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and the fee set forth in 37 CFR 1.17(e) has been timely paid, the finality of the previous Office action has been withdrawn pursuant to 37 CFR 1.114.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 06/22/2026 has been entered.
Response to Amendments
Claims 1, 13, and 15 are amended.
Claims 1-20 are pending.
Response to Arguments
Applicant’s arguments, see pages 7-12, filed 06/22/2026, with respect to Claims Rejections under 35 USC 102 and 103 have been considered but are moot because they do not apply to the specific combination of references being used in the current rejections.
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)(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.
(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.
Claim(s) 1-6 and 12-19 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(2) as being anticipated by Peng (US 2022/0187158).
Regarding Claim 1, Peng discloses:
A method for performing vibration measurements, comprising:
determining, by a radar apparatus, an initial set of measurement results, wherein said initial set of measurement results comprises at least angles-of-arrivals and phases of initial reflected signals, the initial reflected signals being reflections of initial signals transmitted by a radar in a field of view of the radar ([0049]: “repeatedly transmitting linear frequency modulated continuous wave microwave signals”; [0050]: “receiving reflected signals from targets and/or measurement points … and performing frequency mixing on received signals and local oscillator signals to obtain multi-channel intermediate frequency baseband signals”; [0057]: “the phase difference between multiple channels can be used to estimate the azimuth angle”);
determining, by the radar apparatus, a phase map of the field of view of the radar, wherein the phase map comprises at least phase differences between the initial transmitted signals and the initial reflected signals as a function of angles-of-arrivals of the initial reflected signals ([0050-0051]: the intermediate frequency baseband signals contain the phase differences between the transmitted and received signals; [0063]: “estimating a phase evolution time sequence of each target and/or measurement point within a plurality of transmission cycles”; [0065]: “an angle dimension phase change caused by the vibration of targets and/or measurement points within each transmission cycle is directly estimated through the formula … according to the indexes for the range and angle dimensions of the targets and/or measurement points”); and
determining, by the radar apparatus, a vibration map of the field of view of the radar based at least on the phase map, wherein the vibration map depicts vibration of an object between a first location and a second location ([0068]: “extracting a vibration displacement time sequence of each target and/or measurement point”; [0080]: “The display and analysis module is configured to display information including vibration displacement time-domain waveforms of each target and/or measurement point”; Figs. 9A-C, the vibration displacement waveforms depict targets oscillating between positive and negative displacements, i.e., vibrating between a first location and a second location.).
Regarding Claim 13, Peng discloses:
An apparatus comprising a processor ([0030]: “a controller”), wherein the processor is configured to:
determine an initial set of measurement results, wherein said initial set of measurement results comprises at least angles-of-arrivals and phases of initial reflected signals, the initial reflected signals being reflections of initial signals transmitted by a radar in a field of view of the radar ([0049]: “repeatedly transmitting linear frequency modulated continuous wave microwave signals”; [0050]: “receiving reflected signals from targets and/or measurement points … and performing frequency mixing on received signals and local oscillator signals to obtain multi-channel intermediate frequency baseband signals”; [0057]: “the phase difference between multiple channels can be used to estimate the azimuth angle”);
determine a phase map of the field of view of the radar, wherein the phase map comprises at least phase differences between the initial transmitted signals and the initial reflected signals as a function of angles-of-arrivals of the initial reflected signals ([0050-0051]: the intermediate frequency baseband signals contain the phase differences between the transmitted and received signals; [0063]: “estimating a phase evolution time sequence of each target and/or measurement point within a plurality of transmission cycles”; [0065]: “an angle dimension phase change caused by the vibration of targets and/or measurement points within each transmission cycle is directly estimated through the formula … according to the indexes for the range and angle dimensions of the targets and/or measurement points”); and
determine a vibration map of the field of view of the radar based at least on the phase map, wherein the vibration map depicts vibration of an object between a first location and a second location ([0068]: “extracting a vibration displacement time sequence of each target and/or measurement point”; [0080]: “The display and analysis module is configured to display information including vibration displacement time-domain waveforms of each target and/or measurement point”; Figs. 9A-C, the vibration displacement waveforms depict targets oscillating between positive and negative displacements, i.e., vibrating between a first location and a second location.).
Regarding Claim 15, Peng discloses:
A non-transitory computer readable medium having stored thereon a set of computer readable instructions, configured to control a processing unit ([0030]: “a controller configured to … control sequential execution of the steps of the full-field vibration measurement method”) to cause:
determining, by a radar apparatus, an initial set of measurement results, wherein said initial set of measurement results comprises at least angles-of-arrivals and phases of initial reflected signals, the initial reflected signals being reflections of initial signals transmitted by a radar in a field of view of the radar ([0049]: “repeatedly transmitting linear frequency modulated continuous wave microwave signals”; [0050]: “receiving reflected signals from targets and/or measurement points … and performing frequency mixing on received signals and local oscillator signals to obtain multi-channel intermediate frequency baseband signals”; [0057]: “the phase difference between multiple channels can be used to estimate the azimuth angle”);
determining, by the radar apparatus, a phase map of the field of view of the radar, wherein the phase map comprises at least phase differences between the initial transmitted signals and the initial reflected signals as a function of angles-of-arrivals of the initial reflected signals ([0050-0051]: the intermediate frequency baseband signals contain the phase differences between the transmitted and received signals; [0063]: “estimating a phase evolution time sequence of each target and/or measurement point within a plurality of transmission cycles”; [0065]: “an angle dimension phase change caused by the vibration of targets and/or measurement points within each transmission cycle is directly estimated through the formula … according to the indexes for the range and angle dimensions of the targets and/or measurement points”); and
determining, by the radar apparatus, a vibration map of the field of view of the radar based at least on the phase map, wherein the vibration map depicts vibration of an object between a first location and a second location ([0068]: “extracting a vibration displacement time sequence of each target and/or measurement point”; [0080]: “The display and analysis module is configured to display information including vibration displacement time-domain waveforms of each target and/or measurement point”; Figs. 9A-C, the vibration displacement waveforms depict targets oscillating between positive and negative displacements, i.e., vibrating between a first location and a second location.).
Regarding Claims 2 and 14, Peng discloses: wherein the vibration map comprises information about a vibration frequency of at least one object in the field of view of the radar ([0080]: “The display and analysis module is configured to display information including vibration displacement time-domain waveforms of each target and/or measurement point, and analyze the features, such as the vibration amplitude, frequency and full-field vibration characteristic distribution, of each target and/or measurement point as required.”; Figs. 9A-C).
Regarding Claims 3 and 16, Peng discloses: wherein the method and the processor are further configured to:
perform a Fourier transform to a time-domain signal comprising said initial set of measurement results ([0055]: “performing a two-dimensional discrete Fourier transform on the matrix H”; [0063]); and
detect the vibration frequency of the at least one object from the Fourier transformed signal ([0063-0064]: the phase evolution time sequence is calculated using discrete Fourier transform coefficients; [0080]: “analyze the features, such as the vibration amplitude, frequency and full-field vibration characteristic distribution”).
Regarding Claims 4 and 17, Peng discloses: wherein said initial set of measurement results comprises amplitudes of the initial reflected signals ([0058]: “calculating the amplitude of each element in the matrix Hff”) and the method further comprises:
determining distance information based on said amplitudes ([0026]: “the range cell and range estimation value for each target and/or measurement point may also be directly determined from range profile information, that is, calculated based on a peak position of amplitude spectrum”; [0058]); and
determining the phase map, wherein the phase map comprises said distance information as a function of said angles-of-arrivals of the initial reflected signals ([0063]: “kl is an index for a range dimension of the l-th target and/or measurement point”; [0065]: “according to the indexes for the range and angle dimensions”).
Regarding Claims 5 and 18, Peng discloses: wherein said initial set of measurement results is from a one-shot measurement performed by the radar ([0057]: “the targets and/or measurement points within the full field may be resolved and positioned by selecting the intermediate frequency baseband signals in various channels within the first or certain cycle”).
Regarding Claims 6 and 19, Peng discloses: wherein the method and the processor are further configured to:
determining at least one subsequent set of measurement results, wherein the at least one subsequent set of measurement results comprises at least angles-of-arrivals and phases of subsequent reflected signals, the subsequent reflected signals being reflections of subsequent signals transmitted by the radar after the initial signals in the field of view of the radar ([0049]: “repeatedly transmitting linear frequency modulated continuous wave microwave signals”; [0050]; [0057]); and
determining the phase map, wherein the phase map comprises at least phase differences between the initial reflected signals and the subsequent reflected signals as a function of said angles-of-arrivals ([0063-0665]; [0067]: “determining whether the difference in phases of the phase evolution time sequence within adjacent transmission cycles is greater than a certain threshold”).
Regarding Claim 12, Peng discloses: the method further comprising:
presenting the vibration map on a display as an image ([0080]: “display information including vibration displacement time-domain waveforms”; Figs. 9A-C).
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
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 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 7-8 and 20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Peng (US 2022/0187158), as applied to Claims 1 and 13 above, and further in view of Santra (US 2019/0195728).
Regarding Claims 7 and 20, Peng does not explicitly teach: determining a set of Doppler-frequency measurement results or determining the vibration map of the field of view of the radar by combining the phase map and the set of Doppler-frequency measurement results.
However, Santra is in the field of radar-based vibration detection (Santra [0019]) and teaches:
determining a set of Doppler-frequency measurement results, wherein the set of Doppler- frequency measurement results comprises information about Doppler-frequencies as a function of said angles-of arrivals (Santra [0019]: “angle data”; [0022]: “interferometric phase is determined using a bank of Doppler filters”; [0036]: “micro-Doppler analysis”); and
determining the vibration map of the field of view of the radar by combining the phase map and the set of Doppler-frequency measurement results (Santra [0019]: “vibration of the structural object are related to the interferometric phase”; “This interferometric phase is determined using a bank of Doppler filters”).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify Peng and determine Doppler-frequency measurement results comprising information about Doppler-frequencies as a function of said angles-of arrivals, and determine the vibration map of the field of view of the radar by combining the phase map and the set of Doppler-frequency measurement results, as taught by Santra, with a reasonable expectation of success. Applying Santra’s Doppler-frequency vibration detection technique to Peng’s vibration measurement system yields the predictable result of using Santra’s Doppler filter to improve the accuracy of vibration measurements (Santra [0110]).
Regarding Claim 8, Peng does not explicitly teach – but Santra teaches: wherein the set of Doppler-frequency measurement results is from a continuous measurement, the continuous measurement comprising a transmission of a single pulse (Santra [0019]: “continuous assessment”; [0029]: “FMCW”; “pulse radar”).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify Peng and use a continuous measurement comprising a transmission of a single pulse to determine Doppler-frequency measurements, as taught by Santra, with a reasonable expectation of success. Substituting Peng’s radar measurement technique for Santra’s Doppler-frequency measurement technique to obtain Doppler-frequency measurements is a simple substitution of one known element for another to obtain the predictable result of obtaining the desired measurements.
Claims 9-10 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Peng (US 2022/0187158), as applied to Claim 1 above, and further in view of Hartmann (US 2017/0038245).
Regarding Claim 9, Peng does not explicitly teach: upon determining said initial set of measurement results, changing a measurement mode of the radar to a Doppler-frequency measurement mode
However, Hartmann is in the field of radar-based vibration measurement (Hartmann [Abstract]) and teaches: upon determining said initial set of measurement results, changing a measurement mode of the radar to a Doppler-frequency measurement mode (Hartmann [0068]: “if the switching threshold 34 is exceeded at each of the times t1 and t2, a digital pulse with a pulse amplitude 32 and 33 is formed therefrom”; [Claim 7]: “in the case of belt-side vibration frequencies below a threshold of 6 hertz, the Doppler radar module (3) is switched off”).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify Peng change a measurement mode of the radar to a Doppler-frequency measurement mode upon determining said initial set of measurement results, as taught by Hartmann, with a reasonable expectation of success. Changing to an appropriate measurement mode is beneficial for improving the accuracy of vibration measurements (Hartmann [0014]).
Regarding Claim 10, Peng teaches: wherein the vibration map comprises information about a vibration frequency of at least one object in the field of view of the radar ([0080]: “analyze the features, such as the vibration amplitude, frequency and full-field vibration characteristic distribution”).
Peng does not explicitly teach – but Hartmann teaches: the method further comprising:
detecting that the vibration frequency of the at least one object is above a threshold (Hartmann [0068]: “if the switching threshold 34 is exceeded”; [Claim 7]: “vibration frequencies below a threshold of 6 hertz”); and
responsive to said detection, changing the measurement mode of the radar to the Doppler-frequency measurement mode (Hartmann [0068]: “if the switching threshold 34 is exceeded at each of the times t1 and t2, a digital pulse with a pulse amplitude 32 and 33 is formed therefrom”; [Claim 7]: “in the case of belt-side vibration frequencies below a threshold of 6 hertz, the Doppler radar module (3) is switched off”).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify Peng and detect that the vibration frequency is above a threshold and, responsive to said detection, change the measurement mode of the radar to the Doppler-frequency measurement mode, as taught by Hartmann, with a reasonable expectation of success. Changing the measurement mode when a vibration frequency is above a threshold is beneficial for improving the accuracy of vibration measurements (Hartmann [0014]) and for conserving energy.
Claim 11 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Peng (US 2022/0187158) and Santra (US 2019/0195728), as applied to Claim 7 above, and further in view of Slater (US 9,709,671).
Regarding Claim 11, Peng as modified does not explicitly teach: wherein Doppler-frequency measurements are performed using a constant frequency.
However, Slater is in the field of radar sensing (Slater [col. 3]) and teaches: wherein Doppler-frequency measurements are performed using a constant frequency (Slater [col. 17, lines 29-30]: “Both passive Doppler radars used constant frequency”).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify Peng and measure the Doppler-frequencies using a constant frequency, as taught by Slater, with a reasonable expectation of success. Substituting Peng’s radar measurement technique for Slater’s constant frequency measurement technique to obtain Doppler-frequency measurements is a simple substitution of one known element for another to obtain the predictable result of obtaining the desired measurements.
Conclusion
The cited references made of record in the contemporaneously filed PTO-892 form and not relied upon in the instant office action are considered pertinent to Applicant’s disclosure, and may have one or more of the elements in Applicant’s disclosure and at least Claims 1, 13, and 15.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to NOAH Y. ZHU whose telephone number is (571) 270-0170. The examiner can normally be reached Monday-Friday, 8AM-4PM.
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If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Vladimir Magloire, can be reached on (571) 270-5144. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/NOAH YI MIN ZHU/Examiner, Art Unit 3648
/BRADY W FRAZIER/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 3648
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