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 .
DETAILED ACTION
Applicant is advised that the new art unit number is 2692. Please use the new art unit number for all future communications.
This Office action is in response to the Amendment filed on 1/16/2026.
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) 1-2, 4-6, 8-9, 11-13, 15-16, 18-19 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Kochura et al. (US 2021/0089261) in view of Eskenas (US 2016/0330538).
Regarding claim 1, Kochura discloses a system, comprising:
a wearable device (110) (Fig. 1);
a plurality of sound sensors (112-N) installed in the wearable device (Fig. 1);
an alerting element (haptic device) installed in the wearable device (¶ 0023); and
a controller coupled to the plurality of sound sensors and the alerting element (¶ 0018, 0050, Fig. 4), the controller to:
receive a signal indicative of a sound detected by at least one of the plurality of sound sensors (Fig. 3: 310);
determine whether the sound indicates the presence of a potentially dangerous event (320 and 330) (¶ 0043-0045) by determining whether a volume of the sound exceeds a volume threshold (320 and 330) (¶ 0043-0045: determine when the audio is categorized as being in a range of sound intensities (i.e. a range of sound volumes) and contains spoken words such as “look out”, “beware”, “danger”, “hey you”, etc.; and note that a range is defined by a lower and upper thresholds, so determining that the volume is in the range will include determining that the volume exceeds the lower threshold of the range)
determine a direction of the sound based on the received signal indicative of the sound (340);
if the sound indicates the presence of the potentially dangerous event (330 outputs “Y”), activate the alerting element (350); and
if the sound does not indicate the presence of the potentially dangerous event (330 outputs “N”), not activate the alerting element (395) (Fig. 3).
Kochura is not relied upon to disclose that the volume threshold is based on an environmental profile.
In a similar field of endeavor, Eskenas discloses an alert system to alert a user of an external sound above a threshold, where the threshold is adjustable by an automatic adjustment of the threshold that is based on the ambient sound level in the user's environment (i.e. based on an environmental profile) (¶ 0007).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to: configure the volume threshold of Kochura to be adjustable by an automatic adjustment of the threshold that is based on the ambient sound level in the user's environment (i.e. based on an environmental profile), the motivation being to make the system of Kochura have less limitations (Eskenas - ¶ 0006) and/or to provide the option of automatic adjustment of the volume threshold based on the ambient sound level, which is considered an advantage (Eskenas - ¶ 0025).
Regarding claim 2, Kochura-Eskenas discloses the system of claim 1, and Kochura discloses wherein the alerting element comprises a plurality of alerting elements (¶ 0023, 0046), and activating the alerting element comprises activating one or more of the plurality of alerting elements to indicate a direction of the sound (¶ 0023, 0046).
Regarding claim 4, Kochura-Eskenas discloses the system of claim 1, and Kochura discloses wherein the wearable device is worn on a user's head or a user's torso to permit spatial direction notification (¶ 0031, 0034).
Regarding claim 5, Kochura-Eskenas discloses the system of claim 1, and Kochura discloses wherein the plurality of sound sensors includes at least three sound sensors (112-1, 112-2, 112-3), respective ones of the sound sensors having primary detection contribution for a sector about the wearable device (¶ 0045).
Regarding claim 6, Kochura-Eskenas discloses the system of claim 1, and Kochura discloses wherein determining whether the sound indicates the presence of a potentially dangerous event is based on detecting a keyword (¶ 0044).
Claims 8-9, 11-13, 15-16, 18-19 recite similar limitations as claims 1-2, 4-6, 1-2, 5-6, respectively, and are rejected for the same reasons set forth above in the rejections of claims 1-2, 4-6, 1-2, 5-6, respectively.
Claim(s) 3, 10, 17 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Kochura in view of Eskenas in view of Fu (CN 105632096 using an English machine translation).
Regarding claim 3, Kochura-Eskenas discloses the system of claim 1.
Kochura-Eskenas is not relied upon to disclose wherein activating the alerting element comprises indicating an intensity of the sound.
In a similar field of endeavor, Fu discloses wherein activating the alerting element comprises indicating an intensity of the sound (¶ 0055).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to: wherein activating the alerting element comprises indicating an intensity of the sound, the motivation being to generate vibrations consistent with intensity of the sound (Fu - ¶ 0055).
Claims 10, 17 recite similar limitations as claims 3, 3, respectively, and are rejected for the same reasons set forth above in the rejections of claims 3, 3, respectively.
Claim(s) 7, 14, 20 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Kochura in view of Eskenas in view of Gurijala et al. (US 11145317).
Regarding claim 7, Kochura-Eskenas discloses the system of claim 1.
Kochura-Eskenas is not relied upon to disclose wherein determining a direction of the sound based on data from the plurality of sound sensors comprises using a multipath compensation technique.
In a similar field of endeavor, Gurijala discloses using a multipath compensation technique to enhance detection by countering distortions in ambient detection (detx108, col. 22, lines 27-40).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to: wherein determining a direction of the sound based on data from the plurality of sound sensors comprises using a multipath compensation technique, the motivation being to enhance detection by countering distortions in ambient detection (Gurijala - detx108, col. 22, lines 27-40).
Claims 14, 20 recite similar limitations as claims 7, 7, respectively, and are rejected for the same reasons set forth above in the rejections of claims 7, 7, respectively.
Response to Arguments
Applicant’s arguments with respect to the claim(s) have been considered but are moot because the new ground of rejection does not rely on any reference applied in the prior rejection of record for any teaching or matter specifically challenged in the argument.
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 extension fee 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 date of this final action.
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/MARK FISCHER/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2692