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 .
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 1-20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 101 because of the following analysis:
Step 1: Do the claims recite one of the statutory categories of matter (i.e. method, apparatus, etc.)? YES, claims 1-7 and 15-20 recite an apparatus and claims 8-14 recite a method.
Step 2A Prong 1: Is there an abstract idea involved? YES, the claim language recites performing decision fusion for the plurality of sensor modules (data analysis and making judgments) determining a sleep stage of a user based on the fusion decision (making determinations/judgments).
Step 2a Prong 2: Do the claims recite additional elements that integrate the exception into a practical application? NO, the claims do not include additional elements that are sufficient to amount to significantly more than the judicial exception because the additional elements when considered both individually and as an ordered combination do not amount to significantly more than the abstract idea. The claims recite sensor modules, transceiver, and a processor, which (i.e., output) are recited at a high level of generality and is recited as performing generic computer functions. i.e., data processing and display. The elements amount to mere instructions to implement an abstract idea on a computer, or merely uses a computer as a tool to perform an abstract idea (see MPEP 2106.04(d) and 2106.05(f)). Accordingly, each of the additional elements do not integrate the abstract idea into a practical application because they do not impose any meaningful limitations on practicing the abstract idea. Additionally the generically recited sensor modules are considered a mere extrasolution activity of necessary data gathering (see MPEP 2106.05(g)).
The dependent claims merely recite the same abstract idea as the independent claims. Furthermore, these claims only contain recitations that further limit the abstract idea (that is, the claims only recite limitations that further limit the mental process). The elements amount to mere instructions to implement an abstract idea on a computer, or merely uses a computer as a tool to perform an abstract idea (see MPEP 2106.04(d) and 2106.05(f)).
Step 2B: Do the additional elements amount to “Significantly More” than the judicial exception? NO, The emphasized elements cited above do not amount to significantly more than the judicial exception because these limitations are simply appending well-understood, routine and conventional activities previously known in the industry, specified at a high level of generality, to the judicial exception, e.g., a claim to an abstract idea requiring no more than a generic computer to perform generic computer functions that are well-understood, routine and conventional activities previously known in the industry (see Electric Power Group, 830 F.3d 1350 (Fed. Cir. 2016); Alice Corp. v. CLS Bank Int’I, 110 USPQ2d 1976 (2014)). In view of the above, the additional elements individually do not amount to significantly more than the above-judicial exception (the abstract idea). Looking at the limitations as an ordered combination (that is, as a whole) adds nothing that is not already present when looking at the elements taken individually. There is no indication that the combination of elements improves the functioning of a computer, for example, or improves any other technology. There is no indication that the combination of elements permits automation of specific tasks that previously could not be automated. There is no indication that the combination of elements includes a particular solution to a computer-based problem or a particular way to achieve a desired computer-based outcome. Rather, the collective functions of the claimed invention merely provide conventional computer implementation, i.e., the computer is simply a tool to perform the process. Simply appending well-understood, routine, conventional activities previously known to the industry, specified at a high level of generality, to the judicial exception, e.g., a claim to an abstract idea requiring no more than a generic computer to perform generic computer functions that are well-understood, routine and conventional activities previously known to the industry, as discussed in Alice Corp., 573 U.S. at 225, 110 USPQ2d at 1984 (see MPEP § 2106.05(d)).
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 112
The following is a quotation of the first paragraph of 35 U.S.C. 112(a):
(a) IN GENERAL.—The specification shall contain a written description of the invention, and of the manner and process of making and using it, in such full, clear, concise, and exact terms as to enable any person skilled in the art to which it pertains, or with which it is most nearly connected, to make and use the same, and shall set forth the best mode contemplated by the inventor or joint inventor of carrying out the invention.
The following is a quotation of the first paragraph of pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112:
The specification shall contain a written description of the invention, and of the manner and process of making and using it, in such full, clear, concise, and exact terms as to enable any person skilled in the art to which it pertains, or with which it is most nearly connected, to make and use the same, and shall set forth the best mode contemplated by the inventor of carrying out his invention.
Claims 5-6, 12-13, and 19-20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 112(a) or 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), first paragraph, as failing to comply with the written description requirement. The claim(s) contains subject matter which was not described in the specification in such a way as to reasonably convey to one skilled in the relevant art that the inventor or a joint inventor, or for applications subject to pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, the inventor(s), at the time the application was filed, had possession of the claimed invention.
Regarding claims 5-6, 12-13, and 19-20, there is insufficient disclosure that explains what the difference is between hard and soft are with regards to decisions and fusions.
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 112(b):
(b) CONCLUSION.—The specification shall conclude with one or more claims particularly pointing out and distinctly claiming the subject matter which the inventor or a joint inventor regards as the invention.
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), second paragraph:
The specification shall conclude with one or more claims particularly pointing out and distinctly claiming the subject matter which the applicant regards as his invention.
Claim 5-6, 12-13, and 19-20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 112(b) or 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), second paragraph, as being indefinite for failing to particularly point out and distinctly claim the subject matter which the inventor or a joint inventor (or for applications subject to pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, the applicant), regards as the invention.
Regarding claims 5-6, 12-13, and 19-20, the terms “hard” and “soft” with regards to decisions and fusions are relative terms and are ambiguous about what the differences are between them in this context. Further clarification is required.
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.
The factual inquiries for establishing a background for determining obviousness under 35 U.S.C. 103 are summarized as follows:
1. Determining the scope and contents of the prior art.
2. Ascertaining the differences between the prior art and the claims at issue.
3. Resolving the level of ordinary skill in the pertinent art.
4. Considering objective evidence present in the application indicating obviousness or nonobviousness.
Claim(s) 1, 4-8, 11-15, and 18-20 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Jiangsu (US 2021/0212630 A1) in view of Liu (CN 115581435 A).
Regarding claims 1, 8, and 15, Jiangsu discloses a sleep monitoring apparatus comprising: a plurality of sensor modules (eg. Para. 48, 93); a transceiver (eg. claim 2, Para. 14, 45, 48-49, 52, 73, Fig. 1); and a processor operatively coupled with the plurality of sensor modules and the transceiver (eg. claim 1-2, Para. 14, 45, 48-49, 52, 73, Fig. 1), the processor configured to: receive, from the plurality of sensor modules, raw sensor data for each of the plurality of sensor modules related to a sleep session of a user of the sleep monitoring apparatus (eg. claim 1, Fig. 3, Para. 82-108); and determine a sleep stage of the user based on the decision fusion (eg. Para. 11-12, 23, 38, 93, 101, 108, claim 1), but does not disclose perform raw data fusion of the raw sensor data wherein the raw data fusion generates a fused raw data signal; based on the fused raw data signal, perform feature extraction for the plurality of sensor modules; based on the feature extraction, perform feature fusion for the plurality of sensor modules; based on the feature fusion, perform decision fusion for the plurality of sensor modules.
Liu teaches a sleep monitoring multi-sensor data fusion device that fuses multi-sensing data and obtaining the turn-over times and night times based on video, obtaining snoring frequency, sound size, breathing frequency, heart rate, and oxygen saturation rate, performing fusion on the data, and combining particle swarm optimization and radial basis function (eg. Para. 65, page 4-5, 8, 11-12, claim 1).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have combined the invention of Jiangsu with the raw sensor fusion and decision fusion as taught by Liu as a known alternative method of fusing data with PSO and RBF to provide a sleep state determination based on multi-sensor parameters.
Regarding claims 4, 11, and 18, the combined invention of Jiangsu and Liu discloses to perform the feature fusion, the processor is further configured to: determine a feature for each sensor module of the plurality of sensor modules; fuse the features, wherein to fuse the features, the processor is further configured to: concatenate the features; treat each feature as a different channel; or process the features; and based on the fused features, determine a sleep stage of the user (eg. Jiangsu, Para. 11-12, 23, 38, 93, 101, 108, claim 1 and Liu, eg. Para. 65, page 4-5, 8, 11-12, claim 1).
Regarding claims 5, 12, and 19, the combined invention of Jiangsu and Liu discloses to perform the decision fusion, the processor is further configured to:determine hard sleep stage decision for each sensor module of the plurality of sensor modules; perform a hard fusion of the hard sleep stage decisions; and generate a final sleep stage decision based on the hard fusion (eg. Jiangsu, Para. 11-12, 23, 38, 93, 101, 108, claim 1 and Liu, eg. Para. 65, page 4-5, 8, 11-12, claim 1).
Regarding claims 6 and 13 the combined invention of Jiangsu and Liu discloses to perform the decision fusion, the processor is further configured to: determine a soft sleep stage decision for each sensor module of the plurality of sensor modules; perform a soft fusion of the soft sleep stage decisions; determine a hard decision based on the soft fusion; and generate a sleep stage decision based on the hard decision (eg. Jiangsu, Para. 11-12, 23, 38, 93, 101, 108, claim 1 and Liu, eg. Para. 65, page 4-5, 8, 11-12, claim 1).
Regarding claim 7, the combined invention of Jiangsu and Liu discloses to perform the soft fusion, the processor is further configured to perform at least one of: a mean fusion; a most confidence decision; a Bayesian method-based fusion; and a learning-based fusion (eg. Jiangsu, Para. 32, 63-64, 98, extracted features that are fused, Liu, Page. 4 and 8-12).
Regarding claim 20, the combined invention of Jiangsu and Liu discloses to perform the decision fusion, the computer program further comprises program code that, when executed by the processor of the device causes the device to: determine a soft sleep stage decision for each sensor module of the plurality of sensor modules; perform a soft fusion of the soft sleep stage decisions, (eg. Jiangsu, Para. 11-12, 23, 38, 93, 101, 108, claim 1 and Liu, eg. Para. 65, page 4-5, 8, 11-12, claim 1) wherein to perform the soft fusion the computer program further comprises program code that, when executed by the processor of the device causes the device to perform at least one of: a mean fusion, a most confidence decision, a Bayesian method-based fusion, and a learning-based fusion; determine a hard decision based on the soft fusion; and generate a sleep stage decision based on the hard decision (eg. Jiangsu, Para. 32, 63-64, 98, extracted features that are fused, Liu, Page. 4 and 8-12).
Claim(s) 2-3, 9-10, and 16-17 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Jiangsu (US 2021/0212630 A1) in view of Liu, further in view of Zhang (CN 115581435 A), further in view of Zhang (US 2020/0397365 A1).
Regarding claims 2, 9, and 16, the combined invention of Jiangsu and Liu discloses to perform the raw data fusion on the raw sensor data, the processor is further configured to: filter the raw sensor data from each sensor module (eg. Jiangsu, Para. 55-57, 67, 103, and claim 6); but does not disclose perform an auto correlation function (ACF) on the filtered raw sensor data from each sensor module, wherein the ACF generates ACF processed sensor data; and generate the fused raw data signal based on the ACF processed sensor data.
Zhang teaches using ACF and principal component analysis on multi-sensor data to monitor sleep (eg. Para. 119, 141, 147, 152-153, 160, 223, 239-257, 271).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have combined the invention of Jiangsu and Liu with the ACF processing as taught by Zhang to allow for circumventing the use of noise phase and usually handcrafted CSI denoising procedure and eliminating the frequency offsets to synchronize breathing signal over different subcarriers, allowing to perform MRC to combine multiple subcarriers to combat measurement noises and maximize breathing signals in an optimal way (eg. Zhang, Para. 223).
Regarding claims 3, 10, and 17, the combined invention of Zhang and Liu discloses to generate the fused raw data signal based on the ACF, the processor is further configured to: sum the ACF processed sensor data; or perform a principal component analysis (PCA) on the ACF processed sensor data (eg. Zhang, eg. Para. 119, 141, 147, 152-153, 160, 223, 239-257, 271).
Conclusion
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/MICHAEL J LAU/Examiner, Art Unit 3796