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
Claim(s) 4, 13 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.
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, 5-10, 12, 14-15 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102 (a) (1) as being anticipated by Park et al. (US 11,144,277 B2).
Claim 1, Park et al. disclose of a control method, comprising: determining whether first parameters reported by a plurality of speakers satisfy a target condition (fig.2-3 (220); col.5 line 1-20), the plurality of speakers being disposed at different positions in an electronic device, and each first parameter describing a power supply signal of each speaker (fig.2-3 (231-232); col.3 line 50-67; col.5 line 1-20); and controlling the plurality of speakers to change their first gain to a same second gain (fig.2 (210);fig.3 (330); col.5 line 49-53).
3. The control method according to claim 1, wherein controlling the plurality of speakers to change their first gain to the same second gain comprises: sending a first instruction to the plurality of speakers, such the plurality of speakers adjust their first gain to the same second gain based on the first instruction, the second gain being smaller the first gain (fig.2 (210; fig.3 (330); col.5 line 45-53).
5. The control method according to claim 1, before determining whether the first parameters reported by the plurality of speakers satisfy the target condition, further comprising at least one of: receiving the first parameters sent by at least one speaker under the circumstance that the first parameters are smaller than a first threshold; or sending a third instruction to the plurality of speakers, such that the plurality of speakers report their first parameters based on the third instruction (col.6 line 35-50).
6. The control method according to claim 1, wherein controlling the plurality of speakers to change their first gain to the same second gain comprises: based on the first parameters, determining the second gain, wherein the smaller the first parameter, the smaller the second gain; or based on the first parameters and the number of speakers reporting the first parameters, determining the second gain, wherein the smaller the first parameter, the smaller the second gain (fig.4; col.10 line 15-45; col.5 line 45-53/the gain to implement attenuating processing).
Claim 7, the prior art disclose of a control method being applied to a speaker of an electronic device, comprising: in response to determining that a first parameter is smaller than a first threshold, sending the first parameter to a control unit of the electronic device (fig.2-3 (220/210); col.5 line 1-20; col.6 line 35-50),, the first parameter describing a power supply signal of the speaker (col.3 line 50-67; col.5 line 1-20); receiving a first instruction sent from the control unit under the circumstance that the first parameter satisfies a target condition; and based on the first instruction, adjusting a current first gain to a second gain that is same as a target speaker (fig.2 (210);fig.3 (330); col.5 line 49-53).
8. The control method according to claim 7, further comprising: receiving a second instruction sent from the control unit under the circumstance that the first parameter does not satisfy the target condition; and based on the second instruction, maintaining the current first gain (col.6 line 30-40/if operating under normal condition, then current gain is matintained).
9. An electronic device, comprising: a power supply circuit configured to at least supply power to a plurality of speakers (col.5 line 1-15/ current and impedance related to operating power to speaker and thus inherently such power supply to operate the speaker existed); the plurality of speakers disposed at different positions of the power supply circuit for outputting audio signals (fig.2-3 (231-232); col.3 line 50-67; col.5 line 1-20); and a controller connected to the plurality of speakers and configured to receive first parameters sent by at least one speaker through a first interface, and to control the plurality of speakers to change their first gain to a same second gain under the circumstance that the first parameters reported by the plurality of speakers satisfy a target condition(fig.2 (210);fig.3 (330); col.5 line 49-53).
10. The electronic device according to claim 9, wherein: the controller is further configured to send audio signals to the plurality of speakers through a second interface, such that the plurality of speakers output the audio signals (fig.3 (320/330); col.9 line 55-67).
12. The electronic device according to claim 9, wherein the controller is further configured to: send a first instruction to the plurality of speakers, such the plurality of speakers adjust their first gain to the same second gain based on the first instruction, the second gain being smaller the first gain (fig.2 (210; fig.3 (330); col.5 line 49-53).
14. The electronic device according to claim 9, wherein the controller is further configured to: receive the first parameters sent by at least one speaker under the circumstance that the first parameters are smaller than the first threshold; or send a third instruction to the plurality of speakers, such that the plurality of speakers report their first parameters based on the third instruction (col.6 line 35-50).
15. The electronic device according to claim 9, wherein the controller is further configured to: based on the first parameters, determine the second gain, wherein the smaller the first parameter, the smaller the second gain; or based on the first parameters and the number of speakers reporting the first parameters, determine the second gain, wherein the smaller the first parameter, the smaller the second gain (fig.4; col.10 line 15-45; col.5 line 45-53/the gain to implement attenuating processing).
Claim(s) 2, 11 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Park et al. (US 11,144,277 B2) and Zhang et al. (US 2014/0107235 A1).
Claim 2, the control method according to claim 1, but none of the mentioned prior art specify such method wherein determining whether the first parameters reported by the plurality of speakers satisfy the target condition comprises: determining a number of speakers reporting the first parameters that are smaller than a first threshold; and in response to the number of speakers being greater or equal to a second threshold, determining the first parameters reported by the plurality of speakers satisfying the target condition.
However, it shall be noted Zhang et al. disclose of the similar concept regarding method wherein determining whether the first parameters reported by the plurality of speakers satisfy the target condition comprises: determining a number of speakers reporting the first parameters that are smaller than a first threshold; and in response to the number of speakers being greater or equal to a second threshold, determining the first parameters reported by the plurality of speakers satisfying the target condition (abstract; par [58, 60]). Thus, one of the ordinary skills in the art could have modified the prior art by adding such aspect regarding the method as determining whether the first parameters reported by the plurality of speakers satisfy the target condition comprises: determining a number of speakers reporting the first parameters that are smaller than a first threshold; and in response to the number of speakers being greater or equal to a second threshold, determining the first parameters reported by the plurality of speakers satisfying the target condition so as to provide the desired sound effect according to detected number of speakers according to preset conditions.
Similarly, the claim(s) 11 which in substance disclose of the same limitation as in claim(s) 2 have been analyzed and rejected accordingly.
Conclusion
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/DISLER PAUL/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2695