DETAILED ACTION
The following is a final office action in response to amendment filed on 4/30/2026 for response of the
office action mailed on 2/03/2026. Claims 1, 10, 16, 19, and 20 have been amended. Claims 1-20 remain pending in the application.
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 .
Response to Amendment
The Amendment filed on 4/30/2026 has been entered.
Applicant’s amendments to claims 10 and 16 have overcome each and every rejection based on 35 USC § 112(a) and 35 USC § 112(b) to the claims previously set forth in the Non-Final Office Action mailed on 2/03/2026.
Response to Remarks/Arguments
Applicant’s remarks/arguments (page 5-7), filed on 4/30/2026, with respect to the amended
independent claims 1, 10, and 16 have been fully considered but are moot based on new ground of rejections using a newly introduced reference (Yang et al.) is applied in the current rejection.
Regarding remarks in page 6 for dependent claim 1, applicant argues that "generating a selection of one or more of a plurality of subcarriers based, at least in part, on the plurality of wireless connection metrics".
Examiner respectfully disagrees with the applicant. Zhang et al. (US 10,305,766 Bl) discloses (the computing device may receive, from a first wireless RX and a second wireless RX that are located in a building, data that includes first channel properties in a first communication link between a wireless TX and the first wireless RX and second channel properties in a second communication link between the wireless TX and the second wireless RX. detect passive human presence with a wireless TX and a wireless RX, e.g., with one TX-RX link. Wireless devices may acquire either the instantaneous channel state information (CSI) or its second order statistics of CSI during their regular operation, e.g., statistical channel properties, the method continues from block with the processing logic applying a separability function to the first data, to separate the channel properties according to a group of frequencies that carried the first data over a time period during which the wireless RX received the first data, thus generating a set of input variables, Zhang: Col. 10 Line 39-62, Col. 12 Line 42-6, Col. 15 Line 42-60).
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 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 of this title, 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.
The factual inquiries set forth in Graham v. John Deere Co., 383 U.S. 1, 148 USPQ 459 (1966), that
are applied for establishing a background for determining obviousness under 35 U.S.C. 103 are summarized as follows:
1. Determining the scope and contents of the prior art.
2. Ascertaining the differences between the prior art and the claims at issue.
3. Resolving the level of ordinary skill in the pertinent art.
4. Considering objective evidence present in the application indicating obviousness or nonobviousness.
Claims 1-3, 6-8, 10-12, 14-18, and 20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over
Ce Zhang et al. (US 10,305,766 B1, hereinafter “Zhang”) in view of Yang et al. (US 2021/0176657 A1, hereinafter “Yang”).
Regarding claim 1, Zhang discloses:
A method comprising:
determining wireless connection data for a wireless communications link (The TX 102 and RX 104A, 104B, 104C, and 104D may communicate with a computing device 150 through a network 115. The network 115 may include wireless aspects, but will likely connect wirelessly to the TX 102 and RX 104A, 104B, 104C, and 104D, e.g., by way of a local access point that provides an Internet or WAN connection. Zhang: Col. 5 Line 6-15):
generating a plurality of wireless connection metrics based on the wireless connection data (wireless device 200 adapted to detect and transmit channel state information (CSI) or received signal strength indicator (RSSI) data useable by a NN to perform presence detection, Zhang: Col. 6 Line 20-38);
generating a selection of one or more of a plurality of subcarriers based, at least in part, on the plurality of wireless connection metrics (the computing device 150 may receive, from a first wireless RX and a second wireless RX that are located in a building, data that includes first channel properties in a first communication link between a wireless TX and the first wireless RX and second channel properties 55 in a second communication link between the wireless TX and the second wireless RX, Zhang: Col. 15 Line 42-60); and
generating a determination of a presence event based, at least in part, on the selection of the one or more subcarriers (detect passive human presence with a wireless TX and a wireless RX, e.g., with one TX-RX link. Wireless devices may acquire either the instantaneous channel state information (CSI) or its second order statistics of CSI during their regular operation, e.g., statistical channel properties, the method continues from block with the processing logic applying a separability function to the first data, to separate the channel properties according to a group of frequencies that carried the first data over a time period during which the wireless RX received the first data, thus generating a set of input variables, Zhang: Col. 10 Line 39-62, Col. 12 Line 42-61)
Zhang does not explicitly disclose:
and variances in the wireless connection metrics of the selected one or more subcarriers.
However, in the same field of endeavor, Yang teaches:
variances in the wireless connection metrics of the selected one or more subcarriers (the channel conditions may change before the WLAN devices converge on the optimal transmission rate. the feedback may include one or more link quality metrics so that the transmitting WLAN device can select an optimal transmission rate option for the subsequent transmission. If the SINR varies from one OFDM subcarrier to the next, the optimum MCS may depend on more than the average SINR but also the variation in the SINR. The quantity of thresholds and the threshold values may depend on transmitter or receiver capabilities. The link quality metrics may indicate the link quality metrics (such as SINR or EVM) for each spatial stream, for each subcarrier, for each group of subcarriers, Yang: [0062], [0069]-[0070], [0107], [0109];
Therefore, it would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify Zhang in view of Yang in order to further modify variances in the wireless connection metrics of the selected one or more subcarriers from the teachings of Yang.
One of ordinary skill in the art would have been motivated because throughput and resiliency may be improved by reducing error rates in transmission that would otherwise use less optimal transmission rate settings (Yang: [0071]).
Regarding claim 10, Zhang discloses:
A system comprising (Zhang: Fig. 1):
a transceiver configured to establish a wireless communications link compatible with a wireless communications protocol (wireless device 200 may include, but not be limited to, a transmitter (TX) 202, a receiver (RX) 204, a communications interface 206, one or more antenna 210, a memory 214, one or more input/output (I/O) devices 218, and a processor 220. the transmitter 202 and the receiver 204 are combined into a transceiver, Zhang: Fig. 2A, Col. 6 Line 20-38); and
a processing device comprising one or more processors configured to (performed by processing logic that may comprise hardware (e.g., circuitry, dedicated logic, programmable logic, microcode, etc.), software (such as instructions running on the processor), firmware or a combination thereof. the processor may be configured to direct the TX to transmit data, which includes channel properties, to a remote computing device over a network forneural network processing. The processor may further be configured to direct the RX to receive a response from the remote computing device containing a presence detection signal, Zhang: Col. 12 Line 11-22, Line 39-50):
determine wireless connection data for the wireless communications link (The TX 102 and RX 104A, 104B, 104C, and 104D may communicate with a computing device 150 through a network 115. The network 115 may include wireless aspects, but will likely connect wirelessly to the TX 102 and RX 104A, 104B, 104C, and 104D, e.g., by way of a local access point that provides an Internet or WAN connection. Zhang: Col. 5 Line 6-15):
generate a plurality of wireless connection metrics based on the wireless connection data (wireless device 200 adapted to detect and transmit channel state information (CSI) or received signal strength indicator (RSSI) data useable by a NN to perform presence detection, Zhang: Col. 6 Line 20-38);
generate a selection of one or more subcarriers based, at least in part, on the plurality of wireless connection metrics (the computing device 150 may receive, from a first wireless RX and a second wireless RX that are located in a building, data that includes first channel properties in a first communication link between a wireless TX and the first wireless RX and second channel properties 55 in a second communication link between the wireless TX and the second wireless RX, Zhang: Col. 15 Line 42-60); and
generate a determination of a presence event based, at least in part, on the selection of the one or more subcarriers (detect passive human presence with a wireless TX and a wireless RX, e.g., with one TX-RX link. Wireless devices may acquire either the instantaneous channel state information (CSI) or its second order statistics of CSI during their regular operation, e.g., statistical channel properties, the method continues from block with the processing logic applying a separability function to the first data, to separate the channel properties according to a group of frequencies that carried the first data over a time period during which the wireless RX received the first data, thus generating a set of input variables, Zhang: Col. 10 Line 39-62, Col. 12 Line 42-61)
Zhang does not explicitly disclose:
and variances in the wireless connection metrics of the selected one or more subcarriers.
However, in the same field of endeavor, Yang teaches:
variances in the wireless connection metrics of the selected one or more subcarriers (the channel conditions may change before the WLAN devices converge on the optimal transmission rate. the feedback may include one or more link quality metrics so that the transmitting WLAN device can select an optimal transmission rate option for the subsequent transmission. If the SINR varies from one OFDM subcarrier to the next, the optimum MCS may depend on more than the average SINR but also the variation in the SINR. The quantity of thresholds and the threshold values may depend on transmitter or receiver capabilities. The link quality metrics may indicate the link quality metrics (such as SINR or EVM) for each spatial stream, for each subcarrier, for each group of subcarriers, Yang: [0062], [0069]-[0070], [0107], [0109];
Therefore, it would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify Zhang in view of Yang in order to further modify variances in the wireless connection metrics of the selected one or more subcarriers from the teachings of Yang.
One of ordinary skill in the art would have been motivated because throughput and resiliency may be improved by reducing error rates in transmission that would otherwise use less optimal transmission rate settings (Yang: [0071]).
Regarding claim 16, Zhang discloses:
A device comprising (Zhang: Fig. 1):
one or more processors configured to (a processor of the computing device or the wireless device performs the method. processing logic receiving, from a wireless RX, first data indicative of channel 25 properties of a first communication link between the wireless RX in a first device and a wireless transmitter (TX) in a second device, Zhang: Col. 12 Line 11-41):
determine wireless connection data for a wireless communications link (The TX 102 and RX 104A, 104B, 104C, and 104D may communicate with a computing device 150 through a network 115. The network 115 may include wireless aspects, but will likely connect wirelessly to the TX 102 and RX 104A, 104B, 104C, and 104D, e.g., by way of a local access point that provides an Internet or WAN connection. Zhang: Col. 5 Line 6-15):
generate a plurality of wireless connection metrics based on the wireless connection data (wireless device 200 adapted to detect and transmit channel state information (CSI) or received signal strength indicator (RSSI) data useable by a NN to perform presence detection, Zhang: Col. 6 Line 20-38);
generate a selection of one or more subcarriers based, at least in part, on the plurality of wireless connection metrics (the computing device 150 may receive, from a first wireless RX and a second wireless RX that are located in a building, data that includes first channel properties in a first communication link between a wireless TX and the first wireless RX and second channel properties 55 in a second communication link between the wireless TX and the second wireless RX, Zhang: Col. 15 Line 42-60); and
generate a determination of a presence event based, at least in part, on the selection of the one or more subcarriers (detect passive human presence with a wireless TX and a wireless RX, e.g., with one TX-RX link. Wireless devices may acquire either the instantaneous channel state information (CSI) or its second order statistics of CSI during their regular operation, e.g., statistical channel properties, the method continues from block with the processing logic applying a separability function to the first data, to separate the channel properties according to a group of frequencies that carried the first data over a time period during which the wireless RX received the first data, thus generating a set of input variables, Zhang: Col. 10 Line 39-62, Col. 12 Line 42-61)
Zhang does not explicitly disclose:
and variances in the wireless connection metrics of the selected one or more subcarriers.
However, in the same field of endeavor, Yang teaches:
variances in the wireless connection metrics of the selected one or more subcarriers (the channel conditions may change before the WLAN devices converge on the optimal transmission rate. the feedback may include one or more link quality metrics so that the transmitting WLAN device can select an optimal transmission rate option for the subsequent transmission. If the SINR varies from one OFDM subcarrier to the next, the optimum MCS may depend on more than the average SINR but also the variation in the SINR. The quantity of thresholds and the threshold values may depend on transmitter or receiver capabilities. The link quality metrics may indicate the link quality metrics (such as SINR or EVM) for each spatial stream, for each subcarrier, for each group of subcarriers, Yang: [0062], [0069]-[0070], [0107], [0109];
Therefore, it would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify Zhang in view of Yang in order to further modify variances in the wireless connection metrics of the selected one or more subcarriers from the teachings of Yang.
One of ordinary skill in the art would have been motivated because throughput and resiliency may be improved by reducing error rates in transmission that would otherwise use less optimal transmission rate settings (Yang: [0071]).
Regarding claims 2, 11 and 17, Zhang in view of Yang teaches all the claimed limitations as set forth in the rejection of claims 1, 10 and 16 above.
Zhang further discloses:
wherein the wireless connection data comprises channel state information for each subcarrier of the wireless communications link (RX can measure and transmit channel state information (CSI), which is data that includes channel properties of a communication link between a TX and RX, Zhang: Col. 6 Line 5-19):
Regarding claims 3, 12 and 18, Zhang in view of Yang teaches all the claimed limitations as set forth in the rejection of claims 1, 10 and 16 above.
Zhang further discloses:
wherein the plurality of wireless connection metrics comprise one or more environmental metrics (provide more information about the environment under surveillance, and thus may improve detection capability when applying a NN to CSI data or CSI-liked data, Zhang: Col. 6 Line 5-19).
Regarding claims 6, 14 and 20 Zhang in view of Yang teaches all the claimed limitations as set forth in the rejection of claims 1, 10 and 16 above.
Zhang further discloses:
comparing wireless connection data of the selection of the one or more subcarriers with a plurality of designated threshold values (A detection decision of present may be made in response to a threshold number of a series of sets of discrete samples of channel properties data being classified, Zhang: Col. 25 Line 15-20).
Regarding claims 7 and 15, Zhang in view of Yang teaches all the claimed limitations as set forth in the rejection of claims 6 and 14 above.
Zhang further discloses:
determining the plurality of designated threshold values based on one or more calibration operations (a threshold detector that detects the analog signal as a zero or one based on a comparison to some threshold value (e.g., over 0.50 is a one) and generates a detection decision based on a combination of the predictive outputs over the sampling period, Zhang: Col. 27 Line 46-50); or
Regarding claim 8, Zhang in view of Yang teaches all the claimed limitations as set forth in the rejection of claim 7 above.
Zhang further discloses:
The method of claim 7, wherein the one or more calibration operations comprise:
determining a first plurality of measurements via the wireless communications link when an entity is not present (these trained weights (w,) may then be used in combination with the CSI data and any bias term to generate an output as a weighted sum, which may then be passed through a detection activation function to determine whether or not a presence is detected, Zhang: Col. 13 Line 41-46); and
determining a second plurality of measurements via the wireless communications link when an entity is present (The computing device may further process the first channel properties and the second channel properties with a multi-layer neural network to detect not only presence of a human in the building, but also determine a relative location of the human with respect to a closest of the first wireless RX, the second wireless RX, and the wireless TX, Zhang: Col. 4 Line 14-30);
Claims 4-5, 9, 13, and 19 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Zhang in view of Yang and in further view of Feng Zhang et al. (US 12,279,190 Bl, hereinafter “Feng”).
Regarding claims 4, 13 and 19, Zhang in view of Yang teaches all the claimed limitations as set forth in the rejection of claims 1, 10 and 16 above.
Zhang in view of Yang does not explicitly disclose:
filtering the one or more subcarriers based, at least in part, on the wireless connection data.
However, in the same field of endeavor, Feng teaches:
filtering the one or more subcarriers based, at least in part, on the wireless connection data (the processing logic receives the CSI stream and performs interpolation and IIR filtering on the CSI stream. The processing logic can compute one or more statistical parameter values and the FFT of the CSI values, Feng: Col. 11 Line 27-41).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify Zhang and Yang in view of Feng in order to further modify filtering the one or more subcarriers based, at least in part, on the wireless connection data from the teachings of Feng.
One of ordinary skill in the art would have been motivated because the filter receives the samples as inputs and determines the average of those samples as a single output (Feng: Col. 17 Line 27-35).
Regarding claim 5, Zhang-Yang-Feng teaches all the claimed limitations as set forth in the rejection of claim 4 above.
Zhang in view of Yang does not explicitly disclose:
ranking the one or more subcarriers based, at least in part, on the wireless connection data.
However, in the same field of endeavor, Feng teaches:
ranking the one or more subcarriers based, at least in part, on the wireless connection data (The processing logic can rank a set of channel subcarrier indexes based on a second value representing an average fading power for the respective subcarrier index and a third value representing a variance of the respective subcarrier index over time, Feng: Col. 18 Line 1-19).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify Zhang and Yang in view of Feng in order to further modify ranking the one or more subcarriers based on the wireless connection data from the teachings of Feng.
One of ordinary skill in the art would have been motivated because the processing logic can determine each channel subcarrier index score based on one or more of these parameter values (Feng: Col. 18 Line 1-19).
Regarding claim 9, Zhang in view of Yang teaches all the claimed limitations as set forth in the rejection of claim 8 above.
Zhang in view of Yang does not explicitly disclose:
generating the plurality of designated threshold values based on a comparison of the first plurality of measurements and the second plurality of measurements.
However, in the same field of endeavor, Feng teaches:
generating the plurality of designated threshold values based on a comparison of the first plurality of measurements and the second plurality of measurements (the processing logic uses the device CSI collector 172 to measure the quality metric and whether the quality metric satisfies a threshold condition, Feng: Col. 18 Line 40-62).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify Zhang and Yang in view of Feng in order to further modify generating the plurality of designated threshold values based on a comparison of the first plurality of measurements and the second plurality of measurements from the teachings of Feng.
One of ordinary skill in the art would have been motivated because the processing logic can determine each channel subcarrier index score based on one or more of these parameter values (Feng: Col. 18 Line 1-19).
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 extension fee 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.
In the case of amendments, applicant is respectfully requested to indicate the portion(s) of the specification which dictate(s) the structure relied on for proper interpretation and support, for ascertaining the metes and bounds of the claimed invention.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should
be directed to SANG C LEE whose telephone number is (703)756-1461. The examiner can normally be reached Monday-Friday 9:00AM-5:00PM ET.
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/S.C.L./Examiner, Art Unit 2467
/HASSAN A PHILLIPS/Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 2467
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