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 Amendment
This action is in response to amendments and remarks filed on 12/10/2025. Claims 1-2,5-12 and 15-24 are considered in this office action. Claims 1, 2, 5, 11, 12, 16, 17, and 20 have been amended. Claims 1-2,5-12 and 15-24 are pending examination. Applicant's amendment necessitated new grounds of rejection therefore, claims 1-2,5-12 and 15-24 are rejected.
Response to Arguments
Applicant presents the following arguments regarding the previous office action:
Kelson does not disclose determining an odor type of a gas based on the reminder content which reminds a user of an event
Regarding argument A with respect to the claims has been fully considered and is moot in light of new grounds for rejection below.
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 1-2, 5-6, 11-12, 15, and 20-23 are all rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Zeng (CN112092583A) in view of Zambotti (US20200013511A1).
Regarding claim 1, Zeng discloses, a method for an odor adjustment system (Disclosure of Invention, 56, the vehicle-mounted aroma 20 starts to spray aroma, so that the aroma concentration in the vehicle reaches the first concentration threshold), comprising: obtaining information of a current time (0090, the dispersions can be configured at specific times each day), and obtaining scene information (Background, 3, generally, a plurality of information acquisition devices are arranged in an automobile, and the acquired specific data can be divided into a plurality of types, and generally include HMI (Human Machine Interface) system data, original automobile body data and cloud communication data); determining an odor type of a gas based on the scene information (Disclosure of Invention, 12, the fragrance type and the fragrance concentration of the vehicle-mounted aroma are set through a remote controller or a vehicle HMI system) and sending a control instruction, that comprises a gas release instruction for releasing the gas of the odor type (Disclosure of Invention, 43, the vehicle-mounted controller 10 wakes up the vehicle-mounted aroma 20, and after receiving the turn-on command, the vehicle-mounted aroma 20 starts to spray aroma).
Additionally, Zambotti who is in the same field of endeavor of NLU based reminder text fragrance dispensers discloses, schedule reminder information, wherein the schedule reminder information comprises reminder content to remind a user of an event and a reminder time (0093, A second input category for sub-model 2 543-2 may include calendar data. To learn from the calendar, the time and the type of the events are extracted and used to form a chart of time events as follows) … (0097, the different events in the calendar may be extracted using natural language processing (NLP) techniques and are classified or clustered into several group according to their similarity) … (0048, an instruction to a user device to provide a notification to the user, such as a smart watch beeping to notify the user of a likely or imminent hot flash); determining a first odor type of a first gas based on the reminder content (0048, Example stress relief strategies may include cognitive behavior therapy, music therapy (e.g., activate a device to play music to the user or recommend the same to the user), and/or aromatherapy (e.g., active a device outputs a scent or recommend the same to the user, such as lavender, chamomile, or rose scents)) … ( 0048, the action may include communicating a message to the user 108 to take an action to mitigate or prevent the hot flash and/or to otherwise mitigate symptoms associated with the hot flash and/or menopause. The action may be based on past user response to an action by the system 100 and/or other users' response to mitigating action to prevent or mitigate hot flashes and/or other symptoms); and sending, in response to a determination that the reminder time matches the current time, a first control instruction that comprises a first gas release instruction for releasing the first gas of the first odor type (0089, the sub-model 2 543-2 takes inputs related to the user's routines during a specific time such as twenty-four hours, and outputs the probability of hot flash occurrences during that time. Therefore, the output of the machine learning process consists of m hot flash occurrence probabilities corresponding to m time intervals) … (0096, the output of the predictive model 544 is the current and/or future probability of a hot flash occurring (e.g., depending of the actions module parameters set for triggering such as real-time cooling, which uses the current hot flashes probability or tips and the future hot flashes probability to take preventive action)).
One of ordinary skill in the art prior to the effective filing date of the given invention
would have been motivated to combine Zeng and Zambotti to automate the release of aromas using natural language processing on calendar events and times to better satisfy a user’s preferences and/or calmness.
Further justification for combining Zeng and Zambotti not only comes from the state of the art but from Zeng (Final Paragraph, it should be understood that various changes, substitutions and alterations can be made herein without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention as defined by the appended claims).
Regarding claim 2, Zeng and Zambotti disclose the method according to claim 1, as discussed supra. Additionally Zeng discloses, the scene information comprises one or more of driving fatigue scene information (Detailed Description, the vehicle stops at a safe position, and the driver has a break at eyes, the vehicle-mounted aromatherapy device 20 provides a sleep-assisting fragrance through the execution module 25), user emotion information (Detailed Description, 29, when the vehicle-mounted connector 10 detects that the driver is excited in emotion (namely, the third event in table one occurs) in the monitoring event set, the vehicle-mounted connector 10 sends information that the third event has occurred to the vehicle-mounted aroma 20, and the vehicle-mounted aroma 20 can control the execution module 25 to provide a condensed aroma type according to the information that the third event has occurred so as to assist the driver in stabilizing emotion), off-odor removal scene information (Detailed Description 61, when the vehicle-mounted aroma 20 receives a situation that the passenger in the passenger compartment is uncomfortable with the current aroma, such as sneezing, coughing, nose covering, allergic reaction and the like, which are transmitted by the vehicle-mounted connector 10, the vehicle-mounted aroma 20 automatically closes, assistance action request information such as an air conditioner starting request and/or a window opening request is sent to the vehicle-mounted connector 10, and the vehicle-mounted connector 10 requests the air conditioner to open and/or the window to open through the vehicle CAN network and the vehicle network 30 according to the request of the vehicle-mounted aroma 20, so that the original aroma is volatilized as soon as possible), driving mode information (Detailed Description, 4, the HMI system data includes but is not limited to … driving mileage, brake, engine speed, steering wheel angle, temperature of each part, engine torque, accelerator opening, brake pedal, gear lever position, etc.), music scene information (Detailed Description, 4, the cloud communication data includes … song information), environment information (Detailed Description, 64, at this time, the vehicle-mounted aroma 20 may also request the vehicle state information and the vehicle environment information from the vehicle-mounted connector 10, for example, the vehicle speed needs to be lower than a set threshold, the external weather condition is good, and the like, to determine whether the vehicle is in a state suitable for opening the window, and when the vehicle is in the state suitable for opening the window, the vehicle-mounted aroma 20 sends the window opening operation request information to the vehicle-mounted connector 10), historical scene record information (Detailed Description, 4, information service data provided by platform service providers such as weather information, road condition information, map information), or user-defined scene information (Detailed Description, 72, the vehicle occupant to the vehicle-mounted aroma 20, such as a control command to the vehicle-mounted aroma 20 through a display interface operation, a voice control, and the like, the vehicle-mounted connector 10 transmits the control command to the vehicle-mounted aroma 20, and the vehicle-mounted aroma 20 performs a corresponding operation according to the command transmitted by the vehicle-mounted connector 10).
Regarding claim 5, Zeng and Zambotti disclose the method according to claim 1, as discussed supra. Additionally Zeng discloses, determining a target person based on the reminder content (Detailed Description, 60, further, the vehicle-mounted aroma 20 requests the vehicle-mounted connector 10 for the identification authentication request information of the driver to acquire the identity of the driver), and sending the first control instruction in response to the target person being detected (Detailed Description, 60, and adjusts the type and the concentration of the aroma according to the information transmitted by the vehicle-mounted connector 10 to provide the aroma and the concentration of the aroma according with the habit of the driver).
Regarding claim 6, Zeng and Zambotti disclose the method according to claim 2, as discussed supra. Additionally Zeng discloses, the user emotion information is obtained based on one or more of voice information (Detailed Description 61, the driver emotion information transmitted by the in-vehicle connector 10 may be a judgment made by the vehicle itself, that is, a judgment of what emotion the driver is has been made by the vehicle based on the information collected by itself) … (Background, 2, in order to make the vehicle-mounted aroma, more parts are assembled on the vehicle-mounted aroma, such as … a voice receiving module for receiving voice commands of passengers, a voice judging module and the like, so that the vehicle-mounted aroma can collect more information, and then more intelligent operation is performed according to the collected information), operation action information (Detailed Description, 61, the driver emotion information may also be events representing changes in the emotion of the driver in the monitoring event set corresponding to the vehicle-mounted aroma 20, where the events include … the vehicle speed reaching a preset value, the amount of change in the steering wheel angle reaching a preset value), or face image information (Detailed Description, 61, and/or the blinking frequency of the driver reaching a preset value).
Regarding claim 11, Zeng discloses, an apparatus for an odor adjustment system, comprising; at least one processor coupled to a memory that stores programing instructions for execution by the at least one processor (Disclosure of Invention, a second processing unit connected with the second data transmission module, the second safety module and the execution module; the second safety module sends authentication information to the vehicle-mounted connector through the second data transmission module, and the second processing unit establishes data interaction with the vehicle-mounted connector through the second transmission module); to: obtain scene information (Background, 3, generally, a plurality of information acquisition devices are arranged in an automobile, and the acquired specific data can be divided into a plurality of types, and generally include HMI (Human Machine Interface) system data, original automobile body data and cloud communication data); determining an odor type of a gas based on the scene information (Disclosure of Invention, 12, the fragrance type and the fragrance concentration of the vehicle-mounted aroma are set through a remote controller or a vehicle HMI system) and sending a control instruction, that comprises a gas release instruction for releasing the gas of the odor type (Disclosure of Invention, 43, the vehicle-mounted controller 10 wakes up the vehicle-mounted aroma 20, and after receiving the turn-on command, the vehicle-mounted aroma 20 starts to spray aroma).
Additionally, Zambotti who is in the same field of endeavor of NLU based reminder text fragrance dispensers discloses, schedule reminder information, wherein the schedule reminder information comprises reminder content to remind a user of an event and a reminder time (0093, A second input category for sub-model 2 543-2 may include calendar data. To learn from the calendar, the time and the type of the events are extracted and used to form a chart of time events as follows) … (0097, the different events in the calendar may be extracted using natural language processing (NLP) techniques and are classified or clustered into several group according to their similarity) … (0048, an instruction to a user device to provide a notification to the user, such as a smart watch beeping to notify the user of a likely or imminent hot flash); determining a first odor type of a first gas based on the reminder content (0048, Example stress relief strategies may include cognitive behavior therapy, music therapy (e.g., activate a device to play music to the user or recommend the same to the user), and/or aromatherapy (e.g., active a device outputs a scent or recommend the same to the user, such as lavender, chamomile, or rose scents)) … ( 0048, the action may include communicating a message to the user 108 to take an action to mitigate or prevent the hot flash and/or to otherwise mitigate symptoms associated with the hot flash and/or menopause. The action may be based on past user response to an action by the system 100 and/or other users' response to mitigating action to prevent or mitigate hot flashes and/or other symptoms); and sending, in response to a determination that the reminder time matches the current time, a first control instruction that comprises a first gas release instruction for releasing the first gas of the first odor type (0089, the sub-model 2 543-2 takes inputs related to the user's routines during a specific time such as twenty-four hours, and outputs the probability of hot flash occurrences during that time. Therefore, the output of the machine learning process consists of m hot flash occurrence probabilities corresponding to m time intervals) … (0096, the output of the predictive model 544 is the current and/or future probability of a hot flash occurring (e.g., depending of the actions module parameters set for triggering such as real-time cooling, which uses the current hot flashes probability or tips and the future hot flashes probability to take preventive action)).
Regarding claim 12, Zeng and Zambotti disclose the apparatus according to claim 110, as discussed supra. Additionally Zeng discloses, the scene information comprises one or more of driving fatigue scene information (Detailed Description, the vehicle stops at a safe position, and the driver has a break at eyes, the vehicle-mounted aromatherapy device 20 provides a sleep-assisting fragrance through the execution module 25), user emotion information (Detailed Description, 29, when the vehicle-mounted connector 10 detects that the driver is excited in emotion (namely, the third event in table one occurs) in the monitoring event set, the vehicle-mounted connector 10 sends information that the third event has occurred to the vehicle-mounted aroma 20, and the vehicle-mounted aroma 20 can control the execution module 25 to provide a condensed aroma type according to the information that the third event has occurred so as to assist the driver in stabilizing emotion), off-odor removal scene information (Detailed Description 61, when the vehicle-mounted aroma 20 receives a situation that the passenger in the passenger compartment is uncomfortable with the current aroma, such as sneezing, coughing, nose covering, allergic reaction and the like, which are transmitted by the vehicle-mounted connector 10, the vehicle-mounted aroma 20 automatically closes, assistance action request information such as an air conditioner starting request and/or a window opening request is sent to the vehicle-mounted connector 10, and the vehicle-mounted connector 10 requests the air conditioner to open and/or the window to open through the vehicle CAN network and the vehicle network 30 according to the request of the vehicle-mounted aroma 20, so that the original aroma is volatilized as soon as possible), driving mode information (Detailed Description, 4, the HMI system data includes but is not limited to … driving mileage, brake, engine speed, steering wheel angle, temperature of each part, engine torque, accelerator opening, brake pedal, gear lever position, etc.), music scene information (Detailed Description, 4, the cloud communication data includes … song information), environment information (Detailed Description, 64, at this time, the vehicle-mounted aroma 20 may also request the vehicle state information and the vehicle environment information from the vehicle-mounted connector 10, for example, the vehicle speed needs to be lower than a set threshold, the external weather condition is good, and the like, to determine whether the vehicle is in a state suitable for opening the window, and when the vehicle is in the state suitable for opening the window, the vehicle-mounted aroma 20 sends the window opening operation request information to the vehicle-mounted connector 10), historical scene record information (Detailed Description, 4, information service data provided by platform service providers such as weather information, road condition information, map information), or user-defined scene information (Detailed Description, 72, the vehicle occupant to the vehicle-mounted aroma 20, such as a control command to the vehicle-mounted aroma 20 through a display interface operation, a voice control, and the like, the vehicle-mounted connector 10 transmits the control command to the vehicle-mounted aroma 20, and the vehicle-mounted aroma 20 performs a corresponding operation according to the command transmitted by the vehicle-mounted connector 10).
Regarding claim 15, Zeng and Zambotti disclose the apparatus according to claim 11, as discussed supra. Additionally Zeng discloses, the programming instructions are for execution by the at least one processor to: determine a target person based on the reminder content determining a target person based on the reminder content (Detailed Description, 60, further, the vehicle-mounted aroma 20 requests the vehicle-mounted connector 10 for the identification authentication request information of the driver to acquire the identity of the driver), and sending the first control instruction in response to the target person being determined (Detailed Description, 60, and adjusts the type and the concentration of the aroma according to the information transmitted by the vehicle-mounted connector 10 to provide the aroma and the concentration of the aroma according with the habit of the driver).
Regarding claim 20, Zeng discloses, a computer-readable storage medium, wherein the computer- readable storage medium stores program instructions for execution by a computer processor (Disclosure of Invention, a second processing unit connected with the second data transmission module, the second safety module and the execution module; the second safety module sends authentication information to the vehicle-mounted connector through the second data transmission module, and the second processing unit establishes data interaction with the vehicle-mounted connector through the second transmission module); to perform operations comprising: obtaining scene information (Background, 3, generally, a plurality of information acquisition devices are arranged in an automobile, and the acquired specific data can be divided into a plurality of types, and generally include HMI (Human Machine Interface) system data, original automobile body data and cloud communication data); determining an odor type of a gas based on the scene information (Disclosure of Invention, 12, the fragrance type and the fragrance concentration of the vehicle-mounted aroma are set through a remote controller or a vehicle HMI system) and sending a control instruction, that comprises a gas release instruction for releasing the gas of the odor type (Disclosure of Invention, 43, the vehicle-mounted controller 10 wakes up the vehicle-mounted aroma 20, and after receiving the turn-on command, the vehicle-mounted aroma 20 starts to spray aroma).
Additionally, Zambotti who is in the same field of endeavor of NLU based reminder text fragrance dispensers discloses, schedule reminder information, wherein the schedule reminder information comprises reminder content to remind a user of an event and a reminder time (0093, A second input category for sub-model 2 543-2 may include calendar data. To learn from the calendar, the time and the type of the events are extracted and used to form a chart of time events as follows) … (0097, the different events in the calendar may be extracted using natural language processing (NLP) techniques and are classified or clustered into several group according to their similarity) … (0048, an instruction to a user device to provide a notification to the user, such as a smart watch beeping to notify the user of a likely or imminent hot flash); determining a first odor type of a first gas based on the reminder content (0048, Example stress relief strategies may include cognitive behavior therapy, music therapy (e.g., activate a device to play music to the user or recommend the same to the user), and/or aromatherapy (e.g., active a device outputs a scent or recommend the same to the user, such as lavender, chamomile, or rose scents)) … ( 0048, the action may include communicating a message to the user 108 to take an action to mitigate or prevent the hot flash and/or to otherwise mitigate symptoms associated with the hot flash and/or menopause. The action may be based on past user response to an action by the system 100 and/or other users' response to mitigating action to prevent or mitigate hot flashes and/or other symptoms); and sending, in response to a determination that the reminder time matches the current time, a first control instruction that comprises a first gas release instruction for releasing the first gas of the first odor type (0089, the sub-model 2 543-2 takes inputs related to the user's routines during a specific time such as twenty-four hours, and outputs the probability of hot flash occurrences during that time. Therefore, the output of the machine learning process consists of m hot flash occurrence probabilities corresponding to m time intervals) … (0096, the output of the predictive model 544 is the current and/or future probability of a hot flash occurring (e.g., depending of the actions module parameters set for triggering such as real-time cooling, which uses the current hot flashes probability or tips and the future hot flashes probability to take preventive action)).
Regarding claim 21, Zeng and Zambotti disclose The computer-readable storage medium according to claim 20, as discussed supra. Additionally Zeng discloses, the scene information comprises one or more of driving fatigue scene information (Detailed Description, the vehicle stops at a safe position, and the driver has a break at eyes, the vehicle-mounted aromatherapy device 20 provides a sleep-assisting fragrance through the execution module 25), user emotion information (Detailed Description, 29, when the vehicle-mounted connector 10 detects that the driver is excited in emotion (namely, the third event in table one occurs) in the monitoring event set, the vehicle-mounted connector 10 sends information that the third event has occurred to the vehicle-mounted aroma 20, and the vehicle-mounted aroma 20 can control the execution module 25 to provide a condensed aroma type according to the information that the third event has occurred so as to assist the driver in stabilizing emotion), off-odor removal scene information (Detailed Description 61, when the vehicle-mounted aroma 20 receives a situation that the passenger in the passenger compartment is uncomfortable with the current aroma, such as sneezing, coughing, nose covering, allergic reaction and the like, which are transmitted by the vehicle-mounted connector 10, the vehicle-mounted aroma 20 automatically closes, assistance action request information such as an air conditioner starting request and/or a window opening request is sent to the vehicle-mounted connector 10, and the vehicle-mounted connector 10 requests the air conditioner to open and/or the window to open through the vehicle CAN network and the vehicle network 30 according to the request of the vehicle-mounted aroma 20, so that the original aroma is volatilized as soon as possible), driving mode information (Detailed Description, 4, the HMI system data includes but is not limited to … driving mileage, brake, engine speed, steering wheel angle, temperature of each part, engine torque, accelerator opening, brake pedal, gear lever position, etc.), music scene information (Detailed Description, 4, the cloud communication data includes … song information), environment information (Detailed Description, 64, at this time, the vehicle-mounted aroma 20 may also request the vehicle state information and the vehicle environment information from the vehicle-mounted connector 10, for example, the vehicle speed needs to be lower than a set threshold, the external weather condition is good, and the like, to determine whether the vehicle is in a state suitable for opening the window, and when the vehicle is in the state suitable for opening the window, the vehicle-mounted aroma 20 sends the window opening operation request information to the vehicle-mounted connector 10), historical scene record information (Detailed Description, 4, information service data provided by platform service providers such as weather information, road condition information, map information), or user-defined scene information (Detailed Description, 72, the vehicle occupant to the vehicle-mounted aroma 20, such as a control command to the vehicle-mounted aroma 20 through a display interface operation, a voice control, and the like, the vehicle-mounted connector 10 transmits the control command to the vehicle-mounted aroma 20, and the vehicle-mounted aroma 20 performs a corresponding operation according to the command transmitted by the vehicle-mounted connector 10).
Regarding claim 22, Zeng and Zambotti disclose the computer-readable storage medium according to claim 20, as discussed supra. Additionally Zeng discloses, determining a target person based on the reminder content (Detailed Description, 60, further, the vehicle-mounted aroma 20 requests the vehicle-mounted connector 10 for the identification authentication request information of the driver to acquire the identity of the driver), and sending the first control instruction in response to the target person being determined (Detailed Description, 60, and adjusts the type and the concentration of the aroma according to the information transmitted by the vehicle-mounted connector 10 to provide the aroma and the concentration of the aroma according with the habit of the driver).
Regarding claim 23, Zeng and Zambotti disclose the computer-readable storage medium according to claim 21, as discussed supra. Additionally Zeng discloses, the user emotion information is obtained based on one or more of voice information (Detailed Description 61, the driver emotion information transmitted by the in-vehicle connector 10 may be a judgment made by the vehicle itself, that is, a judgment of what emotion the driver is has been made by the vehicle based on the information collected by itself) … (Background, 2, in order to make the vehicle-mounted aroma, more parts are assembled on the vehicle-mounted aroma, such as … a voice receiving module for receiving voice commands of passengers, a voice judging module and the like, so that the vehicle-mounted aroma can collect more information, and then more intelligent operation is performed according to the collected information), operation action information (Detailed Description, 61, the driver emotion information may also be events representing changes in the emotion of the driver in the monitoring event set corresponding to the vehicle-mounted aroma 20, where the events include … the vehicle speed reaching a preset value, the amount of change in the steering wheel angle reaching a preset value), or face image information (Detailed Description, 61, and/or the blinking frequency of the driver reaching a preset value).
Claim 7 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Zeng (CN112092583A) in view of Zambotti (US20200013511A1), further in view of MacNeille et al. (US20210188051A1).
Regarding claim 7 Zeng and Zambotti disclose, the method according to claim 2, as discussed supra. Additionally Zeng discloses, the scene information comprises the off-odor removal scene information (Detailed Description, 61, when the vehicle-mounted aroma 20 receives a situation that the passenger in the passenger compartment is uncomfortable with the current aroma), and detecting a first user action (Detailed Description, 61, further, when the vehicle-mounted aroma 20 receives a situation that the passenger in the passenger compartment is uncomfortable with the current aroma, such as sneezing, coughing…).
Furthermore, MacNeille who is in the same field of endeavor of mitigating vehicle odors discloses, wherein the method further comprises: sending a second control instruction, wherein the second control instruction comprises a second gas release instruction for releasing a deodorizing gas (0015, strategies for odor control or mitigation may include controlling odor precursors, removing the source of the odor, dilution of the odor, emission of fragrances, biological or chemical transformation to destroy or change odor causing particles or chemicals, chemical binding to remove odor causing particles or chemicals, masking of odors, and/or olfactory desensitization)); and wherein the off-odor removal scene information comprises information indicating one or more of: receiving a deodorization instruction of a user (0018, the complexity of describing an odor may require a spoken dialog system to communicate between an occupant and an odor mitigation system), receiving deodorization confirmation information of the user (0055, an occupant's mobile communication device 110 may access information within the publish/subscribe database to respond to queries or vote on the need for mitigation), detecting an off-odor (0039, the odor detection component 404 is configured to detect a known smell based on the one or more odor sensors), detecting a deodorization requirement (0039, the odor detection component 404 may detect the known smell by matching signals or parameters from the one or more odor sensors with attributes of a smell logged in a smell database or smell cache).
One of ordinary skill in the art prior to the effective filing date of the given invention
would have been motivated to combine the combination of Zeng and Zambotti with MacNeille to reduce misclassification and automate select/trigger an appropriate scent or mitigation method.
Further justification for combining the combination of Zeng and Zambotti with MacNeille not only comes from the state of the art but from MacNeille (0085, it will be apparent to persons skilled in the relevant art that various changes in form and detail can be made therein without departing from the spirit and scope of the disclosure.).
Claim 10 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Zeng (CN112092583A) in view of Zambotti (US20200013511A1), further in view of Becker (US20200215219A1), further in view of Kelson (US20180369442A1).
Regarding claim 10, Zeng, Zambotti and Kelson disclose the method according to claim 9 as will be discussed infra. Additionally, Kelson discloses, detecting verification information of the at least one type of spice (0065, each cartridge 275 can be fitted with an RFID Tag 241 that provides RF data signals that identify the cartridge 275 matched to the system and the type of aroma in the cartridge 275. The RFID tag 241 can be read by an RFID reader which can transmit the RF data signals to the controller as described above).
Furthermore, Becker who is in the same field of endeavor of sensor feedback for scent diffusion devices discloses, in response to determining that the verification information satisfies a first condition, sending alarm information, wherein the first condition comprises one or more of the verification information is inconsistent with preset verification information, and the verification information cannot be read (0012, if the scent diffusion device does not recognize the anti-tampering identifier, an alert may be sent over a network, and scent may not be dispensed. If the cartridge is removed from the device, resulting in the device no longer recognizing the anti-tampering identifier).
One of ordinary skill in the art prior to the effective filing date of the given invention
would have been motivated to combine Zeng and Kelsen with Becker to provide the alert/lockout logic when the ID is unreadable or inconsistent.
Further justification for combining Zeng and Kelsen with Becker not only comes from the state of the art but from Becker (0288, while the disclosure has been disclosed in connection with the preferred embodiments shown and described in detail, various modifications and improvements thereon will become readily apparent to those skilled in the art. Accordingly, the spirit and scope of the present disclosure is not to be limited by the foregoing examples, but is to be understood in the broadest sense allowable by law).
Claims 8, and 16-19 are all rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Zeng (CN112092583A) in view of Zambotti (US20200013511A1) further in view of Kelsen (US20180369442A1), further in view of Becker (US20200215219A1), further in view of MacNeille et al., further in view of Kao (Deodorizing techniques for when you're concerned about room odors).
Regarding claim 8, Zeng, Zambotti, and MacNeille disclose, the method according to claim 7 as discussed supra. Additionally, Zeng discloses, a gesture deodorization instruction (Detailed Description, 61, such as sneezing, coughing, nose covering), and the detected deodorization requirement comprises a deodorization requirement predicted based on user information (Detailed Description, 61, further, when the vehicle-mounted aroma 20 receives a situation that the passenger in the passenger compartment is uncomfortable with the current aroma, such as sneezing), gesture confirmation information (Detailed Description, 61, ), such as sneezing, coughing, nose covering), and wherein the first user action comprises one or more a nose covering action, a fanning action, and a window opening action (Detailed Description, 61, further, when the vehicle-mounted aroma 20 receives a situation that the passenger in the passenger compartment is uncomfortable with the current aroma, such as sneezing, coughing, nose covering, allergic reaction and the like, which are transmitted by the vehicle-mounted connector 10, the vehicle-mounted aroma 20 automatically closes, assistance action request information such as an air conditioner starting request and/or a window opening request is sent to the vehicle-mounted connector 10). However, Zeng does not explicitly disclose, the deodorization instruction of the user comprises one or more of: a voice deodorization instruction of the user, a deodorization instruction generated by the user through a button or a selection operation on a touchscreen wherein the off-odor comprises one or more of detected by using a smoke sensor or an off-odor sensor a cigarette odor, a cooking fume odor, a hot pot odor, a barbecue odor, and an air conditioner off-odor; the user information comprises one or more of consumption information, and location information, wherein the deodorization confirmation information of the user comprises one or more of: voice confirmation information, or confirmation information generated through a button or a selection operation on the touchscreen, fed back by the user after a deodorization request is sent to the user.
However, Kelsen discloses, the user information comprises one or more of consumption information (0091, the user interface displays the life 323 as 4,000 dispersions. As the fragrance cartridge is used, the aroma device keeps track of these dispersions and the use information 325 can be displayed).
Additionally, MacNeille discloses, the deodorization instruction of the user comprises one or more of: a voice deodorization instruction of the user (0018, the complexity of describing an odor may require a spoken dialog system to communicate between an occupant and an odor mitigation system), and a deodorization instruction generated by the user through a button or a selection operation on a touchscreen (0034, the spoken dialog system 308 and a speech and syntheses and display system 312 may interact with the user using a speech recognition and a human machine interface (HMI) 314. For example, the speech recognition and HMI 314 may use a microphone 316, touch screen 318, speaker 320, or any other input or output devices to interact with or receive input from a user) wherein the off-odor comprises one or more of detected by using a smoke sensor or an off-odor sensor (0028, the sensors 106 or the electrochemical nose may include one or more of a molecular sensor, chemosensor, gas chromatography sensors or other sensor for smell classification. Examples of specific sensor technologies which may be used include conductive-polymer odor sensors, tin-oxide gas sensors, quartz-crystal micro-balance sensors, capacitive micromachined ultrasonic transducers (CMUT), or the like): a cigarette odor (0019, if it is cigarette smoke, the opposite may be the case and vehicle systems bring fresh air into the cabin), the deodorization confirmation information of the user comprises one or more of: voice confirmation information (0049, the mobile communication device 110 uses a spoken dialog system to survey 810 an occupant using the mobile communication device 110 to determine whether a smell is detected by the occupant), or confirmation information generated through a button or a selection operation on the touchscreen, fed back by the user after a deodorization request is sent to the user (0022, the odor mitigation system monitors the changes in sensor data or measurements and may look for patterns that would indicate a known smell. If the recommender detects a known smell, it determines whether the individuals in the vehicle consider the smell to be disagreeable (an odor) or agreeable (a fragrance). The odor mitigation system may poll the individual preference databases in each mobile device in the vehicle and determine whether mitigation of the smell is necessary based on a “vote”).
Furthermore, Becker discloses, location information (0215, through a conditional command to perform a scent function upon reaching a condition or trigger indicated by the conditional command. For example, the conditional statement may be that if an iOS Location indicates that a particular user is within a pre-determined distance from the network of diffusion devices, the devices should be triggered to turn on).
Finally, Kao who is in the same field of endeavor of deodorizing techniques discloses, a cooking fume odor, a hot pot odor, a barbecue odor, and an air conditioner off-odor (Air conditioner smell, air conditioners also take in air from the room. Therefore, they also suck in odors from daily life such as oil and tobacco, which can stick to the internal fan and become the source of the odor) … (hot pot, grilled meat, and takoyaki. Steam and splattered oil fill the room and stick to the walls and floor, making the smell difficult to remove even with ventilation).
One of ordinary skill in the art prior to the effective filing date of the given invention
would have been motivated to combine Zeng, Zambotti, Kelsen, MacNeille, Becker, and Kao to
Further justification for combining Zeng and Kelsen not only comes from the state of the art but from Zeng (Final Paragraph, it should be understood that various changes, substitutions and alterations can be made herein without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention as defined by the appended claims).
Regarding claim 16, Zeng, Zambotti, and Kelsen discloses, the apparatus according to claim 14, as discussed supra. Additionally Zeng discloses, wherein the user emotion information is obtained based on one or more of voice information (Detailed Description 61, the driver emotion information transmitted by the in-vehicle connector 10 may be a judgment made by the vehicle itself, that is, a judgment of what emotion the driver is has been made by the vehicle based on the information collected by itself) … (Background, 2, in order to make the vehicle-mounted aroma, more parts are assembled on the vehicle-mounted aroma, such as … a voice receiving module for receiving voice commands of passengers, a voice judging module and the like, so that the vehicle-mounted aroma can collect more information, and then more intelligent operation is performed according to the collected information), operation action information (Detailed Description, 61, the driver emotion information may also be events representing changes in the emotion of the driver in the monitoring event set corresponding to the vehicle-mounted aroma 20, where the events include … the vehicle speed reaching a preset value, the amount of change in the steering wheel angle reaching a preset value), or face image information (Detailed Description, 61, and/or the blinking frequency of the driver reaching a preset value).
Regarding claim 17, Zeng, Zambotti, and Kelsen disclose, the apparatus according to claim 14, as discussed supra. Additionally Zeng discloses, the scene information comprises the off-odor removal scene information (Detailed Description, 61, when the vehicle-mounted aroma 20 receives a situation that the passenger in the passenger compartment is uncomfortable with the current aroma), and detecting a first user action (Detailed Description, 61, further, when the vehicle-mounted aroma 20 receives a situation that the passenger in the passenger compartment is uncomfortable with the current aroma, such as sneezing, coughing…).
Furthermore, MacNeille who is in the same field of endeavor of mitigating vehicle odors discloses, wherein the method further comprises: sending a second control instruction, wherein the second control instruction comprises a second gas release instruction for releasing a deodorizing gas (0015, strategies for odor control or mitigation may include controlling odor precursors, removing the source of the odor, dilution of the odor, emission of fragrances, biological or chemical transformation to destroy or change odor causing particles or chemicals, chemical binding to remove odor causing particles or chemicals, masking of odors, and/or olfactory desensitization)); and wherein the off-odor removal scene information comprises information indicating one or more of: receiving a deodorization instruction of a user (0018, the complexity of describing an odor may require a spoken dialog system to communicate between an occupant and an odor mitigation system), receiving deodorization confirmation information of the user (0055, an occupant's mobile communication device 110 may access information within the publish/subscribe database to respond to queries or vote on the need for mitigation), detecting an off-odor (0039, the odor detection component 404 is configured to detect a known smell based on the one or more odor sensors), detecting a deodorization requirement (0039, the odor detection component 404 may detect the known smell by matching signals or parameters from the one or more odor sensors with attributes of a smell logged in a smell database or smell cache).
Regarding claim 18, Zeng and Zambotti disclose, the apparatus according to claim 12, as discussed supra. Additionally Zeng discloses, a gesture deodorization instruction (Detailed Description, 61, such as sneezing, coughing, nose covering), and the detected deodorization requirement comprises a deodorization requirement predicted based on user information (Detailed Description, 61, further, when the vehicle-mounted aroma 20 receives a situation that the passenger in the passenger compartment is uncomfortable with the current aroma, such as sneezing), gesture confirmation information (Detailed Description, 61, ), such as sneezing, coughing, nose covering), and wherein the first user action comprises one or more a nose covering action, a fanning action, and a window opening action (Detailed Description, 61, further, when the vehicle-mounted aroma 20 receives a situation that the passenger in the passenger compartment is uncomfortable with the current aroma, such as sneezing, coughing, nose covering, allergic reaction and the like, which are transmitted by the vehicle-mounted connector 10, the vehicle-mounted aroma 20 automatically closes, assistance action request information such as an air conditioner starting request and/or a window opening request is sent to the vehicle-mounted connector 10). However, Zeng does not explicitly disclose, the deodorization instruction of the user comprises one or more of: a voice deodorization instruction of the user, a deodorization instruction generated by the user through a button or a selection operation on a touchscreen wherein the off-odor comprises one or more of detected by using a smoke sensor or an off-odor sensor a cigarette odor, a cooking fume odor, a hot pot odor, a barbecue odor, and an air conditioner off-odor; the user information comprises one or more of consumption information, and location information, wherein the deodorization confirmation information of the user comprises one or more of: voice confirmation information, or confirmation information generated through a button or a selection operation on the touchscreen, fed back by the user after a deodorization request is sent to the user.
However, Kelsen discloses, the user information comprises one or more of consumption information (0091, the user interface displays the life 323 as 4,000 dispersions. As the fragrance cartridge is used, the aroma device keeps track of these dispersions and the use information 325 can be displayed).
Additionally, MacNeille discloses, the deodorization instruction of the user comprises one or more of: a voice deodorization instruction of the user (0018, the complexity of describing an odor may require a spoken dialog system to communicate between an occupant and an odor mitigation system), and a deodorization instruction generated by the user through a button or a selection operation on a touchscreen (0034, the spoken dialog system 308 and a speech and syntheses and display system 312 may interact with the user using a speech recognition and a human machine interface (HMI) 314. For example, the speech recognition and HMI 314 may use a microphone 316, touch screen 318, speaker 320, or any other input or output devices to interact with or receive input from a user) wherein the off-odor comprises one or more of detected by using a smoke sensor or an off-odor sensor (0028, the sensors 106 or the electrochemical nose may include one or more of a molecular sensor, chemosensor, gas chromatography sensors or other sensor for smell classification. Examples of specific sensor technologies which may be used include conductive-polymer odor sensors, tin-oxide gas sensors, quartz-crystal micro-balance sensors, capacitive micromachined ultrasonic transducers (CMUT), or the like): a cigarette odor (0019, if it is cigarette smoke, the opposite may be the case and vehicle systems bring fresh air into the cabin), the deodorization confirmation information of the user comprises one or more of: voice confirmation information (0049, the mobile communication device 110 uses a spoken dialog system to survey 810 an occupant using the mobile communication device 110 to determine whether a smell is detected by the occupant), or confirmation information generated through a button or a selection operation on the touchscreen, fed back by the user after a deodorization request is sent to the user (0022, the odor mitigation system monitors the changes in sensor data or measurements and may look for patterns that would indicate a known smell. If the recommender detects a known smell, it determines whether the individuals in the vehicle consider the smell to be disagreeable (an odor) or agreeable (a fragrance). The odor mitigation system may poll the individual preference databases in each mobile device in the vehicle and determine whether mitigation of the smell is necessary based on a “vote”).
Furthermore, Becker discloses, location information (0215, through a conditional command to perform a scent function upon reaching a condition or trigger indicated by the conditional command. For example, the conditional statement may be that if an iOS Location indicates that a particular user is within a pre-determined distance from the network of diffusion devices, the devices should be triggered to turn on).
Finally, Kao discloses, a cooking fume odor, a hot pot odor, a barbecue odor, and an air conditioner off-odor (Air conditioner smell, air conditioners also take in air from the room. Therefore, they also suck in odors from daily life such as oil and tobacco, which can stick to the internal fan and become the source of the odor) … (hot pot, grilled meat, and takoyaki. Steam and splattered oil fill the room and stick to the walls and floor, making the smell difficult to remove even with ventilation).
Regarding claim 19, Zeng, Zambotti, Kelsen, MacNeille, Becker, and Kao disclose the apparatus according to claim 18 as discussed supra. Additionally, Kelsen discloses, before the obtaining scene information, the method further comprises: obtaining residual amount information of at least one type of spice (0091, the user interface displays the life 323 as 4,000 dispersions. As the fragrance cartridge is used, the aroma device keeps track of these dispersions and the use information 325 can be displayed. In this example, the rose fragrance cartridge has been used 1,234 times. The aroma device processor can calculate and display the number of dispersions left 327), and in response to determining that the verification information satisfies a first condition, send alarm information, (0091, when a fragrance cartridge is near depletion, the app can inform the user that the fragrance cartridge now needs to be replaced and when the fragrance cartridge is depleted, the app can inform the user that the fragrance cartridge must be replaced. In an embodiment, the app can have an integrated fragrance cartridge purchasing option).
Furthermore, Becker discloses, in response to determining that the verification information satisfies a first condition, sending alarm information, wherein the first condition comprises one or more of the verification information is inconsistent with preset verification information, and the verification information cannot be read (0012, if the scent diffusion device does not recognize the anti-tampering identifier, an alert may be sent over a network, and scent may not be dispensed. If the cartridge is removed from the device, resulting in the device no longer recognizing the anti-tampering identifier).
Claim 9 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Zeng (CN112092583A) in view of Zambotti (US20200013511A1), further in view of Kelsen (US20180369442A1).
Regarding claim 9, Zeng and Zambotti disclose the method according to claim 1 as discussed supra. Additionally, Kelsen who is in the same field of endeavor of aroma dispersion discloses, before the obtaining scene information, the method further comprises: obtaining residual amount information of at least one type of spice (0091, the user interface displays the life 323 as 4,000 dispersions. As the fragrance cartridge is used, the aroma device keeps track of these dispersions and the use information 325 can be displayed. In this example, the rose fragrance cartridge has been used 1,234 times. The aroma device processor can calculate and display the number of dispersions left 327) and in response to determining that a residual amount indicated by the residual amount information is less than a first threshold, sending residual amount deficiency alarm information (0091, when a fragrance cartridge is near depletion, the app can inform the user that the fragrance cartridge now needs to be replaced and when the fragrance cartridge is depleted, the app can inform the user that the fragrance cartridge must be replaced. In an embodiment, the app can have an integrated fragrance cartridge purchasing option).
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.
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/S.E.D./Examiner, Art Unit 3665
/CHRISTIAN CHACE/Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 3665