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 .
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.
This application currently names joint inventors. In considering patentability of the claims the examiner presumes that the subject matter of the various claims was commonly owned as of the effective filing date of the claimed invention(s) absent any evidence to the contrary. Applicant is advised of the obligation under 37 CFR 1.56 to point out the inventor and effective filing dates of each claim that was not commonly owned as of the effective filing date of the later invention in order for the examiner to consider the applicability of 35 U.S.C. 102(b)(2)(C) for any potential 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(2) prior art against the later invention.
Claim(s) 1 & 5-20 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Molina (US 2020/0205728) in view of Dieken et al. (US 2020/0147376).
Molina discloses:
1.
A method for monitoring sleep, applied to a sleep monitoring apparatus comprising an apparatus comprising:
E.G. via the disclosed method and system for facilitating sleep-related parameter optimization by storing inputs form one or more sensors 108, such as accelerometers [0027].
starting sleep monitoring for a user and acquiring sleep monitoring data comprising motion signals from the accelerometer
E.G. via the disclosed sensors 108 capable of measuring one or more parameters at predefined temporal intervals {[0027] & (Fig 1A)} including motion data obtained from said sensors [0060].
determining, according to the sleep monitoring data, whether the user enters a first sleep;
E.G. via the disclosed processor(s) 102 using said sensors to sample measurement at a particular time interval in order to compute a sleep score for a given sleep session based on user sleep data, including a sleep onset ([0027], [0033] & [0036]).
determining, according to the sleep monitoring data, whether the user ends the first sleep in a case where it is determined that the user enters the first sleep;
E.G. via the disclosed determining a sleep session to determine one or more sleep metrics such as a sleep wakeup time [0036].
acquiring end time of the first sleep in a case where it is determined that the user have ended the first sleep, wherein the end time of the first sleep is time when the user ends the first sleep;
E.G. via the disclosed duration of each sleep stage based on said one or more sleep metrics [0036].
ending the sleep monitoring in a case where it is determined that the user does not enter a second sleep within a first duration from the end time of the first sleep by
E.G. via the disclosed client device ‘providing’ data to the computing systems at the end each sleep session [0033], such as the operation 158 that ‘satisfies’ a termination criteria that further determines that a process of determining a sleep score is to end [0056].
wherein the method further comprises: acquiring start time of the first sleep, wherein the start time of the first sleep is time when the user enters the first sleep;
E.G. via the disclosed sleep onset that begins a sleep session, as defined by operation 152 {[0049] & (Fig 1B)}.
determining a first sleep duration according to the start time of the first sleep and the end time of the first sleep;
E.G. via the disclosed duration of a sleep session in which is defined at periodic intervals to obtain sleep metric data {[0036], [0049] & (Fig 1B)}, including a wake after sleep onset ‘WASO’ factor 208 [0058].
and determining the first duration according to the first sleep duration.
E.G. {[0036], [0049] & (Fig 1B)}.
wherein determining the first duration according to the first sleep duration comprises: determining a difference between a preset third duration and the first sleep duration as the first duration when the first sleep duration is less than a preset second duration.
E.G. via the disclosed duration of each sleep stage (N3-REM) indicating time or times of sleep onset for a particular user [0036]-[0037] in order to determine different types of sleep deductions based on each duration of the sleep stages and sleep duration factors, specifically the total sleep time (TST) used to calculate a sleep score as compare to threshold value 304 for TST ([0059]-[0061]).
wherein the preset second duration and preset third duration are predefined values stored in a memory of configured by a user of the device,
E.G. via the disclosed computing systems 120 comprising a memory 104, configured to determine a number of deductions associated with a particular sleep session data ([0040]-[0041]).
and wherein determining the first duration according to the first sleep duration comprises: determining a duration set by a system or the user as the first duration when the first sleep duration is greater than or equal to a preset second duration.
E.G. via the disclosed TST used to calculate a sleep score as compare to threshold value for TST ([0059]-[0061]).
Molina et al. discloses the claimed invention having a method and apparatus for monitoring sleep comprising an accelerometer via the disclosed method and system for facilitating sleep-related parameter optimization by storing inputs form one or more sensors 108, such as accelerometers [0027], and providing data to the computing systems at the end each sleep session [0033], such as the operation 158 that ‘satisfies’ a termination criteria that further determines that a process of determining a sleep score is to end ([0033] & [0056]). However, Molina does not explicitly disclose a method and system that further comprise an accelerometer and a heart rate sensor, wherein the ending of said sleep monitoring occurs by deactivating the accelerometer and heart rate sensor to reduce power consumption.
Dieken et al. teaches that it is known to use a method and an apparatus for treating sleep-related disorders based on detection of upper airway patency-related parameters, wherein said method further utilizes a sleep function 1864 that determines, based on one or more sensing element, sleeping stages, and an accelerometer utilization engine 1800 including a cardiac detection engine 1890, used in order to determine said sleep stages based on activity information, heart rate information, etc. ([0229]-[0231]). The accelerometer utilization engine 1800 further comprises an activation engine 1874 that allows partial control to create a deactivation mechanism based on the determination of sleep ([0227]-[0228]).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art at the time the invention was made to modify the method and system as taught by Molina et al. with the accelerometer utilization engine including a cardiac detection engine and the activation engine, as taught by Dieken et al, since such a modification would provide the predictable results pertaining to effectively determining the sleep stages in which the determination is based on activity information, heart rate information, etc. and is further used in order to properly operate a system based on information obtained from an accelerometer utilization engine (Dieken, [0229]-[0231]).
5.
The method of claim 1, wherein determining, according to the sleep monitoring data, whether the user enters the first sleep, comprises: determining, according to the sleep monitoring data, whether a first sleep event occurs;
and determining that the user enters the first sleep in a case where it is determined that the first sleep event occurs.
E.G. via the disclosed wake after sleep onset (WASO) factor 208 based on the accumulation of periods of detected wakefulness between sleep onset and sleep offset ([0058] & [0063]).
6.
The method of claim 5, wherein determining, according to the sleep monitoring data, whether
the first sleep event occurs comprises:
E.G. via the disclosed WASO factor 208 ([0059]-[0060]).
determining whether the sleep monitoring data are all in a sleep range within a preset fourth duration;
E.G. via the disclosed REM duration 216 ([0059]-[0060]).
and determining that the first sleep event occurs in a case where it is determined that the sleep monitoring data are all within the sleep range within the preset fourth duration.
E.G. ([0059]-[0060]).
7.
The method of claim 6, further comprising: acquiring start time of the first sleep event and time of occurrence of the first sleep event determined in a case where it is determined that the first sleep event occurs;
E.G. via the disclosed wake after sleep onset (WASO) factor 208 based on the accumulation of periods of detected wakefulness between sleep onset and sleep offset ([0058] & [0063]).
and determining start time of the first sleep according to the start time of the first sleep event and the time of the occurrence of the first sleep event determined, wherein the start time of the first sleep is time between the start time of the first sleep event and the time of the occurrence of the first sleep event determined.
E.G. ([0058]-[0060]).
8.
The method of claim 1, wherein determining, according to the sleep monitoring data, whether the user ends the first sleep comprises: determining, according to the sleep monitoring data, whether a first wake-up event occurs in a case where it is determined that the user enters the first sleep;
and determining that the user ends the first sleep in a case where it is determined that the first wake-up event occurs.
E.G. via the disclosed WASO factor 208 defined as the time awake and the amount of time that user spends awake during a given sleep session after sleep onset is identified ([0058] & [0063]-[0064]).
9.
The method of claim 8, wherein determining, according to the sleep monitoring data, whether the first wake-up event occurs comprises: determining whether the sleep monitoring data are all in an awake range within a preset fifth duration;
E.G. via the disclosed WASO factor 208 ([0058] & [0063]-[0064]).
and determining that the first wake-up event occurs in a case where it is determined that the sleep monitoring data are all within the awake range within the preset fifth duration.
E.G. via the disclosed step of determining a plurality of sleep sessions that are based on the use of a TST threshold ([0062]-[0063]).
10.
The method of claim 9, further comprising: acquiring start time of the first wake-up event and time of occurrence of the first wake-up event determined in a case where it is determined that the first wake-up event occurs;
and determining the end time of the first sleep according to the start time of the first wake-up event and the time of the occurrence of the first wake-up event determined, wherein the end time of the first sleep is time between the start time of the first wake-up event and the time of the occurrence of the first wake-up event determined.
E.G. via the disclosed WASO factor 208 defined as the time awake and the amount of time that user spends awake during a given sleep session after sleep onset is identified ([0058] & [0063]-[0064]).
11.
The method of claim 1, further comprising: within the first duration from the end time of the first sleep, determining, according to sleep data, whether the user enters the second sleep;
determining, according to the sleep monitoring data, whether the user ends the second sleep in a case where it is determined that the user enters the second sleep;
and ending the sleep monitoring when it is determined that the user ends the second sleep.
E.G. via the disclosed step of determining the WASO duration based on a TST duration threshold that is based on data obtained from a plurality of sleep sessions ([0062]-[0064]).
12.
The method of claim 11, further comprising: determining a first sleep duration of the first sleep of the user according to start time of the first sleep and the end time of the first sleep;
determining a second sleep duration of the second sleep of the user according to start time of the second sleep and end time of the second sleep;
and determining a total sleep duration according to the first sleep duration and the second sleep duration; wherein the total sleep duration is a sum of the first sleep duration and the second sleep duration.
E.G. via the disclosed step of determining the total sleep time (TST) which includes the accumulated sleep for a user, i.e. the amount a time a user is determined to be asleep based on a TST threshold ([0060]-[0062]).
13.
The method of claim 11, wherein determining, according to the sleep data, that the user enters the second sleep comprises: determining, according to the sleep monitoring data, whether a second sleep event occurs;
E.G. via the disclosed factors used to compute a sleep score based on the plurality of sleep-related parameters such as the WASO factor, sleep durations factor 212, Sleep onset latency 210, etc. [0058].
and determining that the user enters the second sleep in a case where it is determined that the second sleep event occurs, wherein determining, according to the sleep monitoring data, whether the second sleep event occurs comprises:
determining whether the sleep monitoring data are all in a sleep range within a preset fourth duration; and determining that the second sleep event occurs in a case where it is determined that the sleep monitoring data are all within the sleep range within the preset fourth duration.
E.G. via the disclosed parameters being optimized based on data obtained from a plurality of sleep sessions as defined by the sleep-related parameters, i.e. the plurality of sleep factors 218-220, and the TST thresholds used to determine specific sleep scores ([0058]-[0059] & [0063]-[0064]).
14.
The method of claim 13, further comprising: acquiring start time of the second sleep event and time of occurrence of the second sleep event determined in a case where it is determined that the second sleep event occurs;
and determining start time of the second sleep according to the start time of the second sleep event and the time of the occurrence of the second sleep event determined, wherein the start time of the second sleep is time between the start time of the second sleep event and the time of the occurrence of the second sleep event determined.
E.G. ([0058]-[0059] & [0063]-[0064]).
15.
The method of claim 11, wherein determining, according to the sleep monitoring data, whether the user ends the second sleep, comprises: determining, according to the sleep monitoring data, whether a second wake-up event occurs in a case where it is determined that the user enters the second sleep;
and determining that the user ends the second sleep in a case where it is determined that the second wake-up event occurs, wherein determining, according to the sleep monitoring data, whether the second wake-up event occurs comprises:
determining whether the sleep monitoring data are all in an awake range within a preset fifth duration; and determining that the second wake-up event occurs in a case where it is determined that the sleep monitoring data are all within the awake range within the preset fifth duration.
E.G. ([0058]-[0059] & [0063]-[0064]).
16.
The method of claim 15, further comprising: acquiring start time of the second wake-up event and time of occurrence of the second wake-up event determined in a case where it is determined that the second wake-up event occurs;
and determining end time of the second sleep according to the start time of the second wake-up event and the time of the occurrence of the second wake-up event determined, wherein the end time of the second sleep is time between the start time of the second wake-up event and the time of the occurrence of the second wake-up event determined.
E.G. via the disclosed WASO factor 208 defined as the time awake and the amount of time that user spends awake during a given sleep session after sleep onset is identified ([0058] & [0063]-[0064]).
17.
The method of claim 1, further comprising: acquiring a set start time for conventional sleep monitoring; wherein enabling the sleep monitoring for the user, comprises: enabling the sleep monitoring for the user at the start time of the conventional sleep monitoring.
E.G. ([0058] & [0063]-[0064]).
18.
The method of claim 1, further comprising: ending the sleep monitoring in a case where it is determined that the user doesn’t enter the first sleep within a sixth duration since the sleep monitoring for the user is started.
E.G. ([0058] & [0063]-[0064]).
19.
An electronic device, comprising: at least one processor; and a memory which is in a communication connection with the at least one processor; wherein the memory stores a computer program executable by the at least one processor, wherein the computer program is configured to, when executed by the at least one processor, cause the at least one processor to execute:
E.G. via the disclosed system 100 further comprising one or more processors 102 and a memory 104, wherein said memory includes one or more types of storage mediums which may be stored using computer-readable instructions ([0029]-[0030]).
enabling sleep monitoring for a user and acquiring sleep monitoring data; determining, according to the sleep monitoring data, whether the user enters a first sleep;
E.G. via the disclosed sensors 108 capable of measuring one or more parameters at predefined temporal intervals {[0027] & (Fig 1A)}, wherein said parameters can determine sleep metrics such as a sleep onset [0036].
determining, according to the sleep monitoring data, whether the user ends the first sleep in a case where it is determined that the user enters the first sleep;
E.G. via the disclosed WASO factor 208 defined as the time awake and the amount of time that user spends awake during a given sleep session after sleep onset is identified ([0058] & [0063]-[0064]).
acquiring end time of the first sleep in a case where it is determined that the user have ended the first sleep, wherein the end time of the first sleep is time when the user ends the first sleep;
E.G. via the disclosed determining a sleep session to determine one or more sleep metrics such as a sleep wakeup time, wherein said metric can further provide a duration of each sleep stage as defined by specific sleep factors [0036].
and ending the sleep monitoring in a case where it is determined that the user does not enter a second sleep within a first duration from the end time of the first sleep.
E.G. via the disclosed client device ‘providing’ data to the computing systems at the end each sleep session [0033], such as the operation 158 that ‘satisfies’ a termination criteria that further determines that a process of determining a sleep score is to end [0056]
20.
A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium, which is configured to store computer instructions for implementing the method for monitoring sleep of claim 1 when the computer instructions are executed by a processor.
E.G. via the disclosed system 100 further comprising one or more processors 102 and a memory 104, wherein said memory includes one or more types of storage mediums which may be stored using computer-readable instructions ([0029]-[0030]).
Response to Arguments
Applicant’s arguments, filed October 22, 2025, with respect to the claim objections, the 35 U.S.C 112(b) claim rejection of claims 3 and 9, and the 35 U.S.C. 101 claim rejections have been fully considered and are persuasive and have been withdrawn.
Applicant's arguments filed October 22, 2025 have been fully considered but they are not persuasive. The applicant argues the following point(s) in which the examiner provides a reason(s) as to why the arguments are not persuasive”
The applicant argues that Molina et al. does not disclose the determination of a first duration since the citations provided by the examiner describe calculating or optimizing a “sleep score” or “total sleep time” based on sleep stage durations or intervals of sleep metric versus the claimed “determining” for the specific purpose of controlling whether subsequent monitoring continues or stops.
Based on the broadest interpretation of the claims the examiner disagrees and further points out that the step of “determining” is based on a first sleep duration according to a start time and end time of a first sleep. Molina et al. discloses a vector and/or score that is based on sleeps factors including a total sleep time, a wake after sleep onset, a sleep onset latency factor, sleep duration factor etc. wherein said factors are based on sleep-related parameters associated with each factor ([0058]-[0059]), therefore providing the claimed determination of the first duration. The mere fact that Molina et al. uses said factors to further calculate the disclosed score and/or vector does not negate that the disclosed factors can read on the “determined” first duration. The examiner also notes that no specific method and/or algorithm is claimed that would exclude the use of the disclosed factors to read on the determined first duration.
Applicant’s arguments with respect to arguments regarding the conditional stopping of sleep monitoring and the technical distinction and effect have been considered but are moot because the new ground of rejection does not rely on the combination of references applied in the prior rejection of record for any teaching or matter specifically challenged in the argument. See the above action.
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 NICOLE F JOHNSON whose telephone number is (571)270-5040. The examiner can normally be reached Monday-Friday 8:00am-5:00pm EST.
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If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, David Hamaoui can be reached at 571-270-5625. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/NICOLE F JOHNSON/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 3796