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 .
Status of Claims
This Office Action is in response to the application filed on 10/25/2023. Claims 1-20 are presently pending and are presented for examination.
Information Disclosure Statement
The information disclosure statement (IDS) submitted on 10/25/2023 and 4/24/2026 are in compliance with the provisions of 37 CFR 1.97. Accordingly, the information disclosure statement is being considered by the examiner.
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.
1. Claims 9-20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 101 because the claimed invention is directed to non-statutory subject matter.
The claims are drawn to a "computer readable tangible storage medium". The broadest reasonable interpretation of a claim drawn to a computer readable medium covers forms of non-transitory tangible media and transitory propagating signals per se in view of the ordinary and customary meaning of computer readable media, particularly when the specification is silent (see MPEP 2111.01). Because the broadest reasonable interpretation covers a signal per se, a rejection under 35 USC 101 is appropriate as covering non-statutory subject matter. See 351 OG 212, Feb 23 2010.
The Examiner suggests that Applicant amends the claims as follows: "non-transitory computer readable tangible storage medium ".
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.
Claims 1-3,5-10,12-17, and 19-20 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by Tsenter (US 5729116).
As to claims 1, Tsenter discloses a processor-implemented method, (Fig. 1 with microcontroller 22. Columns 4 lines 1-6, Column 5 lines 65-67, Column 6 lines 1-5 and 48-53. Battery charger 20 is comprised of the necessary elements for achieving the methodology of shunt recognition (i.e. dendrite formation)…all or part of these elements may be integrated into the microcontroller 22), the method comprising: calculating a dendrite formation value of a cell within a battery pack based on captured sensor data (Column 4 lines 36-44 sampling a charging voltage of the battery; interrupting charging of the battery to sample an open circuit voltage of the battery; identifying one or more points indicative of dendrite formation) ; in response to determining the dendrite formation value exceeds a safety threshold, disabling the cell (Column 4 lines 36-44 .. and terminating charging if the point indicative of dendrite formation is identified).
As to claims 8, Tsenter discloses a computer system, the computer system comprising: one or more processors, one or more computer-readable memories, one or more computer-readable tangible storage media (Column 6 lines 10-15 The microcontroller 22 used in the present invention is a MC608HC705 B5 type and includes 6 KB memory ROM, 128 byte RAM), and program instructions stored on at least one of the one or more tangible storage media for execution by at least one of the one or more processors via at least one of the one or more memories (Fig. 1 with microcontroller 22. Columns 4 lines 1-6, Column 5 lines 65-67, Column 6 lines 1-5 and 48-53. Battery charger 20 is comprised of the necessary elements for achieving the methodology of shunt recognition (i.e. dendrite formation)…all or part of these elements may be integrated into the microcontroller 22), wherein the computer system is capable of performing a method comprising:
calculating a dendrite formation value of a cell within a battery pack based on captured sensor data (Column 4 lines 36-44 sampling a charging voltage of the battery; interrupting charging of the battery to sample an open circuit voltage of the battery; identifying one or more points indicative of dendrite formation); in response to determining the dendrite formation value exceeds a safety threshold, disabling the cell (Column 4 lines 36-44 .. and terminating charging if the point indicative of dendrite formation is identified).
As to claims 15, Tsenter discloses computer program product, the computer program product comprising: one or more computer-readable tangible storage medium (Column 6 lines 10-15 The microcontroller 22 used in the present invention is a MC608HC705 B5 type and includes 6 KB memory ROM, 128 byte RAM), and program instructions stored on at least one of the one or more tangible storage media, the program instructions executable by a processor capable of performing a method (Fig. 1 with microcontroller 22. Columns 4 lines 1-6, Column 5 lines 65-67, Column 6 lines 1-5 and 48-53. Battery charger 20 is comprised of the necessary elements for achieving the methodology of shunt recognition (i.e. dendrite formation)…all or part of these elements may be integrated into the microcontroller 22), the method comprising:
calculating a dendrite formation value of a cell within a battery pack based on captured sensor data (Column 4 lines 36-44 sampling a charging voltage of the battery; interrupting charging of the battery to sample an open circuit voltage of the battery; identifying one or more points indicative of dendrite formation); in response to determining the dendrite formation value exceeds a safety threshold, disabling the cell (Column 4 lines 36-44 .. and terminating charging if the point indicative of dendrite formation is identified).
As to claims 2, 9, and 16, Tsenter discloses the method of claim 1, the computer system of claim 8, and the computer program product of claim 15, further comprising: in response to determining the dendrite formation value does not exceed the safety threshold but does exceed a preconfigured threshold lower than the safety threshold (Abstract… If a shunt is not recognized charging is continued), performing a remediation action (Column 6 lines 20-26 .. the temperature detector 19 may be useful as a default mechanism to prevent explosive reactions from taking place. The collected information is fed to a microcontroller 22 which can in turn signal adjustment or termination of the 25 charging current by power manager 15 through current adjuster 18.
As to claims 3, 10, and 17, Tsenter discloses the method of claim 2, the computer system of claim 9, and the computer program product of claim 16, wherein the remediation action comprises activating a cooling system to lower a temperature of the cell to a range less conducive to dendrite formation (Column 6 lines 20-26 …the temperature detector 19 may be useful as a default mechanism to prevent explosive reactions from taking place. The collected information is fed to a microcontroller 22 which can in turn signal adjustment or termination of the charging current by power manager 15 through current adjuster 18 (i.e termination of charging reduces battery temperature). Preferably, after an equilibrium period which may be preset into microcontroller 22 or a timer 14, the current is interrupted by a relay 17 so that the open circuit voltage VOCV of the battery 11 can be sampled).
As to claims 5, 12, and 19, Tsenter discloses the method of claim 1, the computer system of claim 8, and the computer program product of claim 15, wherein the captured sensor data is selected from a group consisting of temperature, a charging detail, an available power state, a usage duration, an amount of recharge, an amount of discharge and any other information related to charge, discharge, operation, or environmental parameters of the cell (Abstract..Dendrite formation or the beginning of shunting due to such formation is indicated by any one of the following conditions: a negative gradient in sampled voltage values; a negative gradient in sampled steady open circuit values; and a negative gradient in the chemical polarization voltage values which may be calculated by sampling both the open circuit voltage soon after current interruption and steady open circuit voltages during a plurality of currentless phases).
As to claims 6, 13, and 20, Tsenter discloses the method of claim 1, the computer system of claim 8, and the computer program product of claim 15, further comprising: mapping a location of the cell within the battery pack (Column 6 lines 1-5.. rechargeable lithium battery or cell 11 is connected to a power supply 13 through power manager 15).
As to claims 7 and 14 , Tsenter discloses the method of claim 1, the computer system of claim 8, wherein disabling the cell comprises preventing current from passing through the cell (Column 4 lines 36-44 sampling a charging voltage of the battery; interrupting charging of the battery to sample an open circuit voltage of the battery; identifying one or more points indicative of dendrite formation).
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.
Claims 4,11, and 18 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Tsenter (US 5729116) in view of Zhang US 20210334574
As to claims 4, 11, and 18 Tsenter discloses the method of claim 1, the computer system of claim 8, and the computer program product of claim 15.
Tsenter does not disclose/teach wherein the calculating utilizes a convolutional neural network (CNN)-based, you only look once (YOLO) object detector, trained using historical data from various devices of a same or similar type as a device in which the cell is installed, to generate a percentage of dendrite formation in the cell.
Zhang teaches wherein the calculating utilizes a convolutional neural network (CNN)-based, you only look once (YOLO) object detector. ([0098] The SSD is a method that makes use of the ideas of the deep learning-based target detection algorithm YOLO (You Only Look Once) and Faster R-CNN, and the SSD have a fast target detection speed and a high target detection accuracy).
It would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art to modify the method of Tsenter to wherein the calculating utilizes a convolutional neural network (CNN)-based, you only look once (YOLO) object detector, trained using historical data from various devices of a same or similar type as a device in which the cell is installed in order to have a fast target detection speed and a high target detection accuracy ([0098]).
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to TYNESE V MCDANIEL whose telephone number is (313)446-6579. The examiner can normally be reached on M to F, 9am to 530pm.
If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Drew Dunn can be reached at 571-272-2312. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/TYNESE V MCDANIEL/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2859
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