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 .
Election/Restrictions
Applicant’s election without traverse of claims 1-20 in the reply filed on 04/30/2026 is acknowledged. Claims 21-50 are withdrawn from further consideration pursuant to 37 CFR 1.142(b) as being drawn to a nonelected invention.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 102
The following is a quotation of the appropriate paragraphs of 35 U.S.C. 102 that form the basis for the rejections under this section made in this Office action:
A person shall be entitled to a patent unless –
(a)(1) the claimed invention was patented, described in a printed publication, or in public use, on sale, or otherwise available to the public before the effective filing date of the claimed invention.
Claims 1-20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by Gummadi et al (US 2022/0,417,706; hereinafter Gummadi).
Regarding claim 1 and 11, Gummadi disclose a device (405, 145) and a method (700) of performing one or more positioning operations with respect to a user device (105) in a wireless communication network ([0103]), comprising:
one or more transceivers (transceiver(s)/wireless communication interface 930) configured to perform data communication in a wireless communication network (paras. [0072]-[0075]); one or more memory (960); one or more processors (910) communicatively coupled (via bus 905) to the one or more transceivers (930) and the one or more memory (paras. [0005], [0140], [0146]), the one or more processors (910) configured to:
obtain first environmental information using one or more sensors (940) of a
wireless-enabled device (the UE sensors 940 may comprise, without limitation, one or more inertial sensors and/or other sensors, some of which may be used to obtain position related measurements and/or other information such as one or more environmental characteristics, which may include one or more environmental classifications of the current environment of the UE, the one or more environmental classifications may include whether the UE is in an enclosed space or an open space, whether the UE is in motion or is substantially still, whether the UE is in a high density environment or in a low density environment, or the like, associated with an environment of the UE based at least in part on the CSI data; blocks 710-730, Fig. 7; paragraphs [0104]-[0116], [0129], [0143], [0158]-[0161]);
send the first environmental information to a network entity of the wireless communication network (at block 740, transmitting indications of the one or more environmental characteristics to a location server; Fig. 7; ¶ [0117]);
receive first enhanced assistance data from the network entity, the first enhanced assistance data generated based at least on the first environmental information sent to the network entity (at block 750, receiving positioning information from the location server that is based at least in part on the one or more environmental characteristics, wherein the positioning information may include assistance data that has been configured by the location server based on the one or more environmental characteristics transmitted to the location server at block 740,; Fig. 7, paras. [0119]-[0121]); and
perform the one or more positioning operations using the first enhanced assistance data received from the network entity, wherein the wireless enabled device comprises the user device or a base station (at block 760, determining a position of the UE based at least in part on the one or more environmental characteristics, e.g., in instances in which UE-based positioning is being performed, the UE may determine the position of the UE based on assistance data that has been configured by the location server based on the one or more environmental characteristics of the environment of the UE; paras. [0122]-[0123]).
Regarding claim 2 and 12, Gummadi disclose the method and user device of claim 1 and 11 respectively, wherein the first environmental information comprises a type of local environment, audio data, infrared data, object information, radio frequency (RF) data, image data, or a combination thereof (a type of location/environment, e.g. concert or garden, etc. based on an environment with a density of people or plants respectively that exceeds a predetermined density threshold, the UE is currently in, the one or more environmental characteristics may include dimensions of an enclosed space of the environment of the UE, object data such as an identification of a number of physical landmarks/objects (e.g., vehicles, buildings, plants, etc.) in the environment; paras. [0111], [0115], [0129]).
Regarding claim 3 and 13, Gummadi disclose the method and user device of claim 1 and 11 respectively, further comprising obtaining second environmental information; wherein: the second environmental information comprises environmental information sensed by the one or more sensors of the wireless-enabled device, or one or more sensors of another wireless-enabled device of the wireless communication network; and the second environmental information comprises a type of local environment, audio data, infrared data, object information, radio frequency (RF) data, image data, or a combination thereof (the UE sensors 940 may comprise, without limitation, one or more sensors, e.g., camera(s) for image data, microphone(s) for audio data, light sensor(s) for infrared data, and the like, some of which may be used to obtain position related measurements and/or other information, or types of local environment; paras. [0143], [0111], [0115], [0129]).
Regarding claim 5 and 15, Gummadi disclose the method and user device of claim 1 and 11 respectively, further comprising sending non-environmental information to the network entity, the non-environmental information comprising information corresponding to one or more properties of the wireless-enabled device, location information associated with the wireless-enabled device, or a combination thereof; wherein the information corresponding to the one or more properties of the wireless enabled device comprises inertia, motion, velocity, acceleration, rotation, pose, or a combination thereof measured by the wireless-enabled device; and wherein the first enhanced assistance data is further based on the non-environmental information (sending non-environmental information sensed by the non-environmental sensors, e.g. inertial sensors and/or other sensors such as accelerometer(s), gyroscope(s), camera(s), magnetometer(s), altimeter(s), microphone(s), proximity sensor(s), light sensor(s), barometer(s), and the like, and the enhanced assistance data is based on non-environmental information, e.g. detecting whether the UE is in motion or is not in motion; paras. [0111]-[0112], [0143]).
Regarding claim 6 and 16, Gummadi teach the method and user device of claim 1 and 11 respectively, wherein the first enhanced assistance data is further based on environmental information sensed using one or more sensors of one or more wireless enabled devices other than the wireless enabled device (sensors of other user devices in other vehicles or traffic control device sensors; ¶ [0126]).
Regarding claim 7 and 17, Gummadi teach the method and user device of claim 1 and 11 respectively, wherein: the network entity comprises a location server (LS) or a sensing server of the wireless communication network; and the generation of the first enhanced assistance data is performed by the location server or the sensing server (the location server (LS) determining positioning information for the UE based at least in part on the one or more environmental characteristics. paras. [0003]-[0004], [0188]).
Regarding claim 8 and 18, Gummadi teach the method and user device of claim 1 and 11 respectively, wherein the one or more positioning operations comprise a positioning method to determine a location of the user device using the first enhanced assistance data; wherein the positioning method to determine the location of the user device using the first enhanced assistance data comprises a round-trip time (RTT) measurement, a signal strength measurement, an angle of arrival (AoA) measurement, an angle of departure (AoD) measurement, a time of arrival (TOA) measurement, a time difference of arrival (TDOA) measurement, or a combination thereof, the positioning method being with respect to the user device and the base station (the LMF 220 may support positioning of the UE 105 using a CP location solution when UE 105 accesses the NG-RAN 235 or WLAN 216 and may support position procedures and methods, including UE assisted/UE based and/or network based procedures/methods, such as Observed Time Difference Of Arrival (OTDOA), which may be referred to in NR as Time Difference Of Arrival (TDOA), angle of arrival (AOA), angle of departure (AOD), WLAN positioning, round trip signal propagation delay (RTT), multi-cell RTT, and/or other positioning procedures and methods; paras. [0046], [0049]; Fig. 7, block 760).
Regarding claim 9 and 19, Gummadi teach the method and user device of claim 1 and 11 respectively, wherein the wireless-enabled device comprises the user device; and the sending of the first environmental information to the network entity comprises the user device sending the first environmental information to a server via LPP (LTE Positioning Protocol) (LMF 220 and UE 105 may communicate, e.g. transmitting indications of the one or more environmental characteristics to a location server, using an LTE Positioning Protocol (LPP) as defined in 3GPP TS 37.355 wherein LPP messages may be transferred between the UE 105 and the LMF 220 via the AMF 215 and a serving gNB 210-1 or serving ng-eNB 214 for UE 105, the LPP protocol may be used to support positioning of UE 105 using UE assisted and/or UE based position methods such as A-GNSS, RTK, TDOA, multi-cell RTT, AOD, and/or ECID; paras. [0049]-[0050], [0117]).
Regarding claim 10 and 20, Gummadi teach the method and user device of claim 1 and 11 respectively, wherein the wireless enabled device comprises the base station; and the sending of the first environmental information to the network entity comprises the base station sending the first environmental information to a server via NRPPa (NR positioning protocol A) (NRPPa messages may be transferred between a gNB 210 and the LMF 220, and/or between an ng-eNB 214 and the LMF 220, via the AMF 215, the NRPPa protocol may be used by LMF 220 to obtain location related information from gNBs 210 and/or ng-eNB 214; paras. [0049]-[0050]).
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 4 and 14 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.
Regarding claim 4 and 14, Gummadi disclose the method and user device of claim 3 and 13 respectively, wherein the cited prior art fails to disclose or fairly suggest the method further comprising: sending the second environmental information to the network entity; and receiving second enhanced assistance data from the network entity, the second enhanced assistance data generated based on the second environmental information, and having an incremental modification over the first enhanced assistance data and having at least an accuracy that is higher than an accuracy of the first enhanced assistance data; wherein the performing of the one or more positioning operations comprises using the second enhanced assistance data received from the network entity.
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure.
- Kumar et al (US 2019/0,302,220) disclose a method for performing location determination by a user equipment (UE) involving the UE transmitting V2X information to a location server to obtain positioning assistance data from the location server, receiving positioning assistance data from the location server, the positioning assistance data made up of position information, identification, and Positioning Reference Signal (PRS) information, and the UE performing position determination for user equipment using the PRS from cellular base stations and the V2X entity
- Li et al (US 2021/0,241,173) disclose a method of location determination by a system including an electronic device with a Wi-Fi transceiver and an AI model having a location classifier that can detect motion and accurately estimate the position of a physical object or person in an environment
- Liu et al (US 2019/0,349,716) disclose a first device using a sensor to detect target objects, determining when the sensor detects the target object, relative position information about the first device and the target object, determining absolute position information about the target object, and sending the absolute position information about the target object to a second device configured on the target object
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/LANA N LE/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2648
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