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 .
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 2-11 are objected to as being dependent upon a rejected base claim, but would be allowable if rewritten in independent form including all of the limitations of the base claim and any intervening claims. Please also see the interview summary.
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.
Claim(s) 1, 12-30 rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Rabii, Garmon or Chieng in view of Novitski (US 3,940,701) or Thomas et al (US 2013/0243134).
Claims 1, 26, 29 and 30, Rabii, Garmon or Chieng teaches a device, a method, a medium and an apparatus comprising: one or more processors (Rabii: via Figs. 1-3, [0016, 0024, 0041] showing controllers 106, 220 and 308; Garmon, Fig. 1, [0038]), configured to:
obtain a media stream that includes at least one audio stream;
Rabii: The audio component processing pipeline 104 may be configured to process audio data 128 received at the mobile communication device 100 to generate processed audio output 150 for transmission to the speaker 112, [0017, 0027 and 0041];
Garmon: Fig. 1, [0035]: transcoding and transmitting of digital data. As shown in FIG. 1, the processing device 10 may be in communication with a media output device 30. The media output device 30 may be configured to transmit the digital data (e.g., which may include an audio component and/or a video component) to the processing device 10.
Chieng: The audio data delivered over the HDA bus is received, processed and output by the various components of the codecs (referred to in the HDA specification as "widgets"), col. 2, 49-52);
disable, at one or more audio coders, audio coding of the at least one audio stream based on a no volume condition associated with the at least one audio stream;
Rabii: Interrupting a component of the audio component processing pipeline 104 during a mute condition may reduce power consumption by components of the mobile communication device 100, [0016, 0023). During operation, the controller 308 may selectively shut off audio processing and delivery of audio content to the audio output 350 in response to the mute command 326 while video processing of video data 340 continues generating video content 324 for display at the display 304, [0046];
Garmon: the processing device 10 may stop transcoding and transmitting the audio component of the digital data when receiving a signal indicating that the media receiving device 20 is in a mute mode, and may stop transcoding and transmitting the video component of the digital data when receiving a signal indicating that the media receiving device 20 is in an obscured mode, [0033, 0041, 0042 and Figs. 1 and 3)
Chieng: In the present systems, on the other hand, the DSP can recognize that the audio volume level is 0 and adjust its operation (and that of the PWM output computation engine) to suspend non-required functions and otherwise reduce power consumption. When the channel is no longer muted, the DSP can adjust its operation to return to normal operating parameters”, col. 6, lines 27-34; and
Rabii, Garmon and Chieng do not teach “depower the one or more audio coders based on detection that a duration of the no volume condition exceeds a threshold duration”.
Novitski teaches, “The present invention provides a remotely actuated television receiver control device which both meets the above-described needs of the television viewer and overcomes the drawbacks of prior art television control devices. This is accomplished by circuitry which mutes and restores the audio output of a television receiver in response to illumination by a light beam, such as that produced by an ordinary flashlight, and disables the television by disconnecting its electrical power input automatically a predetermined period of time following the muting of the sound unless the sound is restored prior to the end of that time period. The device may be original equipment or an accessory to a television. Col. 1, line 60 – col. 2, line 4”.
Thomas teaches, “the present invention may utilize a DSP including pause detection logic that is able to detect pauses (i.e., periods of silence or unvoiced activity) in the demodulated audio stream. In one embodiment, pause is detected by computing the number of zero crossings in a particular window of time, wherein a zero crossing may be defined as the value where the modulation drops to zero or nearly zero. In addition, or alternatively, pause may be detected by utilizing a signal strength threshold below which the audio may be characterized as being in a pause. In one embodiment, a pause may be recognized when the duration of the pause exceeds about 40 milliseconds, [0066]”.
It would have been obvious to the ordinary artisan before the effective filing date to incorporate the teaching of Novitski or Thomas into the teaching of Rabii, Garmon or Chieng for the purpose of permitting the photo-responsive circuit to be de-energized along with the television once the control device has automatically disabled the television thereby saving electricity as well as providing a certain muting or unvoiced activity period to depower for saving energy.
Claim 12. (Currently Amended) The device of claim 1,wherein the one or more audio coders comprise at least one audio decoder, wherein the one or more processors obtain the media stream from an audio application, and wherein the one or more processors are configured prevent transmission of the at least one audio stream to the at least one audio decoder to disable the audio coding. (Rabii: the controller 308 may suspend provisioning of the audio content 356 to the audio output 350 while displaying the video content 324 in response to the monitored operating condition 354 exceeding the threshold, [0046], more on [0033, 0037, 0044, 0056-0061]. Chieng teaches the disabling of audio coding).
Claim 13. (Currently Amended) The device of claim 12, wherein the one or more processors are configured to provide the at least one audio stream to the at least one audio decoder based on a change from the no volume condition to a volume condition. (Rabii: components for playing the audio content may be turned off during a mute mode when the battery power level of the mobile phone is low, [0004]; the threshold for the monitored operating condition 354 may be a low battery level, [0046]. Also see, [0032-0033] ad fig. 6, 606. Chieng teaches a system/method for controlling volume of an audio codec, i.e., HAD codec, to update, when necessary, col. 6, lines 19- 34. Also see the independent claims ).
Claim 14. (Currently Amended) The device of claim 13, wherein the one or more processors are configured to turn on the at least one audio decoder based on a determination that the at least one audio decoder is depowered. (Rabii: the controller 220 may determine whether to interrupt a particular component based on a first threshold 205 corresponding to a battery power level and a second threshold 207 corresponding to network bandwidth available to the mobile communication device 202, [0033]. Also see [0062] for below the threshold and [0063] for above the threshold. Also see Chieng’s col. 6, lines 19-34).
Claim 15. The device of claim 12, wherein the one or more processors are configured to: obtain input that indicates a change from the no volume condition to a volume condition; and based on the input; provide the at least one audio stream to the at least one audio decoder; and provide decoded audio frames to one or more output devices. (Rabii: During operation, the controller 308 may selectively shut off audio processing and delivery of audio content to the audio output 350 in response to the mute command 326…. By interrupting components of the mobile communication device 300 based on the monitored operating condition 354 in response to the mute command 326 and reengaging processing based on the expected processing state 360, the mobile communication device 300 may reduce power consumption during a mute condition and resume processing without impacting perceived audio playback performance to a user, [0045-0046]; The controller 220 may send a resume signal to a component of the mobile communication device 220 via one of the control signals 283-287 to resume processing of audio data. For example, when the rendition device 218 has been interrupted, the controller 220 may send the resume signal via the control signal 286, [0039]; Garmon: [0007] In accordance with additional or alternative embodiments, the media receiving device is configured to transmit an un-mute signal to the processing device when switched to the un-mute mode, the processing device configured to resume transcoding and transmitting the digital audio to the media receiving device when receiving the un-mute signal, [0007]).
Claims 16-18, the no volume condition is determined based on a volume level setting; wherein the volume level setting is a default volume or a volume set by user activation of one or more volume controls; and wherein the volume level setting is set by user selection of a particular volume via a graphic user interface. (Rabii: see entire document. At least, “During operation, the controller 308 may selectively shut off audio processing and delivery of audio content to the audio output 350 in response to the mute command 326 while video processing of video data 340 continues generating video content 324 for display at the display 304, [0046]”. Garmon: see at least, “The media receiving device 20 may include at least one of a mute mode and an obscured mode. The media receiving device 20 may be viewed as being in the mute mode when set to not output (e.g., audibly) digital audio. For example, the volume on the media receiving device 20 may be set to zero when being in the mute mode, [0032, 0037, 0041]).
Claims 19-20, wherein the threshold duration is greater than zero seconds (See Thomas: a pause may be recognized when the duration of the pause exceeds about wherein the threshold duration is one of 0.5 seconds, 1 second, and 5 seconds 40 milliseconds, [0066]”).
Claim 19. (Currently Amended) The device of claim 1, wherein the threshold duration is greater than zero seconds (a pause may be recognized when the duration of the pause exceeds about 40 milliseconds, [0066]”.
Claim 20. (Currently Amended) The device of claim 19, wherein the threshold duration is one of 0.5 seconds, 1 second, and 5 seconds (Examiner take position that this limitation is personal choice by the developer and/or users).
Claim 21. The device of claim 1, wherein the no volume condition is determined based on an analysis of audio stream content. (Rabii: Interrupting a component of the audio component processing pipeline 104 during a mute condition may reduce power consumption by components of the mobile communication device 100 during a state that playing of audio content is not desired, [0016, 0025]).
Claim 22. The device of claim 1, further comprising a modem coupled to the one or more processors, the modem configured to transmit content produced from the media stream to a second device. (Rabii: the transmitter 264 may communicate with wireless headphones or a wireless speaker, [0031]).
Claim 23. The device of claim 1, wherein the one or more processors are integrated in a headset device powered by a rechargeable battery, and wherein disablement of the audio coding based on the no volume condition during use of the headset device extends a use time of the headset device between charges of the rechargeable battery when one or more no volume conditions occur during use of the headset device. (Rabii: See Fig. 2. the rendition device 218 may transmit the processed audio data 280 via a digital analog converter (DAC) 266 to a headphone interface 230 or a speaker 232. The rendition device 218 may also include a transmitter 264 for wireless transmission of the processed audio data 280. For example, the transmitter 264 may communicate with wireless headphones, [0031]).
Claim 24. The device of claim 1, wherein the one or more processors are integrated in at least one of a mobile phone (Rabii: Fig. 2, mobile communication device 202), a tablet computer device, a wearable electronic device, a camera device, a virtual reality headset, a mixed reality headset, or an augmented reality headset.
Claim 25. The device of claim 1, wherein the one or more processors are integrated in a vehicle. (Thomas: [0003] The present invention relates to radios for use in vehicles, and, more particularly, to improving signal reception quality in radios for use in vehicles).
Claims 27 and 28, (Please see the claim objection above). wherein the disabling the audio coding includes, based on association of the at least one audio stream with the no volume condition, preventing, via the one or more processors, transmission of the at least one audio stream to one or more audio decoders. (Please see the independent claims).
Inquiry
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to PHUNG-HOANG J. NGUYEN whose telephone number is (571)270-1949. The examiner can normally be reached Reg. Sched. 6:00-3:00.
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If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Duc Nguyen can be reached at 571-272-7503. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/PHUNG-HOANG J NGUYEN/ Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2691
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