DETAILED ACTION
Introduction
1. This office action is in response to Applicant’s submission filed on 4/9/2024. Claims 1-21 are pending in the application and have been examined.
Notice of Pre-AIA or AIA Status
2. 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
3. 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.
4. Claims 1-7, 9-13, and 15-20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as unpatentable over US Pat. No. 20060106597 (Stein) in view of US Pat. App. Pub. No. 20210368223 (You et al., hereinafter “You”).
With regard to Claim 1, Stein describes:
A method of audio transmission of a voice segment of a speaker, comprising:
receiving, via an encoder, the voice segment of the speaker; (Speech encoder 112 in Figure 1 encodes the singer’s voice.)
obtaining, from one or more servers in communication with the encoder, a reference sample associated with the voice segment of the speaker; (Music encoder 132 in Figure 1 encodes the music associated with the singer’s voice.)
establishing a timestamp associated with the voice segment of the speaker relative to the reference sample; (Paragraph 38 describes that timestamps may be used to synchronize the music and voice.)
encoding, via the encoder, an audio packet that includes the voice segment of the speaker [[and the timestamp associated with the voice segment of the speaker]]; (Speech encoder 112 in Figure 1 encodes the singer’s voice.) and
transmitting, in real-time, the audio packet to a decoder, wherein the voice segment of the speaker in the audio packet is to be combined with the reference sample based on the timestamp associated with the voice segment of the speaker during decoding. (Figure 2 shows that the signal is transmitted to a receiver that decodes the music and voice. Paragraph 38 describes that timestamps may be used to synchronize the music and voice.)
Stein does not explicitly describe that the timestamp is included with the voice sample.
However, paragraph 3 of You describes that encoded voice/video has a timestamp included with it.
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to include the timestamp inclusion as described by You into the method of Stein to provide a timestamp with each frame of data, as described in paragraph 3 of You.
With respect to Claim 2, Stein describes “transmitting, to the decoder from the one or more servers via a content delivery network, the reference sample associated with the voice segment of the speaker.” Figures 1 and 2 show that the encoded music is transmitted to the music decoder 432.
With respect to Claim 3, Stein describes “the reference sample is transmitted to the decoder via the content delivery network prior to transmitting the audio packet to the decoder, and the audio packet is transmitted to the decoder in real-time.” Figure 1 shows microphone 130 that collects the singer’s voice in real time. Paragraph 41 describes that the music may be generated ahead of time.
With respect to Claim 4, Stein describes “the reference sample is also transmitted to the encoder.” Figure 1 shows the music is transmitted to the music encoder 132.
With respect to Claim 5, Stein describes “the reference sample is a music packet, and the voice segment of the speaker is data representing singing of the speaker that is associated with the music packet.” Figure 1 shows that the voice segment is singing and the reference sample is music.
With respect to Claim 6, Stein describes “combining the voice segment of the speaker with the reference sample based upon the timestamp associated with the voice segment of the speaker includes: aligning the voice segment of the speaker with the reference sample based upon the timestamp as a relative time shift from a beginning of the reference sample.” Paragraph 38 describes that timestamps may be used to synchronize the music and singing, and describes various ways of synchronization. Further, there are a limited number of ways to synchronize two data streams using a timestamp. Thus, the claimed subject matter would have been obvious for one of ordinary skill to try in view of the teachings of Stein and in view of the limited number of solutions.
With respect to Claim 7, Stein describes “combining the voice segment of the speaker with the reference sample based upon the timestamp associated with the voice segment of the speaker includes: aligning the timestamp associated with the voice segment of the speaker and a timestamp associated with the reference sample, wherein a value of the timestamp associated with the voice segment of the speaker is equal to a value of the timestamp associated with the reference sample.” Paragraph 38 describes that timestamps may be used to synchronize the music and singing, and describes various ways of synchronization. Thus, the claimed subject matter would have been obvious for one of ordinary skill to try in view of the teachings of Stein and in view of the limited number of solutions.
With respect to Claims 9-13, system Claim 9 and method Claim 1 are related as a system programmed to perform the same method, with each claimed system function corresponding to each claimed method step. Accordingly, Claims 9-13 are similarly rejected under the same rationale as applied above with respect to Claims 1-3, 6, and 7.
With respect to Claim 15, storage medium Claim 15 and method Claim 1 are related as a medium programmed to perform the same method, with each claimed function corresponding to each claimed method step. Accordingly, Claim 15 is similarly rejected under the same rationale as applied above with respect to Claim 1.
With respect to Claim 16, Stein describes:
“A method of audio transmission of a voice segment of a speaker, comprising:
obtaining, from one or more servers via a content delivery network, a reference sample associated with the voice segment; (Music encoder 132 in Figure 1 encodes the music associated with the singer’s voice.)
receiving, from an encoder via real-time, an audio packet that includes the voice segment of the speaker [[and a timestamp associated with the voice segment of the speaker relative to the reference sample]]; (Speech encoder 112 in Figure 1 encodes the singer’s voice.) and
responsive to receiving the audio packet from the encoder, combining the voice segment of the speaker with the reference sample based upon the timestamp associated with the voice segment of the speaker. (Figure 2 shows that the signal is transmitted to a receiver that decodes the music and voice. Paragraph 38 describes that timestamps may be used to synchronize the music and voice.)
Stein does not explicitly describe that the timestamp is included with the voice sample.
However, paragraph 3 of You describes that encoded voice/video has a timestamp included with it.
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to include the timestamp inclusion as described by You into the method of Stein to provide a timestamp with each frame of data, as described in paragraph 3 of You.
With respect to Claim 17, Stein describes “the voice segment of the speaker is to be obtained by the encoder in real-time.” Figure 1 shows microphone 130 that collects the singer’s voice in real time.
With respect to Claim 18, Stein describes “the reference sample is also to be transmitted to the encoder from the one or more servers.” Paragraph 41 describes that the music may be generated ahead of time.
With respect to Claim 19, Stein describes “combining the voice segment of the speaker with the reference sample based upon the timestamp associated with the voice segment of the speaker includes: aligning the voice segment of the speaker with the reference sample based upon the timestamp as a relative time shift from a beginning of the reference sample.” Paragraph 38 describes that timestamps may be used to synchronize the music and singing, and describes various ways of synchronization. Thus, the claimed subject matter would have been obvious for one of ordinary skill to try in view of the teachings of Stein and in view of the limited number of solutions.
With respect to Claim 20, Stein describes “combining the voice segment of the speaker with the reference sample based upon the timestamp associated with the voice segment of the speaker include: aligning the timestamp associated with the voice segment of the speaker and a timestamp associated with the reference sample.” Paragraph 38 describes that timestamps may be used to synchronize the music and singing, and describes various ways of synchronization. Thus, the claimed subject matter would have been obvious for one of ordinary skill to try in view of the teachings of Stein and in view of the limited number of solutions.
5. Claim 8 and 14 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as unpatentable over Stein in view of You and further in view of US Pat. App. Pub. No. 20150162008 (Villette et al., hereinafter “Villette”).
Stein in view of You does not explicitly describe the subject matter of Claims 8 and 14.
However, Villette describes “filtering the voice segment of the speaker to eliminate background audio obtained by the encoder.” Paragraph 44 describes that an encode may include a filter for noise removal.
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to include the filter as described by Villette into the method of Stein in view of You to provide noise removal, as described in paragraph 44 of Villette.
Allowable Subject Matter
6. Claim 21 is 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 art of record does not teach or suggest “determining whether the audio packet transmitted by the encoder is lost; and responsive to determining that the audio packet transmitted by the encoder is lost, replacing the audio packet with a replacement audio packet that is included in the reference sample.” as recited in Claim 21.
Conclusion
7. The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure.
US Pat. No. 10,454,982 (Slick) also describes a device that mixes voice and music.
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/EDWARD TRACY JR./Examiner, Art Unit 2656
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