DETAILED ACTION
The previous office action is withdrawn/superseded.
This action is in response to the initial filing filed on June 10, 2024
Claims 1-15 have cancelled.
Claims 16-33 have been 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 16-33 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 band device, a 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 at least one UWB message [0067 for getting ranging messages with time stamps to determine distance],
wherein the required information includes a first required information including information indicating a UWB role of the electronic device and information indicating a UWB ranging method for receiving the at least one UWB message [0065 for required information frequency range and encryption protocols],
and wherein the UWB role is a UWB tag device, and the UWB ranging method includes a time difference of arrival method [0033 for time of flight and RTT calculations (time differences) with 0066-0067].
Ledvina fails to explicitly teach an anchor device and DL-TDoA.
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]
And using DL-TDoA [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).
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 25, Ledvina teaches an electronic device comprising [0059-0060 for using advertisements using authentication tags]:
a transceiver [0059-0061 and 0286];
and one or more processors communicatively coupled to the transceiver, memory storing one or more computer programs including computer- executable instructions that, when executed by the one or more processors, cause the electronic device to [0061-0063]:
receive, from a band device, a 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 ultra-wide band (UWB) device [0064 for getting ranging from other devices, 0065-0066 for getting initiation signal form UWB device],
at least one UWB message based on at least one the required information [0067 for getting ranging messages with time stamps to determine distance],
and determine the location information about the electronic device based on the UWB message,
wherein the required information includes a first required information including information indicating a UWB role of the electronic device and information indicating a UWB ranging method for receiving the at least one UWB message [0065 for required information frequency range and encryption protocols],
and wherein the UWB role is a UWB tag device and the UWB ranging method includes a time difference of arrival method [0033 for time of flight and RTT calculations (time differences) with 0066-0067].
Ledvina fails to explicitly teach an anchor device and DL-TDoA.
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]
and using DL-TDoA [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).
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 17 and 26, 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 18 and 27, 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 19 and 28, Ledvina teaches the OB message corresponds to a Bluetooth low energy (BLE) advertisement message broadcast from the OB 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 20 and 29, Ledvina fails to explicitly teach registering a profile for an application associated with the determination of the location information; and generating a service instance identifier (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 21 and 30, Ledvina fails to explicitly teach 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 22 and 31, Ledvina fails to explicitly teach the OB configuration information includes OOB Bluetooth low energy (BLE) role information indicating an OOB role corresponding to BLE, and the OB 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 23 and 31, Ledvina fails to explicitly teach 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 24 and 33, Ledvina teaches the execution of the application is performed based on a signal received from the OB 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
Prosecution Insights