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 .
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.
Claim(s) 1, 3-4, and 8-10 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by Daley (WO2019/183223). Daley describes the same invention as claimed, including:
Regarding claim 1, A measurement system that is retained by an athlete during an athletic activity (headphone 100), the measurement system comprising: a housing that includes: an accelerometer (SUMMARY: “The sensor may be an inertial sensor to detect accelerations associated with the user’s impact with the ground.”); a gyroscope (“As discussed in more detail below, either of the earcups 102, 104 may include one or more sensors, such as microphones, inertial sensors (e.g., accelerometer, gyroscope, compass), radio receivers, etc.”) ;at least one processor (312); and at least one memory, the at least one memory storing instructions that, when executed by the at least one processor cause the system to perform operations comprising: receiving accelerometer data and gyroscope data generated by the accelerometer and the gyroscope during a ground-contact portion of a stride (claim 3, claim 4); generating one or more impact metrics based on at least one of the accelerometer data or the gyroscope data (claim 3, 4, “accelerations/forces associated with the user’s impact with the ground”); generating a real-time pacing value based on the generated one or more impact metrics (claim 8, “wherein the audible cue includes a pacing signal”; and causing a physical output based on the generated real-time pacing value (claim 8: “the detection circuit configured to increase or decrease a rate of the pacing signal based upon the aspect of the user’ s movement.”).
Regarding claim 3, wherein the operations further comprise: determining speed and incline at an impact with the ground during the stride (“and analyzes the signals (block 420) to detect a condition of the user (block 430), e.g., to evaluate or determine an aspect of the user’s physical motion, form, and/or risk of injury.”); and wherein generating the one or more impact metrics is based on speed and incline (“the controller 310, and may be used to determine what feedback to be provided, given various sensor signals. A program may include various settings, such as running surface characteristics”).
Regarding claim 4, wherein causing the physical output includes generating at least one of an audio output (claim 7), a visual output, or a haptic output.
Regarding claim 8, wherein the operations further comprise: calculating the impact loading rates for a plurality of strides during the athletic activity; and generating a lower body stress value by accumulating the calculated impact loading rates (“A controller or processing system, such as the controller 310, receives signals from one or more sensors (block 410), and analyzes the signals (block 420) to detect a condition of the user (block 430), e.g., to evaluate or determine an aspect of the user’s physical motion, form, and/or risk of injury. Upon evaluation (which may optionally be characterized into various levels of significance, in some examples), the controller or processing system may provide feedback (block 440) or instruction to the user.” and “In some examples, feedback to be provided may be based upon the detected user’s condition (block 430) in combination with a particular program and/or user profile. For example, a user’s height, weight, body mass index, body mass proportions, gender, user condition (e.g., shin-splints, susceptibility, etc.) and/or other physical parameters) may be configurable and stored in a memory associated with a controller, e.g., the controller 310, and may be used to determine what feedback to be provided, given various sensor signals.”).
Regarding claim 9, wherein the athletic activity is a first athletic activity and the operations further comprise, during a second athletic activity generating a second pacing value based on the lower body stress value (claim 8).
Regarding claim 10, wherein the housing is a foot pod that is configured to attach to a shoe during the athletic activity (“In some examples, one or more accessory sensors may provide sensor signals to be processed to determine an estimate of the user’s ground reaction force. For example, a shoe insert may measure force directly and may transmit a sensor signal to the headphones.”)
Allowable Subject Matter
Claim 2 and 5-7 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. Daley (WO 2019/183223) is considered the closest prior art of record and does not show: integrating the vertical acceleration component (claim 2) or. generating a modeled force curve (claim 5) For at least these reasons, claims 2 and 5 an all claims depending therefrom are considered allowable over the prior art of record.
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure. See form PTO-892 for cited art of interest.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to SUNDHARA M GANESAN whose telephone number is (571)272-3340. The examiner can normally be reached 9:30AM-5:30PM.
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If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, LoAn Jimenez can be reached at (571)272-4966. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/SUNDHARA M GANESAN/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 3784
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