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 § 101
35 U.S.C. 101 reads as follows:
Whoever invents or discovers any new and useful process, machine, manufacture, or composition of matter, or any new and useful improvement thereof, may obtain a patent therefor, subject to the conditions and requirements of this title.
Claim 41 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 101 because the claimed invention is directed to non-statutory subject matter. The claim(s) does/do not fall within at least one of the four categories of patent eligible subject matter because the recitation of a medium can be interpreted to encompass a carrier wave or signal which are each non-statutory subject matter. Applicant’s specification does not limit a computer readable medium to be non-transitory (“The computer readable storage medium could be a non-transitory computer readable storage medium.”, specification, pg 3, ln 11-12; it says “could be” not that it certainly “is” or that it’s limited to being non-transitory). Applicant may overcome the rejection by specifically reciting that the medium is a "non-transitory computer readable medium.1"
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.
Claim 32 is 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.
Claim 32 recites “wherein the first threshold distance from the spatial direction increases as distance along the spatial direction to the user increases”. However, this expression does not make sense. There cannot be a distance from a direction. Distances are measured in space from locations. The scope of the claim cannot be ascertained.
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) 23-27, 29-35, and 39-41are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by York (US 20190289416).
Regarding claim 23, York teaches a method for directional audio transmission to at least one broadcast device, the method being performed by a control device, the method comprising: obtaining an indication that an audio message as uttered by a user is recorded (receiving audio communication from audio transmitting device, [0013]; when speaker speaks audio device 212 picks up the audio, [0022]) and is to be transmitted to at least one broadcast device (transmission zone allows speaker to transmit audio to audio outputting devices in a certain area, [0023]); estimating in which spatial direction the user uttered the audio message (transmission zone will may change depending on which direction the speaker 202 is facing, [0023]); selecting, as a function of the estimated spatial direction (transmission zone allows speaker to transmit audio to audio outputting devices in a certain area, [0023]; transmission zone will may change depending on which direction the speaker 202 is facing, [0023]), a set of broadcast devices for playing out the audio message (broadcast devices of listener 206 and listener 222 as an example, [0023]); and initiating transmission of the audio message to the selected set of broadcast devices, thereby performing the directional audio transmission to the at least one broadcast device (transmitting audio to listener 206 and listener 222, [0023]).
Regarding claim 24, York teaches the method of claim 23, wherein the set of broadcast devices is selected (receiving angle and the transmission angle are used to determine whether the audio device 214 and the audio device 216 meet transmission criteria, [0028]) from a set of available broadcast devices (When the audio devices 212, 214, and 216 each continuously contribute mapping information to the shared map, the shared map accumulates information about a shared space. Each of the audio devices 212, 214, and 216 use the shared map to determine the audio device's location on the shared map, [0026]), and wherein those of the available broadcast devices that are located along the spatial direction (receiving angle and the transmission angle are used to determine whether the audio device 214 and the audio device 216 meet transmission criteria. For example, the transmission criteria may be the transmission area defined by the broken line 218 and the broken line 220. If the transmission angle determines that an audio device is outside of the transmission area, the audio device outside of the transmission area will not produce any sound, [0028]), or at least within a first threshold distance from the spatial direction are selected.
Regarding claim 25, York teaches the method of claim 23, wherein the method further comprises: estimating at which spatial position the user is located when intending to transmit the audio message (Each of the audio devices uses the shared map to determine the audio device's location on the shared map. Each of the audio devices then shares its location to a shared simulation. The shared simulation includes the shared information about the location of each of the audio devices within a shared space, [0037]), and wherein the set of broadcast devices is selected also as a function of the estimated spatial position (determining if audio device is inside the receiving angle, [0028]).
Regarding claim 26, York teaches the method of claim 25, wherein the set of broadcast devices is selected from a set of available broadcast devices (When the audio devices 212, 214, and 216 each continuously contribute mapping information to the shared map, the shared map accumulates information about a shared space. Each of the audio devices 212, 214, and 216 use the shared map to determine the audio device's location on the shared map, [0026]), and wherein the spatial position of the user is estimated in relation to locations of the set of available broadcast devices (In one implementation, the shared simulation is created using GPS or other position sensing components in audio devices acting as the audio transmitting device and the audio outputting device., [0037]).
Regarding claim 27, York teaches the method of claim 23, wherein the spatial direction is estimated using any of: radio signalling (GPS, [0037]), radar signalling, sound analysis, image analysis, or any combination thereof.
Regarding claim 29, York teaches the method of claim 23, wherein the broadcast devices have locations specified of a floorplan, wherein the floorplan further specifies constructional elements, and wherein the set of broadcast devices further is selected depending on placement of the constructional elements (shared map of the room 208 is a floorplan, [0019], fig 2).
Regarding claim 30, York teaches the method of claim 23, wherein the method further comprises: estimating a spatial range in which the audio message is to be played out (receiving angle is the angle between a forward vector of the audio device 214 (or the audio device 216) and the center point of the audio device 212, [0028]), and wherein the set of broadcast devices further is selected as a function of the estimated spatial range (determining if audio device is inside the receiving angle, [0028]; If the transmission angle determines that an audio device is outside of the transmission area, the audio device outside of the transmission area will not produce any sound. If, as is the case for the audio device 214 and the audio device 216, the audio device is inside the transmission area (or the audio device meets another transmission criteria), the receiving angle is calculated, and transmission continue, [0028]).
Regarding claim 31, York teaches the method of claim 23, wherein user input from the user identifies one of the broadcast devices in the set of broadcast devices, and wherein the broadcast device identified by the user input is spatially closest to the user of all broadcast devices in the set of broadcast devices (speaker 202 can turn towards listener 222 which is the closest broadcast device, or at least tied for closest with 204, [0023], fig 2).
Regarding claim 32, York teaches the method of claim 24 wherein the first threshold distance from the spatial direction increases as distance along the spatial direction to the user increases, whereby a virtual spatial cone is formed having a radius defined by the first threshold distance, and wherein all broadcast devices located within the virtual spatial cone are selected to play out the audio message (receiving angle and the transmission angle are used to determine whether the audio device 214 and the audio device 216 meet transmission criteria, [0028]).
Regarding claim 33, York teaches the method of claim 24, wherein user input from the user defines the first threshold distance (relative location of the audio device 214 relative to the audio device 212 indicates the distance between a center point of the audio device 214 and a center point of the audio device 212. Similarly, the relative location of the audio device 216 relative to the audio device 212 indicates the distance between a center point of the audio device 216 and the center point of the audio device 212, [0025]).
Regarding claim 34, York teaches the method of claim 23, wherein the method further comprises: verifying that at least one of the broadcast devices in the set of broadcast devices is within a second threshold distance from a further user before initiating transmission of the audio message to the selected set of broadcast devices (When the audio devices 212, 214, and 216 each continuously contribute mapping information to the shared map, the shared map accumulates information about a shared space. Each of the audio devices 212, 214, and 216 use the shared map to determine the audio device's location on the shared map. Each of the audio devices 212, 214, and 216 then shares its location to a shared simulation. The shared simulation includes the shared information about the location of each of the audio devices 212, 214, and 216 within a shared space, [0026]).
Regarding claim 35, York teaches the method of claim 34, wherein, when at least one of the broadcast devices in the set of broadcast devices is not within the second threshold distance from the further user, the set of broadcast devices is modified until at least one of the broadcast devices in the set of broadcast devices is within the second threshold distance from the further user (Similarly, the audio device 216 may use information from the shared simulation about the location of the audio device 212 within the shared space and information about the location of the audio device 216 within the shared space to calculate the relative location of the audio device 212 to the audio device 216, [0026]).
Regarding claim 39, York teaches the method of claim 23, wherein the control device is part of, integrated with, or collocated with, at least one of: a piece of extended reality (XR) equipment, a user equipment, one of the broadcast devices, a computational cloud server (shared simulation may be implemented using a client-server model, [0026]).
Claims 40 and 41 are each substantially similar to claim 23 and are rejected for the same reasons.
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) 28 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over York and Martin (US 20230297166).
Regarding claim 28, York teaches the method of claim 27.
Although York does not teach wherein the radio signalling involves using a Bluetooth- based Direction Finding Service of which either angle-of-arrival or angle-of-departure with respect to the user is estimated as part of estimating the spatial direction, York teaches using an interital measurement unit (IMU) for orientation sensing (York, [0020]). Martin teaches a combination system where a pointing direction is obtained form an IMU and yaw direction is obtained from Bluetooth directional finding (Martin, [0087]). It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art to use Bluetooth direction finding as an alternative to an IMU since doing so is the use of a known technique to improve a similar system in the same way.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 36-38 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
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to Kile Blair whose telephone number is (571)270-3544. The examiner can normally be reached M-F.
Examiner interviews are available via telephone, in-person, and video conferencing using a USPTO supplied web-based collaboration tool. To schedule an interview, applicant is encouraged to use the USPTO Automated Interview Request (AIR) at http://www.uspto.gov/interviewpractice.
If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Duc Nguyen can be reached at 571-272-7503. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
Information regarding the status of published or unpublished applications may be obtained from Patent Center. Unpublished application information in Patent Center is available to registered users. To file and manage patent submissions in Patent Center, visit: https://patentcenter.uspto.gov. Visit https://www.uspto.gov/patents/apply/patent-center for more information about Patent Center and https://www.uspto.gov/patents/docx for information about filing in DOCX format. For additional questions, contact the Electronic Business Center (EBC) at 866-217-9197 (toll-free). If you would like assistance from a USPTO Customer Service Representative, call 800-786-9199 (IN USA OR CANADA) or 571-272-1000.
/KILE O BLAIR/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2691
1 See 1351 OG 212 (February 23, 2010).