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 § 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.
Claim(s) 1 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by Charaziak (US 20190159702).
Regarding claim 1, Charaziak teaches a method to calibrate an earpiece (correcting otoacoustic emissions for ear-canal acoustics, [0003]), the method comprising: calculating the Thevenin equivalent impedance of at least one loudspeaker ( represent the OAE pressure measured at the entrance of the ear canal as either the OAE pressure at the eardrum as it would appear in an anechoic ear canal (emitted pressure level, PEPL) or as a Thévenin-equivalent OAE source pressure level at the eardrum (PTPL), [0008]); calculating the load impedance at a reference plane in the ear canal as a function of the estimated Thevenin equivalent impedance (acoustic load can change, for example, by changing the distance (L) between the OAE probe and the eardrum, [0047-0049]); estimating forward pressure (Pforward) emitted by the loudspeaker at the reference plane based on the calculated load impedance and on the measured sound pressure level (forward pressure level, [0048]); and calculating a correction value to be applied on the loudspeaker based on the estimated forward pressure level (correcting the OAE pressure derives the Thévenin-equivalent OAE source pressure at the eardrum PTPL, [0052]).
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 5 and 6 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Charaziak and Schonfelder (US 2002103115491).
Regarding claim 5, Charaziak teaches the method of claim 1.
Although Charaziak does not explicitly teach the feature of the calculation of the correction value to be applied on the loudspeaker further comprising using a gain table, Schonfelder teaches a gain table for a hearing aid calibration (Schonfelder, [0068]) and it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art to incorporate a gain table in the system of Charaziak since doing so is the use of a known technique to improve a similar system in the same way.
Regarding claim 6, Charaziak and Schonfelder teach the method of claim 5.
Although Charaziak and Schonfelder do not specifically teach the calculation of the correction value to be applied further comprising finding difference between a desired sound pressure level and the Pforward value at a specific frequency in the gain table, it would have been obvious to use the preset correction value in the gain table since doing so is the use of a known technique to improve a similar system in the same way.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claim 3 is objected to as being dependent upon a rejected base claim, but would be allowable if rewritten in independent form including all of the limitations of the base claim and any intervening claims.
Claims 7, 9, 10, 12, 14, 16, 18-20, 22, 25-28, 30, and 31 are allowed.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to Kile Blair whose telephone number is (571)270-3544. The examiner can normally be reached M-F.
Examiner interviews are available via telephone, in-person, and video conferencing using a USPTO supplied web-based collaboration tool. To schedule an interview, applicant is encouraged to use the USPTO Automated Interview Request (AIR) at http://www.uspto.gov/interviewpractice.
If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Duc Nguyen can be reached at 571-272-7503. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
Information regarding the status of published or unpublished applications may be obtained from Patent Center. Unpublished application information in Patent Center is available to registered users. To file and manage patent submissions in Patent Center, visit: https://patentcenter.uspto.gov. Visit https://www.uspto.gov/patents/apply/patent-center for more information about Patent Center and https://www.uspto.gov/patents/docx for information about filing in DOCX format. For additional questions, contact the Electronic Business Center (EBC) at 866-217-9197 (toll-free). If you would like assistance from a USPTO Customer Service Representative, call 800-786-9199 (IN USA OR CANADA) or 571-272-1000.
/KILE O BLAIR/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2691
Prosecution Insights