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)(2) the claimed invention was described in a patent issued under section 151, or in an application for patent published or deemed published under section 122(b), in which the patent or application, as the case may be, names another inventor and was effectively filed before the effective filing date of the claimed invention.
Claim(s) 53-62, 64-67, 72-73 and 75-78 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(2) as being anticipated by U.S. Pub. 2019/0028803 by Benattar.
Regarding claim 53, Benattar discloses a gaming headset system for use in a game event (abstract), the gaming headset system comprising - a headset comprising a headphone and a mouth microphone to be worn by a gamer (fig. 32; para. 350-355 – see voice recording by the system microphones. Examiner noting that the broadest reasonable interpretation of “mouth microphone” does not require that the microphone have a certain shape or location and “to be worn by a gamer” is intended use that is met by the disclosed headset and microphone array.), wherein the headphone comprises two over-the-ear ear-cups each having inside a loudspeaker transducer and a feed-back microphone (fig. 32; para. 418-421 – see headset and microphones), wherein a feed-forward microphone is placed on an exterior part of each of the ear-cups (fig. 32; para. 418-421 – see the location of microphones on earcups), and- an ambient noise and speech suppression system arranged to attenuate ambient noise and suppress intelligibility of ambient speech sound reaching the gamer (para. 82-110 – see noise cancellation), wherein the ambient noise and speech suppression system comprises a processor system arranged to execute an ambient noise and speech suppression algorithm comprising (para. 82-110 – see noise cancellation via processor) - an active noise cancellation algorithm part arranged to operate in a combined feed-back and feed-forward configuration in response to input signals indicative of sound captured by one or more of. 1) the mouth microphone, 2) the feed-forward microphones, 3) the feed- back microphones, and 4) one or more sources located external to the ear-cups, so as to provide output signals to the respective loudspeaker transducers in the ear-cups of the headphone (para. 82-110 – see the noise cancellation), and - a masking noise signal algorithm part arranged to add a masking noise signal to the output signals to the respective loudspeaker transducers in the ear-cups of the headphone so as to provide a psychoacoustic masking effect of speech sound from a game speaker or game commentator and/or speech sound from an audience reaching the gamer's ear drums (para. 82-110 – see the noise cancellation. Examiner noting that the disclosure allows for noise cancellation of any possible sounds and the claimed masks are intended use), wherein the masking noise algorithm signal generator part generates the masking noise signal in response to at least one input signal indicative of sound captured by one or more of: 1) the mouth microphone, 2) the feed-forward microphones, 3) the feed-back microphones, and 4) one or more sources located external to the ear-cups (fig. 32; para. 418-421; para. 82-110 – see the noise cancellation and devices).
Regarding claim 54, Benattar discloses the gaming headset system according to claim 53, wherein the ambient noise and speech intelligibility suppression system is arranged to receive an input signal indicative of sound captured by the mouth microphone, and wherein the ANC algorithm part is arranged to further operate on said input signal indicative of sound captured by the mouth microphone (fig. 32; para. 82-110, 350-355 – see voice recording by the system microphones and audio processing).
Regarding claim 55, Benattar discloses the gaming headset system according to claim 54, wherein the headset comprises a plurality of separate mouth microphones (MM), optionally a plurality of beamforming microphones with beams in different directions, and wherein the ANC algorithm part (ANC) is arranged to receive input signals indicative of sound captured by the separate mouth microphones (MM), so as to allow the ANC algorithm part (ANC) to more effectively suppress speech sound from the game speaker or game commentator or from the audience captured from the mouth microphones (MM) (para. 82-110; 422 – see beamforming and ANC with the claimed targets being intended use).
Regarding claim 56, Benattar discloses the gaming headset system according to claim 54, wherein the ANC algorithm part (ANC) is arranged to provide the output signals to the respective loudspeaker transducers for reproduction of the game sound to the gamer with an optimized suppression of speech sound from the game speaker or game commentator and speech sound from the audience captured by the mouth microphone or mouth microphones (MM) (para. 82-110; 422 – see beamforming and ANC with the claimed targets being intended use).
Regarding claim 57, Benattar discloses the gaming headset system according to claim 54, wherein the input signal indicative of sound captured by the mouth microphone (MM) or mouth microphones is processed by a noise suppression algorithm followed by a voice enhancement algorithm, optionally a voice or speech enhancement algorithm based on statistical signal processing, to provide an output signal where speech of the gamer (GM) is enhanced (para. 82-110; 422 – see beamforming and ANC with the claimed targets being intended use).
Regarding claim 58, Benattar discloses the gaming headset system according to claim 57, wherein a noise signal based on the noise suppression algorithm is provided as input to the ANC algorithm part (ANC) soas to provide an improved suppression of speech from the game speaker or a game commentator (GSP) and/or a game audience (AUD) noise based on sound captured from the mouth microphone (MN) or mouth microphones (para. 82-110; 422 – see beamforming and ANC with the claimed targets being intended use).
Regarding claim 59, Benattar discloses the gaming headset system according to claim 53, wherein the headset comprises a plurality of separate feed-forward microphones (FF) placed at different positions on an exterior part of each of the ear-cups (EC), and wherein the ANC algorithm part (ANC) is arranged to receive input signals indicative of sound captured by the separate feed-forward microphones (FF), so at to allow the ANC algorithm part (ANC) to more effectively suppress speech sound from the game speaker or game commentator or from the audience arriving to the headset from directions (fig. 32; para. 82-110; 422 – see ANC and microphone arrangement).
Regarding claim 60, Benattar discloses the gaming headset system according to claim 53, wherein the ANC algorithm part (ANC) is further arranged to receive an input indicative of information related to the game event, and wherein said information is used by the ANC algorithm part (ANC), so as to improve suppression of game related speech sound from the game speaker or game commentator and game related speech sound from the audience (para. 82-110; 422 – see beamforming and ANC with the claimed targets being intended use).
Regarding claim 61, Benattar discloses the gaming headset system according to claim 60, wherein said information comprises data indicative of one or more keywords related to the game, or wherein said information comprises pre-stored audio data indicative of speech sound or keywords related to the game, or wherein said information comprises one or more pieces of information regarding an acoustic environment at a game event site (para. 82-110; 422 – see beamforming and ANC with the claimed targets being intended use).
Regarding claim 62, Benattar discloses the gaming headset system according to claim 53, wherein the ANC algorithm part (ANC) involves a correlation algorithm involving an adaptive filter (para. 170 – see adaptive filter).
Regarding claim 64, Benattar discloses the gaming headset system according to claim 53, comprising a cooling or temperature transport element built into the ear pads, so as to allow cooling (fig. 32 – see the earcups. Examiner noting that cooling through heat transfer is happing through conduction via the earcups).
Regarding claim 65, Benattar discloses the gaming headset system according to claim 53, comprising one or more microphones (AUDM) arranged for position near or within the audience (AUD) to provide an input signal indicative of speech sound from an audience (AUD) to the ambient noise and speech suppression system (ANSS) (para. 82-110; 422 – see beamforming and ANC with the claimed targets being intended use).
Regarding claim 66, Benattar discloses the gaming headset system according to claim 53, wherein the ambient noise and speech intelligibility suppression system (ANSS) is arranged for connection to a Public Address system reproducing the speech from the game speaker or game commentator to provide an input signal (GSPI) indicative of speech from the game speaker or game commentator (GSP) (para. 82-110; 422 – see beamforming and ANC with the claimed targets being intended use).
Regarding claim 67, Benattar discloses the gaming headset system according to claim 53, wherein the ambient noise and speech suppression system (ANSS) is arranged to determine a measure of effective acoustic insertion loss based on measurements involving sound captured by one or both of the feed-forward and one or both of the feed-back microphones (para. 82-110; 422 – see beamforming and ANC with the claimed targets being intended use).
Regarding claim 72, Benattar discloses the gaming headset system according to claim 53, wherein the ambient noise and speech suppression system (ANSS) is arranged separate from the headphone or integrated with a structure of the headphone (fig. 32; para. 418-422 – see the separate microphone structures).
Regarding claim 73, Benattar discloses the gaming headset system according to claim 53, wherein the ambient noise and speech suppression system (ANSS) operates on separate inputs signals indicative of speech sound from the game speaker or game commentator (GSP) and speech sound from the audience (AUD) (para. 82-110, 422 – see the independent input signals from the intended environment).
Regarding claim 75, Benattar discloses an e-sport system comprising a plurality of gaming headset systems according to claim 53, and a console for connecting the plurality of gaming headset systems, so as to allow respective gamers wearing the plurality of headsets to communicate via the mouth microphones (para. 418-422 – see the “mouth microphones” as noted above with the transmission of communication being intended use).
Regarding claim 76, Benattar discloses the e-sport system according to claim 75, wherein the plurality of ambient noise and speech suppression systems (ANSS1, ANSS2, ANSSN) are arranged to determine respective measures of effective acoustic insertion loss based on measurements involving sound captured by the feed-forward and the feed-back microphones, and wherein said console (CNS) comprises a processor system arranged to receive input signals indicative of said respective measure of effective acoustic insertion loss from the plurality of ambient noise and speech suppression systems (ANSS1, ANSS2, ANSSN), and wherein the console (CNS) is arranged to generate an output signal in case one or more of said effective acoustic insertion losses is below a predetermined criterion (para. 82-110 – see the ANC via the microphone array).
Regarding claim 77, Benattar discloses this claim as noted above regarding claim 53.
Regarding claim 78, Benattar discloses a method, comprising: participating in an e-sport or gaming event with a gaming headset system according to claim 53 (para. 433-435 – see gaming event usage).
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 63, 68-71 and 74 are 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.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to PETER J IANNUZZI whose telephone number is (571)272-5793. The examiner can normally be reached M-F 9:30AM-5:30PM EST.
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/PETER J IANNUZZI/ Primary Examiner, Art Unit 3715