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
Prosecution on the merits of this application is reopened on claims 1-3, 8-10, 12-13, 15-16 and 55 are considered unpatentable for the reasons indicated below:
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 102
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) 1-3, 8-13, 15-16 and 55 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102 a (1) as being anticipated by Johnson (US 2021/0308507).
Claim 1, Johnson teaches a system for mitigating fire risks (abstract), the system comprising:
a. a first external fire management system (EFMS) associated with a first structure (par. 43: In FIG. 5B, the spray heads 108.1-108.N are distributed throughout the area that comprises the assets 501.1-501.K); and,
b. a control system comprising a lockout plan (Fig. 2, processor 201; par. 51: processor 201 may employ the asset map 203 and the sensor network 206 data to determine which assets to protect, how to provision fire-fighting resources, and which spray heads 108.1-108.N in the fire-suppression network 202 to activate);
c. wherein the lockout plan is configured to lockout the activation of the first EFMS upon the occurrence of a first event (par. 33: the fire-suppression controller can deactivate the water sprayer upon a change in wind direction. In some aspects, the fire-suppression controller can activate and/or deactivate the water sprayer based on one or more of wind speed, wind direction, air temperature, smoke detection, flame detection, humidity, sound, and air pressure).
Claim 2, Johnson does not teach wherein the control system is configured to receive an instruction from an emergency management system to activate the lockout plan (par. 32: the central processor is configured to perform sensor fusion of data from multiple sensors and compute a fire-suppression strategy based on local conditions indicative of each sensor reading. Furthermore, the central processor may collect data from external sources, such as weather stations, other wide-area wildfire suppression systems, satellite images, weather forecasting services, etc. The data from external sources may include user input data. The central processor can generate control messages based on the fire-suppression strategy to operate the water distribution network and/or the spray head control systems. Disclosed aspects can comprise methods for developing the fire-suppression strategy from the wind sensor data, and for controlling a network of sprayers in response to the fire-suppression strategy).
Claim 3, Johnson teaches wherein the control system is configured to receive an instruction from a user to deactivate the lockout plan (par. 47: the spray heads 108.1-108.N are electronically controlled by the central processor 100 via the communication network 112, such as to activate specific ones or groups of the spray heads 108.1-108.N in response to one or more fire-fighting strategies that may be generated from user inputs. Note: deactivation of the lockout plan would enable activation of the fire suppression system).
Claim 8, Johnson teaches wherein the first event comprises a balancing of factors; and the control system is configured to balance the factors (par. 33: The fire-suppression controller might employ a combination of wind direction and wind speed measurements along with asset locations to activate and/or deactivate one or more water sprayers).
Claim 9, Johnson teaches wherein the factors comprise at least two of a location of a wildfire, a wind speed, a hydration levels, a location of smoke, a location of embers, a direction of movement of a wildfire, and a temperature (par. 33: the fire-suppression controller can activate and/or deactivate the water sprayer based on one or more of wind speed, wind direction, air temperature, smoke detection, flame detection, humidity, sound, and air pressure).
Claim 10, Johnson teaches wherein the factors comprise the status of a plurality of EFMSs in a predetermined area (par. 33: the apparatus might be communicatively coupled to other similar apparatuses, and might be configured to coordinate activating and/or controlling the water sprayer with the other apparatuses).
Claim 12, Johnson teaches wherein the area comprises at least a one mile radius from the first structure (par. 22: neighborhoods, or towns in areas that are at risk of wildfires can be protected by a wildfire-prevention infrastructure).
Claim 13, Johnson teaches wherein the factors comprise at least three of a location of a wildfire, a wind speed, a hydration levels, a location of smoke, a location of embers, a direction of movement of a wildfire, a temperature, and the status of a second EFMS (par 33: the fire-suppression controller can activate and/or deactivate the water sprayer based on one or more of wind speed, wind direction, air temperature, smoke detection, flame detection, humidity, sound, and air pressure).
14. (canceled)
Claim 15, Johnson teaches a system for mitigating fire risks (abstract), the system comprising:
a. a plurality of external fire management systems (EFMSs) each of the EFMS associated with a structure (par. 43: In FIG. 5B, the spray heads 108.1-108.N are distributed throughout the area that comprises the assets 501.1-501.K); and,
b. a control system comprising a lockout plan (Fig. 2, processor 201; par. 51: processor 201 may employ the asset map 203 and the sensor network 206 data to determine which assets to protect, how to provision fire-fighting resources, and which spray heads 108.1-108.N in the fire-suppression network 202 to activate);
c. wherein the lockout plan is configured to lockout one or more of the plurality of EFMSs from activating upon the occurrence of one or more events (par. 33: the fire-suppression controller can deactivate the water sprayer upon a change in wind direction. In some aspects, the fire-suppression controller can activate and/or deactivate the water sprayer based on one or more of wind speed, wind direction, air temperature, smoke detection, flame detection, humidity, sound, and air pressure).
Claim 16, Johnson teaches wherein the control system is configured to receive an instruction from an emergency management system to activate the lockout plan (par. 32: the central processor is configured to perform sensor fusion of data from multiple sensors and compute a fire-suppression strategy based on local conditions indicative of each sensor reading. Furthermore, the central processor may collect data from external sources, such as weather stations, other wide-area wildfire suppression systems, satellite images, weather forecasting services, etc. The data from external sources may include user input data. The central processor can generate control messages based on the fire-suppression strategy to operate the water distribution network and/or the spray head control systems. Disclosed aspects can comprise methods for developing the fire-suppression strategy from the wind sensor data, and for controlling a network of sprayers in response to the fire-suppression strategy).
21-54. (canceled)
Claim 55, Johnson teaches a method of operating an external fire management system (EFMS) (abstract), the method comprising:
a. a control system receiving a first event information (par. 60: data collected from the wind-direction sensors);
b. the control system, based at least in part upon the first event information, locking out the EFMS, and thereby preventing the EFMS from activating (par. 33: the fire-suppression controller can deactivate the water sprayer upon a change in wind direction. In some aspects, the fire-suppression controller can activate and/or deactivate the water sprayer based on one or more of wind speed, wind direction, air temperature, smoke detection, flame detection, humidity, sound, and air pressure);
c. the control system receiving a second event information (par. 60: data collected from multiple wind-direction sensors); and
d. the control system, based at least in part upon the second event information, lifting a lockout of the EFMS (par. 33: the fire-suppression controller can activate and/or deactivate the water sprayer based on one or more of wind speed, wind direction, air temperature, smoke detection, flame detection, humidity, sound, and air pressure. For example, the fire-suppression controller can activate and/or deactivate the water sprayer when the wind speed exceeds a threshold value and/or drops below a threshold value); and
thereby permitting the EFMS to activate (par. 33: spayer nozzle are activated/deactivated based on wind, smoke, flame detection, etc…).
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 4-7, 11 and 17-20 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.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to An T Nguyen whose telephone number is (571)270-5167. The examiner can normally be reached Monday - Friday 9-5 ET.
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/AN T NGUYEN/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2686
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