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 16-21 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 101 because the claimed invention is directed to non-statutory subject matter.
Step 1: The claims do not fall within at least one of the four categories of patent eligible subject matter because they are directed to a computer-readable storage media. The broadest reasonable interpretation of computer-readable storage media encompasses both physical media and carrier waves. While physical memory media such as random access memory are patentable subject matter, carrier waves are signals per se and thus ineligible. In in Mentor Graphics v. EVE-USA, Inc., 851 F.3d 1275, 112 USPQ2d 1120 (Fed. Cir. 2017), the courts held that claims for whose broadest reasonable interpretation includes non-eligible subject matter, then said claims are also not patentable. See MPEP 2106 (II). Therefore, claims 16-21 as currently written are not directed to patent-eligible subject matter.
To overcome this rejection, the examiner recommends amending said claims to read, “a non-transitory, computer readable medium,” thus limiting the broadest reasonable interpretation of the claim to patent-eligible subject matter.
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.
(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.
Claims 1-6 8, 10, 13-14, and 16-21 rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(2) as being anticipated by Bayesteh et al. (U.S. 2022/0155435 A1), hereinafter Bayesteh.
Regarding claim 1, Bayesteh teaches,
A method performed by a user equipment (fig. 5, UE 110), the method comprising: transmitting a radar capability message to a base station (fig. 5, steps 502 and 514), the radar capability message comprising a plurality of parameters of the user equipment for monostatic radar sensing (paras. 0062 and 0070, “For example, for RF sensing, the sensing capability report may indicate a supported frequency bands and bandwidth, supported sensing signals and supported duplexing mode (full duplex or half duplex). The sensing capability report can be transmitted together with a known UE capability report. The known UE capability report is usually transmitted, to the BS 170 and by the UE 110, upon connecting to the BS 170.” “The UE 110 may base the indication of availability on the extent to which the UE 110 has scheduled an uplink (UL) transmission, a downlink (DL) reception, a sidelink (SL) transmission or a SL reception. Additionally, the UE 110 may base the indication of availability on power level or mobility.”); receiving a radar configuration message from the base station (fig. 5, steps 506 and 520, sensing instruction), the radar configuration message directing the user equipment to use a particular configuration for monostatic radar sensing, the particular configuration being based on at least one of the plurality of parameters (para. 0069, “The RF sensing type may include a further indication of RADAR sensing type or imaging sensing type. The request to_sense indication may include a sensing subspace indication, limiting the sensing to be carried out by the UE 110 to particular directions for the sake of UE power saving. The request to sense indication may include an indication of key performance indicators (KPIs) for target detection. The KP Is may be related to range estimation, Doppler (velocity) estimation, sensing resolution and sensing accuracy. The request to sense indication may include an indication of detailed sensing signal configuration, which, in the case of RF sensing, may include a sensing waveform indication and its associated parameters, a sensing signal sequence indication, or an indication of sensing signal time/frequency allocation. The request to sense indication may include an indication of an active sensing request, in which the UE is requested to transmit an RF signal, a passive sensing request, in which the UE is requested to receive and process the reflection of an RF sensing signal, or both. The request to_sense indication may include an indication of sensing categories including a common sensing indication or a dedicated sensing indication. The request to sense indication may also include an indication of a channel resource for sensing feedback, or an indication of a sensing report timeline.”); receiving a radar request message from the base station, the radar request message requesting that the user equipment performs monostatic radar sensing (para. 0083, “According to an aspect of the present application, which may be referred to as network-initiated, UE-assisted, mono-static sensing, the sensing (active and passive) is completely outsourced by the BS 170 to the UE 110. The UE 110 performs mono-static sensing (both active and passive). In this case, after receiving (step 504) the sensing capability report from multiple UEs 110, the BS 170 configures a particular UE 110 for mono-static sensing based on the capability and the availability of the particular UE 110. The BS 170 transmits (step 510) a request to sense indication to the particular UE 110.”); and responsive to receiving the radar request message, transmitting a radar signal using the particular configuration (para. 0084, “Responsive to receiving (step 512) the request to_sense indication, the particular UE 110 carries out (step 522) active and passive sensing based on configuration details in a configuration message that the particular UE 110 has previously received (step 508)”).
Regarding claim 2, Bayesteh teaches,
The method of claim 1, wherein the plurality of parameters of the user equipment comprises a range of radar- sensing-performance metrics of the user equipment including at least one of the following: at least one radar resolution capability of the user equipment; at least one detection range capability of the user equipment; an amount of power available for monostatic radar sensing; an amount of memory available for monostatic radar sensing; or processing capacity available for monostatic radar sensing (para. 0070, “The UE 110 may base the indication of availability on the extent to which the UE 110 has scheduled an uplink (UL) transmission, a downlink (DL) reception, a sidelink (SL) transmission or a SL reception. Additionally, the UE 110 may base the indication of availability on power level or mobility.”).
Regarding claim 3, Bayesteh teaches,
The method of claim 1, further comprising: receiving a reflected version of the radar signal, the radar signal reflected off an object (para. 0083-0084, “According to an aspect of the present application, which may be referred to as network-initiated, UE-assisted, mono-static sensing, the sensing (active and passive) is completely outsourced by the BS 170 to the UE 110. The UE 110 performs mono-static sensing (both active and passive)….Responsive to receiving (step 512) the request to_sense indication, the particular UE 110 carries out (step 522) active and passive sensing based on configuration details in a configuration message that the particular UE 110 has previously received (step 508).”); determining, based on the reflected version of the radar signal, information about the object (para. 0084, “…the particular UE 110 carries out…passive sensing,” noting that, per para. 0060, “Accordingly, Passive Sensing may involve receiving and processing those RF signals that have interacted with the environment.”); and transmitting a radar report message to the base station (fig. 5, step 524), the radar report message including the information about the object (para. 0076, “The sensing results may include reference information (for example, for non-camera-based sensing) such as an object identifier, e.g., a tag identifier. The object identifier may have an implicit association with an indication of a particular BS 170. The sensing results may also include further information, e.g., an image, which may be a map.”).
Regarding claim 4, Bayesteh teaches,
The method of claim 3, wherein the plurality of parameters comprises at least one of the following: a parameter of the user equipment for generating the radar signal specifying at least one radar waveform; a parameter of the user equipment for transmitting and receiving the radar signal including at least one duplex configuration setting of the user equipment; a parameter of the user equipment for processing the reflected radar signal including: a first radar-signal-processing parameter associated with a first amount of memory, and a second radar-signal-processing parameter associated with a second amount of memory that is different than the first amount of memory; or a parameter of the user equipment for transmitting a radar report message (para. 0062, “For example, for RF sensing, the sensing capability report may indicate a supported frequency bands and bandwidth, supported sensing signals and supported duplexing mode (full duplex or half duplex).”).
Regarding claim 5,
The method of claim 4, wherein the parameter of the user equipment for transmitting the radar report message comprises at least one of the following: at least one second frequency band; at least one second antenna parameter; or available information elements associated with the radar report message (para. 0074, “The details of the sensing signal may include an indication of a UE-specific sensing timing allocation, an indication of a sensing period and an indication of a channel resource that the UE 110 is to use when transmitting (step 524) sensing results to the BS 170. The details of the sensing signal may be communicated to the UE 110 through sensing configuration signaling that is sent to the UE 110 along with the request to_sense indication (step 510). The sensing configuration signaling may be sent through RRC signaling.”).
Regarding claim 6, Bayesteh teaches,
The method of claim 1, wherein: the radar configuration message directs the user equipment to use a reference signal for monostatic radar sensing (para. 0069, “The request to sense indication may include an indication of detailed sensing signal configuration, which, in the case of RF sensing, may include a sensing waveform indication and its associated parameters, a sensing signal sequence indication, or an indication of sensing signal time/frequency allocation.”); and the transmitting of the radar signal comprises transmitting the reference signal as the radar signal (para. 0067, “The BS 170 may transmit (step 506, FIG. 5) the sensing configuration indication and may transmit (step 510) the request to_sense indication by UE-specific signaling using, for example, the known radio resource control (RRC) protocol. Given that the environment sensing carried out by the UE 110 is on-demand based, it may be shown that use of RRC signaling results reduced power consumption relative to some other signaling choices.”).
Regarding claim 8, Bayesteh teaches,
A method performed by a base station (fig. 5, base station 170),the method comprising: receiving a radar capability message from a user equipment, the radar capability message including a plurality of parameters of the user equipment for monostatic radar sensing (fig. 5, steps 504 and 516, noting that paras. 0062 and 0070 indicate that a plurality of parameters are sent by the UE in the capability reports); transmitting a radar configuration message to the user equipment, the radar configuration message directing the user equipment to use a particular configuration for monostatic radar sensing, the particular configuration being based on at least one of the plurality of parameters (fig. 5, steps 506 and 518, noting that paras. 0069 and 0072 give details as to what specific configurations can be sent); and transmitting a radar request message to the user equipment, the radar request message requesting that the user equipment transmits a radar signal using the particular configuration (fig. 5, steps 510 and 518, noting that para. 0069 gives details of the request for sensing assistance step 510).
Regarding claim 10, Bayesteh teaches,
The method of claim 8, further comprising: receiving a radar availability message from the user equipment, the radar availability message indicating whether or not the user equipment is available to perform monostatic radar sensing fig. 5, 502), wherein the transmitting of the radar request message comprises transmitting the radar request message responsive to the radar availability message indicating that the user equipment is available to perform monostatic radar (fig. 5, steps 504-506).
Regarding claim 13, Bayesteh teaches,
The method of claim 8, wherein the radar configuration message comprises at least one of the following: a timing resource; a frequency resource; a radar waveform; an antenna configuration; a duplex configuration; a transmit power level; a radar-signal-processing configuration; or a reporting configuration (para. 0069, “The RF sensing type may include a further indication of RADAR sensing type or imaging sensing type. The request to_sense indication may include a sensing subspace indication, limiting the sensing to be carried out by the UE 110 to particular directions for the sake of UE power saving. The request to sense indication may include an indication of key performance indicators (KPIs) for target detection. The KP Is may be related to range estimation, Doppler (velocity) estimation, sensing resolution and sensing accuracy. The request to sense indication may include an indication of detailed sensing signal configuration, which, in the case of RF sensing, may include a sensing waveform indication and its associated parameters, a sensing signal sequence indication, or an indication of sensing signal time/frequency allocation” The examiner notes that sending, e.g., an indication of a sensing signal sequence requires knowing supported sensing signals sent in the radar capability message).
Regarding claim 14, Bayesteh teaches,
The method of claim 8, wherein the radar request message comprises a physical downlink control channel (PDCCH) message or a media access control (MAC) message (para. 0101, “It has been discussed, hereinbefore, that the transmission (step 510) of the request to_sense indication by the BS 170, in so-called network-initiated aspects of the present application, may employ the PDSCH or the PDCCH (for group-cast or unicast) and may employ the PBCH (for broadcasting).”).
Regarding claim 16, the same cited section and rationale as claim 1 is applied. Bayesteh further teaches,
A computer-readable storage media comprising instructions that, responsive to execution by a processor, cause a user equipment (“It should be appreciated that one or more steps of the embodiment methods provided herein may be performed by corresponding units or modules. For example, data may be transmitted by a transmitting unit or a transmitting module. Data may be received by a receiving unit or a receiving module. Data may be processed by a processing unit or a processing module. The respective units/modules may be hardware, software, or a combination thereof. For instance, one or more of the units/modules may be an integrated circuit, such as field programmable gate arrays (FPGAs) or application-specific integrated circuits (ASICs). It will be appreciated that where the modules are software, they may be retrieved by a processor, in whole or part as needed, individually or together for processing, in single or multiple instances as required, and that the modules themselves may include instructions for further deployment and instantiation.”)
Regarding claim 17, the same cited section and rationale as claim 2 is applied.
Regarding claim 18, the same cited section and rationale as claim 3 is applied.
Regarding claim 19, the same cited section and rationale as claim 4 is applied.
Regarding claim 20, the same cited section and rationale as claim 5 is applied.
Regarding claim 21, the same cited section and rationale as claim 6 is applied.
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.
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 7 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Bayesteh in view of Sun et al. (Sun B, Tan B, Wang W, Lohan ES. A Comparative Study of 3D UE Positioning in 5G New Radio with a Single Station. Sensors (Basel). 2021 Feb 8, 2021. (4):1178. doi: 10.3390/s21041178.), hereinafter Sun.
Regarding claim 7, Bayesteh teaches the method of claim 6. Bayesteh does not teach,
…wherein: the reference signal comprises a sounding reference signal (SRS) or a demodulation reference signal (DM-RS)
Sun teaches,
…wherein: the reference signal comprises a sounding reference signal (SRS) or a demodulation reference signal (DM-RS) (p. 2, lines highlighted in yellow, “Recent cellular systems such as 4G and 5G have, by design, signaling or reference signals dedicated to synchronization, channel estimation, and localization and therefore can offer competitive performance with respect to the GNSS also in dense urban scenarios. The typical signals for these purposes include the positioning reference signals (PRSs) in LTE Release-8 [9] and the CSI reference signal (CSI-RS) and sounding reference signal (SRS) [10] in 5G NR.”).
Bayesteh and Sun are both analogous to the claimed invention because they both discuss using UE for radar positioning. It would have been obvious to someone of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to use the specific reference signals of Sun as the reference signals in Bayesteh’s radar device because the signals are already part of the 5G standards and therefore are already known to UEs, reducing the processing power needed to generate them.
Claims 9 and 11-12 are ejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Bayesteh in view of Badic et al. (U.S. 2021/0175919 A1), hereinafter Badic.
Regarding claim 9, Bayesteh teaches,
The method of claim 8, further comprising: selecting the particular configuration of the user equipment based on the radar capability message (fig. 5, steps 509 and 518, noting that paras. 0070 and 0072, e.g., indicate that the sensing instruction sent is configured based on the response to request); receiving a radar report message from the user equipment, the radar report message including information about an object detected by the user equipment using monostatic radar sensing (fig. 5, step 524, noting that the sensing operation 522 and obtained sensing results is taught to be monostatic in paras. 0083-0085. See also para. 0076, “para. 0076, “The sensing results may include reference information (for example, for non-camera-based sensing) such as an object identifier, e.g., a tag identifier. The object identifier may have an implicit association with an indication of a particular BS 170. The sensing results may also include further information, e.g., an image, which may be a map.”).”)…
Bayesteh does not teach,
…modeling propagation paths within an operating environment based on the information about the object; and adjusting beamforming configurations associated with wireless communication based on the modeled propagation paths
Badic teaches,
…modeling propagation paths within an operating environment based on the information about the object (fig. 7, steps 702 and 704, noting that, “The detection of the nearby body may be detected by one or more sensors and/or detectors of the mobile device, such as a body proximity sensor (BPS). BPSs include any mechanism that a mobile device, such as terminal device 102, may use to sense or detect a nearby presence of a body, e.g., an animate body such as a human body or the like, whether the body physically touches the sensor or not. Examples may include, but are not limited to, one or more of a passive infrared sensor (PIR), a capacitive sensor, a resistive sensor, an optical sensor, a piezoelectric sensor, a camera, a microphone, a radar sensor, or the like”); and adjusting beamforming configurations associated with wireless communication based on the modeled propagation paths (fig. 7, step 712).
Badic is analogous to the claimed invention because it discloses sensing in wireless communication systems. It would have been obvious to someone of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the invention of Bayesteh with the propagation path modeling and beamforming of Badic. The invention of Bayesteh is taught as being for the purpose of environment modeling (see para. 0008). Environment modeling is frequently used in the art of beamforming to ensure that strong connections are made between UEs and nodes, thus making Badic’s use case an obvious choice for one skilled in the art.
Regarding claim 11, Bayesteh further teaches,
…wherein: the radar capability message comprises available resources within the user equipment (para. 0062, “For example, for RF sensing, the sensing capability report may indicate a supported frequency bands and bandwidth, supported sensing signals and supported duplexing mode (full duplex or half duplex). The sensing capability report can be transmitted together with a known UE capability report.”); and the method further comprises selecting the particular configuration of the user equipment based on the available resources within the user equipment (para. 0069, “The RF sensing type may include a further indication of RADAR sensing type or imaging sensing type. The request to_sense indication may include a sensing subspace indication, limiting the sensing to be carried out by the UE 110 to particular directions for the sake of UE power saving. The request to sense indication may include an indication of key performance indicators (KPIs) for target detection. The KP Is may be related to range estimation, Doppler (velocity) estimation, sensing resolution and sensing accuracy. The request to sense indication may include an indication of detailed sensing signal configuration, which, in the case of RF sensing, may include a sensing waveform indication and its associated parameters, a sensing signal sequence indication, or an indication of sensing signal time/frequency allocation” The examiner notes that sending, e.g., an indication of a sensing signal sequence requires knowing supported sensing signals sent in the radar capability message).
Regarding claim 12, Bayesteh further teaches,
…wherein: the radar capability message comprises at least one radar-sensing-performance metric of the user equipment (para. 0062, “For example, for RF sensing, the sensing capability report may indicate a supported frequency bands and bandwidth, supported sensing signals and supported duplexing mode (full duplex or half duplex). The sensing capability report can be transmitted together with a known UE capability report.”); and the method further comprises selecting the particular configuration of the user equipment based on the at least one radar-sensing-performance metric of the user equipment (para. 0069, “The RF sensing type may include a further indication of RADAR sensing type or imaging sensing type. The request to_sense indication may include a sensing subspace indication, limiting the sensing to be carried out by the UE 110 to particular directions for the sake of UE power saving. The request to sense indication may include an indication of key performance indicators (KPIs) for target detection. The KP Is may be related to range estimation, Doppler (velocity) estimation, sensing resolution and sensing accuracy. The request to sense indication may include an indication of detailed sensing signal configuration, which, in the case of RF sensing, may include a sensing waveform indication and its associated parameters, a sensing signal sequence indication, or an indication of sensing signal time/frequency allocation” The examiner notes that sending, e.g., an indication of a sensing signal sequence requires knowing supported sensing signals sent in the radar capability message).
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to Anna K Gosling whose telephone number is (571)272-0401. The examiner can normally be reached Monday - Thursday, 7:30-4:30 Eastern, Friday, 10:00-2:00 Eastern.
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If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Vladimir Magloire can be reached at (571) 270-5144. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/Anna K. Gosling/Examiner, Art Unit 3648
/VLADIMIR MAGLOIRE/Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 3648