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 status
This action is in response to applicant filed on 05/31/2024. Claims 1-20 are pending for examination.
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.
(a)(2) the claimed invention was described in a patent issued under section 151, or in an application for patent published or deemed published under section 122(b), in which the patent or application, as the case may be, names another inventor and was effectively filed before the effective filing date of the claimed invention.
Claim(s) 1-2, 4-9, 11-6 and 18-20 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by Baracoda (WO 2020/212950).
Regarding claim 1: Baracoda disclose a method for determining a change in a characteristic of a pet, the method comprising:
receiving, by one or more processors, sensor data generated by one or more pressure sensors integrated within a mat based on the pet moving over the mat (¶0115: In some implementations, one or more components of the smart scale system 1000 form a smart mat, for example, a bath mat, a yoga mat, a doormat, an anti-fatigue mat, a chair cushion, a body pillow, a shoe insole, a portion of a carpet, one or more pieces of tile, one or more pieces of hardwood flooring, part of a mattress, part of a shower (e.g., coupled to or embedded in a shower pan or a bath tub), or the like. This is advantageous because some people and/or animals can have weight anxiety. Hiding the smart scale system in everyday items can also encourage continual monitoring of the weight, body fat distribution, and/or any health changes of the user. Furthermore, energy harvesting can be included in some of the above- referenced implementations, for example, using heat of the feet and/or dynamic pressure with a piezoelectric collector.’) (¶005-006: In same implementations, the machine learning algorithm further receives, as the input, a category of the non-static item. In some implementations, the category of the non-static item includes a person, an animal, an inanimate object, or any combination thereof. [C006] in some implementations, the category of the non-static item further includes a cat. a dog. a horse. a hamster, a guinea pig, a rabbit, a chinchilla, a mouse, 4 rat, a parrot, a hermit crab, a ferret, a reptile, a fish, a sea monkey, or any combination thereof.”)
determining, by the one or more processors, a representation of the characteristic of the pet using an artificial intelligence (Al) model and the sensor data (¶0075: In some implementations, one or more components of the smart scale system 100 includes, be a part of, or be used in conjunction of, an artificial intelligence system. For example, the artificial intelligence system can be stored in the cloud, ai the edge (e.g., loT Edge), or in any combination thereof.)
determining, by the one or more processors, the change in the characteristic of the pet based on the representation of the characteristic of the pet and a baseline representation of the characteristic of the pet (¶0171: According to some implementations of the present disclosure, a method for determining a normalized weight of a user is disclosed. Registered user data is received from a memory of a smart scale system. The registered user data includes historical weight data, historical user information. and the historical normalized weight data, Pressure data associated with the user is received from an array of pressure sensors of the smart scale system);
generating, by the one or more processors, a notification including information identifying the change in the characteristic of the pet; and providing, by the one or more processors, the notification to a user device to cause the user device to display the notification (¶0245: Embodiment 73. The smart scale system of embodiment 72, wherein the one or more processors are further configured to execute the machine-readable instructions to: display, on the display device, the load cell weight for the user, the normalized weight for the user, the reason for adjustment, or any combination thereof).
Regarding claim 2: Baracoda disclose the method of claim 1, wherein the characteristic is a weight of the pet, and the representation of the characteristic is a weight value of the pet (¶0171: According to some implementations of the present disclosure, a method for determining a normalized weight of a user is disclosed.).
Regarding claim 4: Baracoda disclose the method of claim 1, further comprising: determining that the change in the characteristic of the pet satisfies a threshold, wherein the generating the notification comprises generating the notification based on determining that the change in the characteristic of the pet satisfies the threshold.(¶0099)
Regarding claim 5: Baracoda disclose the method of claim 1, wherein the characteristic is a weight of the pet, and the change in the characteristic of the pet is indicative of the pet having gained a threshold amount of weight or having lost the threshold amount of weight.(¶0099 and ¶0171).
Regarding claim 6: Baracoda disclose the method of claim 1, wherein the one or more pressure sensors comprise piezoelectric sensors (¶0089).
Regarding claim 7: Baracoda disclose the method of claim 1, wherein the sensor data includes a voltage pattern represented by voltage values over time (¶0104).
Regarding claim 8: Claim 8 is rejected for the same reason of claim 1.
Regarding claim 9: Claim 9 is rejected for the same reason of claim 2.
Regarding claim 11: Claim 11 is rejected for the same reason of claim 4.
Regarding claim 12: Claim 12 is rejected for the same reason of claim 5.
Regarding claim 13: Claim 13 is rejected for the same reason of claim 6.
Regarding claim 14: Claim 14 is rejected for the same reason of claim 7.
Regarding claim 15: Claim 15 is rejected for the same reason of claim 1.
Regarding claim 16: Claim 16 is rejected for the same reason of claim 2.
Regarding claim 18: Claim 18 is rejected for the same reason of claim 4.
Regarding claim 19: Claim 19 is rejected for the same reason of claim 5.
Regarding claim 20: Claim 20 is rejected for the same reason of claim 6 and 7.
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.
The factual inquiries for establishing a background for determining obviousness under 35 U.S.C. 103 are summarized as follows:
1. Determining the scope and contents of the prior art.
2. Ascertaining the differences between the prior art and the claims at issue.
3. Resolving the level of ordinary skill in the pertinent art.
4. Considering objective evidence present in the application indicating obviousness or nonobviousness.
Claim(s) 3, 10 & 17 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Baracoda (WO 2020/212950).
Regarding claim 3: Baracoda disclose the method of claim 1, but does not explicitly disclose wherein the characteristic is a gait of the pet, and the representation of the characteristic is a pattern indicative of gait .
Before the effective filing date, it would have been obvious to the one of the ordinary skill in the art to include the feature of wherein the characteristic is a gait of the pet, and the representation of the characteristic is a pattern indicative of gait, since having a limited universe of potential options (characteristic of the pen), the selection of any particular option (gait) would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art. In re Jones, 412 F.2d 241, 162 USPO 224 (COPA 1969). Since either option would provide the same predictable result of (identifying a different characteristic of the pet), either option would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill.
Regarding claim 10: Claim 10 is rejected for the same reason of claim 3
Regarding claim 17: Claim 17 is rejected for the same reason of claim 3
Conclusion
The prior art made of record cited in the PTO-892 and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to OMAR CASILLASHERNANDEZ whose telephone number is (571)270-5432. The examiner can normally be reached Monday-Friday, 8:30AM-4:30PM.
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If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Joseph Feild can be reached at (571)272-4090. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/OMAR CASILLASHERNANDEZ/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2689