DETAILED ACTION
Election/Restrictions
Applicant’s election without traverse of Group I in the reply filed on 01/26/2026 is acknowledged.
Claim 7 withdrawn from further consideration pursuant to 37 CFR 1.142(b), as being drawn to a nonelected Group II, there being no allowable generic or linking claim.
Claim Objections
Claim 6 is objected to because of the following informalities: grammatical error. On line 2 it states “detecting a voice of a when an audio signal…”, clearly based on the corresponding apparatus claim 13, applicant forgot to have talker, in between ‘a’ and ‘when’. To further prosecution, examiner will examine claim 6 having the work “talker” so it looks similar to corresponding apparatus claim 13. However, 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.
Claim 1-2, 5, 8-9 and 12 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over applicant own submitted prior art Nippon JPH04312098 in view of Schreibman US PG-Pub 2023/0044336.
Regarding claim 1 and 8, Nippon teaches a plurality of sound collection apparatuses (Fig. 1: microphones MC2-MC7); a plurality of sound emission apparatuses corresponding to the plurality of sound collection apparatuses (Fig. 1: loudspeakers SP1-SP6 that correspond to microphones MC2-MC7); and a send level adjuster that sets a level of an audio signal of a sound collected by the plurality of sound collection apparatuses to a preset send level and sends the audio signal to the plurality of sound emission apparatuses (Fig. 2 & [0011]-[0012]: control unit-21 and calculation unit-23 will use the input signal from the microphones to calculate the volume change that will be pass to the attenuators ATT1-ATT6 so the input signal gets output through loudspeakers SP1-SP6 with a volume change), wherein the send level adjuster changes a first send level to smallest volume, the first send level being sent from a first sound collection apparatus that detects a talker voice, among the plurality of sound collection apparatuses, to a first sound emission apparatus closest to the first sound collection apparatus ([0010] & [0014]-[0015]: when listener-4 is speaking on mic 4, control unit-21 uses table on Fig. 2 to determine what preset degree of volume level each of the loudspeakers SP1-SP6 will output the input sound pick up by mic 4 of the listener-4 when they are speaking, with the closest loudspeakers-SP3 having a smallest volume level and the loudspeakers-SP6 which is farther away from listener-4 having the loudest volume level, as this helps to reduce howling, especially on speaker 4 own microphone).
Nippon failed to explicitly teach the send level being a minimum.
However, Schreibman teaches send level being a minimum ([0055]: when howling is detected, decreasing the audio signal to be output to the minimum value of zero).
Nippon and Schreibman are analogous art because they are both in the same field of endeavor, namely howling prevention. Therefore, 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, because to prevent howling you need to prevent feedback and decreasing sound to a minimum will accomplished the prevention of howling.
Regarding claim 2 and 9, Nippon teaches the send level adjuster reduces a second send level of an audio signal to be sent to a second sound emission apparatus second closest to the first sound collection apparatus after the first sound emission apparatus; and the first send level is smaller than the second send level (Fig. 1 & [0014]-[0015]: when listener-4 is speaking on mic 4, control unit-21 uses table on Fig. 2 to determine what preset degree of volume level each of the loudspeakers SP1-SP6 will output the input sound pick up by mic 4 of the listener-4 when they are speaking, with the closest loudspeakers-SP3 having a first smallest volume level and the next closest loudspeakers-SP2 having higher volume level than the first as it is more farther away from the listener-4 speaking).
Regarding claim 5 and 12, Nippon teaches wherein the plurality of sound collection apparatuses and the plurality of sound emission apparatuses are pair of a sound collection apparatus and a sound emission apparatus (Fig. 1: the loudspeakers SP1-SP6 are located close to their respective microphones MC2-MC7 both close to their respective users 2-7, making them pairs).
Nippon failed to teach wherein the plurality of sound collection apparatuses and the plurality of sound emission apparatuses have integrated shapes.
However, Schreibman teaches wherein the plurality of sound collection apparatuses and the plurality of sound emission apparatuses have integrated shapes ([0015]: the microphone and loudspeakers are integrated inside a vehicle cabin to work together).
Nippon and Schreibman are analogous art because they are both in the same field of endeavor, namely howling prevention. Therefore, 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, because integrating loudspeaker and microphone in an area will allow to perform multiple functions like ANC, Howling Suppression, etc…
Claim 3-4 and 10-11 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over applicant own submitted prior art Nippon JPH04312098 in combination with Schreibman US PG-Pub 2023/0044336 in view of Shaw US Pat 11,451,905.
Regarding claim 3 and 10, the combination teaches wherein the send level adjuster send an direct sound to each of a plurality of audio signals of sounds collected by the plurality of sound collection apparatuses (Nippon, Fig. 2 & [0011]-[0012]: control unit-21 and calculation unit-23 will use the input signal from the microphones to calculate the volume change that will be pass to the attenuators ATT1-ATT6 so the input signal gets output through loudspeakers SP1-SP6 with a volume change).
The combination failed to teach adds an indirect sound to each of a plurality of audio signals of sounds collected by the plurality of sound collection apparatuses.
However, Shaw teaches adds an indirect sound to each of a plurality of audio signals of sounds collected by the plurality of sound collection apparatuses (Col. 1 line 67-Col. 2 line 7: as sound gets output the each microphones will gather the direct sound and then the reflected sound will also get collected and added to the direct sound).
The combination and Shaw are analogous art because they are both in the same field of endeavor, namely audio processing. Therefore, 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, because reflected sound will automatically get pickup and added to the current direct sound on each microphone.
Regarding claim 4 and 11, the combination teaches wherein the send level adjuster send an direct sound to each of a plurality of audio signals of sounds collected by the plurality of sound collection apparatuses (Nippon, Fig. 2 & [0011]-[0012]: control unit-21 and calculation unit-23 will use the input signal from the microphones to calculate the volume change that will be pass to the attenuators ATT1-ATT6 so the input signal gets output through loudspeakers SP1-SP6 with a volume change).
The combination failed to teaches adds different indirect sounds to the respective audio signals of sounds to be collected by the plurality of sound collection apparatuses.
However, Shaw teaches adds different indirect sounds to the respective audio signals of sounds to be collected by the plurality of sound collection apparatuses (Col. 1 line 67-Col. 2 line 7: as sound gets output the each microphones will gather the direct sound and then the reflected sound will also get collected and added to the direct sound).
The combination and Shaw are analogous art because they are both in the same field of endeavor, namely audio processing. Therefore, 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, because reflected sound will automatically get pickup and added to the current direct sound on each microphone.
Claim 6 and 13 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over applicant own submitted prior art Nippon JPH04312098 in combination with Schreibman US PG-Pub 2023/0044336 in view of Katsumi US Pat 6,369,846.
Regarding claim 6 and 13, the combination teaches detecting a talker and wherein the send level adjuster performs send level adjustment processing to the talker voice detected by the detector (Nippon, [0014]-[0015]: when listener-4 is speaking on mic 4, {which has to be detected}, control unit-21 uses table on Fig. 2 to determine what preset degree of volume level each of the loudspeakers SP1-SP6 will output the input sound pick up by mic 4 of the listener-4 when they are speaking).
The combination failed to explicitly a detector that detects a voice of a talker when an audio signal of a specified level or above is inputted.
However, Katsumi teaches a detector that detects a voice of a talker when an audio signal of a specified level or above is inputted (Fig. 4 & Col. 3 line 40-44: voice detection signal based on audio signal being higher than threshold).
The combination and Katsumi are analogous art because they are both in the same field of endeavor, namely audio processing. Therefore, 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, because using threshold for voice detection is an alternate equivalent way to detect when a person is speaking and at which microphone.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to WILLIAM A JEREZ LORA whose telephone number is (571)270-5519. The examiner can normally be reached M-F 7am-9am and 11am-6pm.
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/WILLIAM A JEREZ LORA/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2695
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