DETAILED ACTION
Status of Claims
Claims 1, 5, 7, 9 are amended.
Claims 1-10 are pending.
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 Objections
The claims are objected to because of the following informalities:
[Claim 7] Typographical error, “a low-pass filter is applied to the signal characteristic in a frequency domain”. A domain cannot have a filter applied to it.
Appropriate correction is required.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 102
In the event the determination of the status of the application as subject to AIA 35 U.S.C. 102 and 103 (or as subject to pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 102 and 103) is incorrect, any correction of the statutory basis (i.e., changing from AIA to pre-AIA ) for the rejection will not be considered a new ground of rejection if the prior art relied upon, and the rationale supporting the rejection, would be the same under either status.
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)(2) the claimed invention was described in a patent issued under section 151, or in an application for patent published or deemed published under section 122(b), in which the patent or application, as the case may be, names another inventor and was effectively filed before the effective filing date of the claimed invention.
Claims 1-10 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(2) as being anticipated by Zhong (US 20210093203).
Regarding Claim 1, 9, Zhong discloses 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 the scatter functions of the respective time windows- at least one respective local maximum of a scatter function quantity, (Zhong – [Fig. 3], [0059], [0121])
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])
Regarding Claim 2, Zhong further discloses:
wherein a periodic movement is detected as the predetermined movement by the predetermined motion detection method. (Zhong – [Abstract])
Regarding Claim 3, Zhong further discloses:
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 discloses:
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 discloses:
wherein a low-pass filter is applied to a Doppler frequency domain. (Zhong – [0121])
Regarding Claim 6, Zhong further discloses:
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 discloses:
wherein a low-pass filter is applied to a frequency domain of the signal characteristic ϕ(t) in a frequency domain. (Zhong – [0121])
Regarding Claim 8, Zhong further discloses:
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 discloses:
A vehicle comprising an ultra-wideband device. (Zhong – [0074], [0110])
Response to Arguments
Applicant’s arguments, see Page 5, filed 02/24/2026, with respect to the Claim objections regarding Claims 1, 5, 9 have been fully considered and are persuasive. The Claim objection regarding Claim 7 has not been appropriately corrected.
Applicant’s arguments, see Pages 5-6, filed 02/24/2026, with respect to the rejection under 35 U.S.C. § 103 have been fully considered and are not persuasive. Applicant argues that Zhong does not disclose “using a scatter function of a Doppler frequency, then using the scatter functions to detect motion.” and merely teaches “applying a Fast Fourier Transform to the signal”. The examiner disagrees, the instant specification [0021] recites “Predetermined time windows for the time t in the time-variant channel impulse response h(t, T) are transformed to produce respective scatter functions hs(v, T) of the Doppler frequency v. The transformation can be, for example, a discrete cosine transformation, a Laplace transformation, a Walsh transformation, one of the Fourier transformations or a variant of the discrete Fourier transformation”. Zhong [0121] is cited for disclosing a “Doppler-shifted signal… that is directly proportional to the instantaneous surface displacement of the tissue” which is calculated as [0059] “ϕ.sub.b” when “applying a Fast Fourier Transform (FFT)”.
Applicant’s arguments, see Page 6, filed 02/24/2026, with respect to the rejection under 35 U.S.C. § 103 have been fully considered and are not persuasive. Applicant argues that the dependent claims are allowable due to the dependency on the independent claims. As noted above, the examiner maintains Zhong discloses the independent claims and therefore the dependent claims remain rejected.
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
Applicant's amendment necessitated the new ground(s) of rejection presented in this Office action. Accordingly, THIS ACTION IS MADE FINAL. See MPEP § 706.07(a). Applicant is reminded of the extension of time policy as set forth in 37 CFR 1.136(a).
A shortened statutory period for reply to this final action is set to expire THREE MONTHS from the mailing date of this action. In the event a first reply is filed within TWO MONTHS of the mailing date of this final action and the advisory action is not mailed until after the end of the THREE-MONTH shortened statutory period, then the shortened statutory period will expire on the date the advisory action is mailed, and any extension fee pursuant to 37 CFR 1.136(a) will be calculated from the mailing date of the advisory action. In no event, however, will the statutory period for reply expire later than SIX MONTHS from the date of this final action.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to BRANDON JAMES HENSON whose telephone number is (703)756-1841. The examiner can normally be reached Monday-Friday 9:00 am - 5:00 pm.
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/BRANDON JAMES HENSON/Examiner, Art Unit 3648
/RESHA DESAI/Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 3648