DETAILED ACTION
This Office Action is responsive to amendments and arguments filed on December 12th, 2025. Claims 1 and 7 are amended, claims 1-7 are pending; hence, this Action is made FINAL.
Any objections/rejections not mentioned in this Office Action have been withdrawn by the Examiner.
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 .
Priority
Acknowledgment is made of applicant’s claim for foreign priority under 35 U.S.C. 119 (a)-(d). Should applicant desire to obtain the benefit of foreign priority under 35 U.S.C. 119(a)-(d), a certified English translation of the foreign application must be submitted in reply to this action. 37 CFR 41.154(b) and 41.202(e). Failure to provide a certified translation may result in no benefit being accorded for the non-English application.
Information Disclosure Statement
The information disclosure statement (IDS) submitted on July 20 is in compliance with the provisions of 37 CFR 1.97. Accordingly, the information disclosure statement is being considered by the examiner.
Response to Amendments and Arguments
Regarding rejections made under 35 U.S.C. 103, Applicant argues “Referring to paragraph [0039] of Tsuzuki, Tsuzuki mentions that ‘[T]the first output sound signal generator 27a generates the approach alert sound voltage waveform signal by reading out the output sound data in turn at a pitch corresponding to the carrier frequency’. In Tsuzuki, the output sound data is read out from a memory device, and the memory device stores the carrier frequency (see paragraphs [0009] and [0019]-[0020] of Tsuzuki).
Based on the Office action, the output sound signal generator 27a in paragraph [0039] of Tsuzuki is interpreted as the claimed ‘reproduction control circuit’, and the carrier frequency being stored in the memory is interpreted as the claimed ‘management information stored in the registers’,” (emphasis original, page 7 of Remarks) and “However, the currently amended claim 1 defines ‘management information’ as information indicating the address at which each of the plurality of audio data series is stored in the external memory. Accordingly, the carrier frequency described in Tsuzuki does not indicate the address at which the audio data series is stored in the external memory, and thus differs from the claimed ‘management information’,” (emphasis original, page 8 of Remarks).
Examiner respectfully disagrees. Tsuzuki teaches, “reading out and outputting the output sound data in a certain address, which is prepared by adding an address counter corresponding to the delay time,” which is analogous to management information a controller may use to retrieve audio data from memory. Such operations, wherein an address counter is used to reference a memory location storing audio data for playback, modified by an offset value, is well understood in the art of microcontrollers, and a person having ordinary skill in the art would find the claimed management information obvious in view of the teachings of Tsuzuki. Accordingly, the rejections under 35 U.S.C. 103 are maintained. Further details are provided below.
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.
Claims 1-3 and 7 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over U.S. Patent Application Publication 2016/0082882 to Tsuzuki et al. (hereinafter, "Tsuzuki") in view of U.S. Patent 6,356,872 to Leung et al. (hereinafter, "Leung").
Regarding claim 1, Tsuzuki teaches An audio reproduction device that is connected to an external memory storing a plurality of audio data series respectively corresponding to a plurality of audio phrases and storing management information indicating an address at which each of the plurality of audio data series is stored (paragraph [0003], "In the vehicle approach alert device, a method for outputting sound is a method for outputting the sound by setting a coded data, which is prepared by converting and coding the output sound data such as PCM data (i.e., pulse code modulation data) stored in a memory of a microcomputer," and paragraph [0039], "For example, the approach alert sound voltage waveform signal is generated by reading out and outputting the output sound data in a certain address, which is prepared by adding an address counter corresponding to the delay time."), and performs reproduction of audio by reading the audio data series from the external memory for each audio phrase, the audio reproduction device comprising:a reproduction control circuit reading the audio data series from the external memory via the serial interface for each audio phrase on the basis of the management information stored in the registers and reproducing audio in the order of reading the audio data series for each audio phrase, wherein the management information indicates the address at which each of the plurality of audio data series is stored in the external memory (paragraph [0039], "The first output sound signal generator 27a generates the approach alert sound voltage waveform signal by reading out the output sound data in turn at a pitch corresponding to the carrier frequency," and paragraph [0043], "For example, the approach alert sound voltage waveform signal is generated by reading out and outputting the output sound data in a certain address, which is prepared by adding an address counter corresponding to the delay time.").Tsuzuki does not explicitly teach “a serial interface performing serial communication with the external memory,” or “registers storing the management information corresponding to the audio data series of at least two of the audio phrases transmitted from the external memory via the serial interface,” and thus, Leung is introduced.Leung teaches a serial interface performing serial communication with the external memory (column 5, lines 7-10, "Data is input to the system via a serial data input port 58 and a data clock 60. This is input to a state machine 62 which controls the overall configuration of the system and also the operation of the system.");registers storing the management information corresponding to the audio data series of at least two of the audio phrases transmitted from the external memory via the serial interface (column 7, lines 37-47, "Referring now to FIG. 7, there is illustrated a timing diagram for the data input operation. The data operation requires a serial data clock SCLK, a serial data stream input/output SDATA and a chip select input CS-Bar. This provides for asynchronous operation. Bringing CS-Bar low initiates the beginning of a frame. Thereafter, the first seven bits represent address bits. The next bit is a Read/Write bit. Following the Read/Write bit is a stream of 8-bit data words. When CS-Bar goes high, this indicates the end of a frame, and when CS-Bar goes go low again, another data input operation is initiated.").Tsuzuki and Leung are considered analogous because they are each concerned with audio playback. Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, to have modified Tsuzuki with the teachings of Leung for the purpose of improving audio playback efficiency. Given that all the claimed elements were known in the prior art, one skilled in the art could have combined the elements by known methods with no change in their respective functions, and the combination would have yielded nothing more than predictable results.
Regarding claim 2, Tsuzuki teaches The audio reproduction device according to claim 1, wherein the reproduction control circuit is constituted to be able to continuously reproduce audio having one audio phrase and audio having a different audio phrase (paragraph [0039], "The first output sound signal generator 27a generates the approach alert sound voltage waveform signal by reading out the output sound data in turn at a pitch corresponding to the carrier frequency."), andwherein before starting reading the audio data series of at least the one audio phrase from the external memory, the management information corresponding to the audio data series of the plurality of audio phrases including the one audio phrase and the different audio phrase is read from the external memory via the serial interface and is stored in the registers (paragraph [0020], "For example, the microcomputer 21 stores the table of an envelope frequency corresponding to the driving condition of the vehicle such as a vehicle speed and an acceleration opening degree, and a table for a carrier frequency and a delay time corresponding to the envelope frequency, in the memory. Using these tables stored in the memory, the microcomputer 21 calculates the envelope frequency corresponding to the driving condition such as the vehicle speed and the acceleration opening degree when the vehicle runs with a low speed.").
Regarding claim 3, Tsuzuki teaches The audio reproduction device according to claim 2, wherein the reproduction control circuit reads audio data constituting the audio data series in sequence at a time interval of a sampling frequency (paragraph [0021], "The microcomputer 21 reads out the output sound data at each sampling time corresponding to the predetermined carrier frequency with considering the delay time from each of the first and the second output sound voltage waveform signal generators,"), andwherein in continuous reproduction of audio having the one audio phrase and audio having the different audio phrase, last reading of the audio data series of the one audio phrase and first reading of the audio data series of the different audio phrase are continuously performed at a time interval of one sampling frequency (paragraph [0039], "The first output sound signal generator 27a generates the approach alert sound voltage waveform signal by reading out the output sound data in turn at a pitch corresponding to the carrier frequency.").
Regarding claim 7, Tsuzuki teaches An audio reproduction method executed by an audio reproduction device that is connected to an external memory storing a plurality of audio data series respectively corresponding to a plurality of audio phrases and storing management information indicating an address at which each of the plurality of audio data series is stored […] and a reproduction control circuit reading the audio data from the external memory […] for each audio phrase and reproducing audio in the order of reading the audio data for each audio phrase, the audio reproduction method comprising:a step of reading the audio data series from the external memory via the serial interface for each audio phrase on the basis of the management information stored in the registers (paragraph [0021], "The microcomputer 21 reads out the output sound data at each sampling time corresponding to the predetermined carrier frequency with considering the delay time from each of the first and the second output sound voltage waveform signal generators,"); anda step of reproducing audio on the basis of the order of reading the audio data series for each audio phrase, wherein the management information indicates the address at which each of the plurality of audio data series is stored in the external memory (paragraph [0039], "The first output sound signal generator 27a generates the approach alert sound voltage waveform signal by reading out the output sound data in turn at a pitch corresponding to the carrier frequency," and paragraph [0043], "For example, the approach alert sound voltage waveform signal is generated by reading out and outputting the output sound data in a certain address, which is prepared by adding an address counter corresponding to the delay time.").Tsuzuki does not explicitly teach the method’s “serial interface performing serial communication with the external memory,” “a step of reading the management information corresponding to the audio data series of at least two of the audio phrases from the external memory via the serial interface,” nor “a step of storing the management information corresponding to the audio data series of at least the two or more of the audio phrases read from the external memory in the registers,” and thus Leung is referenced.Leung teaches a step of reading the management information corresponding to the audio data series of at least two of the audio phrases from the external memory via the serial interface (column 7, lines 37-47, "Referring now to FIG. 7, there is illustrated a timing diagram for the data input operation. The data operation requires a serial data clock SCLK, a serial data stream input/output SDATA and a chip select input CS-Bar. This provides for asynchronous operation. Bringing CS-Bar low initiates the beginning of a frame. Thereafter, the first seven bits represent address bits. The next bit is a Read/Write bit. Following the Read/Write bit is a stream of 8-bit data words. When CS-Bar goes high, this indicates the end of a frame, and when CS-Bar goes go low again, another data input operation is initiated.");a step of storing the management information corresponding to the audio data series of at least the two or more of the audio phrases read from the external memory in the registers (column 8, lines 8-14, "During a Read operation, the Read/Write bit and address bits are latched in the latch 115 and then the date transferred to the latch from the data bus 120 and then input to the parallel input of the converter 112. The data is then clocked out of the serial port of the converter 112 to the serial bus 58.").Tsuzuki and Leung are considered analogous because they are each concerned with audio playback. Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, to have modified Tsuzuki with the teachings of Leung for the purpose of improving audio playback efficiency. Given that all the claimed elements were known in the prior art, one skilled in the art could have combined the elements by known methods with no change in their respective functions, and the combination would have yielded nothing more than predictable results.
Claims 4-6 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Tsuzuki and Leung as applied to claims 1-3 above, and further in view of U.S. Patent Application Publication 2015/0035660 to Sakakibara et al. (hereinafter, "Sakakibara").
Regarding claims 4-6, the combination of Tsuzuki and Leung does not teach “The audio reproduction device […], wherein the reproduction control circuit reads the management information corresponding to the audio data series of at least the two or more audio phrases from the external memory via the serial interface at a timing when the audio reproduction device is activated and stores the read management information in the registers,” for either of claims 1, 2 or 3; however, Sakakibara teaches The audio reproduction device according to [claims 1, 2 or 3], wherein the reproduction control circuit reads the management information corresponding to the audio data series of at least the two or more audio phrases from the external memory via the serial interface at a timing when the audio reproduction device is activated and stores the read management information in the registers (paragraph [0059], "The operation portion of the microcomputer 21 reads a vehicle speed signal from the speed sensor 1 (S100). The operation portion of the microcomputer 21 determines whether a sound generation condition is satisfied (S102). In the present embodiment, when the vehicle speed is equal to or less than 20 km/h, it is determined that the sound generation condition is satisfied, and when the vehicle speed exceeds 20 km/h, it is determined that the sound generation condition is not satisfied," and paragraph [0060], "When the vehicle speed is equal to or less than 20 km/h, a determination of S102 corresponds to YES, and the low-frequency sound source data 210a and the high-frequency sound source data 210b are read from the memory 200 (S104).").Tsuzuki, Leung and Sakakibara are considered analogous because they are each concerned with audio playback. Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, to have modified Tsuzuki and Leung with the teachings of Sakakibara for the purpose of improving audio playback efficiency. Given that all the claimed elements were known in the prior art, one skilled in the art could have combined the elements by known methods with no change in their respective functions, and the combination would have yielded nothing more than predictable results.
Conclusion
THIS ACTION IS MADE FINAL. 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.
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure:
U.S. Patent 7,979,147 to Dunn
U.S. Patent 9,094,636 to Sanders et al.
U.S. Patent 10,005,388 to Kim.
U.S. Patent Application Publication 2007/0257783 to Matsumoto et al.
U.S. Patent Application Publication 2011/0181442 to Nakayama.
U.S. Patent Application Publication 2011/0258336 to Salomons.
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/SEAN THOMAS SMITH/Examiner, Art Unit 2659
/PIERRE LOUIS DESIR/Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 2659