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 .
Continued Examination Under 37 CFR 1.114
A request for continued examination under 37 CFR 1.114, including the fee set forth in 37 CFR 1.17(e), was filed in this application after final rejection. Since this application is eligible for continued examination under 37 CFR 1.114, and the fee set forth in 37 CFR 1.17(e) has been timely paid, the finality of the previous Office action has been withdrawn pursuant to 37 CFR 1.114. Applicant's submission filed on 01/26/2026 has been entered.
Response to Arguments
Applicant’s arguments, see Remarks, filed 01/26/2026, with respect to the rejection(s) of claim(s) under 35 USC 103 have been fully considered and are persuasive. Therefore, the rejection has been withdrawn. However, upon further consideration, a new ground(s) of rejection is made in view of the following:
Claim(s) 1, 3-4 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over US Pat Pub No. 20210396607 to Uzun et al. (Hereinafter “Uzun”) in view of US Pat Pub No. 20220407367 to Mahmood.
Claim(s) 2 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Uzun as modified by Mahmood as applied to claims 1, 3-4 above, and further in view of NPL titled “MXene electrochemical microsupercapacitor integrated with triboelectric nanogenerator as a wearable self-charging power unit” to Jiang et al. (hereinafter “Jiang” – previously presented).
Claim(s) 5-10 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Uzun as modified by Mahmood as applied to claims 1, 3-4 above, and further in view of US Pat Pub No. 20220296165 to Datta et al. (hereinafter “Datta” – previously presented).
Claim(s) 11, 13-17 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over US Pat Pub No. 20210396607 to Uzun et al. (Hereinafter “Uzun”) in view of US Pat Pub No. 20220407367 to Mahmood and US Pat Pub No. 20220296165 to Datta et al. (hereinafter “Datta” – previously presented).
Claim(s) 12 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Uzun as modified by Mahmood and Datta as applied to claims 11, 13-17 above, and further in view of NPL titled “MXene electrochemical microsupercapacitor integrated with triboelectric nanogenerator as a wearable self-charging power unit” to Jiang et al. (hereinafter “Jiang” – previously presented).
Claim(s) 18 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over US Pat Pub No. 20210396607 to Uzun et al. (Hereinafter “Uzun”) in view of US Pat Pub No. 20220407367 to Mahmood and US Pat Pub No. 20220296165 to Datta et al. (hereinafter “Datta” – previously presented) and NPL titled “MXene electrochemical microsupercapacitor integrated with triboelectric nanogenerator as a wearable self-charging power unit” to Jiang et al. (hereinafter “Jiang” – previously presented).
Claim Objections
Claim 11 is objected to because of the following informalities: claim 11 “based power usage of the system” should be changed to “based on power usage of the system”. Appropriate correction is required.
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.
The text of those sections of Title 35, U.S. Code not included in this action can be found in a prior Office action.
The factual inquiries 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.
Claim(s) 1, 3-4 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over US Pat Pub No. 20210396607 to Uzun et al. (Hereinafter “Uzun”) in view of US Pat Pub No. 20220407367 to Mahmood.
Regarding claim 1. (Currently Amended) Uzun discloses a system for continuous real-time physiological signal monitoring (para 0005-0007), comprising: a) a charging component configured to generate power from movement of a user (para 0009 “a commercial Teflon yarn (brown) can be placed strategically to harvest energy from body movements”, 0093, 0181, etc.); and b) one or more pressure sensors operatively coupled to the charging component (para 0005, 0006, 0009, “Capacitive pressure sensor device knitted with MXene-coated bamboo yarn, where the device can sense different applied pressures ranging from low to high”, 0014, 0019, 0183, etc.), configured to be applied to a user, measure one or more physiological signals of the user (para 0043 “wearable”, 0090, 0093, 0109, 0115), and output one or more capacitance values (para 0007, 0009 “capacitance”, 0014, 0205), wherein the charging component is further configured to power the one or more pressure sensors (para 0005, 0006, 0009), wherein the one or more pressure sensors comprise MXene (abstract, para 0007, 0009).
Regarding the limitation “battery free” – The claim as written does not recite what is used to hold the harvested power for the device to use. Under its broadest reasonable interpretation, “battery-free” is understood to be without the use of a battery that is placed in the device having previously been charged to power the device. Here, Uzun discloses the MXene to power wearable electronics for variety of applications (para 0009, 0093, 0115) and therefore it is understood that Uzun teaches the device to be capable of operating without such battery.
Uzun fails to disclose swapping between a self-powering mode and a wireless powering mode based on power usage of the system.
Mahmood, from a similar field of endeavor teaches that it is known for a wearable article having a plurality of sensors (para 0021) to include a plurality of power sources including a rechargeable battery adapted to be charged wirelessly such as by inductive charging and an energy harvesting device configured to generate electrical power signals in response to kinetic events such as kinetic evens performed by the wearer (para 0024). It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filling date of the claimed invention to modify the disclosure of Uzun with the teachings of Mahmood to provide the predictable result of including multiple power sources.
It is noted that the claim does not require any details regarding how the swap occurs and how it is based on a power usage. The specification further does not provide any details. Under its broadest reasonable interpretation, any device having both modes is configured to be able to switch/swap between the two sources. Here, Mahmood teaches determining when transfer conditions are satisfied and using thresholds which could be understood as power demand/usage.
Regarding claim 3. (Currently Amended) Uzun as modified by Mahmood renders obvious the system of claim 1 further comprising a wearable component [[(130)]] configured to attach to a user (para 0009, 0026, 0043 “wearable”, 0090, 0093, 0109, 0115).
Regarding claim 4. (Currently Amended) Uzun as modified by Mahmood renders obvious the system of claim 3, wherein the wearable component is configured to attach to a wrist of the user (para 0009, 0026, 0043 garment, wearable, 0090, 0093, 0109, 0115).
Claim(s) 2 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Uzun as modified by Mahmood as applied to claims 1, 3-4 above, and further in view of NPL titled “MXene electrochemical microsupercapacitor integrated with triboelectric nanogenerator as a wearable self-charging power unit” to Jiang et al. (hereinafter “Jiang” – previously presented).
Regarding claim 2. (Currently Amended) Uzun as modified by Mahmood renders obvious the system of claim 1, wherein the charging component comprises an MXene-based but fails to disclose triboelectric nanogenerator.
Jiang, from a similar field of endeavor, teaches that it is known for the Mxene to be integrated with triboelectric nanogenerator as a wearable self-charging power unit (abstract, introduction “triboelectric nanogenerator (TENG)”). It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filling date of the claimed invention to modify the disclosure of Uzun as modified by Mahmood with the known teachings of Jiang to provide the predictable result of having a wearable self-charging power unit.
Claim(s) 5-10 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Uzun as modified by Mahmood as applied to claims 1, 3-4 above, and further in view of US Pat Pub No. 20220296165 to Datta et al. (hereinafter “Datta” – previously presented).
Regarding claim 5. (Currently Amended) Uzun as modified by Mahmood renders obvious the system of claim 1 but fails to disclose further comprising a capacitance-to-digital converter operatively coupled to the one or more pressure sensors and the charging componen
Datta, from a similar field of endeavor, teaches that it is known to provide a capacitance-to-digital converter (CDC) connected to the sensor interface portion to enable power to be provided to the CDC (para 0082, 0158 “converts it to a digital signal”) and a wireless transmitter to enable wireless transmission of data (para 0068). It would have been obvious before the filing date of the claimed invention to modify the disclosure of Uzun as modified by Mahmood with the teachings of Datta to provide the predictable result of converting capacitive signal to digital signal and transmitting the data to an external source for further analysis.
Regarding claim 6. (Currently Amended) Uzun as modified by Mahmood and Datta renders obvious the system of claim 5 further comprising a communication component operatively coupled to the capacitance-to-digital converter and an external sourc
Regarding claim 7. (Currently Amended) Uzun as modified by Mahmood and Datta renders obvious the system of claim 6, wherein the communication component [[(150)]] comprises a microcontroller unit and a near field communication chip further configured to be charged by an external charging source (Mahmood, para 0014).
Regarding claim 8. (Currently Amended) Uzun as modified by Mahmood and Datta renders obvious the system of claim 7, wherein the external charging source comprises a smart device or a wireless battery (Mahmood, para 0015-0018, 0031 etc.).
Regarding claim 9. (Currently Amended) Uzun as modified by Mahmood and Datta renders obvious the system of claim 5, wherein the external source comprises a smart device, a personal computing device, a cloud server, or a physical server (Mahmood, para 0015-0018, 0031 etc.).
Regarding claim 10. (Currently Amended) Uzun as modified by Mahmood renders obvious the system of claim 1 Mahmood teaches various sensors including optical sensors but fails to disclose further comprising one or more light-emitting diodes
Datta, from a similar field of endeavor, teaches that it is known to provide LED for measuring PPG form the user (para 0038). It would have been obvious before the filing date of the claimed invention to modify the disclosure of Uzun as modified by Mahmood with the teachings of Datta to provide the predictable result of measuring PPG form the user.
Claim(s) 11, 13-17 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over US Pat Pub No. 20210396607 to Uzun et al. (Hereinafter “Uzun”) in view of US Pat Pub No. 20220407367 to Mahmood and US Pat Pub No. 20220296165 to Datta et al. (hereinafter “Datta” – previously presented).
Regarding claim 11. (Currently Amended) Uzun discloses a system for continuous real-time physiological signal monitoring (para 0005-0007), comprising: a) a wearable component configured to attach to a user (para 0043); b) a charging component coupled to the wearable component, wherein the charging component is configured to generate power from movement of the user (para 0009 “a commercial Teflon yarn (brown) can be placed strategically to harvest energy from body movements”, 0093, 0181, etc.); c) one or more pressure sensors (para 0005, 0006, 0009, “Capacitive pressure sensor device knitted with MXene-coated bamboo yarn, where the device can sense different applied pressures ranging from low to high”, 0014, 0019, 0183, etc.) coupled to the wearable component and the charging component, configured to measure one or more physiological signals of the user (para 0043 “wearable”, 0090, 0093, 0109, 0115) and output one or more capacitance values (para 0007, 0009 “capacitance”, 0014, 0205), wherein the one or more pressure sensors comprise MXene (abstract, para 0007, 0009).
Regarding the limitation “battery free” – The claim as written does not recite what is used to hold the harvested power for the device to use. Under its broadest reasonable interpretation, “battery-free” is understood to be without the use of a battery that is placed in the device having previously been charged to power the device. Here, Uzun discloses the MXene to power wearable electronics for variety of applications (para 0009, 0093, 0115) and therefore it is understood that Uzun teaches the device to be capable of operating without such battery.
Uzun fails to disclose swapping between a self-powering mode and a wireless powering mode based on power usage of the system.
Mahmood, from a similar field of endeavor teaches that it is known for a wearable article having a plurality of sensors (para 0021) to include a plurality of power sources including a rechargeable battery adapted to be charged wirelessly such as by inductive charging and an energy harvesting device configured to generate electrical power signals in response to kinetic events such as kinetic evens performed by the wearer (para 0024). It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filling date of the claimed invention to modify the disclosure of Uzun with the teachings of Mahmood to provide the predictable result of including multiple power sources.
It is noted that the claim does not require any details regarding how the swap occurs and how it is based on a power usage. The specification further does not provide any details. Under its broadest reasonable interpretation, any device having both modes is configured to be able to switch/swap between the two sources. Here, Mahmood teaches determining when transfer conditions are satisfied and using thresholds which could be understood as power demand/usage.
Uzun as modified by Mahmood renders obvious the limitations above obvious but fails to disclose d) a capacitance-to-digital converter operatively coupled to the one or more pressure sensors and the charging component, configured to convert the one or more capacitance values into one or more digital signals; and e) a communication component operatively coupled to the capacitance-to-digital converter and an external sourc
Datta, from a similar field of endeavor, teaches that it is known to provide a capacitance-to-digital converter (CDC) connected to the sensor interface portion to enable power to be provided to the CDC (para 0082, 0158 “converts it to a digital signal”) and a wireless transmitter to enable wireless transmission of data (para 0068). It would have been obvious before the filing date of the claimed invention to modify the disclosure of Uzun as modified by Mahmood with the teachings of Datta to provide the predictable result of converting capacitive signal to digital signal and transmitting the data to an external source for further analysis.
Regarding claim 13. (Currently Amended) Uzun as modified by Mahmood and Datta renders obvious the system of claim 11, wherein the wearable component is configured to attach to a wrist of the user (para 0009, 0026, 0043 garment, wearable, 0090, 0093, 0109, 0115).
Regarding claim 14. (Currently Amended) Uzun as modified by Mahmood and Datta renders obvious the system of claim 13, wherein the communication component comprises a microcontroller unit and a near field communication chip further configured to be charged by the external charging source (Mahmood, para 0014).
Regarding claim 15. (Currently Amended) Uzun as modified by Mahmood and Datta renders obvious the system of claim 14, wherein the external charging source comprises a smart device or a wireless battery (Mahmood, para 0015-0018, 0031 etc.).
Regarding claim 16. (Currently Amended) Uzun as modified by Mahmood and Datta renders obvious the system of claim 11, wherein the external source comprises a smart device, a personal computing device, a cloud server, or a physical server (Mahmood, para 0015-0018, 0031 etc.).
Regarding claim 17. (Currently Amended) Uzun as modified by Mahmood and Datta renders obvious the system of claim 11 further comprising one or more light-emitting diode operatively coupled to the one or more pressure sensors and the charging component, configured to actuate in response to the movement of the user (Datta, para 0038).
Claim(s) 12 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Uzun as modified by Mahmood and Datta as applied to claims 11, 13-17 above, and further in view of NPL titled “MXene electrochemical microsupercapacitor integrated with triboelectric nanogenerator as a wearable self-charging power unit” to Jiang et al. (hereinafter “Jiang” – previously presented).
Regarding claim 12. (Currently Amended) Uzun as modified by Mahmood and Datta renders obvious the system of claim 11, but fails to disclose wherein the charging component comprises an MXene-based triboelectric nanogenerator.
Jiang, from a similar field of endeavor, teaches that it is known for the Mxene to be integrated with triboelectric nanogenerator as a wearable self-charging power unit (abstract, introduction “triboelectric nanogenerator (TENG)”). It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filling date of the claimed invention to modify the disclosure of Uzun as modified by Mahmood and Datta with the known teachings of Jiang to provide the predictable result of having a wearable self-charging power unit.
Claim(s) 18 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over US Pat Pub No. 20210396607 to Uzun et al. (Hereinafter “Uzun”) in view of US Pat Pub No. 20220407367 to Mahmood and US Pat Pub No. 20220296165 to Datta et al. (hereinafter “Datta” – previously presented) and NPL titled “MXene electrochemical microsupercapacitor integrated with triboelectric nanogenerator as a wearable self-charging power unit” to Jiang et al. (hereinafter “Jiang” – previously presented).
Regarding claim 18. (Currently Amended) Uzun discloses a system for continuous real-time physiological signal monitoring (para 0005-0007) comprising: a wearable component configured to attach to a user (para 0043); a charging component comprising a MXene, coupled to the wearable component, wherein the charging component is configured to generate power from movement of the user (para 0009 “a commercial Teflon yarn (brown) can be placed strategically to harvest energy from body movements”, 0093, 0181, etc.); one or more pressure sensors coupled to the wearable component and the charging component (para 0005, 0006, 0009, “Capacitive pressure sensor device knitted with MXene-coated bamboo yarn, where the device can sense different applied pressures ranging from low to high”, 0014, 0019, 0183, etc.), configured to measure one or more physiological signals of the user and output one or more capacitance values (para 0043 “wearable”, 0090, 0093, 0109, 0115), wherein the one or more pressure sensors comprise MXene (abstract, para 0007, 0009).
Regarding the limitation “battery free” – The claim as written does not recite what is used to hold the harvested power for the device to use. Under its broadest reasonable interpretation, “battery-free” is understood to be without the use of a battery that is placed in the device having previously been charged to power the device. Here, Uzun discloses the MXene to power wearable electronics for variety of applications (para 0009, 0093, 0115) and therefore it is understood that Uzun teaches the device to be capable of operating without such battery.
Uzun fails to disclose swapping between a self-powering mode and a wireless powering mode based on power usage of the system and a communication component comprising a microcontroller unit and a near field communication chip.
Mahmood, from a similar field of endeavor teaches that it is known for a wearable article having a plurality of sensors (para 0021) to include a plurality of power sources including a rechargeable battery adapted to be charged wirelessly such as by inductive charging and an energy harvesting device configured to generate electrical power signals in response to kinetic events such as kinetic evens performed by the wearer (para 0024) and near field communication (para 0014). It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filling date of the claimed invention to modify the disclosure of Uzun with the teachings of Mahmood to provide the predictable result of including multiple power sources.
It is noted that the claim does not require any details regarding how the swap occurs and how it is based on a power usage. The specification further does not provide any details. Under its broadest reasonable interpretation, any device having both modes is configured to be able to switch/swap between the two sources. Here, Mahmood teaches determining when transfer conditions are satisfied and using thresholds which could be understood as power demand/usage.
Uzun as modified by Mahmood renders obvious the limitations above obvious but fails to disclose d) a capacitance-to-digital converter operatively coupled to the one or more pressure sensors and the charging component, configured to convert the one or more capacitance values into one or more digital signals; and e) a communication component operatively coupled to the capacitance-to-digital converter and an external sourc
Datta, from a similar field of endeavor, teaches that it is known to provide a capacitance-to-digital converter (CDC) connected to the sensor interface portion to enable power to be provided to the CDC (para 0082, 0158 “converts it to a digital signal”) and a wireless transmitter to enable wireless transmission of data (para 0068) and having one or more LED ((Datta, para 0038). It would have been obvious before the filing date of the claimed invention to modify the disclosure of Uzun as modified by Mahmood with the teachings of Datta to provide the predictable result of converting capacitive signal to digital signal and transmitting the data to an external source for further analysis.
Uzun as modified by Mahmood and Datta renders obvious the limitations above obvious but fails to disclose wherein the charging component comprises an MXene-based triboelectric nanogenerator.
Jiang, from a similar field of endeavor, teaches that it is known for the Mxene to be integrated with triboelectric nanogenerator as a wearable self-charging power unit (abstract, introduction “triboelectric nanogenerator (TENG)”). It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filling date of the claimed invention to modify the disclosure of Uzun as modified by Mahmood and Datta with the known teachings of Jiang to provide the predictable result of having a wearable self-charging power unit.
Conclusion
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/SANA SAHAND/Examiner, Art Unit 3796
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