DETAILED ACTION
The Examiner acknowledges the amendments received 18 December 2025. Claim 13 is cancelled; claims 1-12 and 14-19 are pending.
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 Arguments
Applicant’s arguments, see “Remarks”, filed 18 December 2025, with respect to the rejection(s) of claim(s) 1-19 under Connor 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 Therefore, the rejection has been withdrawn.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 Ko.
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.
Claims 1-12 and 14-19 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Connor (U.S. 2018/0042513) in view of Ko et al (U.S. 2018/0055449). Connor discloses (Figure 13) a first wearable instrument; a second wearable instrument comprising a biometric sensor (par. 0259); a conductive connection (par. 0309) between the first wearable instrument and the second wearable instrument; and a strap, sized and dimensioned to be disposed about a wrist (par. 0261 and 0263), the system being capable of: securing the first wearable instrument to the strap; securing the second wearable instrument to the strap at a first position relative to the first wearable instrument; and securing the second wearable instrument to the strap at a second position relative to the first wearable instrument (Figures 15-16).
Connor discloses the claimed invention except for a speckleplethysmography sensor. Ko, however, discloses (Figures 1-9) a wearable device including a strap and a speckle PPG (par. 0083). Ko and Connor both disclose wearable devices including biometric sensors on a strap. Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time of the invention to modify Connor’s two wearable instruments with Ko’s speckle PPG in order to correlate the PPG and the volume change of a vessel for addition diagnosis modalities.
Regarding claim 2, Connor discloses (par. 0301) the conductive connection is configured to supply power, from the first wearable instrument to the second wearable instrument.
Regarding claim 3, Connor discloses (par. 0301) the first wearable instrument comprises a battery configured to supply power to the first wearable instrument and the second wearable instrument.
Regarding claim 4, Connor discloses (par. 0301) the conductive connection is configured to transmit signals from the second wearable instrument to the first wearable instrument.
Regarding claim 5, Connor discloses (par. 0368) the first wearable instrument comprises a radio configured to transmit measurement data.
Regarding claim 6, Connor discloses (par. 0368) the first wearable instrument is configured: to receive measurement data obtained by the second wearable instrument; and to transmit the measurement data, via the radio.
Regarding claim 7, Connor discloses (par. 0368) the conductive connection is further configured to transmit signals from the first wearable instrument to the second wearable instrument.
Regarding claim 8, Connor discloses (par. 0245-0248) in the first position, the second wearable instrument is separated from the first wearable instrument by a first distance along the strap; in the second position, the second wearable instrument is separated from the first wearable instrument by a second distance along the strap; and the first distance differs from the second distance by less than 5 mm.
Regarding claim 9, Connor discloses (par. 0245-028) the first distance differs from the second distance by less than 2 mm.
Regarding claim 10, Connor discloses (Figure 13) the system is capable of: securing the second wearable instrument to the strap at a plurality of positions, including the first position and the second position, relative to the first wearable instrument; and the plurality of positions includes 5 distinct positions.
Regarding claim 11, Connor discloses (Figure 13) the plurality of positions includes 20 distinct positions over a range of distances, along the strap, between the first wearable instrument and the second wearable instrument, the range of distances including: a first distance, and a second distance greater than the first distance by 5 mm.
Regarding claim 12, Connor discloses (par. 0260) the first wearable instrument comprises a spectrophotometer.
Regarding claim 14, Connor discloses (Figure 13) a third wearable instrument, wherein the system is further capable of securing the third wearable instrument to the strap.
Regarding claim 15, Connor discloses (par. 0260) one or more processing circuits configured: to receive a sequence of measurements from the second wearable instrument; and to calculate a signal quality indicator.
Regarding claim 16, Connor discloses (par. 0700) the one or more processing circuits are further configured to display the signal quality indicator to a user.
Regarding claim 17, Connor discloses (par. 0377) the signal quality indicator is based on a frequency-domain analysis of the sequence of measurements.
Regarding claim 18, Connor discloses (par. 0377) the signal quality indicator is based on a plurality of fiducial points in a waveform corresponding to the sequence of measurements.
Regarding claim 19, Connor discloses (par. 0377) the signal quality indicator is based on a morphological analysis of a waveform corresponding to the sequence of measurements.
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 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 DEBORAH L MALAMUD whose telephone number is (571)272-2106. The examiner can normally be reached Mon - Fri 1:00-9:30 Eastern.
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/DEBORAH L MALAMUD/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 3792
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