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 § 112
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.
Claims 2, 3, 6, 11, 12, and 15 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. With regard to claim 2, by referring to “a surface…, in particular the chest” the claim improperly recites both a broad and narrow range of the limitation, rendering the intended scope of the claim unclear.
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, 2, 4, 5, 7, 13, and 14 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by Peng et al. (“Sound transmission…” – cited by Applicant). Peng et al. teach a pulmonary measurement method including:
a) the generation of an incident vibration of the individual's respiratory system, said incident vibration being characterized by a signal Spr having at least one frequency from 20 to 5000 Hz, for obtaining resulting vibrations on a surface S of the individual's torso following the propagation of the incident vibration from the respiratory system to the surface S (page 7, lines 8-15: ':A plexiglass disk... was gently pressed against the chest surface ... and driven by an electromagnetic shaker... that was connected to a power amplifier... A periodic chirp with spectral content from 50-400 Hz was generated'), said surface S having an area of at least 10 cm² and being characterized by a plurality of points Pi (page 8, lines 7-8: 'There were 54 scan points on each side of the back'; Fig. 2(c)),
b) measuring the oscillation of each point Pi using a measuring device and obtaining the signal Spi of the resulting vibration at each of the points Pi, said measuring device being positioned at a distance from the torso of the said individual (page 8, lines 4-5: "The SLDV (scanning laser Doppler vibrometer) was used to measure the skin surface velocity at an array of points on the posterior chest of the subject"), and
c) the characterization of each Spi signal at the frequency or frequencies of the Spr signal:
- by analysis over a given time of at least one parameter p of the Spi signal at each point Pi (page 7, lines 18-19: "The signals are analyzed and results are presented in terms of the 'frequency response function' (FRF)"), and/or
- by analysis of the evolution dynamics over a given time of at least one parameter p of the Spi signal at each point Pi.
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) 3, 6, 8 – 12, and 15 - 18 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Peng et al. as applied to claims 1, 2, 4, 5, 7, 13, and 14 above. Peng et al. teach a measurement method, as discussed above, but do not particularly rely upon vocalizations created by the individual. Additionally, while details of measurement and data analysis are disclosed, Peng et al. do not particularly indicate that a correlation between different measured signals is analyzed. However, one of skill in the art would readily recognize that an individual can vocalize/hum over a range of tones and that such sounds will necessarily create vibrations in the chest of the individual. As such, absent a showing of criticality or unexpected results, it would have been within the skill level of the art to implement Peng et al. with creation of the vibrations through use of vocalizations by the individual, since this would be a known manner to provide the needed vibrations. Additionally, use of known mathematical processing techniques, including to analyze correlation between sensed data, since it has generally been held to be within the skill level of the art to use known techniques in their known manner.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to ERIC FRANK WINAKUR whose telephone number is (571)272-4736. The examiner can normally be reached Mon-Fri 9 am - 6 pm.
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/ERIC F WINAKUR/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 3791