DETAILED ACTION
Status of Claims
Claims 1, 5, 7, 9 are amended.
Claims 1-10 are pending.
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and the fee set forth in 37 CFR 1.17(e) has been timely paid, the finality of the previous Office action has been withdrawn pursuant to 37 CFR 1.114.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 06/02/2026 has been entered.
Priority
Applicant’s claim for the benefit of a prior-filed application filed in DE 102021201968.4 on 03/02/2021 under 35 U.S.C. 119(e) or under 35 U.S.C. 120, 121, 365(c), or 386(c) is acknowledged.
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.
Claims 1-10 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Zhong (US 20210093203) in view of Widmer (US 20150260835).
Regarding Claim 1, 9, Zhong teaches the following limitations:
A method for operating an ultra-wideband device comprising: (Zhong – [Abstract] A computer-implemented method for determining a heart rate and respiratory rate from a radio frequency signal comprises inputting a radio frequency signal obtained from a test subject into a neural network. [0074] the present invention are not limited to FM-CW chirp signals, but also to a wide variety of radar signals including signals obtained, for example, from Impulse Radio Ultra-Wide Band (IR-UWB) radars.)
An ultra-wideband device (Zhong - [0074], [0110] FIG. 9 illustrates an exemplary electronic device apparatus for performing contactless prediction of a heart-rate and respiratory rate using a machine-learning model in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention.)
an ultra-wideband sensor: (Zhong - [0074], [0111] An electronic circuit board 901 comprises an on-chip radar sensor 910 with an antenna for receiving a signal, for example, from a test subject.)
transmitting impulse radio signals at different times and generating respective channel impulse responses that describe a respective reflected signal as a function of a path delay, (Zhong – [Fig. 5], [0074], [0059] In relation (3) above, frequency, f.sub.b is directly correlated to the distance between the object and the radar (e.g., the radar receiver or antenna), whereas ϕ.sub.b is closely related to the velocity of the object. Both f.sub.b and ϕ.sub.b can be calculated by applying a Fast Fourier Transform (FFT) on the mixed signal. Specifically, to determine vital signs, f.sub.b provides the distance between the subject and the radar and is used to determine the range bins (reflecting distance) of the test subjects while ϕ.sub.b reflects the velocity and/or displacement of the subject's chest.)
using- the channel impulse responses to generate a time-variant channel impulse response in which the channel impulse responses are arranged according to times of transmission of respective associated impulse radio signals, (Zhong – [Fig. 5], [0074], [0083] This applies well to the analysis of time sequences of sensor data and to the analysis of any kind of signal data over a fixed-length period (such as time-domain signal 308).)
transforming- predetermined time windows of the time-variant channel impulse response to produce respective scatter functions of a Doppler frequency, (Zhong - [Fig. 5], [0059], [0074], [0083], [0121] the signal transmitted from the radar system may be mixed with the reflected Doppler-shifted signal (from the test subject) to produce a mixing product which, following low pass filtering, results in a baseband signal including a low frequency component that is directly proportional to the instantaneous surface displacement of the tissue of the first test subject. [0124] In one embodiment, a band-pass filtering operation (e.g., using block 612 of FIG. 6) and an FFT operation (e.g., using FFT block 614 of FIG. 6) is performed on the signal before the heart rate and respiratory rate can be extracted.)
detecting in each scatter function (Zhong – [Fig. 3], [0059], [0121] Zhong does not explicitly teach “performing a two-dimensional search across Doppler frequency and path-delay axes”.)
characterized by the respective Doppler frequency and a respective path delay, (Zhong – [0121]
using- a predetermined selection method to select at least one local maximum as a respective observation maximum to be tracked for motion detection, (Zhong – [Fig. 3], [Abstract], [0121]
generating- a signal characteristic of the channel impulse response for the respective observation maximum to be tracked, and (Zhong - [Fig. 5], [0074], [0121])
detecting using- a predetermined motion detection method at least one predetermined movement of the observation maximum to be tracked in the signal characteristic of the channel impulse response. (Zhong - [Fig. 5], [Abstract], [0074], [0121])
Zhong does not explicitly teach the following limitations, however Widmer, in the same field of endeavor, teaches:
performing a two-dimensional search across Doppler frequency and path-delay axes (Widmer – [0180] For a system in accordance with an exemplary implementation of the invention based on detection in time-delay and Doppler domain as described above, the scatter function may be displayed using a suitable interpolation or smoothing function by means of 2D black and white plot, a 2D or 3D pseudo-color plot, a 2D or 3D contour line plot, etc. A 2D interpolation function may be used to achieve a smooth appearance rather than discrete points. Preferably, a scatter diagram is produced individually for each radar channel.)
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, to have modified the radar data of Zhong with the scatter function of Widmer in order achieve a function with a smooth appearance (Widmer – [0180]).
Regarding Claim 2, Zhong further teaches:
wherein a periodic movement is detected as the predetermined movement by the predetermined motion detection method. (Zhong – [Abstract])
Regarding Claim 3, Zhong further teaches:
wherein a non-periodic movement is detected as the predetermined movement by the predetermined motion detection method. (Zhong - [0114] FIG. 10 illustrates the manner in which a long sliding time window may be maintained in conjunction with a short sliding window in order to detect sudden changes in heart-rate in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention.)
Regarding Claim 4, Zhong further teaches:
wherein the channel impulse responses are filtered by a DC component filter. (Zhong - [0074], [0075] At block 504, denoising is performed on the signal… This operation also removes any DC component in the signal.)
Regarding Claim 5, Zhong further teaches:
wherein a low-pass filter is applied to a Doppler frequency domain. (Zhong – [0121])
Regarding Claim 6, Zhong further teaches:
wherein the detecting of the predetermined movement results in a control signal being provided on an interface of the ultra-wideband device. (Zhong – [Abstract], [0074], [0041] For example, I/O controller 120 may control or facilitate transfer of data between one or more elements of computing system 110, such as processor 114, system memory 116, communication interface 122, display adapter 126, input interface 130, and storage interface 134.)
Regarding Claim 7, Zhong further teaches:
wherein a low-pass filter is applied to the signal characteristic ϕ(t) in a frequency domain. (Zhong – [0121])
Regarding Claim 8, Zhong further teaches:
wherein before the motion detection method is carried out, a temporal sampling rate of the signal characteristic is reduced by a decimator. (Zhong – [0059], [0087] Depending on the sample rate, each discrete value of signal waveform 702 sampled can be assigned to one of the M bins. Each bin may then be represented as an embedding vector. [0091] The number of samples collected depends on the window size of the waveform and the longer the window size, the higher the number of samples collected. Any component used to adjust a sampling rate could be considered a decimator.)
Regarding Claim 10, Zhong further teaches:
A vehicle comprising an ultra-wideband device. (Zhong – [0074], [0110])
Response to Arguments
Applicant’s arguments, see Page 5, filed 06/02/2026, with respect to the Claim objections regarding Claim 7 have been fully considered and are persuasive. The Claim objections have been withdrawn.
Applicant’s arguments, see Pages 5-6, filed 06/02/2026, with respect to the rejection under 35 U.S.C. § 102(a)(2) have been considered but are moot because the new ground of rejection does not rely on any reference applied in the prior rejection of record for any teaching or matter specifically challenged in the argument. The claims are now rejected under 35 U.S.C. § 103 in view of Widmer.
Applicant argues, see page 6, that “Zhong's radar focuses on objects disposed at one particular distance (e.g., the distance to the person's chest) from the radar and measures the tiny movements at that one spot. He uses a fast Fourier transform and then an advanced machine learning model (a neural network) to interpret those tiny movements and estimate the person's heart rate and breathing rate. Because Zhong assumes the target (e.g., the person) isn't changing position significantly, Zhong does not need to scan multiple distances or map out different speeds at different ranges. He's only concerned with a single range bin (the one corresponding to the person's distance from the sensor) and the frequencies of chest motion at that spot. In other words, Zhong's approach would not benefit from including or using the approach being claimed. As such, there would be no reason to modify Zhong to include the claimed subject matter. Any modification of Zhong include the claimed subject matter would necessarily rely on the Applicant's own teachings as providing the motivation and this would amount to an improper hindsight reconstruction of the claimed invention. The claims are allowable for these additional reasons”. The examiner disagrees, the instant specification [0046], as well as many other paragraphs, discuss the claimed invention is relevant to the periodic and non-periodic movement of a person’s chest. Zhong [0064-0072] further teaches the differentiation of periodic movement (breathing and heartbeat) as well as the filtering of non-periodic movement (random movements of the subject) which is concerned with far more than a single range bin or the frequency of the chest motion.
Applicant's remaining arguments amount to a general allegation that the claims define a patentable invention without specifically pointing out how the language of the claims is understandable and distinguishable from other inventions.
Conclusion
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/BRANDON JAMES HENSON/Examiner, Art Unit 3648
/BERNARR E GREGORY/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 3648
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