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 .
DETAILED ACTION
Response to Arguments
Applicant’s arguments with respect to the pending claims have been considered but are moot because of the new ground of rejection below.
Claim Objections
Claim 7 is objected to because of the following informalities: remove “to extractor” in line 2. Appropriate correction is required.
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 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.
Claim(s) 1-4, 10-14 and 21-24 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Tsang (US 6,053,797) in view of Taylor (US 2012/0234105 A1).
1. Tsang discloses a plush toy system comprising:
a plush toy body with an outer fabric layer, wherein the outer fabric layer forms an interactive surface engageable by a user (Fig. 1), (col. 2, line 50 – col. 3, line14);
an array of textile-based pressure sensors coupled to the plush toy body proximate to the outer fabric layer (elastomeric variable resistors, e.g., sensors 24a-h in multiple body parts like tummy, arms, legs), (col. 2, lines 61-65), (col. 3, lines 15-25); and
sensor conditioning circuits coupled to the plush toy, the sensor conditioning circuits being configured to interpret signals from the textile-based pressure sensors to identify interaction between the user and the interactive surface (e.g., analog-to-digital converter and microprocessor processing analog signals based on stimulation nature, degree, location, and repetition to trigger varied outputs like sounds), (col. 2, line 58 - col. 3, line 4).
Tsang does not expressly disclose wherein at least one of the textile-based pressure sensors comprises a sheet-like textile-based layer with a functionalized coating, wherein the functionalized coating is configured to provide for a signal proportional to a pressure being applied to the at least one of the textile-based pressure sensors. Taylor discloses a sheet-like textile-based layer comprising an elastically stretchable fabric substrate (e.g., Lycra/Spandex woven or knit fabric, nylon-spandex blends such as Milliken “Interlude” or “Mil/glass”), [0011], [0052], [0108], [0166], [0168]; wherein the fabric sheet is submerged in/coated with a piezoresistive material (graphite, carbon powder, nickel powder + acrylic binder slurry), excess rolled off, and dried to functionalize the textile matrix, [0108]-[0110]. The functionalized coating causes resistivity to vary proportionally (inversely) with applied pressure via surface and volume piezoresistive effects, (Fig. 7), [0156]-[0157], [0185]. Taylor further teaches that such coated-fabric sensors form arrays that can be sewn/stitched into soft, conformable fabric objects via zig-zag stitching, [0047]. It would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date to substitute (or incorporate) Taylor’s coated textile-based piezoresistive sensors for Tsang’s generic elastomeric rubber-carbon sensors. Both references concern soft, fabric-integrated pressure sensing for interactive/user-engagement applications. Taylor’s fabric-coated sensors provide superior conformability, drapability, imperceptible integration into plush fabric shells while retaining the pressure-proportional signal required by Tsang’s system. The simple substitution of one known sensor element for another would yield predictable results with improved user experience in a plush toy.
2. Tsang and Taylor disclose the plush toy system of claim 1, wherein at least a portion of the textile-based pressure sensors are coupled behind the outer fabric layer in an interior of the plush toy body, Tsang (as can be seen in Fig. 1, sensors 24a-h), (col. 2, lines 61-67).
3. Tsang and Taylor disclose the plush toy system of claim 1, wherein the sensor conditioning circuits comprise first and second sensor channels for each corresponding textile-based pressure sensor in the array, wherein the first sensor channel analyzes unamplified signals from the corresponding textile-based pressure sensor for interaction at or above a first pressure and the second sensor channel analyzes amplified signals from the corresponding textile-based pressure sensor for interaction at or below a second pressure that is lower than the first pressure (e.g., distinguishing gentle vs. vigorous stimulation via signal magnitude), Tsang (col. 3, lines 15-45), (col. 4, lines 20-25 and 35-44), (col. 5, lines 31-41).
4. Tsang and Taylor disclose the plush toy system of claim 1, wherein the sensor conditioning circuits comprise a processor that is configured to process signals from the textile-based pressure sensors of the array, wherein processing of the signals by the processor comprises a local feature extractor configured to extract features from sensor data to identify what interaction may have taken place with one or more of the textile-based pressure sensors of the array, Tsang (col. 3, lines 32-45), (col. 5, lines 35-41).
10. Tsang and Taylor disclose the plush toy system of claim 1, wherein the at least one of the textile-based pressure sensors comprises: a pair of first textile-based outer layers each having an electrical resistance of no more than 100 ohms, and a textile-based inner layer sandwiched between the pair of first textile-based outer layers, wherein the textile-based inner layer comprises the sheet-like textile-based layer with the functionalized coating, wherein the functionalized coating causes resistivity of the textile-based inner layer to be proportional to the pressure being applied to the at least one of the textile-based pressure sensors, Taylor [0102], [0104], [0164], [0166].
11. Tsang and Taylor disclose the plush toy system of claim 1 wherein the functionalized coating comprises an ion-conductive material, Taylor [0011], [0110].
12-14. Tsang and Taylor disclose a method comprising: providing or receiving a plush toy, wherein the plush toy comprises: an outer fabric layer that forms an interactive surface engageable by a user; and an array of textile-based pressure sensors coupled to the outer fabric layer, wherein at least one of the textile-based pressure sensors comprises a sheet-like textile-based layer with a functionalized coating, wherein the functionalized coating provides for a corresponding signal proportional to a pressure applied to the at least one of the textile-based pressure sensors; and processing the corresponding signals from the array of textile-based pressure sensors to identify an interaction between the user and the interactive surface as similarly discussed above.
21. Tsang and Taylor disclose the plush toy system of claim 1, wherein the sheet-like textile-based layer comprises a plurality of fibrous structures combined to form a woven or non-woven fabric layer, wherein the functionalized coating is coated on the plurality of fibrous structures of the woven or non-wave fabric layer, Taylor [0034], [0046]-[0047], [0150], [0168].
22. Tsang and Taylor disclose the plush toy system of claim 21, wherein the woven or non-wave fabric layers comprises an off-the-shelf woven or non-woven fabric (e.g., Milliken fabrics), Taylor [0108], [0168], [0174].
23. Tsang and Taylor disclose the plush toy system of claim 1, wherein the at least one of the textile-based pressure sensors is sewn to the outer fabric layer of the plush toy body, Taylor [0047], [0167], [0176].
24. Tsang and Taylor disclose the method of claim 12, wherein the sheet-like textile-based layer comprises a plurality of fibrous structures combined to form a woven or non-woven fabric layer, wherein the functionalized coating is coated on the plurality of fibrous structures of the woven or non-wave fabric layer, Taylor [0034], [0046]-[0047], [0150], [0168].
Claim(s) 5-7, 15, and 18 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Tsang (US 6,053,797) and Taylor (US 2012/0234105 A1) as applied above and further in view of "PlushPal: Storytelling with Interactive Plush Toys and Machine Learning" (Tseng et al., published June 2021 in IDC '21 Proceedings), URL: <https://tifftseng.com/papers/plushpal.pdf> (PlushPal from hereinafter).
5. Tsang and Taylor disclose the plush toy system of claim 4, but does not expressly disclose wherein the local feature extractor comprises a plurality of local neural networking processing layers. PlushPal discloses utilizing machine learning via ml5.js (e.g. neural networks) in Plush toys via locally or remotely for kids to provide interactive play with ML for children (Abstract, Page 236), (Section 2.1, page 237). It would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skilled in the art to modify Tsang with PlushPal and would have been motivated to do so to provide interactive play with ML for children to learn.
6. Tsang discloses the plush toy system of claim 1, but does not expressly disclose a communication device coupled to the plush toy, wherein the communication device is configured to communicate with an computing device. PlushPal discloses a communication device coupled to the plush toy, wherein the communication device is configured to communicate with an computing device (e.g., Bluetooth from micro:bit for communicating with external device via web app), (Section 3, page 238). It would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skilled in the art to modify Tsang with PlushPal and would have been motivated to do so to enable data exchange with web app for further customization.
7. Tsang and PlushPal disclose the plush toy system of claim 6, wherein PlushPal further discloses the external computing device comprises a remote feature extractor configured [[to extractor]] to extract features from sensor data from the textile-based pressure sensors that have been communicated to the external computing device via the communication device, wherein the external computing device is configured to determine what interaction may have taken place with one or more of the textile-based pressure sensors of the array based on the features extracted by the remote feature extractor (e.g., Bluetooth from micro:bit for communicating with external device via web app for processing), (Section 3, page 238), (Web/external processor extracts features to determine interactions), (Section 1, page 237).
15. Tsang and PlushPal disclose the method of claim 14, wherein the processor comprises a plurality of neural processing layers, wherein extracting of the features from the corresponding signals is performed by the plurality of neural networking processing layers as similarly discussed above.
18. Tsang and PlushPal disclose the method of claim 12, wherein the plush toy comprises a communication device configured to communicate with an external computing device as similarly discussed above
Claim(s) 16-17 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Tsang (US 6,053,797), Taylor (US 2012/0234105 A1) and "PlushPal: Storytelling with Interactive Plush Toys and Machine Learning" (Tseng et al., published June 2021 in IDC '21 Proceedings), URL: <https://tifftseng.com/papers/plushpal.pdf> (PlushPal from hereinafter) as applied above and further in view of Narayanan (US 2022/0188621 A1).
16. Tsang, Taylor and PlushPal disclose method of claim 15, but does not expressly disclose wherein each neural networking processing layer comprises a one-dimensional convolution layer followed by a batch normalization block and a rectified linear unit [0068]-[0069]. Narayanan discloses neural networking processing layer comprises a one-dimensional convolution layer followed by a batch normalization block and a rectified linear unit. It would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skilled in the art to modify with and would have been motivated to do so for efficient activation and normalization in sensor processing.
17. Tsang, Taylor and PlushPal disclose method of claim 15, wherein Narayanan further discloses comprising an early exit after one or more of the neural networking processing layers (e.g. Branching/loss modifications for efficiency after layers), [0072].
Filing of New or Amended Claims
The examiner has the initial burden of presenting evidence or reasoning to explain why persons skilled in the art would not recognize in the original disclosure a description of the invention defined by the claims. See Wertheim, 541 F.2d at 263, 191 USPQ at 97 (“[T]he PTO has the initial burden of presenting evidence or reasons why persons skilled in the art would not recognize in the disclosure a description of the invention defined by the claims.”). However, when filing an amendment an applicant should show support in the original disclosure for new or amended claims. See MPEP § 714.02 and § 2163.06 (“Applicant should specifically point out the support for any amendments made to the disclosure.”). Please see MPEP 2163 (II) 3. (b)
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 nonprovisional extension fee (37 CFR 1.17(a)) 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 mailing date of this final action.
Correspondence
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to SENG H LIM whose telephone number is (571)270-3301. The examiner can normally be reached Monday-Friday (9-5).
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/Seng H Lim/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 3715
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