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
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 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.
Claim(s) 1-4 and 12-14 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by Tsang (US 6,053,797).
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).
2. Tsang discloses the plush toy system of claim 1, wherein at least a portion of the textile-based sensors are coupled behind the outer fabric layer in an interior of the plush toy body (as can be seen in Fig. 1, sensors 24a-h), (col. 2, lines 61-67).
3. Tsang discloses 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), (col. 3, lines 15-45), (col. 4, lines 20-25 and 35-44), (col. 5, lines 31-41).
4. Tsang discloses 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 (col. 3, lines 32-45), (col. 5, lines 35-41).
12-14. Tsang discloses 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 plush toy proximate to the outer fabric layer, wherein each textile-based pressure sensor generates a corresponding signal proportional to a pressure applied to the textile-based pressure sensor; and processing the corresponding signals to identify an interaction between the user and the interactive surface as similarly discussed above.
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) 5-9, 15, 18 and 19 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Tsang (US 6,053,797) 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 discloses 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 is configured to process signals from the textile-based pressure sensors that have been communicated to the external computing device via the communication device (e.g., Bluetooth from micro:bit for communicating with external device via web app for processing), (Section 3, page 238).
8-9. Tsang and PlushPal disclose the plush toy system of claim 7, wherein PlushPal further discloses processing of the signals by the external computing device comprises a remote feature extractor configured to extract features from sensor data to determine what interaction may have taken place with one or more of the textile-based pressure sensors of the array, wherein the remote feature extractor comprises a plurality of remote neural networking processing layers (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 extracting of the features from the corresponding signals by the processor comprises using a plurality of local 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, wherein the processing of the corresponding signals comprises the external computing device extracting features from the corresponding signals to identify what interaction may have taken place with one or more of the textile-based pressure sensors of the array as similarly discussed above
19. Tsang and PlushPal disclose the method of claim 18, wherein the extracting of the features from the corresponding signals by the external computing device comprises using a plurality of remote neural networking processing layers as similarly discussed above
Claim(s) 10-11 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Tsang (US 6,053,797).
10-11. Tsang discloses the plush system of claim 1, wherein each of the textile-based pressure sensors comprises: a pair of first textile-based outer layers, and a textile-based inner layer sandwiched between the pair of first textile-based outer layers, wherein the textile-based inner layer comprises a textile substrate with a functionalized coating material deposited on the textile substrate, wherein the functionalized coating material causes resistivity of the textile-based inner layer to be proportional to a pressure being applied to the textile-based pressure sensor, wherein the one or more functionalized coating materials comprise an ion-conductive material (col. 2, line 50 -col. 3, line 45), (claim 1). Tsang does not explicitly discloses the electrical resistance being no more than 100 ohms; however, 100 ohm resistor is one of the most common and easily accessible resistors in electronics and it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skilled in the art to utilize 100 ohm resistor in Tsang’s system as it would be cost effective for it being easily accessible and would yield predictable result.
Claim(s) 16-17, 20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Tsang (US 6,053,797) 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 and PlushPal disclose method of claim 15, but does not expressly disclose wherein each local 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 and PlushPal disclose method of claim 15, wherein Narayanan further discloses comprising an early exit after one or more of the local neural networking processing layers (e.g. Branching/loss modifications for efficiency after layers), [0072].
20. Tsang, PlushPal and Narayanan disclose the method of claim 18, wherein each remote neural networking processing layer comprises a one-dimensional convolutional layer followed by a batch normalization block and a rectified linear unit as similarly discussed above.
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure. Please see attached USPTO form PTO-892.
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)
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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If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, David L. Lewis can be reached at (571) 272-7673. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/Seng H Lim/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 3715