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
In the event the determination of the status of the application as subject to AIA 35 U.S.C. 102 and 103 (or as subject to pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 102 and 103) is incorrect, any correction of the statutory basis (i.e., changing from AIA to pre-AIA ) for the rejection will not be considered a new ground of rejection if the prior art relied upon, and the rationale supporting the rejection, would be the same under either status.
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 -20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Regani et al. (US 20230333201 A1) in view of Lee et al. (US 20150257096 A1).
Regarding claims 1, 5, 8, 12, 15, 19, 20, Regani discloses
a method of transmitting an emergency notification ([0060] Type1/Type2 devices may/may not be authenticated/associated/collocated. They may be same device. Type 1/Type2/portable/nearby/another device, sensing/measurement session/link between them, and/or object/expression/motion/characteristics/STI/MI/task may be associated with an identity/identification/identifier (ID) such as UUID, associated/unassociated STA ID (ASID/USID/AID/UID). Type2 device may passively observe/monitor/receive wireless signal from Type 1 device without establishing connection (e.g. association/authentication/handshake) with, or requesting service from, Type1 device. Type 1/Type2 device may move with object/another object to be tracked.);
comprising: establishing, by a first patient device, an ad-hoc network of devices within the health care facility, the ad-hoc network of devices comprising a plurality of other patient devices and a plurality of health care provider devices ([0056, 0059, 0102]the Type1/Type2 devices may be a person/pet/animal/plant/machine/user, baby/child/adult/older person, expert/specialist/leader/commander/manager/personnel/staff/officer/doctor/nurse/worker/teacher/technician/serviceman/repairman/passenger/patient/customer/student/traveler/inmate/high-value person/, object to be tracked;
detecting, by the first patient device, a trigger event for sending a message across the ad-hoc network ([0110] detecting motion of the Type1/Type 2 devices (users) and (e.g. generate message/response/warning/clarification/notification/report) automatically upon detection);
responsive to the detecting, generating, by the first patient device, the message comprising a header comprising a unique identifier corresponding to the first patient device, and an indication of the trigger event ([0060, 0068] upon detecting motion and using an identity/identification/identifier (ID) such as UUID, associated/unassociated STA ID (ASID/USID/AID/UID), Type1 device may transmit/broadcast wireless signal to multiple Type2 devices, with/without establishing connection (association/authentication/handshake) with individual Type2 devices. It may transmit to a particular/common MAC address, which may be MAC address of some device (e.g. dummy receiver). Each Type2 device may adjust to particular MAC address to receive wireless signal. Particular MAC address may be associated with venue, which may be recorded in an association table of an Association Server (e.g. hub device). Venue may be identified by Type1 device/Type2 device based on wireless signal received at particular MAC address.); and
causing, by the first patient device, the message to propagate across the ad-hoc network by broadcasting the message via a radio transceiver of the first patient device, ([0056, 0068, 0213] transmitting a respective wireless signal by the Type1 device of the pair, receiving the respective wireless signal by the Type2 device of the pair through a respective wireless multipath channel of the venue, wherein the received wireless signal differs from the transmitted wireless signal due to the wireless multipath channel and the motion of the number of objects in the venue, obtaining a respective time series of channel information (TSCI) based on the received wireless signal, computing a respective motion information (MI) based on the TSCI, and performing a respective sensing task based on the respective MI and the respective TSCI.
Although the Regani reference does not explicitly state that the monitoring and localization system is specific among patients in a health care facility, the reference does teach that the Type 1/Type 2 devices, with multiple being used, can be used to monitor an emergency situation (location/motion, dangerous event, etc.) for patients and for doctor/nurse, etc. [0079 – 0084; 0102]. Therefore, before the effective filing date, it would have been obvious to utilize Regani’s system in any location, such as a health care facility or any indoor facility to monitor various events of the patients.
Regani does not specifically disclose the locally stored list of neighboring devices to the first patient device, but does describes communicating the identification of the devices in a handshake method as described above.
In the same field of endeavor, Lee discloses ([0024] a transmission in a wireless network in which stations 104-114 transmit/receive information wirelessly to one another. [0025] The first station 104 may be configured to generate a message 120 addressed to multiple stations of the wireless network 102. In a particular implementation, the message 120 may be a broadcast message (e.g., may be addressed to each other station of the wireless network 102). In other implementations, the message 120 may be a multicast message (e.g., may be addressed to a subset of the other stations in the wireless network 102). In a particular implementation, the message 120 may include a unique identifier, such as one or more bits that are encoded in the message 120 and are not encoded in other messages. For example, the message 120 may include a first identifier 124. The first station 104 may also be configured to generate a first neighbor list (List_1) 130. The first neighbor list 130 may identify "neighboring" stations (e.g., one or more stations within a one-hop range 150) of the first station. The one-hop range 150 illustrated in FIG. 1 is for convenience only and is not limiting. In a particular implementation, the one-hop range 150 may be circular and may be centered at the first station 104.)
Before the effective filing date of the invention, it would have been obvious to modify Regani with the teachings of Lee, for the purpose of ensuring the information of the monitored devices are captured while reducing power consumption at one or more stations, as compared to each station forwarding the particular message in wireless mesh networks.
Regarding claims 2, 9, 16, Regani discloses establishing, by the first patient device, the ad-hoc network of devices within the health care facility comprises: initiating a discovery process, the discovery process comprising: broadcasting a discovery message to be received by the plurality of other patient devices; receiving a plurality of reply messages from at least a subset of the plurality of other patient devices; determining a signal strength corresponding to each reply message; and generating the locally stored list of neighboring devices based on the signal strength of each reply message, [0057, Type1/Type2 devices communicating wirelessly using wireless/mobile/cellular/optical communication/network/mesh/downlink/uplink/unicast/multicast/broadcast signal associated with an identity/identification/identifier (ID) such as UUID, associated/unassociated STA ID (ASID/USID/AID/UID). Type2 device may passively observe/monitor/receive wireless signal from Type 1 device without establishing connection (e.g. association/authentication/handshake) with, or requesting service from, Type1 device. Type 1/Type2 device may move with object/another object to be tracked.
Regarding claims 3, 4, 10, 11,17, 18, Regani in view of Lee disclose each reply message of the plurality of reply messages comprises a local time corresponding to the other patient device that sent the reply message, ([Regani- 0065] Multiple Type 1 (or Type 2) devices may interact with a Type2 (or Type 1) device. The multiple Type 1 (or Type2) devices may be synchronized/asynchronous, and/or may use same/different channels/sensing parameters/settings (e.g. sounding frequency/bandwidth/antennas). Type2 device may receive another signal from Type 1/another Type 1 device. Type 1 device may transmit another signal to Type2/another Type2 device. Wireless signals sent (or received) by them may be sporadic/temporary/continuous/repeated/synchronous/simultaneous/concurrent/contemporaneous. They may operate independently/collaboratively. Their data (e.g. TSCI/feature/characteristics/STI/MI/intermediate task outcomes) may be processed/monitored/analyzed independently or jointly/collaboratively.)
Regarding claims 6, 13, Regani in view of Lee disclose the message further comprises an identifier uniquely identifying the message, (Regani-[0060] Type1/Type2 devices may/may not be authenticated/associated/collocated. They may be same device. Type 1/Type2/portable/nearby/another device, sensing/measurement session/link between them, and/or object/expression/motion/characteristics/STI/MI/task may be associated with an identity/identification/identifier (ID) such as UUID, associated/unassociated STA ID (ASID/USID/AID/UID). Type2 device may passively observe/monitor/receive wireless signal from Type 1 device without establishing connection (e.g. association/authentication/handshake) with, or requesting service from, Type1 device.)
Regarding claims 7, 14, Regani in view of Lee disclose further comprising: comparing, by the second patient device, the identifier uniquely identifying the message to a list of locally stored message identifiers; and determining, by the second patient device, that the second patient device has not received the message based on the comparing, (Regani- [0072] earby/portable/another device may send third handshake signal to Type 1 device triggering Type 1 device to broadcast signal to multiple Type2 devices without establishing connection with them. Type 1 device may reply to third signal by transmitting fourth handshake signal to another device.
[0073] Nearby/portable/another device may be used to trigger multiple Type 1 devices to broadcast. It may have multiple RF circuitries to trigger multiple transmitters in parallel. Triggering may be sequential/partially sequential/partially/fully parallel. Parallel triggering may be achieved using additional device (s) to perform similar triggering in parallel to nearby/portable/another device. After establishing connection with Type 1 device, nearby/portable/another device may suspend/stop communication with Type 1 device. It may enter an inactive/hibernation/sleep/stand-by/low-power/OFF/power-down mode. Suspended communication may be resumed. Nearby/portable/another device may have the particular MAC address and Type 1 device may send signal to particular MAC address.)
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/DAVETTA W GOINS/Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 2689