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 .
Duty of Disclosure
Applicant is reminded of their Duty of Disclosure. See MPEP § 2000 and 37 CFR 1.56. Applicant is requested to provide known relevant prior art within three months of discovery, See 37 C.F.R. 1.97 and MPEP 2001.03.
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) 1, 5, 7-8, 11, 15, 17-18, 21, 25, and 27-28 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Sandler (US 2016/0048708 A1) and further in view of Maloney (US 2004/0229560 A1).
Consider claim 1, Sandler teaches, a radio frequency identification (RFID) reader (16, See Fig. 1), Sandler teaches, “system for synchronizing Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) readers includes a plurality of RFID readers disposed within an environment.” See abstract, comprising:
an antenna component (10) configurable to transmit on an operating frequency using one of two polarizations, Sandler teaches, “[e]ach reader has an array of eight antennas 10 arranged in a circular pattern around the reader and positioned outside of a housing encompassing the RFID reader.” See ¶ 0015, Sandler teaches, “each antenna element includes.. half of the antenna elements have the horizontal polarization and half have the vertical polarization [i.e. dual polarization]” See ¶ 0019; and
a controller (“RFID reader is controlled by one or more processors to interrogate the RFID tags of the items” See ¶ 0035 and 0036) configured to:
select the operating frequency that is the same as an operating frequency of one or more RFID readers [[located at a same exit gate]], Sandler teaches, “[i]f the readers share the same antenna/frequency index, then they will all use the same antenna/frequency dwell 40 at the same time, as shown in FIG. 4.” See ¶ 0030, and different from an operating frequency of an RFID reader located at an adjacent [[exit gate]], Sandler teaches, “[i]f the readers do not share the same antenna/frequency index, then they will all use different antenna/frequency.” See ¶ 0030;
synchronize with the one or more RFID readers [[located at the same exit gate]] to talk at a different time (dwell time), Sandler teaches, “synchronizing of a plurality of Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) readers disposed within an environment... an RFID reader with an integrated or tethered photo transceiver can synchronize nearby readers throughout an enterprise” See ¶ 0025 with a different coverage area, [[or with a different polarization]] than the one or more RFID readers located at the same [[exit gate]], Sandler teaches, “reader A 30 broadcasts a master infrared flash 32 in all directions (even though the figure only shows a limited dispersal), before the end of an dwell period. This master flash 32 is detected by the detectors 24 of nearby readers B, D, E, which triggers a hardware interrupt. Readers B, D, E synchronize their next millisecond tick with the start of a new dwell period,” See ¶ 0028; and
detect one or more tags within a selected coverage area, Sandler teaches, “then returns to the detecting step 74 so as to propagate light flashes to all the RFID readers within the environment. This process is repeated until all tags have been interrogated or the RFID readers are directed to stop reading any tags.” See ¶ 0042
Sandler does not explicitly teach one or more RFID readers located at a same exit gate, and RFID reader located at an adjacent exit gate, in an analogous art, Maloney teaches, “system for monitoring and recording the movements of individuals throughout a monitored facility… Personal Event Tracking (PET) tags, one of which is work by each individual to be tracked, that can transmit and receive information via radio transmissions. Area readers, also incorporating radio frequency transceivers, are located throughout a monitored area in strategic locations. Each area reader is designed to communicate with PET tags located within its range and to convey gathered information from PET tags to a host server for processing.” See ¶ 0007; Maloney teaches, “[a]s shown in FIG. 1, region area readers are denoted with an A, portal readers are denoted with a P, and entry/exit points are denoted with an E… The entry/exit reader is similar to a portal reader” See ¶ 0025; Maloney teaches, “fifth scenario shown in FIG. 17 is the case of a single PET tag entering the read range of two overlapped area readers operating on the same frequency. Again, a summary of the interaction between the PET tag and the area readers is shown on the right in the figure. Because, as illustrated in FIGS. 5 and 6, the read ranges of adjacent area readers are commonly overlapped to avoid dead zones, the people tracking system requires that either readers be deployed in a manner to prevent adjacent readers operating on the same frequency or that the people tracking system be able to detect this situation and effectively deal with it.” See ¶ 00100-0101. Maloney teaches, “"waiting a unique delay" prevents more than one PET tag from responding simultaneously.” See ¶ 0085, Maloney teaches, “While overlapped area readers will be common in the people tracking system, adjacent area readers are supposed to be deployed on different frequencies. So, the "JAMMED PET Tag" scenario should be a rare event.” See ¶ 0109.
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skilled in the art at the time of invention (effective filing date for AIA application) to modify the invention of Sandler and allow the readers located near the same entry/exit points to communicate on same frequency to avoid dead zones but implement a means to avoid collision and “adjacent area readers are supposed to be deployed on different frequencies. So, the ‘JAMMED PET Tag’ scenario should be a rare event,” as suggested by Maloney ¶ 0109.
Consider claim 5, the RFID reader of claim 1, wherein the different operating frequency is selected from a set of three available operating frequencies, Maloney teaches, “[t]he typical large room shown in FIG. 5 has 6 area readers and two portal readers but only 3 unique frequencies are used. These 3 frequencies can also be reused in the same manner throughout the facility.” See ¶ 0068. Maloney teaches, “After the two area readers have shifted to different frequencies, then the PET tag sequentially receives and responds to first one area reader and then the other area reader in a similar manner to the process outlined in the "overlapped reader" scenario discussed above.” See ¶ 0105.
Consider claim 7, the RFID reader of claim 5, wherein the RFID reader is separated from another exit gate operating on the same frequency by at least two exit gates operating on different operating frequencies. Examiner takes Official Notice that it is well known in the art to operate two readers on the same frequency, where the readers are separated by any number of readers including at least two readers/gates operating on different operating frequencies. This is purely a design choice.
Consider claim 8, the RFID reader of claim 5, wherein the exit gate including the RFID reader is among a plurality of exit gates that are arranged linearly (Maloney Fig. 1 shows a liner hallway 4) and the operating frequency for each exit gate along a line cycles through the three available operating frequencies. and Maloney teaches, “the area reader will cycle through the series of binary anti-collision response masks until only one PET tag responds to the "ANYONE NEW" message.” See ¶ 0090; therefore, this suggests that Maloney readers also cycles through frequencies among the three available frequencies suggested in ¶ 0068. Nonetheless, Examiner takes Official Notice that it is well known in the art for the readers arranged linearly along a line cycles through the three available operating frequencies.
Consider claim 11, a system comprising:
a plurality of radio frequency identification (RFID) readers located at each of a plurality of exit gates,
each exit gate configured with a different operating frequency than an adjacent exit gate; and
a controller configured to:
synchronize the plurality of RFID readers at one of the exit gates to prevent two readers at the [[exit gate]] from concurrently talking with overlapping coverage areas, Sandler teaches, “synchronizing of a plurality of Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) readers disposed within an environment... an RFID reader with an integrated or tethered photo transceiver can synchronize nearby readers throughout an enterprise” See ¶, Sandler teaches, “reader A 30 broadcasts a master infrared flash 32 in all directions (even though the figure only shows a limited dispersal), before the end of an dwell period. This master flash 32 is detected by the detectors 24 of nearby readers B, D, E, which triggers a hardware interrupt. Readers B, D, E synchronize their next millisecond tick with the start of a new dwell period,” See ¶ 0028,
and a same polarization, “to provide a substantially linear polarization” See ¶ 0020, therefore See Sandler Fig 3, each Readers A and B would have at least 1 antenna facing each other with same polarization but different delay will allow them to communicate simultaneously See ¶ 0030.
Maloney teaches, exit gate, see rejection of claim 1; and detect one or more tags within the coverage areas, See rejection of claim 1.
Consider claim 15, the system of claim 11, wherein the different operating frequency is selected from a set of three available operating frequencies, See rejection of claim 5.
Consider claim 17, the system of claim 15, wherein a closest exit gate operating on a same operating frequency as any of the plurality of exit gates is separated by at least two exit gates operating on different operating frequencies, See rejection of claim 7.
Consider claim 18, the system of claim 15, wherein the plurality of exit gates are arranged linearly and the operating frequency for each exit gate along a line cycles through the three available operating frequencies, See rejection of claim 8.
Consider claim 21, a method comprising:
configuring each of a plurality of exit gates including a plurality of radio frequency identification (RFID) readers with a different operating frequency than the plurality of RFID readers at an adjacent exit gate, See rejection of claim 1;
synchronizing the plurality of RFID readers at each exit gate to prevent two readers at the exit gate from concurrently talking with overlapping coverage areas and a same polarization, See rejection of claim 11; and
detecting one or more tags within the coverage areas, See rejection of claim 1.
Consider claim 25, the method of claim 21, wherein the different operating frequency is selected from a set of three available operating frequencies, See rejection of claim 5.
Consider claim 27, the method of claim 25, wherein a closest exit gate operating on a same operating frequency as any of the plurality of exit gates is separated by at least two exit gates operating on different operating frequencies, See rejection of claim 7.
Consider claim 28, the method of claim 25, wherein the plurality of exit gates are arranged linearly and the operating frequency for each exit gate along a line cycles through the three available operating frequencies, See rejection of claim 8.
Claim(s) 2-4, 6, 9, 12-14, 16, 19, 22-24, 26, and 29 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Sandler (US 2016/0048708 A1) in view of Maloney (US 2004/0229560 A1), and further in view of Fischer (US 2006/0022815 A1).
Consider claim 2, the RFID reader of claim 1, wherein to synchronize with the one or more RFID readers located at the same exit gate, the controller is configured to receive a schedule for talking that does not overlap with any schedule of the one or more RFID readers located at the same exit gate, Sandler teaches, “[e]ach RFID reader will also have the same antenna and frequency dwell time pre-configured. The dwell time is the time that a reader stays on a particular frequency or antenna. When the system is turned on all readers will start reading based on their starting antenna and frequency index for the pre-configured dwell time. The antennas can be switched after every dwell time (which is not regulated and can be as long as an administrator defines it), but the frequency must change after 400 milliseconds, which is configurable from 0 to 400 milliseconds. However, each reader will have different clock timings due to drift, which necessitates synchronization of dwell events between readers.” See ¶ 0024, in an analogous art, Fischer teaches, “system and method is provided for monitoring and characterizing various sources of RF interference within an RFID environment, and for adjusting the operational characteristics of RFID readers within the system based on the interference characterizations, thereby assuring that all of the readers within the system operate properly. The RFID system includes a plurality of RFID readers, each reader being operable to transmit and receive RF signals for interrogating at least one RFID tag, and for receiving tag data in response to the interrogation of the tag.” See ¶ 0019. Fischer teaches, “the criteria for mitigating reader-to-reader interference is based on appropriate alignments of the transmit and receive time slots for different readers operating on the same or adjacent but interfering frequency channels.” See ¶ 0171, Fischer teaches, “FIG. 11 depicts a representative alignment of transmit (Tx) time slots and receive (Rx) time slots for a plurality of synchronized readers 10.1-10.q. Time multiplexing is established across the multiple readers 10.1-10.q, and the individual reader devices and tags operate accordingly. The readers 10.1-10.q assert the transmission sequence and the tags synchronize and respond to the transmissions according to the receive slot start and end times (see the Time framing illustrated in FIG. 11), which can be established during the initial setup of the sequence.” See ¶ 0172.
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skilled in the art at the time of invention (effective filing date for AIA application) to modify the combination of Sandler-Maloney, wherein Sandler’s controller has a schedule for each of the reader for communication so the all reader can effectively communicate with the nearby tags with colliding in transmission and RF interference, as suggested by Fischer in ¶ 0019.
Consider claim 3, the RFID reader of claim 1, wherein to synchronize with the one or more RFID readers located at the same exit gate, the controller is configured to talk concurrently with another RFID readers located at the same exit gate with an opposite polarization, Sandler teaches, “each antenna element includes.. half of the antenna elements have the horizontal polarization and half have the vertical polarization [i.e. dual polarization]… the horizontal polarization is located ninety degrees from the feed point of the vertical polarization.” See ¶ 0019, Fischer teaches, “Multiple interrogators simultaneously transmit and multiple receivers simultaneously receive at a time delayed from the activity of the interrogator” See ¶ 0171, Fischer teaches, “reader parameters in use for that interrogation, e.g., … antenna orientation/polarization” See ¶ 0190.
Consider claim 4, the RFID reader of claim 1, wherein the antenna component is configurable to transmit using one of at least three beams, Fischer teaches, “the reader transmits a radio frequency (RF) signal in the direction of a tag,” See ¶ 0005, “steerable beam antenna may be steered through an angle such that either communications to a moving tag or moving the reader past a tag will achieve diversity in the angle of interrogation” See ¶ 0067, Fischer teaches, “at least one beam forming antenna can be incorporated into the reader to achieve angle diversity. Specifically, the beam forming antenna creates a change in its beam pattern, which is subsequently used to obtain angle diversity by transmitting and receiving through a different multi-path profile for each beam-shape” See ¶ 0069,
wherein to synchronize with the one or more RFID readers located at the same exit gate, the controller is configured to talk concurrently with another RFID reader located at the same exit gate with non-overlapping beams, Fischer teaches, “the reader 220 can time-synchronize the RF transmit and receive functions to the operation of the other readers within the system, set the bandwidth of the RF receiver to capture one or more channels of RF transmitter operation, and identify itself among other simultaneously transmitting readers to cooperating receivers.” See ¶ 0077, Fischer teaches, “all readers scheduled by the reader coordination component 464 (see FIG. 4c) start their RF operation at substantially the same time. This effectively eliminates interference due to overlapping read time slots.” See ¶ 0440; therefore, simultaneously transmitting with overlapping read time slots. “FIG. 24 depicts a plurality of segments Sa, Sb, Sc, Sd, Se, Sf formed by the overlapping and non-overlapping regions of RF coverage corresponding to a plurality of fixed readers FR1-FR4” See ¶ 0307 and Fig. 23-25.
Consider claim 6, the RFID reader of claim 5, wherein the adjacent exit gate is configured with a second available operating frequency and a second adjacent exit gate on an opposite side of the exit gate is configured with a third available operating frequency, Maloney teaches, “adjacent area readers are supposed to be deployed on different frequencies.” See ¶ 0109. Maloney teaches, “area reader #11 switches from frequency F2 to F3, and area reader #12 switches from frequency F2 to F4. At this . point, both area readers are operating on different frequencies,” See ¶ 0114. Fischer teaches, in Fig. 25 that Loc 1 (the exit gate) have frequency FR3 and FR4 for readers R4-R6 and Loc 2 (adjacent exit gate) have frequency FR1 and Loc3 (second adjacent exit gate) has frequency FR2.
Consider claim 9, the RFID reader of claim 1, wherein to synchronize with the one or more RFID readers located at the same exit gate, the controller is configured to select a transmit power for each RFID reader based on a direction of a beam, Fischer teaches, “a baseline power profile is generated using the first and second power levels associated with the first signal received at the first and second angles of signal reception, respectively. The transmitting, first and second receiving, measuring, and generating steps are then repeated to generate a second power profile. Next, the second power profile is compared to the baseline power profile, and the operational status of the first reader is determined based on the comparison of the second power profile to the baseline power profile.” See ¶ 0021, Fischer teaches, “The beam pattern changes provide different relative levels of signals in each direction, thereby providing the angle diversity required to improve communication performance.” See ¶ 0069, Fischer teaches, “a steerable beam antenna can be used to determine the direction of movement of a tag or a group of tags by discriminating the signal level as the direction of the antenna beam or the beam pattern is changed. In an alternative embodiment, a power profiling technique can be used to determine the direction of movement of a tag(s) within a site or facility in which a plurality of readers are deployed.” See ¶ 0270.
Consider claim 12, the system of claim 11, wherein to synchronize the plurality of RFID readers at the exit gate, the controller is configured to configure the plurality of RFID readers with non-overlapping schedules for talking, See rejection of claim 2.
Consider claim 13, the system of claim 11, wherein to synchronize the plurality of RFID readers at the exit gate, the controller is configured to configure two of the plurality of RFID readers to talk concurrently with opposite polarizations, See rejection of claim 3.
Consider claim 14, the system of claim 11, wherein to synchronize the plurality of RFID readers at the exit gate, the controller is configured to configure two of the plurality of RFID readers to talk concurrently with non-overlapping beams, See rejection of claim 4.
Consider claim 16, the system of claim 15, wherein the adjacent exit gate is configured with a second available operating frequency and a second adjacent exit gate on an opposite side of the exit gate is configured with a third available operating frequency, See rejection of claim 6.
Consider claim 19, the system of claim 11, wherein to synchronize the plurality of RFID readers at the exit gate, the controller is configured to select a transmit power for each RFID reader based on a direction of a beam, See rejection of claim 9.
Consider claim 22, the method of claim 21, wherein synchronizing the plurality of RFID readers at an exit gate comprises configuring the plurality of RFID readers with non-overlapping schedules for talking, See rejection of claim 2.
Consider claim 23, the method of claim 21, wherein synchronizing the plurality of RFID readers at an exit gate comprises configuring two of the plurality of RFID readers to talk concurrently with opposite polarizations, See rejection of claim 3.
Consider claim 24, the method of claim 21, wherein synchronizing the plurality of RFID readers at an exit gate comprises configuring two of the plurality of RFID readers to talk concurrently with non-overlapping beams, See rejection of claim 4.
Consider claim 26, the method of claim 25, wherein the adjacent exit gate is configured with a second available operating frequency and a second adjacent exit gate on an opposite side of the exit gate is configured with a third available operating frequency, See rejection of claim 6.
Consider claim 29, the method of claim 21, wherein synchronizing the plurality of RFID readers at each exit gate comprises selecting a transmit power for each RFID reader based on a direction of a beam, See rejection of claim 9.
Claim(s) 10, 20, and 30 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Sandler (US 2016/0048708 A1) in view of Maloney (US 2004/0229560 A1), and further in view of Simon (US 9,519,811 B1).
Consider claim 10, the RFID reader of claim 1, wherein to synchronize with the one or more RFID readers located at the same exit gate, the controller is configured to utilize a greater amount of dual target reading sessions than single target reading sessions, in an analogous art, Simon teaches, “system for reading radio frequency identification (RFID) tags in a portal system” See abstract. Simon teaches, “The first detection RF field is used to excite RFID tags within a first detection proximity to the RFID portal using one of a Session 2 and a Session 3 mode, having a long duration session persistence.” than the “Session 0 mode having a minimal duration session persistence which is less than Session 2” in an effort to” See col. 1 line 55- col. 2 line 10. Simon teaches, “A common practice for purposes of trying to reach these goal can involve interrogating tags using the dual-target mode in one of the latched sessions S1, S2 or S3. In the dual-target mode, each of the tags will be read continuously regardless of whether the tag is in state “A” or state “B”.” Col. 4 lines 37-23, Simon teaches, “RFID reader will select which session is to be used during a particular inventory cycle. The flag state “A” or “B” for each of session S0, S1, S2, and S3 can be controlled independently of the flag state set in other sessions.” See col. 5 lines 60-63. Simon teaches, “inventory rounds performed by the portal during the detection cycle are Single Target rounds. As is known, when an RFID reader performs a Single Target round, it reads only “A” state tags and then transitions each such tag to its “B” state.” See col. 6 lines 36-40.
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skilled in the art at the time of invention (effective filing date for AIA application) to modify the invention or combination of Sandler-Maloney controller selectively selects a greater amount of reading sessions between dual-target mode and Single Target rounds in an effort to read the maximum number of tags in a session and effectively able to read the tags farthest from the reader.
Consider claim 20, the system of claim 11, wherein to synchronize the plurality of RFID readers at the exit gate, the controller is configured to configure the plurality of RFID readers to utilize a greater amount of dual target reading sessions than single target reading sessions, See rejection of claim 10.
Consider claim 30, the method of claim 21, wherein synchronizing the plurality of RFID readers at each exit gate comprises utilizing a greater amount of dual target reading sessions than single target reading sessions, See rejection of claim 10.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to Omer S. Khan whose telephone number is (571)270-5146. The examiner can normally be reached 10:00 am to 8:00 pm EST.
Examiner interviews are available via telephone, in-person, and video conferencing using a USPTO supplied web-based collaboration tool. To schedule an interview, applicant is encouraged to use the USPTO Automated Interview Request (AIR) at http://www.uspto.gov/interviewpractice.
If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Brian A. Zimmerman can be reached at 571-272-3059. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
Information regarding the status of published or unpublished applications may be obtained from Patent Center. Unpublished application information in Patent Center is available to registered users. To file and manage patent submissions in Patent Center, visit: https://patentcenter.uspto.gov. Visit https://www.uspto.gov/patents/apply/patent-center for more information about Patent Center and https://www.uspto.gov/patents/docx for information about filing in DOCX format. For additional questions, contact the Electronic Business Center (EBC) at 866-217-9197 (toll-free). If you would like assistance from a USPTO Customer Service Representative, call 800-786-9199 (IN USA OR CANADA) or 571-272-1000.
/Omer S Khan/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2686