DETAILED ACTION
The present application, filed on or after March 16, 2013, is being examined under the first inventor to file provisions of the AIA .
This Office Action is in response to the claim amendment filed on April 9, 2026 and wherein claims 1-4, 11, 15 amended, claims 16-30 remain withdrawn status.
In virtue of this communication, claims 1-30 are currently pending in this Office Action.
The Office appreciates the explanation of the amendment and analyses of the prior arts, and however, although the claims are interpreted in light of the specification, limitations from the specification are not read into the claims. See In re Van Geuns, 988 F.2d 1181, 26 USPQ2d 1057 (Fed. Cir. 1993) and MPEP 2145.
Examiner Comment
Claims 16-30 maintained withdrawn status. A complete reply to a future final office action must include cancellation of non-elected claims or other appropriate action (37 CFR 1.144). See MPEP § 821.01.
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 of this title, 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 1-7, 9-10, 12-15 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Munoz et al. (US 20210004201 A1, hereinafter Munoz) and in view of reference De Bruijn (WO 2021180310 A1, also published as US 20230088922 A1 that is referred by paragraph number cited below).
Claim 1: Munoz teaches a device (title and abstract, ln 1-17, a content consumer device or one or more source device in fig. 8) comprising: one or more processors (GPU 714, processor 712, display processor 718 in fig. 8) configured, during an audio decoding operation (performed by at least audio decoding device 34 and applied on received bitstream 27 in fig. 1A-1C), to:
obtain a set of audio streams (one or more audio streams 27 received from audio decoding device 34 from transmission channel in figs. 1A-1C) associated with a set of audio sources (associated with audio sources obtained from audio capture devices of a live scene in fig. 1A, para 19, or synthesized sources in a virtual scene in fig. 1C, para 65, e.g., audio elements 302A-302J in fig. 3A, para 88);
receive, via a bitstream (one of the one or more audio bitstreams 27, and including a representations of soundfield and the audio metadata 25, para 39) from an encoder device (a soundfield representation generator 24, including hardware device, and performing psychoacoustic audio encoding of content 21 from capture device 20, para 46), group assignment information (audio location information ALI 45A included in metadata in fig. 1A-1C, para 80 and device location information DLI 45B, audio source location ASL 49, para 86, and audio source distance, para 91, or audio source distance 306A/306B, para 90) indicating that particular audio sources in the set of audio sources (the ALI defined coordinates for microphones that captured the respective audio streams 27, para 80 or audio source distance for each of audio streams above, para 90) are to be assigned to a particular audio source group (a subset of the audio streams 27 is selected based on the ALI 45A, as output of audio data 19’ referred to audio streams 19’’’, para 80, device location information DLI 45B and audio source location ASL, para 84-86 or audio source distance 306A/306B compared with an audio source distance threshold, para 90), the particular audio source group associated with a source spacing condition (capture location or synthesize location of the stream by which, at least one of the audio streams 27 is excluded, para 80, or satisfying an audio source distance threshold, para 90, a single audio stream from the stream 27 is selected when the audio source distance is greater than an audio source distance threshold, para 91 and multiple audio streams selected if the audio source distance 306B is less than or equal to the threshold in fig. 3A, para 93-95); and
render, based on a rendering mode assigned to the particular audio source group (one of the audio renders 32 is selected to render the audio data 19’ in figs. 1A-1C, para 58-62), particular audio streams that are associated with the particular audio sources (the audio data 19’ to be rendered is associated with the selected subset of audio streams 27 from the stream selection unit 44 of the audio decoding device 34 in figs. 1A-1C, para 88).
However, Munoz does not explicitly teach wherein the particular audio sources in the set of audio sources have been assigned to the particular audio source group.
De Bruijn teaches an analogous field of endeavor by disclosing a device (title and a method in abstract, ln 1-9, and implemented on a decoder side system, para 129 and at steps 2-3 in fig. 5C) comprising: one or more processors (one or more processors P 1055, para 171, fig. 10) configured, during an audio decoding operation (performed on a decoder side, para 58), to:
obtain a set of audio streams (individual objects signals and clustering metadata and individual objects metadata in form of bitstream in fig. 5C, para 129) associated with a set of audio sources (associated with individual source objects that caught with spatial information at encoder side, para 88 or audio sources in SH representations, para 111);
receive, via a bitstream (including metadata bitstream in fig. 5C, para 129) from an encoder device (the encoder side system in fig. 5C), group assignment information (metadata from step s152, para 61 and including clustering metadata and individual objects metadata in fig. 5C) indicating that particular audio sources in the set of audio sources have been assigned to a particular audio source group (represented by a particular cluster identifier assigned to all of the audio objects included in the particular cluster, para 61, and all of the audio objects included in the particular cluster are pre-selected at an encoder side, para 47, 122-124), the particular audio source group associated with a source spacing condition (clustering the audio objects is based on or associated with that the audio objects that are positioned less than a Dcluster away from each other, and clustering is performed in a cluster analysis algorithm, para 52-54 ); and
render (performed by a renderer or decoder, para 58), based on a rendering mode assigned to the particular audio source group (binaurally rendering of the spatially downmixed cluster, para 112), particular audio streams that are associated with the particular audio sources (the cluster is rendered at step s156, para 112 or binaural rendering over headphones, para 115 or different rendering applied for particular type of spatial audio object, para 117) for benefits of improving audio rendering performance (by reducing rendering complexity of audio sources or objects, para 24, e.g., rendering independent of the listener’s position, para 25 and by reducing transmission complexity of object-based audio scenes, para 26 and reduction of transmission bandwidth requirement, para 79, and by preserving spatial information of an original object-based scene by transforming clusters of audio objects into spatial audio objects, para 31-32).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have applied wherein the particular audio sources in the set of audio sources have been assigned to the particular audio source group, as taught by De Bruijn, to the particular audio sources in the set of audio sources being assigned to the particular audio source group in the device, as taught by Munoz, for the benefits discussed above.
Claim 15 has been analyzed and rejected according to claim 1 above.
Claim 2: the combination of Munoz and De Bruijn further teaches, according to claim 1 above, wherein at least one of the set of audio streams is received via a bitstream (Munoz, bitstream 27 represented an encoded version of the audio data 19 in fig. 1A-1C, para 48, e.g., psychoacoustic audio encoding, para 46 and De Bruijn, individual objects signals in the stream from the encoder side system to the user side system in fig. 5C) and the received group assignment information includes an identifier of the particular audio source group (De Bruijn, a particular cluster identifier in metadata, para 61 or a common identifier in the side metadata, para 129, 163) and an indication that each of the particular audio sources has been assigned to the particular audio source group (De Bruijn, the cluster identifier in metadata assigned to all of the audio objects included in the particular cluster, para 61 and being attached to all individual objects that have been selected as belonging to the same cluster, and included in the metadata, para 129, 163).
Claim 3: the combination of Munoz and De Bruijn further teaches, according to claim 1 above, wherein the group assignment information includes:
a first identifier of the particular audio source group and a second identifier of a second audio source group (De Bruijn, one or more clusters of audio objects to be transformed for rendering by the clustering analysis process, para 56 and an individual cluster identifier assigned to a particular cluster of the one or more clusters, para 61 and included in the transmitted metadata, para 61, as part of group assignment information, and similarly, other clusters of the one or more clusters above, para 56, and e.g., for two user side systems 1 and 2 in fig. 6);
first data that indicates that the particular audio sources have been assigned to the particular audio source group (Munoz, audio location information ALI is included as metadata, para 80 or metadata identifying a location of an individual audio object in fig. 2 or other point of reference in the soundfield, i.e., audio source distance 306A/306B, para 23 and the metadata is transmitted from the source device 12B as part of the bitstream 27, para 39, and De Bruijn, the cluster identifier of the particular cluster and attached to the all of individual audio objects, including individual objects metadata in fig. 5C, as a whole to indicate particular audio sources being belong to the attached common identifier, para 129); and
second data that indicates one or more audio sources, of the set of audio sources, that have been assigned to the second audio source group (Munoz, similarly discussed in the first data above, and De Bruijn, the attached cluster identifier of other cluster or clusters of the one or more clusters identified by the clustering analysis process, para 56, and the individual object metadata, para 129).
Claim 4: the combination of Munoz and De Bruijn further teaches, according to claim 1 above, wherein the one or more processors are configured to update the received group assignment information (Munoz, update streams to include the new audio stream and update associate metadata with new audio metadata, including capture location information representative of a capture coordinates, para 119, 177 or snaping into a new audio stream in snaping mode, based on a new location of the audio object relative to the listener in the soundfield in figs. 5A-5D, para 120 and De Bruijn, dynamic clustering over time due to individual objects may move in and out of the assigned clusters or clustering even change completely, para 57).
Claim 5: the combination of Munoz and De Bruijn further teaches, according to claim 1 above, wherein the group assignment information is determined (Munoz, e.g., audio source distance in claim 1 above) at least partially based on comparisons of one or more source spacing metrics (Munoz, the audio source distance for each of the transmitted audio streams 27, para 90) to a threshold (Munoz, compared to a audio source distance threshold to determine whether the audio stream in question is placed into the subset or not represented by dashed area in figs. 3A-3E, para 87-88, 94-100 and De Bruijn, compared to Euclidian distance or Dcluster away from each other of the audio objects, para 52 or combined with maximum number a cluster shall not be over, para 54).
Claim 6: the combination of Munoz and De Bruijn further teaches, according to claim 5 above, wherein the threshold includes a dynamic threshold (Munoz, the audio source distance threshold is dynamically adapted to the proximity distance threshold set by user or a quality of the audio elements 302F-302J, a gain or loudness of the audio source 308, tracking information 41, or any other factors in figs. 3A-3C, para 95, and De Bruijn, the Dcluster is adaptively or iteratively determined upon the maximum number of resulting audio objects, para 54 or adaptively upon the available resource of the decoder, para 56).
Claim 7: the combination of Munoz and De Bruijn further teaches, according to claim 1 above, wherein the rendering mode assigned to the particular audio source group is one of multiple rendering modes that are supported by the one or more processors (Munoz, binaural renderer 42 and audio renderers 32, including a number of different audio renderers 32 supported in the audio playback system 16A in figs. 1A-1C, para 52 and De Bruijn, indirect rendering by transforming the original audio objects to an intermediate representation M and then to binaural form, para 18, or direct rendering, including transformation of audio objects to spherical harmonics representation in different orders, para 79-80, etc. or directly downmixed to binaural form, para 46).
Claim 9: the combination of Munoz and De Bruijn further teaches, according to claim 1 above, wherein the one or more processors are further configured to combine a first rendered audio signal associated with the set of audio sources (Munoz, selected from bitstream or audio streams 27 transmitted through the transmission channel in figs. 1A-1C and the discussion in claim 1 above and De Bruijn, clustered objects to be transformed and then rendered, discussed in claim 1 above) with a second rendered audio signal associated with a microphone input (Munoz, 320A in fig. 3D, one of a dedicated microphone 320A and smartphones 320B-320D, 320G, 320H, 320J in fig. 3D, para 99 and De Bruijn, non-clustered individual audio object, para 10, 23 and associated with virtual microphone setup in fig. 3, para 91-96, or HOA microphone, para 87) to generate a combined signal (Munoz, generating combined audio feed to the VR device 400, para 90, 129, and De Bruijn, combined with non-clustered audio objects and De Bruijn, combining the clustered audio objects with non-group audio objects, para 10).
Claim 10: the combination of Munoz and De Bruijn further teaches, according to claim 9 above, wherein the one or more processors are further configured to binauralize the combined signal to generate a binaural output signal (Munoz, by using binaural renderer 42 in fig. 7B and De Bruijn, direct, para 6, or indirect binaural transformation for rendering, para 18), and further comprising one or more speakers coupled to the one or more processors and configured to play out the binaural output signal (Munoz, headphones 48 to emit left and right speaker feeds 43 in fig. 7B, para 63 and De Bruijn, a left speaker 704 and right speaker 705 in fig.7, para 148).
Claim 12: the combination of Munoz and De Bruijn further teaches, according to claim 1 above, wherein the one or more processors are integrated in a headset device (Munoz, the consumer device 14A can be a headset, a smartphone, a laptop computer, or tablet computer, etc., para 49-50 and De Bruijn, by an extended reality XR in fig. 8A and through headphones, para 115).
Claim 13: the combination of Munoz and De Bruijn further teaches, according to claim 1 above, wherein the one or more processors are integrated in at least one of a mobile phone, a tablet computer device, or a wearable electronic device (Munoz, the consumer device 14A can be a headset, a smartphone, a laptop computer, or tablet computer, etc., para 49-50 and De Bruijn, the extended reality XR in fig. 8A, as wearable electronic device).
Claim 14: the combination of Munoz and De Bruijn further teaches, according to claim 1 above, wherein the one or more processors are integrated in a vehicle (Munoz, UE 115 integrated in a vehicle, a smartphone, a microphone, an array of microphones, or a XR/VR/AR headset, etc., para 166).
Claim 8 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Munoz (above) and in view of references De Bruijn (above) and Walsh et al. (US 20200382894 A1, hereinafter Walsh).
Claim 8: the combination of Munoz and De Bruijn further teaches, according to claim 7 above, wherein the multiple rendering modes include: a baseline rendering mode in which signal processing (Munoz, including application of Bessel function, etc., for representing sound field by spherical harmonic coefficients Anm(k), para 24-25 and De Bruijn, processing circuitry 1002 in fig. 10), source direction analysis (Munoz, sound field in a point represented by radius and azimuth and elevation angles, and captured and recorded by microphones at the point, para 25-26 and De Bruijn, by controller 701, and using metadata 754 regarding the audio sources or information 753, regarding the direction and distance to an audio source from a listener in fig. 7, para 149) in frequency domain (Munoz, represented in frequency domain via DFT or DCT, para 25), and source interpolation (Munoz, interpolation between a first and a second streams 438, 440 in figs. 5B/5C, para 135 and De Bruijn, real-time interpolation about HRTF filters corresponding to a change of the audio object, para 5) are performed; and a low-complexity rendering mode in which distance-weighted time domain interpolation is performed (Munoz, interpolation having weight updated with respect to the device location and the stream coordinates in fig. 5B-5C, para 122, 233), except wherein it is in frequency domain to perform the source interpolation.
Walsh teaches an analogous field of endeavor by disclosing a device (title and abstract, ln 1-18 and a mobile phone or electronic device, as consumer electronic device, para 28 and included in a virtual surround system in fig. 5) and wherein a source interpolation is performed in frequency domain (frequency domain interpolation of audio source via interpolation of personalized HRTFs related to each audio source, para 13) for benefits of improving sound quality (by more accurately recreation of interpolated HRTF audio source locations, and improving the performance specifically in frontal localization and externalization, para 13).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have applied a source interpolation is performed in frequency domain, as taught by Walsh, to the source interpolation in the device, as taught by the combination of Munoz and De Bruijn, for the benefits discussed above.
Claim 11 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Munoz (above) and in view of references De Bruijn (above) and Swaminathan et al. (US 20210006976 A1, hereinafter Swaminathan)
Claim 11: the combination of Munoz and De Bruijn further teaches, according to claim 1 above, further comprising a transceiver coupled to the one or more processors (Munoz, transceiver module 722 coupled to processor 712 and GPU 714 in fig. 8 and De Bruijn, network interface 1048 including a transmitter 1045 and a receiver 1047, i.e., transceiver, in fig. 10), the transceiver configured to receive at least one audio stream of the set of audio streams via a bitstream from an encoder device (maintaining a connection from the source device 12 to the content consumer device 14 in fig. 1A-1C, para 161), except a modem.
Swaminathan teaches an analogous field of endeavor by disclosing a device (title and abstract, ln 1-18 and a VR device in fig. 2) and wherein a modem or a transceiver can be used for obtaining audio streams (obtaining audio streams 27 from source device 12 in fig. 1A-1B, para 95, 111) for benefits of improving adaptability of the device (by using either modem in analog domain or transceiver in digital domain, para 95, and for transmitting and receiving ambisonics coefficients accurately representing 3D localization of sound sources, para 30).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have applied the option among the modem and the transceiver in the device, as taught by Swaminathan, to the transceiver in the device, as taught by the combination of Munoz and De Bruijn, for the benefits discussed above.
Response to Arguments
Applicant's arguments filed on April 9, 2026 have been fully considered and but are moot in view of the new ground(s) of rejection necessitated by the applicant amendment. Although a new ground of rejection has been used to address additional limitations that have been added to claims 1-3, 15, a response is considered necessary for several of applicant’s arguments since reference Munoz will continue to be used to meet several claimed limitations.
With respect to the prior art rejection of independent claim 1, similar to claim 15, under 35 USC §103(a), as set forth in the Office Action, applicant argued: group assignment information indicating grouping of audio objects or signals that has occurred prior to receiving “group assignment information”, etc., as recited in claims 1 and 15, but Munoz merely teach grouping of audio objects performed after receiving “group assignment information”, see argument, paragraph 1-3 of page 9 in Remarks filed on April 9, 2026.
In response to the argument cited above, the applicant’s argument above has been overcome by introducing prior art De Bruijn and De Bruijn teaches, as discussed in the office action above, an audio encoder and an audio decoder and further teaches that clustering of the audio objects based on approximation criteria is performed by audio encoder side and the cluster identifier that is formed, the cluster, with cluster metadata and audio object metadata are transmitted from the encoder to the decoder for further rendering, etc., which would be considered to anticipate the claim amendment and argued limitations above. Doing this would be benefit, e.g., reducing the transmission bandwidth requirement due to less data to be transmitted and reducing complexity due to less data to be prepared for encoding and decoding processes. Therefore, prior art rejection to claims 1, 15 is applied under U.S.C. 103(a), upon a new ground necessitation of the claim amendment.
In the response to this office action, the Office respectfully requests that support be shown for language added to any original claims on amendment and any new claims. That is, indicate support for newly added claim language by specifically pointing to page(s) and line numbers in the specification and/or drawing figure(s). This will assist the Office in prosecuting this application.
Conclusion
Applicant's amendment necessitated the new ground(s) of rejection presented in this Office action. Accordingly, THIS ACTION IS MADE FINAL. See MPEP § 706.07(a). Applicant is reminded of the extension of time policy as set forth in 37 CFR 1.136(a).
A shortened statutory period for reply to this final action is set to expire THREE MONTHS from the mailing date of this action. In the event a first reply is filed within TWO MONTHS of the mailing date of this final action and the advisory action is not mailed until after the end of the THREE-MONTH shortened statutory period, then the shortened statutory period will expire on the date the advisory action is mailed, and any nonprovisional extension fee (37 CFR 1.17(a)) pursuant to 37 CFR 1.136(a) will be calculated from the mailing date of the advisory action. In no event, however, will the statutory period for reply expire later than SIX MONTHS from the mailing date of this final action.
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/LESHUI ZHANG/
Primary Examiner,
Art Unit 2695
Prosecution Insights