DETAILED ACTION
This Office action is in response to Applicant’s amendment filed on 1/30/2026. Claims 1-20 are still pending. This action is made FINAL.
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 .
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
The text of those sections of Title 35, U.S. Code not included in this action can be found in a prior Office action.
Claims 1-3, 5-8, 10-13, 15-18 and 20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Curticapean et al (US 20130267242 A1, hereinafter Curticapean) in view of Ahmed et al (US 20250086830 A1, hereinafter Ahmed).
Consider claims 1, 11 and 20, Curticapean discloses a method and a wireless electronic device comprising one or more sensors; one or more non-transitory computer-readable storage media including instructions; and one or more processors coupled to the one or more sensors and the storage media (Fig. 2), associated with a user, comprising:
detecting, by one or more sensors of the wireless electronic device, a first object of a plurality of objects within an environment, wherein the plurality of objects comprises a plurality of wireless access points (WAPs) (Scanner 250, which is well-known, can be used to scan the surrounding environment to detect and identify nearby access points (e.g., access points within range of mobile device 200), paragraph 22);
determining a set of coordinate values associated with the first object based on the alignment of the coordinate system of the wireless electronic device and the predetermined coordinate system of the environment (mobile device 110 may be able to determine its own location (e.g., using its GNSS module 210) without using an associated WLAN positioning system. If so, then the location measurements provided by mobile device 110 (as well as the location coordinates of mobile device 110) may be sent to the APLS 300 to determine the selected AP's location and/or to update corresponding AP location information stored in the location database 310, paragraph 45);
estimating a depth value associated with the first object based at least in part on the set of coordinate values (the set of location measurements provided by mobile device 110 may include estimated distances between itself and the selected AP (e.g., calculated using ranging operations employing RSSI and/or RTT techniques), a calculated location for the selected AP, and/or other location information, paragraph 40); and
assigning a unique identifier to the first object based at least in part on the depth value and the set of coordinate values (the scanner 250 can search for nearby access points by periodically transmitting MAC address request frames. An access point within range of mobile device 200 receives one or more of the requests and responds by transmitting its MAC address to the mobile device 200, paragraph 22).
However, Curticapean does not expressly disclose guiding the user to navigate to a predetermined reference location within the environment; and utilizing the predetermined reference location to perform an alignment of a coordinate system of the wireless electronic device and a predetermined coordinate system of the environment.
Ahmed discloses guiding the user to navigate to a predetermined reference location within the environment; and utilizing the predetermined reference location to perform an alignment of a coordinate system of the wireless electronic device and a predetermined coordinate system of the environment (Aligning Coordinate Systems Using Marker Locations…the pose of the headset is determined by the headset positioning system within the coordinate system used by the headset positioning system. Objects within the BIM, or more precisely within the coordinate system used by the BIM, such as the locations of structures, points and other geometric features, need to be mapped to the coordinate system of the headset positioning system such that these objects may be correctly aligned within that latter coordinate system, paragraph 82; The centre-point 532 is located within a positioning coordinate system 534 used by a positioning system for the headset 530…. For a positioning system that uses sensor devices that are only mounted upon or within the headset, the origin of the positioning coordinate system 534 may be defined with reference to an arbitrary starting point for navigation, Fig. 5A and paragraph 85).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, to combine the teachings of Ahmed with the teachings of Curticapean for providing a flexible alignment using a variety of positioning systems while allowing dynamic high accuracy tracking.
Consider claims 3 and 13, and as applied to claims 1 and 11 respectively above,
Ahmed discloses prior to determining the set of coordinate values associated with the first object: executing a calibration of the wireless electronic device with respect to the environment to align the coordinate system of the wireless electronic device to the predetermined coordinate system of the environment (the virtual representation of the two-dimensional marker is determined with respect to a coordinate system of the positioning system and the mapping between the three-dimensional space and the construction site is used to calibrate the positioning system, paragraph 77).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, to combine the teachings of Ahmed with the teachings of Curticapean for providing a flexible alignment using a variety of positioning system while allowing dynamic high accuracy tracking.
Consider claims 2 and 12, and as applied to claims 1 and 11 respectively above, Curticapean discloses wherein the one or more sensors comprises one or more of an inertial measurement unit (IMU), a monochromatic camera, a visible-light camera, an infrared (IR) camera, a depth camera, a light-emitting diode (LED), an accelerometer, a magnetometer, a gyroscope, or a transceiver (Receiver/Transmitter 220, Fig. 2).
Consider claims 5 and 15, and as applied to claims 1 and 11 respectively above, Curticapean discloses wherein assigning the unique identifier to the first object further comprises: determining a media access control (MAC) address of the first object; and labeling the first object utilizing the MAC address, the depth value, and the set of coordinate values (the APLS 300 stores the AP's MAC address, the set of location measurements, the calculated location of the selected AP, and the assigned quality value as a new entry 320 in the location database 310, paragraph 41).
Consider claims 6 and 16, and as applied to claims 5 and 15 respectively above, Curticapean discloses wherein determining the MAC address of the first object comprises determining the MAC address of the first object based on at least one of: a received signal strength indication (RSSI) associated with the first object; a light-emitting diode (LED) modulation indication received from the first object; or a geofencing boundary determined with respect to the first object (the mobile device can use the received signal strength indicators (RSSI) associated with a number of visible access points as indications of the distances between the mobile device and each of the detected access points, where a stronger RSSI means that the mobile device is closer to the access point and a weaker RSSI means that the mobile device is further from the access point, paragraph 3).
Consider claims 7 and 17, and as applied to claims 1 and 11 respectively above, Curticapean discloses wherein the unique identifier comprises a first unique identifier, the method further comprising:
detecting, by the one or more sensors of the wireless electronic device, a second object of the plurality of objects within the environment (Scanner 250, which is well-known, can be used to scan the surrounding environment to detect and identify nearby access points (e.g., access points within range of mobile device 200), paragraph 22);
determining a second set of coordinate values associated with the second object based on the alignment of the coordinate system of the wireless electronic device and the predetermined coordinate system of the environment (mobile device 110 may be able to determine its own location (e.g., using its GNSS module 210) without using an associated WLAN positioning system. If so, then the location measurements provided by mobile device 110 (as well as the location coordinates of mobile device 110) may be sent to the APLS 300 to determine the selected AP's location and/or to update corresponding AP location information stored in the location database 310, paragraph 45);
determining a second depth value associated with the second object based at least in part on the second set of coordinate values (the set of location measurements provided by mobile device 110 may include estimated distances between itself and the selected AP (e.g., calculated using ranging operations employing RSSI and/or RTT techniques), a calculated location for the selected AP, and/or other location information, paragraph 40); and
assigning a second unique identifier to the second object based on the second depth value and the second set of coordinate values (the scanner 250 can search for nearby access points by periodically transmitting MAC address request frames. An access point within range of mobile device 200 receives one or more of the requests and responds by transmitting its MAC address to the mobile device 200, paragraph 22).
Consider claims 8 and 18, and as applied to claims 7 and 17 respectively above, Curticapean discloses wherein assigning the second unique identifier to the second object further comprises: determining a second media access control (MAC) address of the second object; and labeling the second object utilizing the second MAC address, the second depth value, and the second set of coordinate values (the APLS 300 stores the AP's MAC address, the set of location measurements, the calculated location of the selected AP, and the assigned quality value as a new entry 320 in the location database 310, paragraph 41).
Consider claim 10, and as applied to claim 1 above, Ahmed discloses wherein the wireless electronic device comprises an extended reality (XR) electronic device configured to be worn by the user within the environment (FIG. 2A shows a hard hat 200 and a set of augmented reality glasses 250. These collectively form a headset for displaying an augmented reality BIM within a construction site, paragraph 47).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, to combine the teachings of Ahmed with the teachings of Curticapean for providing a flexible alignment using a variety of positioning systems while allowing dynamic high accuracy tracking.
Claims 4 and 14 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Curticapean in view of Ahmed, and further in view of Baskin et al (US 20180321031 A1, hereinafter Baskin).
Consider claims 4 and 14, and as applied to claims 3 and 13 respectively above, the combination of Curticapean and Ahmed and does not expressly disclose wherein the calibration of the wireless electronic device with respect to the environment is executed utilizing a Kabsch algorithm.
In the same field of endeavor, Baskin discloses wherein the calibration of the wireless electronic device with respect to the environment is executed utilizing a Kabsch algorithm (Using the two shared features to align the first survey to the second survey puts the start of the curb and the end of the curb in the same relative coordinate system, which can in turn anchor the relative measurement from both surveys to the real world just as we would for a single survey. (One algorithm for aligning sets of points to reduce or minimize the positional error is called the Kabsch), paragraph 39).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, to use the Kabsch algorithm as disclosed in Baskin in the system of Curticapean as modified by Ahmed in order to efficiently align point data from sensors.
Claims 9 and 19 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Curticapean in view of Ahmed, and further in view of Bitra et al (US 20180295599 A1, hereinafter Bitra).
Consider claims 9 and 19, and as applied to claims 1 and 11 respectively above, Curticapean as modified by Ahmed does not expressly disclose, wherein estimating the depth value associated with the first object comprises estimating the depth value based on at least one of:
a depth image of the first object captured utilizing a depth camera of the wireless electronic device;
an epipolar geometry calculation performed utilizing one or more stereo cameras of the wireless electronic device;
an eye gaze of the user with respect to the first object; or
an image recognition analysis of a captured image of the first object.
In the same field of endeavor, Bitra discloses wherein estimating the depth value associated with the first object comprises estimating the depth value based on at least one of:
a depth image of the first object captured utilizing a depth camera of the wireless electronic device (camera(s) 180 may include and/or take the form of range imaging cameras or ToF cameras, which may determine distance (e.g. to an AP) by measuring the time-of-flight of a light signal between the camera and the target (e.g. the AP), paragraph 45);
an epipolar geometry calculation performed utilizing one or more stereo cameras of the wireless electronic device;
an eye gaze of the user with respect to the first object; or
an image recognition analysis of a captured image of the first object.
Therefore, it would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, to combine the teachings of Bitra with the teachings of Curticapean and Ahmed in order to determine if an access point is mobile.
Response to Arguments
Applicant’s arguments have been considered but are moot because in view of the ground(s) of rejection.
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.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to GERMAN VIANA DI PRISCO whose telephone number is (571)270-1781. The examiner can normally be reached Monday through Friday 8:30-5:00 EST.
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If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, RAFAEL PEREZ-GUTIERREZ can be reached at (571) 272-7915. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/GERMAN VIANA DI PRISCO/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2642
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