Notice of Pre-AIA or AIA Status
The present application, filed on or after March 16, 2013, is being examined under the first inventor to file provisions of the AIA .
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 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)(1) the claimed invention was patented, described in a printed publication, or in public use, on sale, or otherwise available to the public before the effective filing date of the claimed invention.
Claim(s) 1-11 and 13 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by Hamlin et al (US 2022/0278959), Tan (CN 104639867), Acharya et al (US 2005/0094579) or Kim et al (US 2023/0025405).
Claim 1, Hamlin, Tan, Acharya or Kim teaches an Information Handling System (IHS), comprising: a processor; and a memory coupled to the processor, the memory having program instructions stored thereon that, upon execution by the processor, cause the IHS to:
in response to an indication that a second video bar replaces a first video bar in a conference room, associate the second video bar with the conference room;
Hamlin: a method may include: receiving, at a wireless docking station, a connectivity policy from a backend service over a network; determining that a rule in the connectivity policy is satisfied by context information collected via one or more IHSs in communication with the wireless docking station; and in response to the determination, changing at least one of: a wireless communication channel, a protocol, or a network configuration used by one or more of the IHSs to connect to the wireless docking station, [0008, 0011]);
Tan teaches, “the invention discloses a method and a system for resuming video conferences. The method includes that signaling messages and media code streams are synchronized with one another by the aid of a master multi-point control unit (MCU) and a standby MCU during the video conferences, an IP (internet protocol) address of the master MCU is communicated with an external communication network, and an IP address of the standby MCU is disconnected with the external communication network; the master MCU is switched over by the standby MCU when the master MCU fails, the IP address of the master MCU is disconnected from the external communication network, and the IP address of the standby MCU is communicated with the external communication network. The method and the system for resuming the video conferences have the advantages that the signaling messages and the media code streams can be seamlessly switched over when equipment fails in video conference procedures, users basically do not feel interruption of the conferences, and accordingly the experience can be greatly improved for the users, Abstract”.
Acharya: Participants could need to be moved to connect with a new server, to move to another server to improve QoS or to move from a malfunctioning conference server. If no moves are needed, then no participants are moved. If conference participants are identified that need to be moved from a first conference server to a second conference server, all of the participants are identified 80, and a suitable substitute conference server is identified and selected for each participant to be moved 82. The current conference server for each participant to be moved functions as a conference participant and requests the selected substitute conference server to establish a new conference using the same conference ID for the original conference server 84. The original conference server then transfers, for example by using "RE-INVITE" in SIP, at least one conference participant attached to the original conference server to the substitute conference server 86. The same transfer process is used for all of the participants that are going to be transferred to a substitute conference server, [0044];
Kim: in the event of a network outage or a device/process crash. The state of local service 100 is transferable from one device to another, to maintain a robust connection to the meeting. As each device connects to local service 100, its capabilities are queried and stored in the application. As local devices connecting to local service 100 may have different capabilities, local service 100's optimal host may vary from one set of devices to another. If the device is ascertained to be a more appropriate device to operate local service 100 on, local service 100 analyzes the audio/video streams and waits for a period of relative inactivity to occur, at which point it transfers its state from its previous host to the new host to minimize multimedia disruptions, [0079-0080]; and
de-associate a first video bar from the conference room.
Hamlin: a connectivity policy received and enforced by intelligent connectivity module 208 may include at least four distinct portions or sections, each portion having a distinct set of contextual rules: initialization, discovery, deployment, and disconnect. Particularly, in an initialization portion, the policy may include contextual initialization rules to pre-pair the IHS with specific entities. In the discovery portion, the policy may include contextual discovery rules for initiating the discovery phase in active or standby IHS states. In the deployment portion, the policy may include contextual deployment rules for runtime connectivity management. In the disconnect portion, the policy may include contextual disconnect rules for initiating the disconnect phase, [0062, 0067, 0069]).
Tan: the master MCU is switched over by the standby MCU when the master MCU fails, the IP address of the master MCU is disconnected from the external communication network, (See Tan, step above).
Acharya teaches, “if all of the participants have been removed from an original conference server, then the original conference server would need to be disconnected from the system, [0044-0045])”.
Kim: Once a local service transfer signal is acknowledged, local service 100 transfers the current local service state to the target device, and the target device signals remote service 200 that the transfer has begun. Once the local service state is transferred, the originating device signals all local devices still connected to local service 100 to transfer their connections to the new local service host. The originating device may then exit the conference call, and the new host device begins execution of local service 100 and informs remote service 200 that the transfer has completed, [0060].
Claim 2. The IHS of claim 1, wherein the indication comprises a notification from an Information Technology Decision Maker (ITDM) that the first video bar is being replaced by the second video bar. (Hamlin: [0050, 0060, 0076, 0090])
Claim 3. The IHS of claim 1, wherein to de-associate the first video bar, the program instructions, upon execution, further cause the IHS to de-associate the first video bar while the first video bar is located in the conference room. (See claim 1)
Claim 4. The IHS of claim 1, wherein to associate the second video bar, the program instructions, upon execution, further cause the IHS to associate the second video bar before the second video bar is deployed in the conference room. (See claim 1).
Claim 5. The IHS of claim 1, wherein the program instructions, upon execution, further cause the IHS to receive a software or firmware list from the first video bar and, in response to the indication, provide the second video bar with the software or firmware list. (Hamlin: firmware service may be deployed within that device to perform the aforementioned operations of intelligent connectivity module 208 (e.g., initialization, discovery, P2P, and disconnect), as well as to implement policies and/or dynamic updates of service list(s), service preference order(s), and service triggering conditions (e.g., throughput, bandwidth, ranging condition, etc.) of applications 202A-N so that corresponding protocols for the next turn can be used automatically, [0069]; FIG. 2 is a block diagram illustrating an example of software system 200 produced by IHS 100 for implementing network manageability techniques that enable intelligent connectivity. In some embodiments, each element of software system 200 may be provided by IHS 100 through the execution of program instructions by one or more logic components (e.g., CPU 100, BIOS 117, EC 120, etc.) stored in memory (e.g., system memory 105), storage device(s) 119, and/or firmware 117, 120, [005]; Acharya: The current conference server for each participant to be moved functions as a conference participant and requests the selected substitute conference server to establish a new conference using the same conference ID for the original conference server 84. The original conference server then transfers, for example by using "RE-INVITE" in SIP, at least one conference participant attached to the original conference server to the substitute conference server 86, [0044]. And furthermore, Tan teaches, “The method includes that signaling messages and media code streams are synchronized with one another by the aid of a master multi-point control unit (MCU) and a standby MCU during the video conferences, an IP (internet protocol) address of the master MCU is communicated with an external communication network, and an IP address of the standby MCU is disconnected with the external communication network; the master MCU is switched over by the standby MCU when the master MCU fails, the IP address of the master MCU is disconnected from the external communication network, and the IP address of the standby MCU is communicated with the external communication network. Abstract”.
Claim 6. The IHS of claim 1, wherein the program instructions, upon execution, further cause the IHS to receive data from the first video bar usable to maintain a virtual map of the conference room and, in response to the indication, provide at least a portion of the data or the virtual map to the second video bar. (KIM: [0009], a virtual map of the physical space in which the devices reside, identifying a number of distinct conversations occurring in the space, selecting, by the LAN service, the best audio and video device or devices for each distinct conversation, and attenuating volumes of distinct conversations based on positions of users in the virtual map, using audio enhancement algorithms…. Also [0083] and Fig. 4).
Claim 7. The IHS of claim 6, wherein the virtual map comprises a distance, location, or orientation of a peripheral device located in the conference room. (Please see claim 6 with the emphasis on “a virtual map of the physical space in which the devices reside”)
Claim 8. The IHS of claim 7, wherein the peripheral device comprises a display, a camera, a microphone, a loudspeaker, or a digital whiteboard. (See Kim, Fig. 1).
Claim 9. The IHS of claim 1, wherein the program instructions, upon execution, further cause the IHS to receive a policy from the first video bar and, in response to the indication, provide the policy to the second video bar. (Hamlin: connectivity policy, [0004-0011, 0062], QOS, [0050]; KIM: when transfer from one device to another, a requirement to maintain the meeting continuity of meeting’s multimedia streams, [0023, 0033], requires of QOS and bandwidth. These are the management algorithms required to provide better video resolution [0074, 0076]).
Claim 10. The IHS of claim 9, wherein the policy comprises a policy enforceable by the second video bar for operating a peripheral device in the conference room. (See claim 9 and furthermore, Acharya: Participants could need to be moved to connect with a new server, to move to another server to improve QoS or to move from a malfunctioning conference server. If no moves are needed, then no participants are moved. If conference participants are identified that need to be moved from a first conference server to a second conference server, all of the participants are identified 80, and a suitable substitute conference server is identified and selected for each participant to be moved 82. The current conference server for each participant to be moved functions as a conference participant and requests the selected substitute conference server to establish a new conference using the same conference ID for the original conference server 84. The original conference server then transfers, for example by using "RE-INVITE" in SIP, at least one conference participant attached to the original conference server to the substitute conference server 86. The same transfer process is used for all of the participants that are going to be transferred to a substitute conference server, [0044];
Claim 11. The IHS of claim 9, wherein the policy comprises a policy enforceable by the second video bar for determining a distance, location, or orientation of devices in the conference room. (See claim 6 and also Hamlin, [0045, 0046] and furthermore, Acharya: Participants could need to be moved to connect with a new server, to move to another server to improve QoS or to move from a malfunctioning conference server. If no moves are needed, then no participants are moved. If conference participants are identified that need to be moved from a first conference server to a second conference server, all of the participants are identified 80, and a suitable substitute conference server is identified and selected for each participant to be moved 82. The current conference server for each participant to be moved functions as a conference participant and requests the selected substitute conference server to establish a new conference using the same conference ID for the original conference server 84. The original conference server then transfers, for example by using "RE-INVITE" in SIP, at least one conference participant attached to the original conference server to the substitute conference server 86. The same transfer process is used for all of the participants that are going to be transferred to a substitute conference server, [0044];
Claim 13. The IHS of claim 9, wherein the policy comprises a policy enforceable by the second video bar for securely adding a device to a remote meeting. (Hamlin:, secure execution system, [0048, 0076, 0078]; Kim’s Fig. 1, a structure for multimedia conference service including remote service. Fig, 3 for distribution of service between remotes devices. Please note devices in Kim’s teaching are registered. This suggests some security. Acharya utilizes secure networks, [0025).
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) 12 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as anticipated by or, in the alternative, under 35 U.S.C. 103 as obvious over Hamlin et al (US 2022/0278959), Tan (CN 104639867), Acharya et al (US 2005/0094579) or Kim et al (US 2023/0025405) in view of Nalluri (US 2023/0217113).
Claim 12. (Currently Amended) The IHS of claim 9, wherein the policy comprises a policy enforceable by the second video bar for handling ultrasonic signals in the conference room and wherein the ultrasonic signals are used to collect or broadcast an ID of the second video bar, a meeting ID, a temporary meeting session key, a meeting application, a duration of a meeting, invited participants, present participants, a role of an IHS user, a conference room name, a conference room ID, a peripheral device list, a virtual map of the conference room, wireless credentials, a peripheral device setting, an access code, or a session key.
Hamlin teaches, “certain IHS 100 embodiments may utilize sensor hub 114 capable of sampling and/or collecting data from a variety of hardware sensors 112 . For instance, sensors 112, may be disposed within IHS 100, and/or display 110, and/or a hinge coupling a display portion to a keyboard portion of IHS 100, and may include, but are not limited to: …, ultrasonic signal… [0040] to collect data, i.e., context information or policy information, [0022] including room type (See Figs. 3 and 4 and , [0074-0075] where the user may choose a policy or rule that connects the IHS to the best P2P connection to other IHSs of co-participants in the same meeting room based on available bandwidth, etc, [0076] and also managing the conferencing application. By obviousness, Hamlin teaches many features in the amended claim 12.
Despite such examiner wishes to provide additional prior art to support the obviousness as examiner presents Nalluri who teaches, “the in-room communication application may only change the camera parameters upon detecting an ultrasonic signal corresponding to a user known to be in the room. In examples in which a unique ultrasonic signal is assigned to each user, the computing devices may periodically broadcast the ultrasonic signal to identify who is in the room for the computing device in the conference room and to allow the conference room computing device to localize those users. The conference room may then display the names of the participants - e.g., below their video images. In other examples, other methods of determine which users are in the room may include using a network address of the mobile device, a registration with the communication service, facial recognition, or the like, [0022]. In some examples, the user of mobile device 328 may enter the conference room where the conference room equipment 370 is present. The user may manually open the communication application and join the communication session. In some examples, the conference room equipment may broadcast a signal (e.g., an ultrasonic signal, a radio frequency signal, a light signal, or the like) which may be detected by the communication application and may cause the communication to wake up and join the communication session. As previously noted, the signal may include meeting join information such as username and/or password, [0038]”.
In providing Nalluri’s teaching, examiner by no means suggests, implies or insinuates that Hamlin does not teach the feature. It is to strengthen the rejection.
It would have been obvious to the ordinary artisan before the effective filing date to incorporate the teaching of Nalluri into the teaching of Hamlin for the purpose to expressly utilizing the ultrasonic signal to identify the (invited and/or present) participants, meeting room.
Response to Arguments
Applicant's arguments filed have been fully considered but they are not persuasive.
Applicant stated/argued:
Regarding claim 5, applicant simply stated, “Hamlin and Acharya do not teach "IHS to receive a software or firmware list from the first video bar..." and then "provide the second video bar with the software or firmware list" as required by claim 5. The cited portions of these references listed on pages 7-8 of the Office Action do not teach these limitations”.
Examiner respectfully suggests that applicant should submit an argument/remark pointing out disagreements with the examiner’s contentions. Applicant must also discuss the references applied against the claims, explaining how the claims avoid the references or distinguish from them. Simply stated that the prior art do not teach the claimed feature without detailed analysis pointing out “WHY” the prior did not teach the feature… it is very technically and legally challenging for examiner to discuss an issue based on guessing/assumption of applicant’s position.
Regardless Acharya: Participants could need to be moved to connect with a new server, to move to another server to improve QoS or to move from a malfunctioning conference server. If no moves are needed, then no participants are moved. If conference participants are identified that need to be moved from a first conference server to a second conference server, all of the participants are identified 80, and a suitable substitute conference server is identified and selected for each participant to be moved 82. The current conference server for each participant to be moved functions as a conference participant and requests the selected substitute conference server to establish a new conference using the same conference ID for the original conference server 84. The original conference server then transfers, for example by using "RE-INVITE" in SIP, at least one conference participant attached to the original conference server to the substitute conference server 86. The same transfer process is used for all of the participants that are going to be transferred to a substitute conference server, [0044]; Here clearly suggests same conference ID would entail same function which can also be implemented if each SIP client pre-configures its outbound proxy as one of the conference servers, [0031]).
Regarding claim 6, applicant simply stated, “Kim does not teach "IHS to receive data from the first video bar usable to maintain a virtual map of the conference room..." and then "provide at least a portion of the data or the virtual map to the second video bar" as required by claim 6. The cited portions of this reference listed on page 8 of the Office Action do not teach these limitations”.
Examiner respectfully suggests that applicant should submit an argument/remark pointing out disagreements with the examiner’s contentions. Applicant must also discuss the references applied against the claims, explaining how the claims avoid the references or distinguish from them. Simply stated that the prior art do not teach the claimed feature without detailed analysis pointing out WHY… it is very technically and legally challenging for examiner to discuss an issue based on guessing/assumption of applicant’s position. Regardless, see claim 7 below where examiner provides detail of claim 6 also since it is depending on claim 6.
Regarding claim 7, applicant stated that “Kim does not teach "wherein the virtual map comprises a distance, location, or orientation of a peripheral device located in the conference room" as required by claim 7. The cited portions of this reference listed on page 9 (and page 8 as the Office Action points to the rejection of claim 6) of the Office Action do not teach these limitations. the Office Action mentions:
...a virtual map of the physical space in which the devices reside, identifying a number of distinct conversations occurring in the space, selecting, by the LAN
service, the best audio and video device or devices for each distinct conversation, and attenuating volumes of distinct conversations based on positions of users in
the virtual map, using audio enhancement algorithms... (emphasis added by
Applicant) However, as emphasized in the above quoted paragraph, Kim does not teach "virtual map comprises a distance, location, or orientation of a peripheral device located in the conference room" per claim 7”.
Examiner respectfully disagrees. Kim’s [0009] clearly states the identification of devices and the users of the devices in the virtual maps where pending the user’s position, the conversation becomes distinct. It also reports the exact “distance and angle between devices to a LAN service”.
Furthermore, Kim’s [0083] Reference is made to FIG. 4, which is a simplified flowchart of a method 1200 for identifying multiple conversations taking place in a room, in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention. At operation 1210 local service 100 identifies each ser's facial expression and direction of gaze. At operation 1220 local service 100 reports distance between devices to a LAN service. At operation 1230 the LAN service creates a virtual map of the room. At operation 1240 the LAN service identifies a number of distinct conversations. At operation 1250 the LAN service selects the best audio and video devices for each conversation. At operation 1260 the LAN service attenuates volumes of conversations based on positions of users in the virtual map of the room.
Regarding claim 9, applicant simply stated “Hamlin and Kim do not teach "IHS to receive a policy from the first video bar..." and then "provide the policy to the second video bar" as required by claim 9. The cited portions of these references listed on page 9 of the Office Action do not teach these limitations”.
Examiner respectfully suggests that applicant should submit an argument/remark pointing out disagreements with the examiner’s contentions. Applicant must also discuss the references applied against the claims, explaining how the claims avoid the references or distinguish from them. Simply stated that the prior art do not teach the claimed feature without detailed analysis pointing out WHY… it is very technically and legally challenging for examiner to discuss an issue based on guessing/assumption of applicant’s position.
Regardless, examiner respectfully requests applicant to see claims 6-7 above.
Regarding claim 11, see Applicant's arguments for claim 7 above (regarding Kim) which are similarly applicable to claim 11. Hamlin, including the cited portions listed on page 9 of the Office Action, similarly does not teach the particular limitations of claim 11.
Examiner respectfully suggests that applicant should submit an argument/remark pointing out disagreements with the examiner’s contentions. Applicant must also discuss the references applied against the claims, explaining how the claims avoid the references or distinguish from them. Simply stated that the prior art do not teach the claimed feature without detailed analysis pointing out WHY… it is very technically and legally challenging for examiner to discuss an issue based on guessing/assumption of applicant’s position.
Regarding claim 12, applicant stated that “only time synchronization utilized with ultrasonic signals is mentioned in the Office Action with respect to Kim. However, Kim does not teach the particular features now claimed in amended claim 12. Hamlin, only teaches using ultrasonic sensors in general in cited portion paragraph [0040], and therefore also does not teach the particular features in amended claim 12”.
Please see the rejection as examiner holds firm that the prior art Hamlin still does teach the amended feature and/or alternately, examiner also presented Nalluri who also teaches the feature.
As demonstrated above, examiner holds firm to the rejection.
Conclusion
THIS ACTION IS MADE FINAL. 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 nonprovisional extension fee (37 CFR 1.17(a)) 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.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to PHUNG-HOANG J. NGUYEN whose telephone number is (571)270-1949. The examiner can normally be reached Reg. Sched. 6:00-3:00.
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If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Duc Nguyen can be reached at 571-272-7503. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/PHUNG-HOANG J NGUYEN/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2691