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
In the event the determination of the status of the application as subject to AIA 35 U.S.C. 102 and 103 (or as subject to pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 102 and 103) is incorrect, any correction of the statutory basis for the rejection will not be considered a new ground of rejection if the prior art relied upon, and the rationale supporting the rejection, would be the same under either status.
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 [21-40] are rejected under 35 U.S.C 103 as being unpatentable over Lu (US 20130003579 A1) in view of Baird (US 20080137558 A1).
In regards to claims 21, 31 and 39 Lu receiving, by a first node from a lapse detector and notifier at a second node that is connected to the first node across a protected link [0030]Apart from this, an additional reliable TCP-based control channel 245, 250, 255 is established between the source (transmitter, sender) of FIG. 2A and the destination (receiver, sink, client) 201 of FIG. 2B to request and receive the retransmission of lost packets for a telephone call between a first participant at the first node and a second participant at the second node, a lapse notification [0030] If the receiver 201 detects a sequence gap, the receiver 201 sends a request on the TCP-based control channel 255 for selective retransmission, of the missing data packets. When the transmitter/server 200 receives a retransmission request from one or more of its receivers/clients 201, it looks in its local cache 235 of most recent packets. If the requested packet(s) is/are found in the local cache 235, the sender/server 200 retransmits in unicast a copy of the packet to the receiver 201 on the TCP-based control channel 255 via network 110 depending on assigned priority and current network statistics that indicates to the first node that a lapse occurred in the telephone call during which the second node failed to receive audio from the first node [0030] One or more receivers/clients 201 (FIG. 2B) receive the data packets from the transmitter/server 200 and may detect sequence gaps in the received data packets, for example, using the sequence number field present in the RTP (FIG. 6) or MPEG transport stream (TS) header (FIG. 7). If the receiver 201 detects a sequence gap, the receiver 201 sends a request on the TCP-based control channel 255 for selective retransmission, of the missing data packets. When the transmitter/server 200 receives a retransmission request from one or more of its receivers/clients 201, it looks in its local cache 235 of most recent packets and that identifies both a beginning time and a catch-up time for the lapse; [0052] FIG. 9 provides a format for a sender/server/transmitter obtaining network packet loss through the retransmission requests received from the receiver/client 201. A network monitor function 405 of FIG. 4 calculates a number of lost packets from the fields "Base sequence # of starting packet" and "offset for ending packet. A non-transitory computer readable storage medium having computer- executable instructions stored thereon that, when executed by at least one processor, cause operations to be performed [0049] The RMP method of the present invention may be implemented in a flexible software library, hardware, firmware, any computer or processor, an application specific integrated circuit (ASIC), a reduced instruction set computer (RISC), at least one processor; and at least one memory coupled to the at least one processor, wherein the at least one memory has computer-executable instructions stored thereon [0056] It is to be understood that the present invention may be implemented in various forms of hardware, software, firmware, special purpose processors, or a combination thereof. Preferably, the present invention is implemented as a combination of hardware and software.
Lu does not teach sending, by the first node to the second node in response to receiving the lapse notification from the second node, an alert sound alerting the second node that cached audio that was recorded at a buffer at the first node during the lapse is about to be played; and; sending, by the first node to the second node across the protected link for the telephone call and in response to receiving the lapse notification from the second no contents of the buffer at the first node from the beginning time to the catch-up time such that the second participant at the second node catches up in the telephone call despite the lapse.
However, Baird does teach sending, by the first node to the second node in response to receiving the lapse notification from the second node, an alert sound alerting the second node that cached audio that was recorded at a buffer at the first node during the lapse is about to be played; [0033] FIG. 8 illustrates an example method for playback of context when a comment is triggered in the conferencing system of FIG. 1. This example begins with the playing of a prompt or IVR script notifying the listener that a comment is about to be played back (block 115). Prior to playback of the comment itself, a predetermined amount of context is played ahead of where the comment occurred in the course of the conference session (block 116) and; sending, by the first node to the second node across the protected link for the telephone call and in response to receiving the lapse notification from the second no contents of the buffer at the first node from the beginning time to the catch-up time [0025] When participant 18 has finished recording his question/comment (indicated by an appropriate command entered on endpoint 16), server 27 starts transmitting playback of the catch-up media recording (shown by path 52) to endpoint 16. The catch-up media is played back at a faster rate (e.g., 1.5.times.-2.times. with pauses and silences removed or reduced) than real-time until endpoint 16 catches up to the real-time conference session such that the second participant at the second node catches up in the telephone call despite the lapse; [0025] The catch-up media is played back at a faster rate (e.g., 1.5.times.-2.times. with pauses and silences removed or reduced) than real-time until endpoint 16 catches up to the real-time conference session. Later, after the lecture portion of the conference has ended and the moderator is ready to respond to questions/comments, server 27 retrieves the triggered questions/comments from multimedia storage 50.
It would have been obvious for one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, having the teachings of Lu and Baird before him or her, to modify the method of Lu to include the play back alert as taught by Baird.
The motivation to do so would be improved real time alerts. (0037 by Baird).
Regarding claim 22, 32 and 40 Lu and Baird teach the limitations of the parent claim
Lu also teaches wherein the buffer comprises a continuous buffer [0030] For this mechanism to work properly, the transmitter (sender, server) 200 maintains a cache 235 of the most recent packets sent to its receivers/clients 201 (FIG. 2B).
Regarding claim 23 and 33 Lu and Baird teach the limitations of the parent claim
Lu does not teach wherein the continuous buffer is indexed by time of day.
However, Baird does teach wherein the continuous buffer comprises a circular buffer [0026] The participant's comments are recorded (block 65) and a temporal mark is stored along with the recorded comments (block 66) indicating the context or point in the conference session where the participant's question/comment arose.
It would have been obvious for one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, having the teachings of Lu and Baird before him or her, to modify the method of Lu to include the buffer as taught by Baird.
The motivation to do so would be improved real time alerts. (0037 by Baird).
Regarding claim 24 and 34 Lu and Baird teach the limitations of the parent claim.
Lu does teach wherein the continuous buffer comprises a circular buffer. [0036] The box labeled "Config" 226 is a "Configuration Interface" to the RMP module 231. RMP module can be configured at the time of initialization to set parameters such as cache size, maximum time to wait for packet recovery, etc.
Regarding claim 25 and 35 Lu and Baird teach the limitations of the parent claim.
Lu does not teach wherein the buffer comprises a selective buffer that is controlled to selectively record during the lapse.
However, Baird does teach wherein the buffer comprises a selective buffer that is controlled to selectively record during the lapse. [0023] Alternatively, detection of speech by the conferencing system may cause the participant to automatically drop out of real-time listening mode and into recording mode. That is, audible speech of a participant who otherwise would not be able to participate directly in the conference may trigger recording of that speech. When the speech stops for a predetermined period (e.g., 5 seconds of silence), the system may automatically stop the recording and enter catch-up mode for that participant.
It would have been obvious for one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, having the teachings of Lu and Baird before him or her, to modify the method of Lu to include the buffer as taught by Baird.
The motivation to do so would be improved real time alerts. (0037 by Baird).
Regarding claim 26 and 36, Lu and Baird teach the limitations of the parent claim.
Lu does not teach performing by the first node voice transcription on the contents of the buffer at the first node from the beginning time to the catch-up time to generate resulting text.
However, Baird does teach performing by the first node voice transcription on the contents of the buffer at the first node from the beginning time to the catch-up time to generate resulting text. [0017] n certain embodiments, conference server may also incorporate or be associated with a natural language automatic speech recognition (ASR) module for interpreting and parsing speech of the participants, and standard speech-to-text (STT) and text-to-speech (TTS) converter modules.
It would have been obvious for one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, having the teachings of Lu and Baird before him or her, to modify the method of Lu to include the buffer as taught by Baird.
The motivation to do so would be improved real time alerts. (0037 by Baird).
Regarding claim 27 and 37, Lu and Baird teach the limitations of the parent claim.
Lu does not teach comprising sending by the first node to the second node, the resulting text for display to the second participant.
However, Baird does teach comprise sending by the first node to the second node, the resulting text for display to the second participant. [0034] In a specific implementation, when the context is triggered to pop-up on a participant's web browser, the agenda context may appear (e.g., "the context for this comment is Agendum 53," etc.). If the context involves web sharing, a slide that was used when the comment was made may automatically pop-up on the participant's computer screen.
It would have been obvious for one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, having the teachings of Lu and Baird before him or her, to modify the method of Lu to include the buffer as taught by Baird.
The motivation to do so would be improved real time alerts. (0037 by Baird).
Regarding claim 28 and 38, Lu and Baird teach the limitations of the parent claim.
Lu does teach wherein the method further comprises the first node continuing to record audio at the buffer at the first node while the first node sends the contents of the buffer at the first node from the beginning time to the catch-up time. [0030] the transmitter (sender, server) 200 maintains a cache 235 of the most recent packets sent to its receivers/clients 201 (FIG. 2B)… If the requested packet(s) is/are found in the local cache 235, the sender/server 200 retransmits in unicast a copy of the packet to the receiver 201.
Regarding claim 29, Lu and Baird teach the limitations of the parent claim.
Lu does not teach wherein the contents of the buffer at the first node from the beginning time to the catch-up time are played at the second node at a faster rate than a recorded rate at which the contents were recorded.
However, Baird does teach wherein the contents of the buffer at the first node from the beginning time to the catch-up time are played at the second node at a faster rate than a recorded rate at which the contents were recorded. [0025] The catch-up media is played back at a faster rate (e.g., 1.5.times.-2.times. with pauses and silences removed or reduced) than real-time until endpoint 16 catches up to the real-time conference session. Later, after the lecture portion of the conference has ended and the moderator is ready to respond to questions/comments, server 27 retrieves the triggered questions/comments from multimedia storage 50.
It would have been obvious for one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, having the teachings of Lu and Baird before him or her, to modify the method of Lu to include the buffer as taught by Baird.
The motivation to do so would be improved real time alerts. (0037 by Baird).
Regarding claim 30, Lu and Baird teach the limitations of the parent claim.
Lu does not teach wherein the faster rate is at least twice as fast as the recorded rate.
However, Baird does teach wherein the faster rate is at least twice as fast as the recorded rate. [0025] The catch-up media is played back at a faster rate (e.g., 1.5.times.-2.times. with pauses and silences removed or reduced) than real-time until endpoint 16 catches up to the real-time conference session. Later, after the lecture portion of the conference has ended and the moderator is ready to respond to questions/comments, server 27 retrieves the triggered questions/comments from multimedia storage 50.
It would have been obvious for one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, having the teachings of Lu and Baird before him or her, to modify the method of Lu to include the buffer as taught by Baird.
The motivation to do so would be improved real time alerts. (0037 by Baird).
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to SHEHAB A ALAWDI whose telephone number is (571)270-3203. The examiner can normally be reached M-F 9-5.
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/SHEHAB A ALAWDI/Examiner, Art Unit 2466
/JAY P PATEL/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2466