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 .
This action is in response to the communication filed on June 22, 2026.
Claims 1-20 are pending in this action. Claims 1-2 and 5-20 have been amended.
Applicant’s arguments with respect to claim(s) 1-20 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.
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.
Claim(s) 1-2, 15-16, and 20 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Wexler et al. (US 2021/0350823) in view of Zhang et al. (WO 2022/252858).
As per claim 1, Wexler discloses, a method performed by an electronic apparatus (Paragraphs 2 and 37-41, disclose methods of processing audio signals
performed by an electronic apparatus, specifically a wearable device containing at least one processor) comprising:
selecting a piece of registered audio information associated with a user from among a plurality of pieces of registered audio information
obtaining a first audio signal (Paragraphs 138-140);
extracting a second audio signal and a third audio signal by processing the first audio signal based on the piece of registered audio information associated with the user, wherein the second audio signal corresponds to the user, and wherein the third audio signal comprises a portion of the first audio signal which does not contain the second audio signal (Paragraphs 138-140, disclose extracting a specific speaker's voice (a second audio signal corresponding to the user) from noisy audio containing background noise or other speakers (a first audio signal) by utilizing the speaker's signature/voiceprint (the registered audio information.); and
processing at least one from among the second audio signal and the third audio signal (Paragraphs 150 and 151, disclose processing the extracted audio signal (the conditioned signal of the user's voice). Examples of this processing include causing transmission of the extracted audio signal to a remote device such as a mobile phone during a telephone call, or recording the signal.).
Although Paragraphs 118 and 146 separately mention bone conduction technology in the form of a "bone conduction headphone" or "bone conduction microphone" used to provide audible feedback (vibrations) to the user, Wexler does not disclose that the registered audio information (the voiceprint) is determined based on a bone conduction, BC, signal. The voiceprints in Wexler are generated by analyzing standard audio signals captured by external microphones (e.g., extracting spectral features like pitch, tone, frequency from the microphone audio segment), not from a bone conduction signal. Since Wexler expressly discloses the desire to obtain a noise-free audio segment to generate a high-quality voiceprint (Paragraph153), and simultaneously discloses equipping the device with a bone conduction microphone (Paragraph146). However, Zhang discloses, using BC signal to determine the registered audio information (Page 12, line 1-7).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filling date of the claimed invention to modify the invention of Wexler by including a BC signal to determine the registered audio info as taught by Zhang for the advantage of the accuracy of Wexler’s voice extraction profile, would obviously incorporate Zhang’s bone-conduction registration method, thereby arriving at the claimed invention.
As per claim 2, Wexler does not expclitly disclose, but Zhang discloses, wherein selecting of the piece of registered audio information associated with the user comprises: evaluating a quality of a previously-extracted second audio signal based on content of the previously-extracted second audio signal and the BC signal; and
selecting the piece of registered audio information associated with the user based on the quality of the previously-extracted second audio signal (Page 12, line 35-Page 12, line 4; Page 13, line 27-33; and Page 14, line 6-15).
As per claims 15-16 and 20, they are analyzed and thus rejected for the same reasons set forth in the rejection of claims 1-2, because the corresponding claims have similar limitations.
Claim(s) 9-12 and 19 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Wexler et al. (US 2021/0350823) in view of Zhang et al. (WO 2022/252858) as applied to claims 1 and 15 above, and further in view of Qiang et al. (CN 115966218, provided by Applicant).
As per claims 9-12 and 19. Wexler in view of does not disclose, but Qiang discloses,
-wherein the extracting of the second audio signal corresponding to the user from the first audio signal based on the registered audio information associated with the user comprises: obtaining a feature of the first audio signal; obtaining a mask corresponding to the user based on the piece of registered audio information associated with the user and the feature of the first audio signal; and extracting the second audio signal based on the mask and the feature of the first audio signal (Abstract).
-wherein the obtaining of the mask comprises: obtaining the mask, based on the piece of registered audio information associated with the user, the feature of the first audio signal, and a feature of the BC signal, using a fourth AI model (Abstract).
-wherein the obtaining of the feature of the first audio signal comprises: performing a feature extraction on the first audio signal to obtain a first frequency domain feature; performing frequency band dividing on the first frequency domain feature to obtain a plurality of sub-frequency domain features corresponding to a plurality of sub-bands of the first audio signal; and performing feature encoding on the plurality of sub-frequency domain features to obtain a plurality of first features corresponding to the plurality of the sub-bands of the first audio signal as the feature of the first audio signal (Abstract).
-wherein the extracting of the second audio signal based on the mask and the feature of the first audio signal comprises: obtaining a plurality of second features corresponding to a plurality of sub-bands of the second audio signal based on a plurality of sub-masks in the mask corresponding to the plurality of sub-bands of the first audio signal and the plurality of first features; performing feature decoding on the plurality of second features to obtain a plurality of second frequency domain features corresponding to the plurality of sub-bands of the second audio signal; performing frequency band merging on the plurality of second frequency domain features; and obtaining the second audio signal based on the merged plurality of second frequency domain features (Abstract).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filling date of the claimed invention to modify the invention of Wexler in view of Zhang by including obtained mask corresponding to user as claimed as taught by Qiang for the advantage of saving calculation power and storage space, voice signal enhancement ca be realized with respectively small-time delay (Abstract).
Claim(s) 13-14 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Wexler et al. (US 2021/0350823) in view of Zhang et al. (WO 2022/252858) as applied to claims 1 above, and further in view of Zhao et al. (CN 113411698, provided by applicant).
As per claims 13-14, Xu does not disclose, but Zhao discloses,
-wherein the processing of the at least one from among the second audio signal and the third audio signal comprises at least one of: amplifying the at least one from among the second audio signal and the third audio signal, and mixing the second audio signal with the third audio signal (Abstract).
-wherein the amplifying comprises: amplifying the second audio signal and the third audio signal in different proportions (Abstract).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filling date of the claimed invention to modify the invention of Wexler in view of Zhang by including amplifying the extracted audio signal as claimed as taught by Zhao for the advantage of audio playing and voice communication quality of the intelligent sound box is improved (Abstract).
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 3-8 and 17-18 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.
Conclusion
THIS ACTION IS MADE FINAL. Applicant is reminded of the extension of time policy as set forth in 37 CFR 1.136(a).
A shortened statutory period for reply to this final action is set to expire THREE MONTHS from the mailing date of this action. In the event a first reply is filed within TWO MONTHS of the mailing date of this final action and the advisory action is not mailed until after the end of the THREE-MONTH shortened statutory period, then the shortened statutory period will expire on the date the advisory action is mailed, and any nonprovisional extension fee (37 CFR 1.17(a)) pursuant to 37 CFR 1.136(a) will be calculated from the mailing date of the advisory action. In no event, however, will the statutory period for reply expire later than SIX MONTHS from the mailing date of this final action.
Contact Information
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to Abul K. Azad whose telephone number is (571) 272-7599. If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner's supervisor, Bhavesh Mehta, can be reached at (571) 272-7453.
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August 11, 2026
/ABUL K AZAD/ Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2656
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