Detailed Action
The present application, filed on or after March 16, 2013, is being examined under the first inventor to file provisions of the AIA . See 35 U.S.C. § 100 (note).
Reopening of Prosecution
Applicant filed a Notice of Appeal and an associated Pre-Brief Appeal Conference Request on 24 July 2026. Without necessarily agreeing with the views espoused by Applicant in the Request, the conferees decided to reopen prosecution to present the new grounds of rejection contained in this Office action.
Art Rejections
Obviousness
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 1–5 and 7 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. § 103 as being unpatentable over US Patent Application Publication 2021/0231488 (published 29 July 2021) (“Pang”); US Patent 12,133,061 (filed 03 August 2022) (“Satongar”) and US Patent Application Publication 2021/0398545 (published 23 December 2021) (“Johnson”).
Claim 6 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. § 103 as being unpatentable over the combination of Pang, Satongar, Johnson and WO 2023/213501 A1 (effectively filed 03 May 2022) (“Eronen”).
Claims 8 and 9 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. § 103 as being unpatentable over the combination of Pang, Satongar, Johnson and US Patent Application Publication 2020/0322727 (published 08 October 2020) (“Smyth”).
Claim 10 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. § 103 as being unpatentable over the combination of Pang, Satongar, Johnson and US Patent Application Publication 2018/0091920 (published 29 March 2018) (“Family”).
Claims 11–14, 16, 17 and 20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. § 103 as being unpatentable over the combination of Pang and Satongar.
Claim 16 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. § 103 as being unpatentable over the combination of Pang, Satongar and Eronen.
Claims 18 and 19 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. § 103 as being unpatentable over the combination of Pang, Satongar and Smyth.
Claim 1 is drawn to “a system.” The following table illustrates the correspondence between the claimed system and the Pang reference.
Claim 1
The Pang Reference
“1. A system comprising:
The Pang reference similarly describes a system that performs a method for adapting virtual 3D audio to a real room. Pang at Abs., ¶¶ 2, 85, 86, FIG.1.
“a network interface;
“at least one processor;
and “at least one non-transitory computer-readable medium comprising program instructions that are executable by the at least one processor such that the system is configured to:
The Pang reference similarly describes the system as including a device 100 embodied as a computer with processing circuitry 110 that includes one or more processors and non-volatile (i.e., non-transitory) memory (i.e., computer-readable medium) carrying code that is executed by the processors to carry out Pang’s described method. Id. at ¶ 86, FIG.1.
The Pang reference does not describe the claimed network interface in connection with device 100. However, network interfaces are ubiquitous features of computers and worthy of Official notice. It would have been obvious for one of ordinary skill to have simply used a computer including a network interface to implement Pang’s computer device.
“play back first audio via first audio transducers of a playback device that is located at a first location in an acoustic environment;
Pang’s device causes playback of an acoustic signal 101 corresponding to the claimed first audio. Id. at ¶¶ 87, 92, 113, FIGs.1, 3. One of ordinary skill would have understood that acoustic signal 101 is played by a set of speaker transducers in a first location of an acoustic environment. See id.
“capture, via one or more microphones of a microphone-equipped device while the microphone-equipped device is in the acoustic environment, second audio representing playback of the first audio in the acoustic environment;
Pang further uses microphones to record, or capture, 102 acoustic signal 101 to generate a recorded acoustic signal 103 corresponding to the claimed second audio. Id. at ¶ 87, FIG.1.
“determine target data from the captured second audio, the target data comprising a target room parameters;
Similarly, Pang describes estimating 104 room acoustic parameters, including a frequency-dependent reverberation time in a low-frequency range based on recorded acoustic signal 103 and a mixing time (i.e., a boundary between late and early reflections). Id. at ¶¶ 88, 92, 100–102, FIGs.3, 7, 8.
“determine an early reflections model representing reflections of the sound in the acoustic environment before a particular mixing time;
Pang determines 2102 an early reflection model before an estimated mixing time. Id. at ¶¶ 116–117, FIG.21.
“generate, from the target room parameters, a late reverberation model representing reverberation of the sound in the acoustic environment after the particular mixing time;
Pang similarly generates a late reverberation model after a mixing time based on the estimated mixing time and reverberation time. Id. at ¶¶ 103–106, 116–117, FIGs.9, 21.
“synthesize a set of binaural rendering filters comprising a direct sound model, the determined early reflections model, and the determined late reverberation model, the direct sound model based on reference head-related impulse response data;
Pang generates a synthesized BRIR 910 by combining direct sound HRTFs 1700, early reflections 2103 and synthesized late reverberation 909. Id. at ¶¶ 116–117, FIGs.21, 22.
“configure a binaural renderer with the synthesized set of binaural rendering filters;
“render, via the configured binaural renderer, third audio from audio input signals,
“wherein the rendered third audio is configured to simulate playback from virtual sources within the acoustic environment when played back via the headphone device,
“wherein the virtual sources include a first virtual source at the first location and one or more second virtual sources at respective second location; and
“cause the headphone device to play back the rendered third audio via the second audio transducers to simulate playback from the virtual sources.”
Pang describes reproducing immersive 3D audio with headphones, where a synthesized BRIR localizes audio sources to simulate both room acoustics via reverb and the relative position between the audio source and the user’s head via HRTF. Id. at ¶¶ 2–4, 14–18, 114. One of ordinary skill would have understood from the nature of BRIR being an impulse response intended to be applied to an input audio signal that reproducing audio in Pang’s system and method includes configuring a renderer with the synthesized BRIR 910 and applying the BRIR 910 to input audio and playing back the BRIR-filtered audio via headphones and simulating playback of a virtual sound source in an acoustic environment. See id.
One of ordinary skill would have also understood that any number of sources may be simulated at any point(s) in the room either simultaneously or at different points in time. See id. at ¶ 116 (describing the reproduction of plural sources based on room geometry and positions of the sources, position of the listener and general/non-individual HRTFs).
However, Pang does not expressly teach simulating a first virtual source at the first location (i.e., the location at which a test signal was played).
Table 1
The table above shows that the Pang reference describes a medium corresponding to the claimed medium. Pang, however, does not expressly describe rendering a first virtual source at the first location from which first audio was played by first audio transducers. Pang also does not describe the inclusion of a network interface in its computer device.
The differences between the claimed invention and the Pang reference are such that the invention as a whole would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time this Application was effectively filed. Pang anticipates a binaural renderer that uses BRIRs to render third audio to simulate playback of virtual sources in a room when played via second audio transducers of a headphone. Pang at ¶¶ 14–18, 116. Pang teaches that the sound may be rendered to appear anywhere in the room. Id. at ¶ 116 (teaching the output of sound sources based on their respective positions). Pang, however, does not expressly teach positioning a sound source at the same first location used for emitting the test sound used to characterize the room’s RIR.
The Satongar reference relates to Pang because both teach aspects pertaining to audio spatialization. In particular, Satongar teaches a system to virtualize the positions of speakers in a particular scenario. Satongar at Abs., col. 1 ll. 5–54. Specifically, Satongar teaches that a user may be sitting on a couch while watching content on the television. Id. The user, according to Satongar, may prefer to experience the audio portion of a piece of content through a pair of headphones. Id. Satongar teaches spatializing the audio (rendering with a BRIR) from the television so that when it is rendered by the transducers of the user’s headphones, the audio appears to originate from the television rather than from the user’s headphones. Id. at col. 2 ll. 41–51, col. 3 ll. 29–44, col. 4 ll. 20–26, col. 4 l. 66 to col. 5 l. 35, FIG.1.
Read together, Pang and Satongar suggest modifying Pang’s system to render a third audio signal to simulate playback from a first virtual source at the first location from which a test signal is emitted by first audio transducers. Pang provides a base system in which speakers of a smart device in a room output a dry test signal used to characterize the room’s RIR. Sounds output via headphones may then be rendered through a BRIR (RIR + HRTF) to appear anywhere in the room. Satongar teaches and suggests a specific use case for Pang’s system. Specifically, Satongar suggests that in a typical room, there may be a television capable of outputting sound, but the user may prefer to listen to the audio portion of content through headphones rather than through the television’s speakers. In that case, Satongar suggests using an audio spatialization system to virtualize/spatialize the content’s audio to appear to originate from the position of the television. Satongar thus reasonably suggests using Pang’s system to virtualize/spatialize audio signals, such that they appear to originate from the television even when they are output via transducers in a user’s headphones. See MPEP § 2143(I)(D) (applying a known technique to a known device ready for improvement to yield predictable results: applying Satongar’s audio spatialization scheme to virtualize television audio using Pang’s spatialization system to predictably simulate television audio as emanating from a television even as the user listens to the audio portion of content through headphones).
In the above scenario, a television exists in a user’s room. Thus, one of ordinary skill would have easily recognized that the television’s speakers may be used to output a dry test signal. See MPEP § 2143(I)(B) (simple substitution of one known element for another to obtain predictable results: using Satongar’s television to output a test signal instead of a phone or tablet). Thus, the Pang-Satongar system will use the same first position (i.e., the location of a television) as a location for emitting a dry test signal and as a location for a rendering target when rendering television audio so that the rendered audio will appear to originate from the television. For the foregoing reasons, the combination of the Pang and the Satongar references makes obvious all limitations of the claim.
Pang’s system includes a smartphone or tablet. Pang at ¶¶ 2, 92, 112, 113. It is well-known to include network interfaces in smartphones and tablets, including ones intended for audio processing, so they can communicate with other devices in a network. Johnson at ¶¶ 64, 67, FIG.11 (depicting a typical smartphone 150 capable of processing audio (like Pang’s smartphone) with a network interface 164). It would have been obvious to embody Pang’s smartphone and tablets with a network interface, like Johnson’s network interface 164 so those devices may carry out their typical functions of communicating with remote devices over a network. Moreover, as discussed above, the Satongar reference suggests modifying Pang’s system to include a smart television having a network interface. See Satongar at col. 2 ll. 52–64, col. 8 ll. 13–17, FIG.5. For the foregoing reasons, the combination of the Pang, the Satongar and the Johnson references makes obvious all limitations of the claim.
Claim 2 depends on claim 1, and further requires the following:
“wherein the target data comprises a target late reverberation time, and
“wherein the program instructions that are executable by the at least one processor such that the system is configured to generate the late reverberation model comprise program instructions that are executable by the at least one processor such that the system is configured to:
“shape a noise sequence to match the target late reverberation time.”
Pang similarly describes estimating reverberation time. Pang at ¶¶ 93–95, FIGs.4, 5. Pang further describes shaping a dual-channel white Gaussian noise in order to match the reverberation time. Id. at ¶¶ 103–106, FIG.9. For the foregoing reasons, the combination of the Pang, the Satongar and the Johnson references makes obvious all limitations of the claim.
Claim 3 depends on claim 2, and further requires the following:
“wherein the program instructions that are executable by the at least one processor such that the system is configured to shape the noise sequence comprise program instructions that are executable by the at least one processor such that the system is configured to:
“filter the noise sequence into subbands;
“multiply the subbands with respective decaying exponentials having subband mixing time gains to yield the target reverberation time; and
“re-combine the subbands.”
Pang similarly filters 902 a white Gaussian noise sequence into subbands, multiplies 904 each subband by a decaying exponential according to frequency-dependent reverberation times and recombines 906 the subbands. Pang at ¶¶ 103–106, FIG.9. For the foregoing reasons, the combination of the Pang, the Satongar and the Johnson references makes obvious all limitations of the claim.
Claim 4 depends on claim 1, and further requires the following:
“wherein the target data comprises a target mixing-time energy level, and
“wherein the program instructions that are executable by the at least one processor such that the system is configured to shape the noise sequence comprise program instructions that are executable by the at least one processor such that the system is configured to:
“determine the decaying exponentials based on the target mixing-time energy level and the target late reverberation time.”
Similarly, Pang determines a scaling factor A, or target mixing-time energy level, that depends on source-listener distance. Pang at ¶¶ 103–106, FIG.9. Pang then determines the decaying exponential function
h
(
f
)
for each subband based on scaling factor A and frequency-dependent reverberation times. Id. For the foregoing reasons, the combination of the Pang, the Satongar and the Johnson references makes obvious all limitations of the claim.
Claim 5 depends on claim 1, and further requires the following:
“wherein the target data comprises a target late reverberation time, and
“wherein the program instructions that are executable by the at least one processor such that the system is configured to generate the late reverberation model comprise program instructions that are executable by the at least one processor such that the system is configured to:
“render the late reverberation model with a parametric reverberator that is tuned to generate late reverberation with the target late reverberation time.”
Similarly, Pang determines several parameters, including a scaling factor A and frequency-dependent reverberation times to parametrically generate late reverberation. Pang at ¶¶ 103–106, FIG.9. For the foregoing reasons, the combination of the Pang, the Satongar and the Johnson references makes obvious all limitations of the claim.
Claim 6 depends on claim 5, and further requires the following:
“wherein the parametric reverberator comprises a feedback delay network, and
“wherein the program instructions that are executable by the at least one processor such that the system is configured to render the late reverberation model with the parametric reverberator comprise program instructions that are executable by the at least one processor such that the system is configured to:
“tune biquad cascade filters of the feedback delay network to correspond to the target late reverberation time.”
The Pang reference generates synthetic late reverberations through noise shaping. The Eronen reference teaches and suggests an alternative based on a feedback delay network and tuned biquad cascade filters to provide reverb with a specific reverb time. See Eronen at pp. 18–22, FIGs.1, 14. This teaching would have reasonably suggested modifying Pang’s system to use Eronen’s reverb generation technique as an alternative mechanism for generating late reverberations. For the foregoing reasons, the combination of the Pang, the Satongar, the Johnson and the Eronen references makes obvious all limitations of the claim.
Claim 7 depends on claim 1, and further requires the following:
“wherein the program instructions that are executable by the at least one processor such that the system is configured to determine the early reflections model comprise program instructions that are executable by the at least one processor such that the system is configured to:
“adapt, based on the target room parameters, reference binaural rendering impulse response filters to an early reflections model representing reflections of the sound in the acoustic environment before a particular mixing time.”
Similarly, Pang describes adapting an existing set of reference BRIR filters based on a mixing time parameter. Pang at ¶ 115, FIGs.19, 20. For the foregoing reasons, the combination of the Pang, the Satongar and the Johnson references makes obvious all limitations of the claim.
Claim 8 depends on claim 7, and further requires the following:
“wherein the target room parameters comprise target early decay time, and
“wherein the program instructions that are executable by the at least one processor such that the system is configured to adapt the reference binaural rendering impulse response filters to the early reflections model comprise program instructions that are executable by the at least one processor such that the system is configured to:
“modify the reference binaural rendering impulse response filters by a gain envelope that converts a reference early decay time to the target early decay time.”
Claim 9 depends on claim 8, and further requires the following:
“wherein the program instructions that are executable by the at least one processor such that the system is configured to determine the target data from the captured second audio comprise program instructions that are executable by the at least one processor such that the system is configured to:
“estimate the target early decay time from energy delay curves in respective subbands of the room impulse response.”
Claims 8 and 9 are treated together. The Pang reference describes two techniques for generating early reverb. The first is to use adapt a reference BRIR by extracting only direct and early reflections while eliminating late reflections. The second is to parametrically simulate early reflections using an image-source or raytracing technique. Pang does not describe modifying a reference BRIR by a gain envelope to convert the reference’s early decay time to a target early decay time.
The Smyth reference applying decay envelope analysis to adapt a non-optimal reference PRIR based on an equalized BRIR so that the PRIR includes optimal reverberation frequency response and time decay characteristics. Smyth at ¶ 79. In particular, the reverberant portion of the PRIR is extracted and compared to the reverberant portion of the BRIR. Id. at ¶¶ 81–82, FIG.11. The equalized BRIR is an energy delay curve that acts as an estimate of a target early decay time for different subbands. See id. at ¶¶ 79, 81. The comparison yields a set of weights, or a gain envelope, to adjust the reverberant portion of the PRIR. Id. at ¶¶ 81–82, FIG.11. This would have reasonably suggested similarly adapting Pang’s reference BRIR by applying a derived gain envelope to optimize the time decay characteristics of the reference BRIR. For the foregoing reasons, the combination of the Pang, the Satongar, the Johnson and the Smyth references makes obvious all limitations of the claims.
Claim 10 depends on claim 7, and further requires the following:
“wherein the at least one non-transitory computer readable medium further comprises program instructions that are executable by the at least one processor such that the system is configured to:
“select the reference binaural rendering impulse response filters to match the acoustic environment from among a plurality of filters representing different acoustic environments.”
The Pang reference describes the adaptation of a reference BRIR, but does not describe any technique for choosing, or selecting, the reference BRIR. The Family reference teaches that when reproducing content, the environment changes dynamically and also includes numerous types of sources that would benefit from the use of varying BRIRs. Family at ¶¶ 2–3. To address this concern, Family teaches and selecting BRIRs for content by analyzing the metadata of the content to determine the type of environment associated with the content (e.g., is the content dominated by ambient sounds indicating an open environment or speech indicating a smaller or dryer environment?) and similarly analyzing numerous features of the BRIRs (e.g., room size, perceived size, DRR, etc.). Id. at ¶¶ 3, 16–20. This would have reasonably suggested modifying Pang’s system to choose a reference BRIR by similarly analyzing a plurality of BRIRs and comparing the BRIRs to content types to match the selected BRIR to the environment reflected by the content. For the foregoing reasons, the combination of the Pang, the Satongar, the Johnson and the Family references makes obvious all limitations of the claim.
Claim 11 is drawn to “at least one non-transitory computer-readable medium.” The following table illustrates the correspondence between the claimed medium and the Pang reference.
Claim 11
The Pang Reference
“11. At least one non-transitory computer-readable medium comprising program instructions that are executable by at least one processor such that a system is configured to:
The Pang reference similarly describes a system that performs a method for adapting virtual 3D audio to a real room. Pang at Abs., ¶¶ 2, 85, 86, FIG.1. The Pang reference similarly describes the system as including a device 100 embodied as a computer with processing circuitry 110 that includes one or more processors and non-volatile (i.e., non-transitory) memory (i.e., computer-readable medium) carrying code that is executed by the processors to carry out Pang’s described method. Id. at ¶ 86, FIG.1.
“play back first audio via first audio transducers of a playback device that is located at a first location in an acoustic environment;
Pang’s device causes playback of an acoustic signal 101 corresponding to the claimed first audio. Id. at ¶¶ 87, 92, 113, FIGs.1, 3, 13. This description would have taught one of ordinary skill that acoustic signal 101 is played by a set of speaker transducers in a first location of an acoustic environment. See id. The first location is a location of a device in a room from which a test signal is emitted. Id. The test signal is used to characterize the room impulse response (RIR) of a room. Id.
“capture, via one or more microphones of a microphone-equipped device while the microphone-equipped device is in the acoustic environment, second audio representing playback of the first audio in the acoustic environment;
Pang further uses microphones to record, or capture, 102 acoustic signal 101 to generate a recorded acoustic signal 103 corresponding to the claimed second audio. Id.
“determine target data from the captured second audio, the target data comprising a target room parameters;
Similarly, Pang describes estimating 104 room acoustic parameters, including a frequency-dependent reverberation time in a low-frequency range based on recorded acoustic signal 103 and a mixing time (i.e., a boundary between late and early reflections). Id. at ¶¶ 88, 92, 100–102, FIGs.3, 7, 8.
“determine an early reflections model representing reflections of the sound in the acoustic environment before a particular mixing time;
Pang determines 2102 an early reflection model before an estimated mixing time. Id. at ¶¶ 116–117, FIG.21.
“generate, from the target room parameters, a late reverberation model representing reverberation of the sound in the acoustic environment after the particular mixing time;
Pang similarly generates a late reverberation model after a mixing time based on the estimated mixing time and reverberation time. Id. at ¶¶ 103–106, 116–117, FIGs.9, 21.
“synthesize a set of binaural rendering filters comprising a direct sound model, the determined early reflections model, and the determined late reverberation model, the direct sound model based on reference head-related impulse response data;
Pang generates a synthesized BRIR 910 by combining direct sound HRTFs 1700, early reflections 2103 and synthesized late reverberation 909. Id. at ¶¶ 116–117, FIGs.21, 22.
“configure a binaural renderer with the synthesized set of binaural rendering filters;
“render, via the configured binaural renderer, third audio from audio input signals,
“wherein the rendered third audio is configured to simulate playback from virtual sources within the acoustic environment when played back via a device,
“wherein the virtual sources include a first virtual source at the first location and one or more second virtual sources at respective second locations; and
“cause the headphone device to play back the rendered third audio via second audio transducers to simulate playback from the virtual sources.”
Pang describes reproducing immersive 3D audio with headphones, where a synthesized BRIR localizes audio sources to simulate both room acoustics via reverb and the relative position between the audio source and the user’s head via HRTF. Id. at ¶¶ 2–4, 14–18, 114. One of ordinary skill would have understood from the nature of BRIR being an impulse response intended to be applied to an input audio signal that reproducing audio in Pang’s system and method includes configuring a renderer with the synthesized BRIR 910 and applying the BRIR 910 to input audio and playing back the BRIR-filtered audio via headphones and simulating playback of a virtual sound source in an acoustic environment. See id.
One of ordinary skill would have also understood that any number of sources may be simulated at any point(s) in the room either simultaneously or at different points in time. See id. at ¶ 116 (describing the reproduction of plural sources based on room geometry and positions of the sources, position of the listener and general/non-individual HRTFs).
However, Pang does not expressly teach simulating a first virtual source at the first location (i.e., the location at which a test signal was played).
Table 2
The table above shows that the Pang reference describes a medium corresponding to the claimed medium. Pang, however, does not expressly describe rendering a first virtual source at the first location from which first audio was played by first audio transducers.
The differences between the claimed invention and the Pang reference are such that the invention as a whole would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time this Application was effectively filed.
Pang anticipates a binaural renderer that uses BRIRs to render third audio to simulate playback of virtual sources in a room when played via second audio transducers of a headphone. Pang at ¶¶ 14–18, 116. Pang teaches that the sound may be rendered to appear anywhere in the room. Id. at ¶ 116 (teaching the output of sound sources based on their respective positions). Pang, however, does not expressly teach positioning a sound source at the same first location used for emitting the test sound used to characterize the room’s RIR.
The Satongar reference relates to Pang because both teach aspects pertaining to audio spatialization. In particular, Satongar teaches a system to virtualize the positions of speakers in a particular scenario. Satongar at Abs., col. 1 ll. 5–54. Specifically, Satongar teaches that a user may be sitting on a couch while watching content on the television. Id. The user, according to Satongar, may prefer to experience the audio portion of a piece of content through a pair of headphones. Id. Satongar teaches spatializing the audio (rendering with a BRIR) from the television so that when it is rendered by the transducers of the user’s headphones, the audio appears to originate from the television rather than from the user’s headphones. Id. at col. 2 ll. 41–51, col. 3 ll. 29–44, col. 4 ll. 20–26, col. 4 l. 66 to col. 5 l. 35, FIG.1.
Read together, Pang and Satongar suggest modifying Pang’s system to render a third audio signal to simulate playback from a first virtual source at the first location from which a test signal is emitted by first audio transducers. Pang provides a base system in which speakers of a smart device in a room output a dry test signal used to characterize the room’s RIR. Sounds output via headphones may then be rendered through a BRIR (RIR + HRTF) to appear anywhere in the room. Satongar teaches and suggests a specific use case for Pang’s system. Specifically, Satongar suggests that in a typical room, there may be a television capable of outputting sound, but the user may prefer to listen to the audio portion of content through headphones rather than through the television’s speakers. In that case, Satongar suggests using an audio spatialization system to virtualize/spatialize the content’s audio to appear to originate from the position of the television. Satongar thus reasonably suggests using Pang’s system to virtualize/spatialize audio signals, such that they appear to originate from the television even when they are output via transducers in a user’s headphones. See MPEP § 2143(I)(D) (applying a known technique to a known device ready for improvement to yield predictable results: applying Satongar’s audio spatialization scheme to virtualize television audio to Pang’s spatialization system to predictably simulate television audio as emanating from a television even as the user listens to the audio portion of content through headphones).
In the above scenario, a television exists in a user’s room. Thus, one of ordinary skill would have easily recognized that the television’s speakers may be used to output a dry test signal. See MPEP § 2143(I)(B) (simple substitution of one known element for another to obtain predictable results: using Satongar’s television to output a test signal instead of a phone or tablet). Thus, the Pang-Satongar system will use the same first position (i.e., the location of a television) as a location for emitting a dry test signal and as a location for a rendering target when rendering television audio so that the rendered audio will appear to originate from the television. For the foregoing reasons, the combination of the Pang and the Satongar references makes obvious all limitations of the claim.
Claim 12 depends on claim 11, and further requires the following:
“wherein the target data comprises a target late reverberation time, and
“wherein the program instructions that are executable by the at least one processor such that the system is configured to generate the late reverberation model comprise program instructions that are executable by the at least one processor such that the system is configured to:
“shape a noise sequence to match the target late reverberation time.”
Pang similarly describes estimating reverberation time. Pang at ¶¶ 93–95, FIGs.4, 5. Pang further describes shaping a dual-channel white Gaussian noise in order to match the reverberation time. Id. at ¶¶ 103–106, FIG.9. For the foregoing reasons, the combination of the Pang and the Satongar references makes obvious all limitations of the claim.
Claim 13 depends on claim 12, and further requires the following:
“wherein the program instructions that are executable by the at least one processor such that the system is configured to shape the noise sequence comprise program instructions that are executable by the at least one processor such that the system is configured to:
“filter the noise sequence into subbands;
“multiple the subbands with respective decaying exponentials having subband mixing time gains to yield the target reverbertion time;
“and re-combine the subbands.”
Pang similarly filters 902 a white Gaussian noise sequence into subbands, multiplies 904 each subband by a decaying exponential according to frequency-dependent reverberation times and recombines 906 the subbands. Pang at ¶¶ 103–106, FIG.9. For the foregoing reasons, the combination of the Pang and the Satongar references makes obvious all limitations of the claim.
Claim 14 depends on claim 13, and further requires the following:
“wherein the target data comprises a target mixing-time energy level, and
“wherein the program instructions that are executable by the at least one processor such that the system is configured to shape the noise sequence comprise program instructions that are executable by the at least one processor such that the system is configured to:
“determine the decaying exponentials based on the target mixing-time energy level and the target late reverberation time.”
Similarly, Pang determines a scaling factor A, or target mixing-time energy level, that depends on source-listener distance. Pang at ¶¶ 103–106, FIG.9. Pang then determines the decaying exponential function
h
(
f
)
for each subband based on scaling factor A and frequency-dependent reverberation times. Id. For the foregoing reasons, the combination of the Pang and the Satongar references makes obvious all limitations of the claim.
Claim 15 depends on claim 11, and further requires the following:
“wherein the target data comprises a target late reverberation time, and
“wherein the program instructions that are executable by the at least one processor such that the system is configured to generate the late reverberation model comprise program instructions that are executable by the at least one processor such that the system is configured to: render the late reverberation model with a parametric reverberator that is tuned to generate late reverberation with the target late reverberation time.”
Similarly, Pang determines several parameters, including a scaling factor A and frequency-dependent reverberation times to parametrically generate late reverberation. Pang at ¶¶ 103–106, FIG.9. For the foregoing reasons, the combination of the Pang and the Satongar references makes obvious all limitations of the claim.
Claim 16 depends on claim 15, and further requires the following:
“wherein the parametric reverberator comprises a feedback delay network, and
“wherein the program instructions that are executable by the at least one processor such that the system is configured to render the late reverberation model with the parametric reverberator comprise program instructions that are executable by the at least one processor such that the system is configured to:
“tune biquad cascade filters of the feedback delay network to correspond to the target late reverberation time.”
The Pang reference generates synthetic late reverberations through noise shaping. The Eronen reference teaches and suggests an alternative based on a feedback delay network and tuned biquad cascade filters to provide reverb with a specific reverb time. See Eronen at pp. 18–22, FIGs.1, 14. This teaching would have reasonably suggested modifying Pang’s system to use Eronen’s reverb generation technique as an alternative mechanism for generating late reverberations. For the foregoing reasons, the combination of the Pang, the Satongar and the Eronen references makes obvious all limitations of the claim.
Claim 17 depends on claim 11, and further requires the following:
“wherein the program instructions that are executable by the at least one processor such that the system is configured to determine the early reflections model comprise program instructions that are executable by the at least one processor such that the system is configured to:
“adapt, based on the target room parameters, reference binaural rendering impulse response filters to an early reflections model representing reflections of the sound in the acoustic environment before a particular mixing time.”
Similarly, Pang describes adapting an existing set of reference BRIR filters based on a mixing time parameter. Pang at ¶ 115, FIGs.19, 20. For the foregoing reasons, the combination of the Pang and the Satongar references makes obvious all limitations of the claim.
Claim 18 depends on claim 17, and further requires the following:
“wherein the target room parameters comprise target early decay time, and
“wherein the program instructions that are executable by the at least one processor such that the system is configured to adapt the reference binaural rendering impulse response filters to the early reflections model comprise program instructions that are executable by the at least one processor such that the system is configured to:
“modify the reference binaural rendering impulse response filters by a gain envelope that converts a reference early decay time to the target early decay time.”
Claim 19 depends on claim 18, and further requires the following:
“wherein the program instructions that are executable by the at least one processor such that the system is configured to determine the target data from the captured second audio comprise program instructions that are executable by the at least one processor such that the system is configured to:
“estimate the target early decay time from energy delay curves in respective subbands of the room impulse response.”
Claims 18 and 19 are treated together. The Pang reference describes two techniques for generating early reverb. The first is to use adapt a reference BRIR by extracting only direct and early reflections while eliminating late reflections. The second is to parametrically simulate early reflections using an image-source or raytracing technique. Pang does not describe modifying a reference BRIR by a gain envelope to convert the reference’s early decay time to a target early decay time.
The Smyth reference applying decay envelope analysis to adapt a non-optimal reference PRIR based on an equalized BRIR so that the PRIR includes optimal reverberation frequency response and time decay characteristics. Smyth at ¶ 79. In particular, the reverberant portion of the PRIR is extracted and compared to the reverberant portion of the BRIR. Id. at ¶¶ 81–82, FIG.11. The equalized BRIR is an energy delay curve that acts as an estimate of a target early decay time for different subbands. See id. at ¶¶ 79, 81. The comparison yields a set of weights, or a gain envelope, to adjust the reverberant portion of the PRIR. Id. at ¶¶ 81–82, FIG.11. This would have reasonably suggested similarly adapting Pang’s reference BRIR by applying a derived gain envelope to optimize the time decay characteristics of the reference BRIR. For the foregoing reasons, the combination of the Pang, the Satongar and the Smyth references makes obvious all limitations of the claims.
Claim 20 is drawn to “a method.” The following table illustrates the correspondence between the claimed method and the Pang reference.
Claim 20
The Pang Reference
“20. A method comprising:
The Pang reference similarly describes a system that performs a method for adapting virtual 3D audio to a real room. Pang at Abs., ¶¶ 2, 85, 86, FIG.1.
“playing back first audio via first audio transducers of a playback device that is located at a first location in an acoustic environment;
Pang’s device causes playback of an acoustic signal 101 corresponding to the claimed first audio. Id. at ¶¶ 87, 92, 113, FIGs.1, 3. One of ordinary skill would have understood that acoustic signal 101 is played by a set of speaker transducers in a first location of an acoustic environment. See id.
“capturing, via one or more microphones of a microphone-equipped device while the microphone-equipped device is in the acoustic environment, second audio representing playback of the first audio in the acoustic environment;
Pang further uses microphones to record, or capture, 102 acoustic signal 101 to generate a recorded acoustic signal 103 corresponding to the claimed second audio. Id. at ¶ 87, FIG.1.
“determining target data from the captured second audio, the target data comprising a target room parameters;
Similarly, Pang describes estimating 104 room acoustic parameters, including a frequency-dependent reverberation time in a low-frequency range based on recorded acoustic signal 103 and a mixing time (i.e., a boundary between late and early reflections). Id. at ¶¶ 88, 92, 100–102, FIGs.3, 7, 8.
“determining an early reflections model representing reflections of the sound in the acoustic environment before a particular mixing time;
Pang determines 2102 an early reflection model before an estimated mixing time. Id. at ¶¶ 116–117, FIG.21.
“generating, from the target room parameters, a late reverberation model representing reverberation of the sound in the acoustic environment after the particular mixing time;
Pang similarly generates a late reverberation model after a mixing time based on the estimated mixing time and reverberation time. Id. at ¶¶ 103–106, 116–117, FIGs.9, 21.
“synthesizing a set of binaural rendering filters comprising a direct sound model, the determined early reflections model, and the determined late reverberation model, the direct sound model based on reference head-related impulse response data;
Pang generates a synthesized BRIR 910 by combining direct sound HRTFs 1700, early reflections 2103 and synthesized late reverberation 909. Id. at ¶¶ 116–117, FIGs.21, 22.
“configuring a binaural renderer with the synthesized set of binaural rendering filters;
“rendering, via the configured binaural renderer, third audio from audio input signals,
“wherein the rendered third audio is configured to simulate playback from virtual sources within the acoustic environment when played back via the headphone device,
“wherein the virtual sources include a first virtual source at the first location and one or more second virtual sources at respective second location; and
“causing the headphone device to play back the rendered third audio via the second audio transducers to simulate playback from the virtual sources.”
Pang describes reproducing immersive 3D audio with headphones, where a synthesized BRIR localizes audio sources to simulate both room acoustics via reverb and the relative position between the audio source and the user’s head via HRTF. Id. at ¶¶ 2–4, 14–18, 114. One of ordinary skill would have understood from the nature of BRIR being an impulse response intended to be applied to an input audio signal that reproducing audio in Pang’s system and method includes configuring a renderer with the synthesized BRIR 910 and applying the BRIR 910 to input audio and playing back the BRIR-filtered audio via headphones and simulating playback of a virtual sound source in an acoustic environment. See id.
One of ordinary skill would have also understood that any number of sources may be simulated at any point(s) in the room either simultaneously or at different points in time. See id. at ¶ 116 (describing the reproduction of plural sources based on room geometry and positions of the sources, position of the listener and general/non-individual HRTFs).
However, Pang does not expressly teach simulating a first virtual source at the first location (i.e., the location at which a test signal was played).
Table 3
The table above shows that the Pang reference describes a method corresponding to the claimed method. Pang, however, does not expressly describe rendering a first virtual source at the first location from which first audio was played by first audio transducers.
The differences between the claimed invention and the Pang reference are such that the invention as a whole would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time this Application was effectively filed.
Pang anticipates a binaural renderer that uses BRIRs to render third audio to simulate playback of virtual sources in a room when played via second audio transducers of a headphone. Pang at ¶¶ 14–18, 116. Pang teaches that the sound may be rendered to appear anywhere in the room. Id. at ¶ 116 (teaching the output of sound sources based on their respective positions). Pang, however, does not expressly teach positioning a sound source at the same first location used for emitting the test sound used to characterize the room’s RIR.
The Satongar reference relates to Pang because both teach aspects pertaining to audio spatialization. In particular, Satongar teaches a system to virtualize the positions of speakers in a particular scenario. Satongar at Abs., col. 1 ll. 5–54. Specifically, Satongar teaches that a user may be sitting on a couch while watching content on the television. Id. The user, according to Satongar, may prefer to experience the audio portion of a piece of content through a pair of headphones. Id. Satongar teaches spatializing the audio (rendering with a BRIR) from the television so that when it is rendered by the transducers of the user’s headphones, the audio appears to originate from the television rather than from the user’s headphones. Id. at col. 2 ll. 41–51, col. 3 ll. 29–44, col. 4 ll. 20–26, col. 4 l. 66 to col. 5 l. 35, FIG.1.
Read together, Pang and Satongar suggest modifying Pang’s system to render a third audio signal to simulate playback from a first virtual source at the first location from which a test signal is emitted by first audio transducers. Pang provides a base system in which speakers of a smart device in a room output a dry test signal used to characterize the room’s RIR. Sounds output via headphones may then be rendered through a BRIR (RIR + HRTF) to appear anywhere in the room. Satongar teaches and suggests a specific use case for Pang’s system. Specifically, Satongar suggests that in a typical room, there may be a television capable of outputting sound, but the user may prefer to listen to the audio portion of content through headphones rather than through the television’s speakers. In that case, Satongar suggests using an audio spatialization system to virtualize/spatialize the content’s audio to appear to originate from the position of the television. Satongar thus reasonably suggests using Pang’s system to virtualize/spatialize audio signals, such that they appear to originate from the television even when they are output via transducers in a user’s headphones. See MPEP § 2143(I)(D) (applying a known technique to a known device ready for improvement to yield predictable results: applying Satongar’s audio spatialization scheme to virtualize television audio to Pang’s spatialization system to predictably simulate television audio as emanating from a television even as the user listens to the audio portion of content through headphones).
In the above scenario, a television exists in a user’s room. Thus, one of ordinary skill would have easily recognized that the television’s speakers may be used to output a dry test signal. See MPEP § 2143(I)(B) (simple substitution of one known element for another to obtain predictable results: using Satongar’s television to output a test signal instead of a phone or tablet). Thus, the Pang-Satongar system will use the same first position (i.e., the location of a television) as a location for emitting a dry test signal and as a location for a rendering target when rendering television audio so that the rendered audio will appear to originate from the television. For the foregoing reasons, the combination of the Pang and the Satongar references makes obvious all limitations of the claim.
Summary
Claims 1–20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. §§ 102 and 103 as being unpatentable over the cited prior art. 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.
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 C.F.R. § 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.
Response to Applicant’s Arguments
The comments contained in the Reply (22 December 2025) and the Pre-Appeal Brief Conference Request (24 July 2026) have been considered. Those comments have been rendered moot by the new grounds of rejection entered in this Office action.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to WALTER F BRINEY III whose telephone number is (571)272-7513. The examiner can normally be reached M-F 8 am-4:30 pm.
Examiner interviews are available via telephone, in-person, and video conferencing using a USPTO supplied web-based collaboration tool. To schedule an interview, applicant is encouraged to use the USPTO Automated Interview Request (AIR) at http://www.uspto.gov/interviewpractice.
If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Carolyn Edwards can be reached at 571-270-7136. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
Information regarding the status of published or unpublished applications may be obtained from Patent Center. Unpublished application information in Patent Center is available to registered users. To file and manage patent submissions in Patent Center, visit: https://patentcenter.uspto.gov. Visit https://www.uspto.gov/patents/apply/patent-center for more information about Patent Center and https://www.uspto.gov/patents/docx for information about filing in DOCX format. For additional questions, contact the Electronic Business Center (EBC) at 866-217-9197 (toll-free). If you would like assistance from a USPTO Customer Service Representative, call 800-786-9199 (IN USA OR CANADA) or 571-272-1000.
/Walter F Briney III/
Walter F Briney IIIPrimary ExaminerArt Unit 2692
9/23/2026
