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 .
Continued Examination Under 37 CFR 1.114
A request for continued examination under, including the fee set forth in 37 CFR1.17(e), was filed in this application after final rejection. Since this application is eligiblefor continued examination under 37 CFR 1.114, and the fee set forth in 37 CFR 1.17(e)has been timely paid, the finality of the previous Office action has been withdrawnpursuant to 37 CFR 1.114. Applicant's submission filed on 05/08/2026 has been entered.
Status of the Claims
Claims 1-7, 9-19, and 21 are pending.
Response to Applicant’s Arguments
In response to “However, as amended, the claim language states that the sound is speech of a nearby person and the audio is lowered in response to determining the speech of the nearby person passes a threshold. Fadell, by contrast, refers to lowering the volume in response to speech of the user” and “In fact, Fadell teaches away from ducking in response to detecting nearby speech. See Fadell at Col. 13 lines 45-52”.
Fadell teaches continue ducking / attenuate music playback volume based on identifying speech of the user’s conversation partners (Col 15, Rows 45-54).
Therefore, Fadell at least teaches continue attenuating or lowering volume of audio emitted by the wearable audio device in response to determining speech of nearby person passing a signal to noise ratio threshold (Col 15, Rows 4-6 and Rows 23-36, detect speech of those that the user may be conversing with by determining that a second ambient noise has a signal to noise ratio that is higher than a second threshold distinct from first threshold that was used to determine user speech).
In view of applicant’s amendment to claims 1 and 12, previous rejections have been withdrawn. Upon further consideration and search, please see a new combination of references set forth below.
In response to “However, as amended, the claim recites "lowering the volume of the audio emitted by the wearable audio device to a third volume in response to determining the user is engaging with the nearby person." Fadell, by contrast, refers to continuing volume attenuation while ambient speech is detected and adjusting ducking or pausing audio signals based on a time duration, signal to noise ratio, or duration of the conversation. See Fadell Col. 16 lines 11-23. Assuming, arguendo that adjusting ducking or pausing audio signals maps to lowering the volume to a third volume, it is not done in response to determining the user is engaging with the nearby person”.
Fadell teaches that duration of conversation indicates that user is engaged in an important and lengthy conversation with user’s conversation partners (Col 16, Rows 3-6). Therefore, the conversation duration is an indicator that the user is engaging with nearby person who are conversation partners.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
The following is a quotation of the appropriate paragraphs of 35 U.S.C. 103 that form the basis for the rejections under this section made 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 1-4, 9-10, 12, 14-16, and 21 are rejected under 35 USC 103(a) as being unpatentable over Fadell et al. (US 10013999 B1) in view of Haggai et al. (US 2024/0236541 A9) and Yan (CN111966321A, see attached translation).
Regarding Claims 1 and 12, Fadell discloses a system (Fig. 4), comprising:
a device (Fig. 4, computing device 410) comprising:
an interface (Col 12, Rows 13-14, GUI 416); and
at least one first processor (Fig. 4, processor 414); and
a wearable audio device in communication with the device (Fig. 3, wearable computing device 300; see Fig. 4, wearable computing device 430 communicating with computing device 410 via communication link 420), the wearable audio device comprising:
at least one audio sensor (Col 10, Rows 39-44, microphone 312 detects sounds in the wearer’s environment such as ambient speech of others in the vicinity of the wearer); and
at least one second processor (Fig. 4, processor 424) configured to:
generate data to detect the one or more words or phrases from a variety of sounds of speech input (Col 13, Rows 30-43, performing spectral analysis to determine that the second audio signal is consistent with typical human speech patterns; Col 13, Rows 43-44, perform speech recognition analyses);
detect a sound in an environment with the at least one audio sensor while the wearable audio emitting device is emitting audio at a volume, wherein the sound in the environment comprises speech of a nearby person (Col 13, Rows 30-43, at block 504, while driving audio output device with first audio signal (e.g., playback music content per Col 13, Row 13), receive second audio signal including first ambient noise comprising user’s speech and others around the user);
determine, using the data, that the speech of the nearby person passes a threshold (Col 15, Rows 4-6 and Rows 23-36, detect speech of those that the user may be conversing with by determining that a second ambient noise has a signal to noise ratio that is higher than a second threshold distinct from first threshold that was used to determine user speech);
lowering the volume of the audio emitted by the wearable audio device to a second volume in response to determining the speech of the nearby person passes the threshold (Col 15, Rows 45-54, determine that the speech of the user’s conversation partner(s) is in the second ambient noise, continue the ducking of the first audio signal; per Col 14, Rows 54-56, ducking the first audio signal being volume attenuation of the music playback);
determining the user is engaging with the nearby person by detecting user speech (Col 16, Rows 1-6, determine indication that user is engaged in an important and lengthy conversation; e.g., per Col 15, Rows 52-54 and Col 16, Rows 2-4, identify both user speech and the speech of the user’s conversation partner as enough ambient speech for a threshold duration); and
lowering the volume of the audio emitted by the wearable audio device to a third volume in response to determining the user is engaging with the nearby person (Col 16, Rows 16-19, if the ducking is continued for longer than the threshold duration (i.e., indication that user is engaged in the important and lengthy conversation per Col 16, Rows 4-6), adjust the ducking to pause the first audio signal; Col 16, Rows 19-24, other possibilities include adjusting the degree of volume attenuation based on detected signa to noise ratio of a given signal or the duration of a conversation).
Fadell does not disclose at least one first processor configured to prompt a user to input one or more words or phrases related to how others refer to the user into the interface and generate, using the input, data to detect the one or more words or phrases from a variety of sounds of speech input.
Haggai discloses a system (¶19, Fig. 3, computing device 302 and audio devices 304, 306) comprising a computing device with first processor configured to prompt a user to input one or more words or phrases related to how others refer to the user (¶23, computing device 302 can store user preferences and learn user preferences over time regarding which sounds a user wishes to responds to by generating a dedicated configuration for each user preference upon learning based on user inputs; in view of ¶13, users may customize on which key phrases they would like to be notified (e.g., their name – David, Mary, Mom, Dad) so that they may be aware of people who need their attention while busy listening to content via Bluetooth hearables) into an interface (¶31, a display in a computing node),
generating, using the input, data to detect the one or more words or phrases from a variety of sounds of speech input (¶20, computing device 302 performs processing for event detection at block 320 to determine presence of a relevant sound relevant to the user based upon text triggers stored in memory), and
determining, using the data, that sound detected in an environment passes a threshold of including the one or more words or phrases (¶25, computing device 302 filters incoming audio 402 and examine input for keyword patterns (keyword spotting circuitry 404); ¶28, a Deep Neural Network performs functions of spotting a keyword to make a trigger decision to notify the end user).
It would’ve been obvious to one ordinarily skilled in the art before the effective filing date of the invention to prompt a user to input desired audio trigger corresponding to one or more words or phrases related to how others refer to the user in order to make the user aware of people who need their attention while busy listening to content via wearable device (Haggai, ¶13; compare Fadell, Col 13, Rows 43-44, perform speech recognition analyses to detect ambient noise includes speech of others calling user by name).
The combination would teach determining, using the data, that the speech of the nearby person passes a threshold of including the one or more words or phrases (Fadell, Col 13, Rows 43-44, perform speech recognition, Col 15, Rows 52-53, identify speech of the user’s conversation partner(s) based on speech recognition analyses; Haggai, ¶25, modifies the speech recognition analyses to examine input for keyword patterns that triggers a detection).
The combination does not teach lowering the volume of the audio emitted by the wearable audio device to the second volume in response to determining the speech of the nearby person passes the threshold of including the one or more words or phrases.
Yan teaches a system comprising a wearable audio device in communication with a computing device (p. 4, ¶13, AR glasses / helmet / head display communicating with a terminal computer), while the wearable audio device playing audio according to a first volume (Abstract, when playing audio according to current volume and collecting environment sound information), the wearable audio device determines speech of nearby person passes a threshold of including one or more words or phrases related to how others refer to user of the wearable audio device (p. 6, ¶30, AR device performs voice recognition to analyze environment sound information to obtain key word corresponding to the environment sound information; p. 18, ¶¶128-130, judging whether the keyword is matched with pre-stored keyword including name or call of the user of the AR device) and lowering volume of audio emitted by the wearable audio device to a lower volume in response to determining the speech of the nearby person passes the threshold (p. 7, ¶¶34-36, determining volume adjustment mode based on the keyword; in particular, p. 18, ¶¶131-32 and p. 19, ¶¶136-38, determine semantic information based on the keyword to determine adjustment mode including volume reducing mode to reduce the current volume; see p. 8, ¶¶43-44, Table 1, volume reduction mode when semantics of the keywords correspond to “inquiry”, “request”, and “greeting” and pause playing mode when semantics of the keywords correspond to “important matters” and “emergency”).
It would’ve been obvious to one ordinarily skilled in the art before the effective filing date of the invention to lowering the volume of the audio emitted by the wearable audio device to the second volume in response to determining the speech of the nearby person passes the threshold of including the one or more words or phrases in order to determine audio playback volume adjustment / lowering / pause based on semantics of the words or phrases (Yan, p. 7, ¶¶37-38; compare Fadell, Col 15, Rows 45-54, perform ducking / volume attenuation of the first audio signal (music playback) based on ambient noise including speech of the user’s conversation partner(s), and Col 16, Rows 3-6 and Rows 13-19, pause first audio signal playback (i.e., reduce volume to zero) when user is engaged in important conversation; implement keyword semantics to determine user’s conversation partner inquiring / greeting the user by name to attenuate first audio signal playback volume and determine keywords corresponding to important conversation to pause first audio signal playback by reducing volume to zero).
Regarding Claims 2 and 14, Fadell as modified by Yan discloses wherein the at least one second processor is further configured to compare the data to reference data (Yan, p. 18, ¶¶128-130, AR device (i.e., wearable audio device processor / second processor) judging whether the keyword is matched with pre-stored keyword / reference data including name or call of the user of the AR device).
Regarding Claims 3 and 15, Fadell as modified by Yan discloses wherein the reference data comprises a plurality of reference audio samples that include the one or more words or phrases (Yan, p. 18, ¶¶128-130, pre-stored keyword / reference data including name or call of the user of the AR device; see also Haggai, ¶13).
Regarding Claims 4 and 16, Fadell as modified by Yan discloses wherein the reference data is pre-obtained by a plurality of non-users (Yan, p. 13, ¶82, pre-stored key word can be AR device pre-stored for judging whether to perform the volume adjustment. For example, the preset key word may include "hello").
Regarding Claims 9-10 and 21, Fadell as modified by Haggai discloses wherein the input is text (Haggai, ¶20, text triggers can be enabled and stored in memory) or audio (Haggai, ¶20, triggers can be set based upon audio device parameter and ¶23, computing device 302 can store user preferences regarding which sounds a user wishes to respond to such as hearing a particular name or word).
Claims 5-7 and 17-19 are rejected under 35 USC 103(a) as being unpatentable over Fadell et al. (US 10013999 B1) in view of Haggai et al. (US 2024/0236541 A9) and Yan (CN111966321A) as applied to claims 1 and 12, in further view of Kracun et al. (US 2022/0165277 A1).
Regarding Claims 5-7 and 17-19, Fadell does not disclose wherein the reference data comprises negative data that fails to include the one or more words or phrases.
Kracun discloses a speech enabled device initiating voice interaction based on one or more words or phrases (¶28 and ¶36, user device hotword detector configured to detect “Hey Google” in streaming audio) by comparing data generated to detect the one or more words or phrases from a variety of sounds of speech input to reference data comprising negative data that fails to include the one or more words or phrases (¶64, comparing subsequent audio data corresponding to another utterance spoken to classification results stored in memory including negative hotwords “Poodle”, “Noodle”, and “Doodle”), wherein the data is plotted against the reference data in a vector space to determine how closely the data matches the reference data versus the negative data (¶64, compute an evaluation embedding representation for the subsequent audio data characterizing the hotword event and access the memory to obtain embedding representation of corresponding negative hotwords), and determining that the sound detected in an environment passes a threshold (¶65, compare computed evaluation embedding representation with all of reference embeddings for each of the negative hotword), wherein the threshold is a distance measured within the vector space that the sound detected in the environment includes the one or more words or phrases based on the plotted data (¶65, determine a similarity score between the reference embedding representation and the computed evaluation embedding representation, each similarity score is associated with a cosine distance between the evaluation embedding representation and the reference embedding representation; ¶66, compare the similarity score to a similarity threshold and classify the subsequent audio data as including the negative hotword when the similarity score satisfies the similarity score threshold).
It would’ve been obvious to one ordinarily skilled in the art before the effective filing date of the invention to compare the data to reference data comprising negative data that fails to include the one or more words or phrases in order to suppress detecting the word or phrase event in subsequent audio data (Kracun, ¶66) and prevent false detection of the one or more words or phrases (Kracun, ¶33; compare Fadell, Col 13, Rows 43-44, perform speech recognition analyses).
Claim 13 is rejected under 35 USC 103(a) as being unpatentable over Fadell et al. (US 10013999 B1) in view of Haggai et al. (US 2024/0236541 A9) and Yan (CN111966321A) as applied to claim 12, in further view of Chin et al. (US 2009/0094547 A1).
Regarding Claim 13, Fadell as modified by Haggai discloses wherein the at least one first processor is further configured to pre-recorded and store different audio samples that include the desired audio triggers prior to the data being generated by the at least one second processor (Fadell, Col 13, Rows 30-43, performing spectral analysis to determine that the second audio signal is consistent with typical human speech patterns; Haggai, ¶20, triggers can be set based upon audio device parameter and ¶23, computing device 302 can store user preferences regarding which sounds (e.g., spectral speech patterns) a user wishes to respond to such as hearing a particular name or word) and the desired audio triggers include the one or more words or phrases (Haggai, ¶13).
Fadell and Haggai do not disclose the first processor is configured to synthesize multiple different audio samples that include the one or more words or phrases.
Chin discloses a processor configured to synthesize multiple different audio samples that include one or more words or phrases (¶¶28-29, a user’s name is stored as a text file, fed to a speech synthesizer to generate an audio signal incorporating the user’s name; per ¶27, different users 7, 8, 9 with voice files 71, 81, 91).
It would’ve been obvious to one ordinarily skilled in the art before the effective filing date of the invention to generate the pre-recorded desired audio trigger by synthesizing multiple different audio samples that include the one or more words or phrases related to how others refer to the user in order to generate and link speech file to the user’s identity (Chin, ¶8).
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to examiner Richard Z. Zhu whose telephone number is 571-270-1587 or examiner’s supervisor Hai Phan whose telephone number is 571-272-6338. Examiner Richard Zhu can normally be reached on M-Th, 0730:1700.
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/RICHARD Z ZHU/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2654 05/15/2026
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