DETAILED ACTION
Status of Claims
Claims 1-20 are currently pending and have been examined in this application. This NON-FINAL communication is the first action on the merits.
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 § 112
The following is a quotation of the first paragraph of 35 U.S.C. 112(a):
(a) IN GENERAL.—The specification shall contain a written description of the invention, and of the manner and process of making and using it, in such full, clear, concise, and exact terms as to enable any person skilled in the art to which it pertains, or with which it is most nearly connected, to make and use the same, and shall set forth the best mode contemplated by the inventor or joint inventor of carrying out the invention.
The following is a quotation of the first paragraph of pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112:
The specification shall contain a written description of the invention, and of the manner and process of making and using it, in such full, clear, concise, and exact terms as to enable any person skilled in the art to which it pertains, or with which it is most nearly connected, to make and use the same, and shall set forth the best mode contemplated by the inventor of carrying out his invention.
Claims 5-6 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 112(a) or 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), first paragraph, as failing to comply with the written description requirement. The claim(s) contains subject matter which was not described in the specification in such a way as to reasonably convey to one skilled in the relevant art that the inventor or a joint inventor, or for applications subject to pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, the inventor(s), at the time the application was filed, had possession of the claimed invention.
Claims 5-6 recite the limitation “pu/l(t) = p+/-(t)e+/-j2π(BW/4)^t, wherein t denotes time, and: p+/-(t) = p(t) +/– H(jp(t))”. One of ordinary skill in the art could not arrive at p+/-(t) based on the description in the specification for p(t) or the Hilbert transformation of jp(t) and therefore could not arrive at pu/l(t).
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 112
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 112(b):
(b) CONCLUSION.—The specification shall conclude with one or more claims particularly pointing out and distinctly claiming the subject matter which the inventor or a joint inventor regards as the invention.
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), second paragraph: The specification shall conclude with one or more claims particularly pointing out and distinctly claiming the subject matter which the applicant regards as his invention.
Claims 5-6 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 112(b) or 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), second paragraph, as being indefinite for failing to particularly point out and distinctly claim the subject matter which the inventor or a joint inventor (or for applications subject to pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, the applicant), regards as the invention.
Claims 5-6 recites “pu/l(t) = p+/-(t)e+/-j2π(BW/4)^t”. It is unclear how to arrive at this equation. The examiner has interpreted the limitation as any waveform that may be described by utilizing any of the various Hilbert Transformations, addition operations, and subtraction operations.
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.
Claims 1-20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Ozturk (US 20230273291) in view of Regani (US 20210232235).
Regarding Claims 1, 13, 17 Ozturk teaches the following limitations:
transmitting a first (Ozturk - [0223] The waveform may have a temporal width that is substantially equal to a bit duration of a data stream that may be intended to be exchanged over the associated communication channel. [0227] In some embodiments, a wireless device may transmit a first wireless signal with a center frequency of f.sub.1 GHz. In some embodiments, the first wireless signal may be a channel probe signal, a pulse signal, a frame signal, a pseudorandom noise (PN) sequence, a preamble signal, and the like. In some embodiments, the bandwidth of the wireless signal may be approximately 10 MHz, 20 MHz, 40 MHz, 60 MHz, 125 MHz, 250 MHz, 500 MHz, 1 GHz and the like. In some embodiments, a wireless device may send a second wireless signal with a center frequency of f.sub.2 GHz. In some embodiments, the second wireless signal may be a channel probe signal, a pulse signal, a frame signal, a PN sequence, a preamble signal, and the like. In some embodiments, the bandwidth of the wireless signal may be approximately 10 MHz, 20 MHz, 40 MHz, 60 MHz, 125 MHz, 250 MHz, 500 MHz, 1 GHz and the like. In some embodiments, the frequency spectrum of the first wireless signal and the second wireless signal may include overlapping frequencies. In some embodiments, there may be no overlapping frequencies between the two wireless signals. In some embodiments, the frequency spectra of the different wireless signals may be separated by so-called guard-bands or guard-band frequencies. The channel response for the channel probed using the first wireless signal (for example at frequency f1) may be represented as Hij(f1). The channel response for the channel probed using the second wireless signal (for example at probe frequency f2) may be represented as Hij(f2). In some embodiments, more than two probe frequency signals may be used to probe the channel. The more than two probe frequency signals may have some overlapping frequencies or they may have no overlapping frequencies.)
wherein said first (Ozturk – [0227], [0280] The localization performance can also be further improved by using multiple access points and/or multiple devices. In some implementations, the time-reversal positioning system can be used with bands other than the 5.4 GHz band. For example, the time-reversal positioning system can be applied to the ultra-wideband (UWB) band with a larger bandwidth, which may result in higher localization accuracy.)
wherein transmitting said first (Ozturk – [0223], [0227])
transmitting a second (Ozturk – [0223], [0227])
wherein said second (Ozturk – [0223], [0227], [0280])
wherein transmitting said second (Ozturk – [0223], [0227])
receiving a reflection of the first (Ozturk – [0210] Location specific signatures may be generated when a wireless signal launched by an antenna is scattered and/or reflected and/or diffused by the physical environment through which it travels. Multipath propagation may occur when portions of the launched signal are scattered away from the line-of-sight propagation path. These scattered components of the signal may eventually make their way to a given receiver antenna and/or back to the transmitting antenna but may arrive at different times and with varying amplitudes. In traditional wireless networks, such signal reflections, diffractions, echoes, or “multipaths” may be viewed as a problem because if left uncorrected, they may reduce the range and reliability of a communication link. This disclosure describes systems, technologies and techniques that may take advantage of multipath wireless signal propagation and that may be used in communication, indoor positioning and/or tracking, recognition, and security system applications, to name a few. [0235] This document discloses positioning systems that can achieve meter-level as well as centimeter-level or millimeter-level (or better) position accuracy by using wireless channel response information. Channel responses, also referred to as channel impulse responses (CIRs) and estimated channel responses can be location-specific signatures that characterize a wireless channel between, and therefore the relative position of, two devices or a single device and its environment Channel responses may be measured and/or computed and/or may be generated by a combination of measurement and computation.)
receiving a reflection of the second (Ozturk – [0210], [0227], [0235])
(Claim 13) a processing unit configured (Ozturk – [0218] In some embodiments, probe and received signals may be analog signals that are converted to digital signals (and may be digital signals that are converted to analog signals) and may be processed and/or generated using digital signal processors (DSPs), field programmable gate arrays (FPGAs), Advanced RISC Machine (ARM) processors, microprocessors, computers, application specific integrated circuits (ASICs) and the like.)
combining the first channel impulse response estimate with the second channel impulse response estimate to obtain a channel impulse response estimate having a higher resolution than each of the first channel impulse response estimate and second channel impulse response estimate. (Ozturk – [0235], [0295] In exemplary embodiments, the number of multipaths that may contribute to a channel response between two wireless devices may be increased by capturing multiple relatively narrow bandwidth wireless signals with different center frequencies, different channel bandwidths, different frequency bands and/or using multiple displaced antennas and combing the multiple lower bandwidth channel responses into a higher resolution composite channel response and/or processing a group of related channel responses. In some embodiments, two or more channel responses may be combined to yield a composite channel response. In some embodiments, two or more channel responses may contribute to a location specific signature and may be processed using matching and/or classification algorithms described throughout this disclosure. Combining multiple lower bandwidth channel responses effectively increases the number of multipaths used to determine the location specific signature and increases the richness of channel information, potentially resulting in a higher positioning resolution.)
Ozturk does not explicitly teach the following limitations, however Regani, in the same field of endeavor, teaches:
A method of performing radar operations, comprising: (Regani – [Abstract] Methods, apparatus and systems for wireless writing tracking are described. [0244] Second, while wireless sensing aims to enable radar-like features using radio signals proposed for communication, indoor portable radars are also becoming popular. Frequency-modulated continuous-wave (FMCW) radar has been widely exploited for wireless and acoustic sensing, while ultra-wide-band (UWB) radar and mmWave radar have been equipped into commodity smartphones.)
(Claim 13) A radar device, comprising: (Regani – [Abstract], [0244])
(Claim 17) A radar system, comprising: (Regani – [Abstract], [0244])
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, to have modified the wireless sensing of Ozturk with the ultra-wide-band radar of Regani in order to enable radar-like features using radio signals proposed for communication (Regani – [0244]).
Regarding Claims 2, 14, 18, Ozturk further teaches:
wherein the first frequency band and the second frequency band are non-overlapping frequency bands. (Ozturk – [0227])
Regarding Claims 3, 15, 19, Ozturk further teaches:
wherein the first frequency band and the second frequency band are adjacent frequency bands. (Ozturk - [0337] In the overlapping scheme 1804, adjacent frequency bands of the WiFi signal may include some of the same frequency components.)
Regarding Claims 4, 16, 20, Ozturk further teaches:
wherein combining the first channel impulse response estimate with the second channel impulse response estimate includes performing an equalization and add operation on the first channel impulse response estimate and the second channel impulse response estimate. (Ozturk - [0295], [0157] In some embodiments, the feature values may be normalized and the reference channel impulse response that yielded a feature value closest to 1 may be deemed to be the one associated with the same coordinates as the measured device. [0287] In some embodiments, the localization accuracy may be tuned by adding or subtracting or changing the multiple channel responses included in the composite channel response.)
Regarding Claim 5, Ozturk further teaches:
wherein the first stream of ultra-wideband radio frequency pulses is based on the function:
pu(t) = P+(t)e-j2π(BW/4)^t,
wherein t denotes time, and:
p+(t) = p(t) + H(jp(t)),
wherein p(t) is a real-valued ultra-wideband radio frequency pulse waveform with a bandwidth BW, and H(p(t)) denotes the Hilbert transformation of p(t). (Ozturk – [0280], [0287], [0295], [0133] Processing/preprocessing/postprocessing may be applied to data (e.g. TSCI/feature/characteristics/STI/MI/test quantity/intermediate/data/analytics) and may have multiple steps. Step/pre-/post-/processing may comprise any of:… Hilbert transform [0222] In exemplary embodiments, a channel probe signal may be a pulse or an impulse. In addition, the channel probe signal may be a series of pulses with regular, arbitrary or non-regular patterns. The channel probe signal may be a waveform. Waveforms may be substantially square waveforms, raised cosine waveforms, Gaussian waveforms, Lorentzian waveforms, or waveforms with shapes that have been designed to probe the channel in some optimal or desired way. For example, channel probe waveforms may be frequency chirped or may have frequency spectra that are tailored to probe the channel in some optimal or desired way. Probe waveforms may be multiple waveforms with different center frequencies and bandwidths. Probe waveforms may be amplitude modulated, phase modulated, frequency modulated, pulse position modulated, polarization modulated, or modulated in any combination of amplitude, phase, frequency, pulse position and polarization.)
Regarding Claim 6, Ozturk further teaches:
wherein the second stream of ultra-wideband radio frequency pulses is based on the function:
pl(t) = p-(t)e+j2π(BW/4)^t,
wherein t denotes time, and:
p-(t) = p(t) – H(jp(t)),
wherein p(t) is a real-valued ultra-wideband radio frequency pulse waveform with a bandwidth BW, and H(p(t)) denotes the Hilbert transformation of p(t). (Ozturk – [0133], [0280], [0287], [0295])
Regarding Claim 7, Ozturk further teaches:
further comprising applying the same radio filter settings for transmitting the first (Ozturk – [0227], [0297] the transmitter may have a filter that filters the output signals, the receiver may have a filter that filters the input signals, in which each of filters has a bandwidth equal to B.)
transmitting the second (Ozturk – [0227], [0280], [0295], [0297])
Ozturk does not explicitly teach the following limitations, however Regani, in the same field of endeavor, teaches:
radar (Regani – [Abstract], [0244])
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, to have modified the wireless sensing of Ozturk with the ultra-wide-band radar of Regani in order to enable radar-like features using radio signals proposed for communication (Regani – [0244]).
Regarding Claim 8, Ozturk further teaches:
further comprising applying the same radio filter settings for receiving the reflection of the first (Ozturk – [0227], [0295], [0297])
enlarging the bandwidth of the filter for receiving the reflection of the first (Ozturk – [0227], [0280], [0295], [0297])
Ozturk does not explicitly teach the following limitations, however Regani, in the same field of endeavor, teaches:
radar (Regani – [Abstract], [0244])
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, to have modified the wireless sensing of Ozturk with the ultra-wide-band radar of Regani in order to enable radar-like features using radio signals proposed for communication (Regani – [0244]).
Regarding Claim 9, Ozturk further teaches:
wherein the first frequency band and the second frequency band have the same bandwidth or approximately the same bandwidth. (Ozturk – [0227])
Regarding Claim 10, Ozturk further teaches:
wherein each of the first frequency band and the second frequency band have an approximate bandwidth of 500 MHz. (Ozturk – [0227])
Regarding Claim 11, Ozturk further teaches:
wherein the steps of transmitting the first (Ozturk – [0227])
receiving the reflections of the first (Ozturk – [0210], [0235])
combining the first channel impulse response estimate with the second channel impulse response estimate are performed by a single (Ozturk – [0235], [0295])
Ozturk does not explicitly teach the following limitations, however Regani, in the same field of endeavor, teaches:
radar (Regani – [Abstract], [0244])
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, to have modified the wireless sensing of Ozturk with the ultra-wide-band radar of Regani in order to enable radar-like features using radio signals proposed for communication (Regani – [0244]).
Regarding Claim 12, Ozturk further teaches:
wherein the steps of transmitting the first (Ozturk – [0227])
wherein the steps of receiving the reflections of the first (Ozturk – [0210], [0235])
combining the first channel impulse response estimate with the second channel impulse response estimate are performed by a second (Ozturk – [0235], [0295])
Ozturk does not explicitly teach the following limitations, however Regani, in the same field of endeavor, teaches:
radar (Regani – [Abstract], [0244])
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, to have modified the wireless sensing of Ozturk with the ultra-wide-band radar of Regani in order to enable radar-like features using radio signals proposed for communication (Regani – [0244]).
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's
disclosure or directed to the state of art is listed on the enclosed PTO-892.
The following is a brief description for relevant prior art that was cited but not applied:
Turkmen (US 20240080832) teaches communication applications and sensing applications in at least partially overlapping bandwidths.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to BRANDON JAMES HENSON whose telephone number is (703)756-1841. The examiner can normally be reached Monday-Friday 9:00 am - 5:00 pm.
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If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Resha H. Desai can be reached at (571) 270-7792. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/BRANDON JAMES HENSON/Examiner, Art Unit 3648
/BERNARR E GREGORY/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 3648
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