DETAILED ACTION
This action is in response to the initial filing filed on June 10, 2024 Claims 1-15 havebeen examined in this application.
Information Disclosure Statement
The Information Disclosure Statement (IDS) filed on 12/22/2023 and 7/17/2024 have been acknowledged.
Priority
Receipt is acknowledged of certified copies of papers required by 37 CFR 1.55.
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 § 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 1-15 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Ledvina et al (US 2020/0106877 A1) in view of Wen et al (Hindawai, 2020) and further in view of STMicroelectronics (2019).
Regarding Claim 1, Ledvina teaches a method of an electronic device, comprising [0059-0060 for using advertisements using authentication tags]:
receiving, from a device, a band message including required information for determining location information about the electronic device [0065-0066 for receiving start messages for ranging (location)];
receiving, from at least one ultra-wide band (UWB) device, at least one UWB message based on the required information [0064 for getting ranging from other devices, 0065-0066 for getting initiation signal form UWB device];
and determining the location information about the electronic device based on the UWB message [0067 for getting ranging messages with time stamps to determine distance],
wherein the required information includes first required information for receiving the UWB message [0065 for required information frequency range and encryption protocols].
Ledvina fails to explicitly teach an anchor device.
Wen has DL-TDoA inherits ultra-wideband technology to measure the time difference of radio signal propagation (abstract) and teaches an anchor device [page 3, right column last two paragraphs for using DL-TDofA for positioning (ranging) accuracy by calculating the distance from anchor nodes, and page 4, figure 1, right section].
It would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filling date of the applicant’s invention for modifying the ranging position techniques, as disclosed by Ledvina, further including the DL-TDoA calculations as taught by Wen for the purpose to calculating real time positions and reduce computing for the server (Wen, page 4, left column, first paragraph).
Ledvina fails to explicitly teach out of band devices.
STMicroelectronics has reference programming guidelines about how to develop a Bluetooth low energy application (abstract) and teaches out of band devices [page 13, phase 1: section for using out of band methods to set up keys].
It would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filling date of the applicant’s invention for modifying the ranging position techniques, as disclosed by Ledvina, further including the service calculations as taught by STMicroelectronics for the purpose to provide protection from man in the middle attacks (STMicroelectronics, page 13, phase 1section).
Regarding Claim 11, Ledvina teaches an electronic device comprising [0059-0060 for using advertisements using authentication tags]:
a transceiver [0059, 0286];
and a controller connected to the transceiver, wherein the controller is configured to [0067, 0286]:
receive, from a device, a band message including required information for determining location information about the electronic device [0065-0066 for receiving start messages for ranging (location)],
receive, from at least one UWB device, at least one UWB message based on the required information [0064 for getting ranging from other devices, 0065-0066 for getting initiation signal form UWB device],
and determine the location information about the electronic device based on the UWB message [0067 for getting ranging messages with time stamps to determine distance],
and wherein the required information includes first required information for receiving the UWB message [0065 for required information frequency range and encryption protocols].
Ledvina fails to explicitly teach an anchor device.
Wen has DL-TDoA inherits ultra-wideband technology to measure the time difference of radio signal propagation (abstract) and teaches an anchor device [page 3, right column last two paragraphs for using DL-TDofA for positioning (ranging) accuracy by calculating the distance from anchor nodes, and page 4, figure 1, right section].
It would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filling date of the applicant’s invention for modifying the ranging position techniques, as disclosed by Ledvina, further including the DL-TDoA calculations as taught by Wen for the purpose to calculating real time positions and reduce computing for the server (Wen, page 4, left column, first paragraph).
Ledvina fails to explicitly teach out of band devices.
STMicroelectronics has reference programming guidelines about how to develop a Bluetooth low energy application (abstract) and teaches out of band devices [page 13, phase 1: section for using out of band methods to set up keys].
It would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filling date of the applicant’s invention for modifying the ranging position techniques, as disclosed by Ledvina, further including the service calculations as taught by STMicroelectronics for the purpose to provide protection from man in the middle attacks (STMicroelectronics, page 13, phase 1section).
Regarding Claim 2 and 12, Ledvina fails to explicitly teach the first required information includes information indicating a UWB role of the electronic device and information indicating a UWB ranging method for receiving the UWB message, and wherein the UWB role includes a role indicating that the electronic device is a UWB tag device using a downlink time difference of arrival (DL-TDoA) method, and the UWB ranging method includes the DL-TDoA method.
Wen has DL-TDoA inherits ultra-wideband technology to measure the time difference of radio signal propagation (abstract) and teaches the first required information includes information indicating a UWB role of the electronic device and information indicating a UWB ranging method for receiving the UWB message [page 3, right column last two paragraphs for using DL-TDofA for positioning (ranging) accuracy by calculating the distance from anchor nodes, and page 4, figure 1, right section],
and wherein the UWB role includes a role indicating that the electronic device is a UWB tag device using a downlink time difference of arrival (DL-TDoA) method, and the UWB ranging method includes the DL-TDoA method [page 3, right column last two paragraphs].
It would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filling date of the applicant’s invention for modifying the ranging position techniques, as disclosed by Ledvina, further including the DL-TDoA calculations as taught by Wen for the purpose to calculating real time positions and reduce computing for the server (Wen, page 4, left column, first paragraph).
Regarding Claim 3 and 13, Ledvina fails to explicitly teach the required information further includes second required information indicating a location of the at least one UWB anchor device.
Wen has DL-TDoA inherits ultra-wideband technology to measure the time difference of radio signal propagation (abstract) and teaches the required information further includes second required information indicating a location of the at least one UWB anchor device [page 4, right column first paragraphs for having multiple devices including anchor devices and bridge nodes (known positions)].
It would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filling date of the applicant’s invention for modifying the ranging position techniques, as disclosed by Ledvina, further including the DL-TDoA calculations as taught by Wen for the purpose to display locations and analyze results (Wen, page 4, right column, first paragraph).
Regarding Claim 4 and 14, Ledvina teaches the at least one UWB message further includes second required information indicating a location of the at least one UWB anchor device [0292, 0296].
Regarding Claim 5 and 15, Ledvina teaches the OOB message corresponds to a Bluetooth (BLE) advertisement message broadcast from the OOB anchor device [0059].
Ledvina fails to explicitly teach and wherein the BLE advertisement message includes flag information indicating whether assistant data including the required information is included in the BLE advertisement message.
STMicroelectronics has reference programming guidelines about how to develop a Bluetooth low energy application (abstract) and teaches and wherein the BLE advertisement message includes flag information indicating whether assistant data including the required information is included in the BLE advertisement message [page 8, section 1.3.2 for using advertising packets with flags].
It would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filling date of the applicant’s invention for modifying the ranging position techniques, as disclosed by Ledvina, further including the service calculations as taught by STMicroelectronics for the purpose to respond to scan responses and scan for requests (STMicroelectronics, page 8, section 1.3.2).
Regarding Claim 6, Ledvina teaches registering a profile for an application associated with determination of the location information; and generating a service instance ID for identifying the registered profile.
STMicroelectronics has reference programming guidelines about how to develop a Bluetooth low energy application (abstract) and teaches registering a profile for an application associated with determination of the location information [page 21, section 1.11];
and generating a service instance ID for identifying the registered profile [page 21, section 1.11 for UUI and SIG profile].
It would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filling date of the applicant’s invention for modifying the ranging position techniques, as disclosed by Ledvina, further including the service calculations as taught by STMicroelectronics for the purpose to defines which services are required for a specific use case (STMicroelectronics, page 21, section 1.11).
Regarding Claim 7, Ledvina teaches registering the profile comprises transmitting a request for registering the profile to a profile management entity by the application, and wherein the request includes service configuration information including information for generating a static scrambled timestamp sequence (STS), OOB configuration information including BLE-related information and UWB configuration information for UWB ranging.
STMicroelectronics has reference programming guidelines about how to develop a Bluetooth low energy application (abstract) and teaches registering the profile comprises [page 21, section 1.11 for UUI and SIG profile]
transmitting a request for registering the profile to a profile management entity by the application, and wherein the request includes service configuration information including information for generating a static scrambled timestamp sequence (STS), OOB configuration information including BLE-related information and UWB configuration information for UWB ranging [page 12, LE Legacy Pairing, or for getting out of band information, with page 22, section 1.11.1 for getting multiple data for profile information including transmission data].
It would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filling date of the applicant’s invention for modifying the ranging position techniques, as disclosed by Ledvina, further including the service calculations as taught by STMicroelectronics for the purpose to provide authentication (STMicroelectronics, page 12, LE Legacy Pairing).
Regarding Claim 8, Ledvina teaches the OOB configuration information includes OOB Bluetooth (BLE) role information indicating an OOB role corresponding to BLE, and the OOB BLE role information is set to a value indicating Scanner/No generic attribute profile (GATT).
STMicroelectronics has reference programming guidelines about how to develop a Bluetooth low energy application (abstract) and the OOB configuration information includes OOB Bluetooth (BLE) role information indicating an OOB role corresponding to BLE, and the OOB BLE role information is set to a value indicating Scanner/No generic attribute profile (GATT) [page 12, LE Legacy Pairing, or for getting out of band information, page 15, section 1.9].
It would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filling date of the applicant’s invention for modifying the ranging position techniques, as disclosed by Ledvina, further including the service calculations as taught by STMicroelectronics for the purpose to provide authentication (STMicroelectronics, page 12, LE Legacy Pairing).
Regarding Claim 9, Ledvina teaches executing the application; activating the profile for the application based on the service instance ID; and applying a UWB configuration and an OOB configuration corresponding to the activated profile.
STMicroelectronics has reference programming guidelines about how to develop a Bluetooth low energy application (abstract) and executing the application [page 15, section 1.9];
activating the profile for the application based on the service instance ID [page 15, section 1.9];
and applying a UWB configuration and an OOB configuration corresponding to the activated profile [page 12, LE Legacy Pairing, or for getting out of band information, page 15, section 1.9 and 1.9.1].
It would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filling date of the applicant’s invention for modifying the ranging position techniques, as disclosed by Ledvina, further including the service calculations as taught by STMicroelectronics for the purpose to provide authentication (STMicroelectronics, page 12, LE Legacy Pairing).
Regarding Claim 10, Ledvina teaches the execution of the application is performed based on a signal received from the OOB anchor device, a signal received through an Internet, a location of the electronic device, or a user input [0258 for using internet and means for user to select (input) information].
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure.
Li et al (WO 2020/116969 A1) has a method of a transmit apparatus in a wireless communication system supporting ranging capability.
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/SAMARINA MAKHDOOM/
Examiner, Art Unit 3648