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 .
Response to Amendment
This Office Action is in response to communications filed November 04, 2025. Claims 1, 12 and 17 have been amended. Claims 1-20 are currently pending.
Specification
All objections drawn towards the specification have been overcome by Applicant.
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 (i.e., changing from AIA to pre-AIA ) 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(s) 1-20 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Gris et al. (Gris; US Patent No. 11,209,541 B1) in view of Specht et al. (Specht; US Pub No. 2013/0144166 A1).
As per claim 1, Gris teaches a device comprising:
an ultrasonic transducer configured to emit an ultrasonic pulse and receive returned signals corresponding to the emitted ultrasonic pulse (col. 2, lines 47-50); and
at least one processor coupled with the ultrasonic transducer (col. 6, line 57) and configured to:
evaluate the returned signals to identify a first candidate echo indicating a first object (col. 11, lines 59-67; col. 12, lines 1-5) within a distance range of interest of the ultrasonic transducer (col. 3, lines 4-7);
identify at least one subsequent candidate echo resulting from a subsequent emitted ultrasonic pulse and a subsequent received returned signal that corresponds to the first object (col. 12, lines 1-5);
compare characteristics of the received returned signal and the subsequent received returned signal (col. 12, lines 16-18).
Gris does not expressly teach and
determine the first candidate echo represents a stationary object.
Specht teaches and
determine the first candidate echo represents a stationary object (paragraph [0005], lines 3-7).
It would have obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art at the time the invention was effectively filed to implement identifying a stationary target as opposed to a moving target as taught by Specht, since Specht states in paragraph [0005] that such a method of determination is well known in the art.
As per claim 2, Gris in view of Specht further teaches the device of claim 1, wherein the at least one processor is further configured to characterize the first object as not being a user of the device (Gris, col. 3, lines 4-7; Specht, paragraph [0005], lines 3-7).
As per claim 3, Gris in view of Specht further teaches the device of claim 2, wherein the characteristics of the received return signals comprise at least one of amplitude, width and range (Gris, col. 12, lines 19-20; col. 16, lines 16-23; col. 18, lines 6-17).
As per claim 4, Gris in view of Specht further teaches the device of claim 3, wherein the characteristics of the received return signals comprise each of amplitude, width and range (Gris, col. 12, lines 19-20; col. 16, lines 16-23; col. 18, lines 6-17).
As per claim 5, Gris in view of Specht further teaches the device of claim 1, wherein the at least one subsequent candidate echo comprises a plurality of candidate echoes (Gris, col. 12, lines 1-5).
As per claim 6, Gris in view of Specht further teaches the device of claim 5, wherein the plurality of candidate echoes are received over a period of at least 2 seconds (Gris, col. 12, lines 1-5 & 16-18: It would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art at the time the invention was effectively filed to receive candidate echoes over a period of at least 2 seconds, since it has been held that where the general conditions of a claim are disclosed in the prior art, discovering the optimum or workable ranges involves only routine skill in the art.).
As per claim 7, Gris in view of Specht further teaches the device of claim 1, wherein the at least one processor is configured to compare at least one characteristic of the received returned signals using a decreasing threshold for at least one of the characteristics of the received returned signals when determining the first candidate echo represents a stationary object (Specht, paragraph [0117], lines 1-10).
As per claim 8, Gris in view of Specht further teaches the device of claim 7, wherein the at least one characteristic of the received return signals is amplitude (Specht, paragraph [0117], lines 5-10).
As per claim 9, Gris in view of Specht further teaches the device of claim 1, wherein determining the first candidate echo represents a stationary object occurs when movement of a user unblocks candidate echoes (Specht, paragraph [0108]: manual user operations).
As per claim 10, Gris in view of Specht further teaches the device of claim 1, wherein the characterization of the first candidate echo as representing a stationary object is conveyed to a user detection module of the device (Specht, paragraph [0067], lines 1-5).
As per claim 11, Gris in view of Specht further teaches the device of claim 1, wherein the at least one processor is further configured to determine multiple objects are stationary based on a comparison of characteristics of the received returned signals (Gris, col. 6, lines 45-50: characterize objects).
As per claim 12, (see rejection of claim 1 above) a sensor processing unit comprising:
an ultrasonic transducer configured to emit an ultrasonic pulse and receive returned signals corresponding to the emitted ultrasonic pulse; and
at least one sensor processor coupled with the ultrasonic transducer and configured to:
evaluate the returned signals to identify a first candidate echo indicating a first object within a distance range of interest of the ultrasonic transducer;
identify at least one subsequent candidate echo resulting from a subsequent emitted ultrasonic pulse and a subsequent received returned signal that corresponds to the first object;
compare characteristics of the received returned signal and the subsequent received returned signal; and
determine the first candidate echo represents a stationary object.
As per claim 13, (see rejection of claim 3 above) the sensor processing unit of claim 12, wherein the characteristics of the received return signals comprise at least one of amplitude, width and range.
As per claim 14, (see rejection of claim 7 above) the sensor processing unit of claim 12, wherein the at least one processor is configured to compare at least one characteristic of the received returned signals using a decreasing threshold for at least one of the characteristics of the received returned signals when characterizing the first candidate echo as representing a stationary object.
As per claim 15, (see rejection of claim 9 above) the sensor processing unit of claim 12, wherein determining the first candidate echo represents a stationary object occurs when movement of a user unblocks candidate echoes.
As per claim 16, (see rejection of claim 11 above) the sensor processing unit of claim 12, wherein the at least one processor is further configured to determine multiple objects are stationary based on a comparison of characteristics of the received returned signals.
As per claim 17, (see rejection of claim 1 above) a method for employing an ultrasonic sensor to identify a stationary object, comprising:
evaluating, employing at least one processor coupled with an ultrasonic transducer, returned signals from a pulse emitted by the ultrasonic transducer to identify a first candidate echo indicating a first object within a distance range of interest of the ultrasonic transducer;
identifying at least one subsequent candidate echo resulting from a subsequent emitted ultrasonic pulse and a subsequent received returned signal that corresponds to the first object;
comparing characteristics of the received returned signal and the subsequent received returned signal; and
determining the first candidate echo represents a stationary object.
As per claim 18, (see rejection of claim 3 above) the method of claim 17, wherein the characteristics of the received return signals comprise at least one of amplitude, width and range.
As per claim 19, (see rejection of claim 9 above) the method of claim 17, wherein determining the first candidate echo represents a stationary object occurs when movement of a user unblocks candidate echoes.
As per claim 20, (see rejection of claim 11 above) the method of claim 17, further comprising determining multiple objects are stationary based on a comparison of characteristics of the received returned signals.
Response to Arguments
Applicant’s arguments with respect to the above claim(s) have been considered but are moot because the new ground of rejection does not rely on any reference applied in the prior rejection of record for any teaching or matter specifically challenged in the argument.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to NAOMI J SMALL whose telephone number is (571)270-5184. The examiner can normally be reached Monday-Friday 8:30AM-5PM.
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/NAOMI J SMALL/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2685