DETAILED ACTION
Status of Claims
The present application, filed on or after March 16, 2013, is being examined under the first inventor to file provisions of the AIA .
Claims 1-12 are pending.
Claim Objections
Claims 2 and all dependent claims therefrom are objected to because of the following informalities: the claim has a typographic error “second ban[d]-pass filter”. Appropriate correction is required.
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.
The factual inquiries for establishing a background for determining obviousness under 35 U.S.C. 103 are summarized as follows:
1. Determining the scope and contents of the prior art.
2. Ascertaining the differences between the prior art and the claims at issue.
3. Resolving the level of ordinary skill in the pertinent art.
4. Considering objective evidence present in the application indicating obviousness or nonobviousness.
Claims 1-5 and 10-12 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Leijssen et al. (US 20190343417 A1, 2019-11-14) (hereinafter “Leijssen”) in view of Sackner et al. (US 20030187341 A1, 2003-10-02) (hereinafter “Sackner”).
Regarding claims 1-5 and 10-12, Leijssen teaches a device for measuring cardiopulmonary state (e.g., [0039], [0131]), the device comprising: a sensor including: a substrate; a coil (e.g., 10, Figs. 3, 4) arranged on the substrate (e.g., 51, Fig. 4), the coil configured to transmit a first electromagnetic signal (e.g., 16, Fig. 1) toward to a to-be-measured part of a subject, and at least receive a second electromagnetic signal (e.g., 18, Fig. 1) generated at the to-be-measured part induced by the first electromagnetic signal, wherein the second electromagnetic signal is converted to a sensing signal by the coil; and a control module including: a signal generation unit coupled to the coil, wherein the signal generating unit is configured generate an AC signal provided to the coil to generate the first electromagnetic signal; a filter unit (e.g., 64, Fig. 9); and a processing unit (comprising, e.g., 66, Fig. 9) coupled to the filter unit; wherein the processing unit is configured to calculate, based on the first portion and the second portion, at least one feature signal of the subject’s cardiopulmonary state. See, e.g., Figs. 9, 12 and associated text.
Leijssen does not teach a filter unit coupled to the coil at least having a first filter frequency band and a second filter frequency band, wherein the sensing signal is filtered out a first portion corresponding to the first filter frequency band, and a second portion corresponding to the second filter frequency band by the filter unit. Sackner teaches using a plurality of band-pass filters to achieve the required signal processing for various signals of interest. See, e.g., [0047]-[0051].
It would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to incorporate the teachings of Sackner with the invention taught by Leijssen such that the invention further comprises a filter unit coupled to the coil at least having a first filter frequency band and a second filter frequency band, wherein the sensing signal is filtered out a first portion corresponding to the first filter frequency band, and a second portion corresponding to the second filter frequency band by the filter unit (e.g., Sackner at [0047]-[0051]) (as recited in claim 1); wherein the filter unit includes a first band-pass filter and a second ban-pass filter; wherein the passband of the first band-pass filter is corresponding to the first filter frequency band, and the passband of the second ban-pass filter is corresponding to the second filter frequency band (e.g., Sackner at [0047]-[0051]) (as recited in claim 2); wherein the first filter frequency band is at least partially lower than the second filter frequency band (as recited in claim 3); wherein the processing unit calculates, based on the first portion, a first feature signal of the subject’s pulmonary state (e.g., Sackner at [0047]-[0051]) (as recited in claim 4); wherein the processing unit calculates, based on the second portion, a second feature signal of the subject’s cardiac state (e.g., Sackner at [0047]-[0051]) (as recited in claim 5); wherein the control module further includes: a communication unit (e.g., [02112 of Leijssen) coupled to the processing unit and configured to transmit the at least one feature signal to an electronic device (as recited in claim 10); wherein the control module is arranged on the substrate (e.g., Fig. 15 and associated text of Leijssen) (as recited in claim 11); wherein the signal generation unit includes a DC power supplier and a resonant circuit (e.g., oscillator 92, 94 powered by DC); wherein the resonant circuit is configured to receive a DC signal provided by the DC power supplier and generate the AC signal (e.g., [0247]-[0250] of Leijssen) (as recited in claim 12) in order to achieve an efficient signal processing.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claim 6-9 are objected to as being dependent upon a rejected base claim, but would be allowable if rewritten in independent form including all of the limitations of the base claim and any intervening claims.
The prior art of record does not teach or suggest the claimed invention of a device for measuring cardiopulmonary state, wherein prior to outputting the first electromagnetic signal, the sensor further outputs at least one leading electromagnetic signal; wherein each of the at least one preamble electromagnetic signal corresponds to a different signal parameter, the signal parameter of the first electromagnetic signal corresponds one of the at least one leading electromagnetic signal with an optimal response (as recited in claim 6);
For these reasons the claims are believed to be allowable over the art of record.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to SCOTT T LUAN whose telephone number is (571)270-1860. The examiner can normally be reached on 9am-5pm, M-F (generally).
If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Gary Jackson, can be reached on 571-272-4697. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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Scott Luan
/SCOTT LUAN/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 3792