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 .
Drawings
Figures 1(A) and 1(B) should be designated by a legend such as --Prior Art-- because only that which is old is illustrated. See MPEP § 608.02(g). Corrected drawings in compliance with 37 CFR 1.121(d) are required in reply to the Office action to avoid abandonment of the application. The replacement sheet(s) should be labeled “Replacement Sheet” in the page header (as per 37 CFR 1.84(c)) so as not to obstruct any portion of the drawing figures. If the changes are not accepted by the examiner, the applicant will be notified and informed of any required corrective action in the next Office action. The objection to the drawings will not be held in abeyance.
The drawings are objected to because in Figures 13(A) and 13(B), part of the label for the Figure number is cutoff in each Figure. Corrected drawing sheets in compliance with 37 CFR 1.121(d) are required in reply to the Office action to avoid abandonment of the application. Any amended replacement drawing sheet should include all of the figures appearing on the immediate prior version of the sheet, even if only one figure is being amended. The figure or figure number of an amended drawing should not be labeled as “amended.” If a drawing figure is to be canceled, the appropriate figure must be removed from the replacement sheet, and where necessary, the remaining figures must be renumbered and appropriate changes made to the brief description of the several views of the drawings for consistency. Additional replacement sheets may be necessary to show the renumbering of the remaining figures. Each drawing sheet submitted after the filing date of an application must be labeled in the top margin as either “Replacement Sheet” or “New Sheet” pursuant to 37 CFR 1.121(d). If the changes are not accepted by the examiner, the applicant will be notified and informed of any required corrective action in the next Office action. The objection to the drawings will not be held in abeyance.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 101
35 U.S.C. 101 reads as follows:
Whoever invents or discovers any new and useful process, machine, manufacture, or composition of matter, or any new and useful improvement thereof, may obtain a patent therefor, subject to the conditions and requirements of this title.
Claims 1-4 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 101 because the claimed invention is directed to abstract idea without significantly more.
Per Step 1 of the Subject Matter Eligibility Test ((MPEP 2106, subsection II), claim 1 is directed to a method which a process and thus falls into a statutory category (MPEP 2106.03, Subsection II).
Per Step 2A, Prong 1, claim 1 recites receiving vibration data; analyzing the vibration data using artificial intelligence algorithms configured to determine vibrational events threatening the cable; determining, from the vibrational events threatening the cable, a location, time, and distance of an impulse event producing the vibrational event from the threatened cable. The only discussion of artificial intelligence is in par 36 of the specification which describes the content of Figs. 1(A) and 1(B), which show prior art (Specification, par. 10). Therefore analysis limitation includes any prior art artificial intelligence or machine learning which includes models that mimic human observation and analysis and/or judgment, which falls into the mental processes grouping (See MPEP 2106.04(a)(2), subsection III). The determining step also involves observation and judgment and requires mathematical relationships which falls into the mental concepts grouping and the mathematical concepts grouping (See MPEP 2106.04(a)(2), subsection I).
The additional elements in claim 1 are operating a distributed fiber optic sensing (DFOS) system configured to receive vibration data; and outputting an indicium of the cable, location, time, and distance of the impulse event on a graphical user interface.
Per Step 2A, Prong 2, the abstract idea is not integrated into a practical application. The DFOS function is mere data gathering in conjunction with the abstract idea. The outputting step is simply outputting the result of the abstract idea. Both of these steps are insignificant extra-solution activity (See MPEP 2106.05(g)).
Per Step 2B, claim 1 does not include additional elements that are sufficient to amount to significantly more than the judicial exception for the same reason. Further, collecting data and outputting the results in various manners has been recognized by the courts as well-understood, routine and conventional (See MPEP 2106.05(d), Subsection II).
Claims 2-4 depend from claim 1 and recite further details of the abstract idea. Claims 2-4 do not recite any further additional elements. Therefore, claims 2-4 are rejected for the same reason.
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.
Claim(s) 1 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over US Patent Application Publication 2023/0025986 to Xia et al. (Xia) in view of US Patent Application Publication 2021/0278314 to Xia et al. (Xia2).
Claim 1
With regard to operating a distributed fiber optic sensing (DFOS) system configured to receive vibration data; Xia teaches a distributed optical fiber sensing device that may sense vibrations (pars. 13, 20; Fig. 1C, sensor device 115).
With regard to receiving vibration data; Xia teaches detecting vibrations from a cable (par. 20).
With regard to analyzing the vibration data using artificial intelligence algorithms configured to determine vibrational events threatening the cable; Xia teaches analyzing the vibration measurements with machine learning to determine vibration characteristics that may include vibrations associated with vehicular traffic (pars. 26, 27, 30; pars. 11, 12).
With regard to determining, from the vibrational events threatening the cable, a location, time, and distance of an impulse event producing the vibrational event from the threatened cable; Xia teaches determining distance location and using determining the distance based on a time that a vibration event occurs (pars. 21, 29).
With regard to outputting an indicium of the location of the impulse event on a graphical user interface, Xia teaches outputting a location using a display (par. 11, 82).
Xia does not teach outputting an indicium of the cable, time and distance along with the location on a graphical user interface. Xia2 teaches an interface that permits visualization and a display that can be used to output cable ID, distance and geographic coordinates and timestamps (par. 66, interface that permit visualization, par. 73, user interface that provides a display; Figs. 5C, 5D, pars. 88, 90). It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date to modify the deployed cable identification, as taught by Xia, to include displaying more information, as taught by Xia2, because then the user would have had more information for evaluating the condition of cables (Xia, par. 1).
Claim(s) 2 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Xia in view of Xia2 as applied to claim 1 above, and further in view of US Patent Application Publication 2021/0180997 to Huang et al. (Huang).
Claim 2
Xia and Xia2 teach all the limitations of claim 1 upon which claim 2 depends. Xia and Xia2 do not teach that an impulse source location is determined from time difference of arrival (TDOA) information obtained from the vibration data. Huang teaches using TDOA to determine a location of a vibration excitation on a cable (pars. 22, 28). It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date to modify the deployed cable identification, as taught by Xia and Xia2, to include using TDOA, as taught by Huang, because then a well known method of determining distance from an excitation along a medium would have been available.
Claim(s) 3 and 4 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Xia in view of Xia2 and Huang as applied to claim 2 above, and further in view of US Patent Application Publication 2005/0043920 to Castiglioni et al. (Castiglioni).
Claim 3
Xia, Xia2 and Huang teach all the limitations of claim 2 upon which claim 3 depends. Xia, Xia2 and Huang do not teach that the time of arrival information is estimated by a spectral domain change point detection that eliminates traffic noises. Castiglioni teaches filtering noise from signals used to monitor cable stranding (pars. 121, 124, 130). It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date to modify the deployed cable identification combination, as taught by Xia, Xia2 and Huang, to include filtering noise, as taught by Castiglioni, because then a more accurate signal for analysis would have been acquired.
Claim 4
Xia, Xia2 and Huang teach all the limitations of claim 2 upon which claims 3 and 4 depend. Xia and Xia2 do not teach that a determination of impulse event location is determined in two steps, a first step based on earliest time of arrival information and a second step based on propagation speed of vibrations. Huang teaches performing TDOA and then using the propagation speed to determine the location (pars. 24-30). It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date to modify the deployed cable identification, as taught by Xia and Xia2, to include using TDOA and propagation speed, as taught by Huang, because then a well known method of determining distance from an excitation along a medium would have been available.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to MANUEL L BARBEE whose telephone number is (571)272-2212. The examiner can normally be reached M-F: 9-5:30..
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/MANUEL L BARBEE/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2857