changing conditions.").
Regarding claim 11, Roth further discloses that said selecting is based on a time constraint indicated by a user of the HVAC unit (¶7 "detecting a degradation of the appliance's efficiency with time"; € 26)
Regarding claim 12, Roth further discloses that the temperature profile indicates an effective minimum temperature that can be produced by the HVAC unit in the environment (¶26, 84).
Regarding claim 13, Roth further discloses that at least a portion of the two or more actions are performed automatically (¶31, 76, 84, 98).
Regarding claim 14, Roth further discloses performing a comparison between the temperature profile and one or more additional temperature profiles (¶26), wherein the additional temperature profiles comprise previous temperature profiles that were generated for the HVAC unit (¶26), wherein the method comprises detecting a degradation of a functionality of the HVAC unit within the environment based on said comparison (¶73).
Regarding claim 15, Roth further discloses that the recommendation comprises a recommendation for adjusting at least one property of the environment (¶4 23, 28, 56, 76).
2.4. The present application does not meet the criteria of Article 33(1) PCT, because the subject matter of Claims 10, 11, 16 does not involve an inventive step, in the sense of Article 33 (3) PCT. Referring to Claim 10. The subject matter of Claim 10 comprises selecting the at least one testing sequence from a set of multiple testing sequences, wherein the set of multiple testing sequences comprises an additional testing sequence that is not comprised in the at least one testing sequence, whereby not performing the additional testing sequence in the environment. However these features are considered to be implementation details that person skilled in the art would consider as obvious-matter to employ. Referring to Claim 11. Document D1 further discloses that said selecting is based on a time constraint indicated by a user of the HVAC unit (4 7 "detecting a degradation of the appliance's efficiency with time"; € 26). Referring to Claim 16. Document D1 further discloses that the testing sequence comprises: instructing to close openings of the environment (Ff 18, 22, 29, 95); instructing to vacate living subjects from the environment ({¥ 22, 26-27, 33, 39, 69, 93), instructing the HVAC unit to provide a minimum temperature (q 84); wherein a first temperature of the environment is measured subsequently to instructing the HVAC unit to provide the minimum temperature (¥ 84), whereby determining an effective minimum temperature that can be produced by the HVAC unit in the environment (¥ 84).
Allowable Subject Matter
Claim 16 is 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 CHARLES R KASENGE whose telephone number is (571)272-3743. The examiner can normally be reached Monday - Friday 7:30am to 4pm EST.
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CK
August 22, 2025
/CHARLES R KASENGE/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2116