DETAILED ACTION
Notice of Pre-AIA or AIA Status
The present application, filed on or after March 16, 2013, is being examined under the first inventor to file provisions of the AIA .
Claim Objections
Claim 1 objected to because of the following informalities: ‘the the’ should be ‘the’. Appropriate correction is required.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 102
The following is a quotation of the appropriate paragraphs of 35 U.S.C. 102 that form the basis for the rejections under this section made in this Office action:
A person shall be entitled to a patent unless –
(a)(2) the claimed invention was described in a patent issued under section 151, or in an application for patent published or deemed published under section 122(b), in which the patent or application, as the case may be, names another inventor and was effectively filed before the effective filing date of the claimed invention.
Claim(s) 1,9,15,4,11,17,7,14,20, is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(2) as being anticipated by Bapst et al (US 20240195867 A1).
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
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.
Claim(s) ) 1,9,15,4,11,17,7,14,20 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Bapst et al (US 20240195867 A1), and further in view of Terry et al (US 20240015477 A1).
As per claim 1, Bapst discloses a computer-implemented method comprising:
identifying a plurality of radio devices within a communication range for role assignment (para. 97, the compute resources to be assigned workloads/roles, the devices in communications range as shown in fig. 2);
determining, by nearfield radio ranging, relative locations of the plurality of radio devices (para. 90: the central resource manager selection process may depend on a current or predicted location of the end devices 210.);
establishing a voice of a primary presenter by analyzing audio received by the plurality of radio device (para. 132, a voice recognition analysis);
the primary presenter established based on predefined auditory cues (para 132, audio data recorded by the end device 510) ;
monitoring audio signal quality of the voice of the primary presenter as captured by the radio devices, (the voice recognition is based on recorded audio data where recorded audio data is captured based on the received audio signal quality, as that directly affects the ability for the processor to digitize and read in the audio signal);
wherein the audio signal quality includes conditions representative of proximity to the primary presenter, the conditions being relative volume and clarity of the voice of the primary presenter (the ability of a digital system to read in data and perform the cited functions per para 132 is based on signal amplitude as read by the processor which requires coherent signals of sufficient volume and clarity in order to be read by a processor to perform said functions, where the ability to recognize a voice via a digital processor is an indication that said processor received the signal at a relative volume and clarity in order to be read in and understood);
building a mesh map (para. 97, the map, para. 91, the mesh network) of the plurality of radio devices based on shared audio signal data from the plurality of radio devices (para. 97, master device queries and maps other devices to get realtime status updates, where a status update on resource availability is based on the use of resources which includes the voice recognition done by a device in an other edge node) where the devices are locating a target speaker (voice recognition locates a speaker in time within an audio stream).
the mesh map (para. 97, the map, para. 91, the mesh network) locating a first device (one set of computing resources on one node) with respect to other devices (other sets of computing resources on other nodes); and
assigning to the first device a role of primary microphone to record the voice of the primary presenter (master device, noting that all devices are recorded at all times by the system to perform the functions cited below), the first device receiving a higher quality audio signal of the primary presenter/target speaker than the other devices (para. 119: A new master edge node may be selected using a scoring algorithm that depends on which remaining edge nodes 405 has the most favorable QoS across the end devices 410 over a period of time, where the most favorable QOS during the voice recognition will be the device with the highest audio quality signal as received by the scoring algorithm, noting that said QOS is based on signal amplitudes as received by a digital processor, which requires coherent signals of sufficient volume and clarity in order to be read by a processor to perform said functions, where the ability to recognize a voice via a digital processor is an indication that said processor received the signal at a relative volume and clarity in order to be read in and understood ) ).
However, Bapts does not disclose that the disclosed method is implemented in the context of a FIRA system with multiple networked microphones/audio devices/
Terry discloses the well known standard of FIRA and teaches is can be used with multiple wireless networked co-located microphones in a mesh implementation for the purpose of implementing a well known monitoring function (co located wireless microphones per Terry claim 1, and abstract). It would have been obvious to one skilled in the art and the time of filing, that the network and method of Bapts could be part of a FIRA standard based network for the purpose of implementing a monitoring function. Noting that collocated microphones would all receive the voice of a person speaking, at relative amplitude levels based on where the microphones are located relative to the speaker.
As per claim 9, . (Currently Amended) (Currently Amended) A computer program product comprising a computer-readable storage medium having a set of instructions stored therein which, when executed by a processor, causes the processor to perform a method comprising: identifying a plurality of fine-ranging (FiRa) radio devices within a communication range; determining, by nearfield radio ranging, relative locations of the plurality of FiRa radio devices;establishing identifying a voice of a primary presenter by analyzing audio received by the plurality of radio devices, the primary presenter established based on pre-defined auditory cues;monitoring audio signal quality of the voice of shared audio signal data received from the primary presenter as captured by the plurality of FiRa radio devices, wherein the audio signal quality includes conditions representative of proximity to the primary presenter, the conditions being relative volume and clarity of the voice of the primary presenter;building establishing a mesh map of the plurality of FiRa radio devices based on the shared audio signal data from the plurality of radio devices and the relative locations, the mesh map locating a first device with respect to other devices and the primary presenter; andassigning to the first device a role of primary microphone to record the voice of the audio signal data received from the primary presenter, the first device receiving a higher quality audio signal of the primary presenter than the other devices. (as per the claim 1 rejection).
As per claim 15, the claim 1 rejection discloses A computer system comprising: a processor set; and a computer readable storage medium; wherein: the processor set is structured, located, connected, and/or programmed to run program instructions stored on the computer readable storage medium; and the program instructions which, when executed by the processor set, cause the processor set to perform a method comprising:identifying a plurality of fine-ranging (FiRa) radio devices within a communication range;determining, by nearfield radio ranging, relative locations of the plurality of FiRa radio devices;establishing identifying a voice of a primary presenter by analyzing audio received by the plurality of radio devices, the primary presenter established based on pre-defined auditory cues;monitoring audio signal quality of the voice of shared audio signal data received from the primary presenter as captured by the plurality of FiRa radio devices, wherein the audio signal quality includes conditions representative of proximity to the primary presenter, the conditions being relative volume and clarity of the voice of the primary presenter; building establishing a mesh map of the plurality of FiRa radio devices based on the shared audio signal data from the plurality of radio devices and the relative locations, the mesh map locating a first device with respect to other devices and the primary presenter; and assigning to the first device a role of primary microphone to record the voice of the audio signal data received from the primary presenter, the first device receiving a higher quality audio signal of the primary presenter than the other devices. (per claim 1 and 9 rejections).
As per claim 4,11,17, the computer-implemented method of claim 1, further comprising: monitoring audio signal quality of the first device and a second device, the second device being relatively closer to the first device than other devices of the plurality of FIRA radio devices (as devices are further away from the audio the signal quality will be lower because audio attenuates with distance, where among the close devices, the device with the highest audio quality is made the master device per claim 1) (also noting claim 1 of terry, the monitoring of each audio microphone in the network per para 53 of Terry); and
responsive to the audio quality of the second device being higher than the first device, assigning the second device the role of primary microphone (the highest signal quality is made the primary/master device per the claim 1 rejection).
As per claims 7,14,20, the computer-implemented method of claim 1, further comprising: updating an edge path of the mesh map based on a detected change in distance between the first device and a second device of the plurality of radio devices (para 82: the edge path is path is based on quality of the comm link, where the quality of the comm link for voice detection is dependent upon device distance from the audio source/speaker/voice since audio attenuates with distance)
the detected change in distance being based on a comparison of vocal characteristics of the primary speaker received by the first and second devices (the quality of a communication link when detecting voice is an indication of a change in voice characteristics (the voice signal being received) ), hence the comparison of signal link quality is a comparison of voice characteristics.
Claim(s) 2,10,16,5,12,18,6,13,19,8 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Bapst et al (US 20240195867 A1) as applied to claim 1,9,15, above, and further in view of Brett et al (US 11067718 B1).
As per claims 2,10,16, the computer-implemented method of claim 1, with the first sub-set of radio devices located, according to the mesh map per the claim 1 rejection. However Bapst does not disclose further comprising: assigning to a first sub-set of radio devices a role of background audio microphone, the first sub-set of radio devices, within a background distance range from the first device.
Brett teaches assigning to a first sub-set of radio devices a role of background audio microphone, the first sub-set of radio devices within a background distance range from the first device (the predefined distance from a location assigned a score according to the location for which the aggregated environment condition score is being generated (ie. Location of the radio device) (para. 78, fig. 7) (where the weight scores per step 705 based on distance within a background distance range are given weightings/assigned a role of background audio microphone).
It would have been obvious to one skilled in the art at the time of filing to assign roles/weights to the devices/environmental sensors for the purpose of realizing highly accurate environmental condition scores for the system of Bapst.
As per claims 5,12,18, the computer-implemented method of claim 1, further comprising: identifying a second sub-set of radio devices within an interference distance from the first device, the second sub-set of radio devices including a second device (the devices that are further away from the location per the claim 2 rejection); and
assigning to the second sub-set of radio devices a role of inactive speaker, the inactive speaker role muting speaker volume of corresponding radio devices (the weights above a certain amount as the distance increases are effectively muted since the weighting is based on distance).
As per claims 6,13,19, the computer-implemented method of claim 5, further comprising: responsive to the audio quality of the second device being higher than the first device, assigning to the second device the role of primary microphone (per the claim 1 rejection); and assigning to the first device the role of inactive speaker (per the muting as applied per the weighting per the claim 5 rejection).
As per claim 8, the computer-implemented method of claim 1, further comprising:
identifying a third sub-set of radio devices beyond an interference distance from the first device (the devices/nodes detected at a farther distance per the distance based processing of Brett para 78: location environment condition scores from locations that are farther away from the location for which the aggregated environment condition score is being generated are assigned a lower weighting factor than location environment condition scores that are closer in distance to the location for which the aggregated environment condition scores are being generated) ; and
assigning to the third sub-set of radio devices a role of speaker system (the devices comprise/are assigned speakers per para 123),
the role of speaker system turning on the speakers of assigned devices to emit audio transmitted from the first device having a role of primary microphone (para. 123 the speakers output audio that is received by the device).
Claim(s) 3 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Bapst et al (US 20240195867 A1) as applied to claim 1 above, and further in view of Suiter (US 11876941B1).
As per claim 3, Bapst discloses the computer-implemented method of claim 1, but does not specify wherein the plurality of radio devices are fine-ranging (FiRa) radio devices.
Suiter teaches that networked sensors can be implemented a fira devices per para 168, in order to produce a frictionless location-based content access system.
It would have been obvious to one skilled in the art at the time of filing to implement the radio devices as FIRA radio devices for the purpose of implementing a more frictionless location-based content access system.
Response to Arguments
The submitted arguments have been considered but are moot in view of the new grounds of rejection.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to ALEXANDER KRZYSTAN whose telephone number is 571-272-7498, and whose email address is alexander.krzystan@uspto.gov
The examiner can usually be reached on m-f 7:30-4:00 est.
If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone or email are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Fan Tsang can be reached on (571) 272-7547.
The fax phone numbers for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned are 571-273-8300 for regular communications and 571-273-8300 for After Final communications.
/ALEXANDER KRZYSTAN/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2653
Examiner Alexander Krzystan
March 10, 2026