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 Office action is based on the communications filed March 26, 2024. Claims 27 – 46 are currently pending and considered below.
Information Disclosure Statement
The information disclosure statement (IDS) submitted on July 11, 2024 is in compliance with the provisions of 37 CFR 1.97. Accordingly, the information disclosure statement is being considered by the examiner.
Claim Objections
Claims 28 – 32 are objected to because of the following informalities: Claims 28 – 32 recite “The media playback of claim 27…” however 27 is directed to “A media playback system…” and therefore claims 28 – 32 should be corrected to “The media playback system of claim 27…”.
Claims 42 – 46 are objected to because of the following informalities: Claims 42 – 46 recite “The computer-readable medium of claim 41…” however claim 41 is directed to “A tangible, non-transitory computer-readable medium…” and therefore claims 42 – 46 should be corrected to “The tangible, non-transitory computer-readable medium…”.
Appropriate correction is required.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 102
In the event the determination of the status of the application as subject to AIA 35 U.S.C. 102 and 103 (or as subject to pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 102 and 103) is incorrect, any correction of the statutory basis (i.e., changing from AIA to pre-AIA ) for the rejection will not be considered a new ground of rejection if the prior art relied upon, and the rationale supporting the rejection, would be the same under either status.
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) 27, 28, 32 – 35, 39 – 42, and 46 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) and 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(2) as being anticipated by Doolittle et al. (US 2019/0215634 A1), hereinafter Doolittle.
Claim 27: Doolittle discloses a media playback system (see at least, “Embodiments of the disclosure are directed to an audio system, and, more particularly, to an audio system for automatically identifying relative speaker locations in a home theater system that includes multiple audio speakers,” Doolittle [0002]) comprising: at least one processor (see at least, “Aspects of the disclosure may operate on particularly created hardware, firmware, digital signal processors, or on a specially programmed computer including a processor operating according to programmed instructions. The terms controller or processor as used herein are intended to include microprocessors, microcomputers, Application Specific Integrated Circuits (ASICs), and dedicated hardware controllers. One or more aspects of the disclosure may be embodied in computer-usable data and computer-executable instructions, such as in one or more program modules, executed by one or more computers (including monitoring modules), or other devices,” Doolittle [0032]); and at least one non-transitory computer-readable medium storing program instructions that are executable by the at least one processor such that a plurality of playback devices of a media playback system are configured to perform operations (see at least, “Generally, program modules include routines, programs, objects, components, data structures, etc. that perform particular tasks or implement particular abstract data types when executed by a processor in a computer or other device. The computer executable instructions may be stored on a computer readable storage medium such as a hard disk, optical disk, removable storage media, solid state memory, Random Access Memory (RAM), etc. As will be appreciated by one of skill in the art, the functionality of the program modules may be combined or distributed as desired in various aspects. In addition, the functionality may be embodied in whole or in part in firmware or hardware equivalents such as integrated circuits, FPGA, and the like,” Doolittle [0032], “Computer storage media means any medium that can be used to store computer-readable information. By way of example, and not limitation, computer storage media may include RAM, ROM, Electrically Erasable Programmable Read-Only Memory (EEPROM), flash memory or other memory technology, Compact Disc Read Only Memory (CD-ROM), Digital Video Disc (DVD), or other optical disk storage, magnetic cassettes, magnetic tape, magnetic disk storage or other magnetic storage devices, and any other volatile or nonvolatile, removable or non-removable media implemented in any technology. Computer storage media excludes signals per se and transitory forms of signal transmission,” Doolittle [0033]) comprising:
selecting, via a first playback device, a second playback device as a session manager (see at least, “Firmware 114 may be included in any of the speakers 102, the center speaker 200, or as a separate device. In some embodiments, one or more of the speakers 102 or center speaker 200 may not be induced. As will be discussed in further detail below, the firmware 114 can determine the location of each speaker 102 relative to the other speakers 102 based on the recordings of each microphone 112 in each speaker 102. In some embodiments, the center speaker 200 may also include a microphone 112 (not shown),” Doolittle [0015], Doolittle FIG. 3, “FIG. 4 is a flow chart illustrating an operation for location detection of each of the speakers 102 performed by the firmware 114. The location detection may be performed for any of the embodiments shown in FIGS. 1-3, or any alternative embodiments discussed above. Before location detection starts, the microphone array 110 and firmware 114, are in wireless communication with all of the connected speakers 102 and the speakers 102 are individually identified. In some embodiments, the connected speakers 102 may also include the center speaker 200 or sub-woofer 202 shown in FIG. 2. In operation 400, the location detection begins by causing one of the speakers 102 to play a stimulus sound. Firmware 114 generates an instruction to the respective speaker 102 to play the stimulus sound…,” Doolittle [0016]);
after selecting the second playback device, broadcasting, via the second playback device, one or more first localization signals (see at least, “and when the instructions are received at the speaker 102, the speaker outputs the stimulus sound,” Doolittle [0016]);
obtaining (i) a first spatial measurement based on a response from the first playback device to the one or more first localization signals and (ii) a second spatial measurement based on a response from a third playback device to the one or more first localization signals (see at least, “After the first speaker 102 plays the stimulus sound, in operation 402, simultaneous recordings are made from each of the microphones 112. For example, as speaker 1 plays its stimulus, simultaneous recordings are made from microphones M1, M2, M3, and M4,” Doolittle [0017], “In operation 406, one or more forms of analysis may be used to determine the location of each of the speakers 102 based on the recording from each of the microphones 112. As will be understood by one skilled in the art, operation 406 may begin as soon as recordings are made from each of the microphones 112 after the first speaker plays its stimulus sound. That is, operation 406 may operate at the same time as operations 400 and 402,” Doolittle [0019]);
selecting, via the first playback device, the third playback device as a session manager (see at least, “Then, the location detection determines in operation 404 if there are additional speakers 102 remaining in the system. If yes, then the location detection returns to operation 400 and the stimulus sound is played through the next speaker 102…,” Doolittle [0018]);
after selecting the third playback device, broadcasting, via the third playback device, one or more second localization signals (see at least, “and recordings are made from each of the microphones 112 in operation 402,” Doolittle [0018]);
obtaining a third spatial measurement based on a response from the second playback device to the one or more second localization signals (see at least, “then in operation 406, the detection location determines a location of each of the speakers 102 relative to the microphone array 110 based on the recordings from each of the microphones 112 for each speaker 102,” Doolittle [0018], “In operation 406, one or more forms of analysis may be used to determine the location of each of the speakers 102 based on the recording from each of the microphones 112. As will be understood by one skilled in the art, operation 406 may begin as soon as recordings are made from each of the microphones 112 after the first speaker plays its stimulus sound. That is, operation 406 may operate at the same time as operations 400 and 402,” Doolittle [0019]);
comparing the second spatial measurement with the third spatial measurement (see at least, “Embodiments of the disclosure automatically determine a relative position of speakers within a multi-speaker home theater system by analyzing, at two or more microphones, an output from individual speakers and comparing the output of each speaker to each other, as well as the microphones,” Doolittle [0010], “Another example analysis to determine the location of each of the speakers 102 may be performed on the recorded stimulus signals is an Error Minimization. An Error Minimization process makes use of a non-intuitive property of spatial geometry. First, the TOF analysis discussed above is performed and the TOF estimates generated as described above are multiplied by the speed of sound to achieve distance estimates. Assuming that the TOF measurements are accurate, a true location of the speaker 102 sits on a circle in the x-y plane whose radius is equal to the mean speaker-mic distance and whose center is the mean microphone location, i.e., the origin in the rectangular microphone array 110. Next, this circle is sampled at 360 locations. For each location, the expected vector of distances is compared to the vector of measured distances. One location will minimize the sum of squared errors between expected and measured distances, and this is reported as the location of that particular speaker 102. This process is repeated for all speakers 102,” Doolittle [0023]); and
changing a state of at least one of the playback devices based on the comparison (see at least, “Example 9 is the audio speaker system of any one of examples 1-8, wherein the processor is further configured to generate the audio signal and determine the location of each speaker during a startup of the audio speaker system and periodically during operation of the audio speaker system, and reassign an audio channel to each speaker if the determined location changes during operation of the audio speaker system,” Doolittle [0046], “In some embodiments, the firmware 114 may periodically confirm that the speakers 102 are assigned to the correct audio channel by not only performing the location detection shown in FIG. 4 during a start-up procedure, but also while audio is playing through the home theater system. For example, while audio is coming through the speakers, the microphones 114 may each record the audio from each respective speaker 102, as shown in FIG. 4, to confirm the speakers 102 are still located in the same location. This may be done by limiting the output of the audio to only a single speaker 102 at a time to perform the test,” Doolittle [0021]).
Claim 28: Doolittle discloses the media playback of claim 27, wherein the operations further comprise:
measuring characteristics of wireless signals transmitted via signal paths between each of a plurality of reference devices over a period of time, wherein the plurality of reference devices comprises at least two of the first, second, and third playback devices (see at least, “The location detection may be performed for any of the embodiments shown in FIGS. 1-3, or any alternative embodiments discussed above. Before location detection starts, the microphone array 110 and firmware 114, are in wireless communication with all of the connected speakers 102 and the speakers 102 are individually identified,” Doolittle [0016], “Another example analysis to determine the location of each of the speakers 102 may be performed on the recorded stimulus signals is an Error Minimization. An Error Minimization process makes use of a non-intuitive property of spatial geometry. First, the TOF analysis discussed above is performed and the TOF estimates generated as described above are multiplied by the speed of sound to achieve distance estimates. Assuming that the TOF measurements are accurate, a true location of the speaker 102 sits on a circle in the x-y plane whose radius is equal to the mean speaker-mic distance and whose center is the mean microphone location, i.e., the origin in the rectangular microphone array 110. Next, this circle is sampled at 360 locations. For each location, the expected vector of distances is compared to the vector of measured distances. One location will minimize the sum of squared errors between expected and measured distances, and this is reported as the location of that particular speaker 102. This process is repeated for all speakers 102,” Doolittle [0023], “Example 9 is the audio speaker system of any one of examples 1-8, wherein the processor is further configured to generate the audio signal and determine the location of each speaker during a startup of the audio speaker system and periodically during operation of the audio speaker system, and reassign an audio channel to each speaker if the determined location changes during operation of the audio speaker system,” Doolittle [0046], “In some embodiments, the firmware 114 may periodically confirm that the speakers 102 are assigned to the correct audio channel by not only performing the location detection shown in FIG. 4 during a start-up procedure, but also while audio is playing through the home theater system. For example, while audio is coming through the speakers, the microphones 114 may each record the audio from each respective speaker 102, as shown in FIG. 4, to confirm the speakers 102 are still located in the same location. This may be done by limiting the output of the audio to only a single speaker 102 at a time to perform the test,” Doolittle [0021]);
measuring characteristics of wireless signals transmitted via signal paths between a fourth playback device and each of the plurality of reference devices (see at least, “The location detection may be performed for any of the embodiments shown in FIGS. 1-3, or any alternative embodiments discussed above. Before location detection starts, the microphone array 110 and firmware 114, are in wireless communication with all of the connected speakers 102 and the speakers 102 are individually identified,” Doolittle [0016], “Further, although FIG. 1 is illustrated as including four speakers 102, and FIG. 2 is illustrated as a 5.1 system, embodiments of the disclosure may work with any number of speakers 102 in any arrangement, such as 5.1, 7.1, and 11.1 or any other speaker arrangement,” Doolittle [0030]);
normalizing the measurements to estimate characteristics of the signal paths between each of the plurality of reference devices and between the fourth playback device and each of the reference devices (see at least, “The complex-valued cross PSD may then be normalized by its magnitude at each frequency bin before it undergoes an inverse fast Fourier transform (IFFT) to yield an autocorrelation sequence for each speaker-mic pair,” Doolittle [0022]);
estimating the likelihood that the fourth playback device is in a relative location using the estimated characteristics of the signal paths between each of the plurality of reference devices and the estimated characteristics of the signal paths between the fourth playback device and each of the plurality of reference devices (see at least, “While assigning relative speaker locations in operation 408, a confidence score may be determined that represents a degree of accuracy in the initial assignments. One use of a confidence score allows the automatic assignment system to accurately select a relative location when two speakers were initially assigned the same location,” Doolittle [0024], “In addition, or as an alternative to the techniques described above, the time delay between signals received by various microphone pairs 112 in the microphone array 110 may be used to estimate the direction of the sound coming from individual speakers 102. The estimate of the angle to a speaker 102 relative to the center speaker 200 lets a specific audio channel, such as front/left, front/right, rear/left, rear/right, etc., to be assigned to that speaker 102,” Doolittle [0028]); and
updating a spatial map to include a location of the fourth playback device relative to each of the plurality of reference devices (see at least, “For example, with reference to FIGS. 1-3, if two speakers 102 happen to be initially mapped to the same relative location, the system may assign the location to the speaker 102 having the higher confidence score, which is more likely to be accurate. Another application of the confidence score is to, after the initial analysis is complete, assign final relative speaker locations beginning with the highest confidence value. In this way, if one of the location estimates is initially incorrect, it will likely have the lowest confidence score. Thus, in a four-speaker system, the first three speakers 102, all of which having higher confidence scores, will be assigned first, and the speaker 102 having the lowest confidence score is assigned the last remaining position,” Doolittle [0024]).
Claim 32: Doolittle discloses the media playback of claim 27, wherein the operations further comprise transmitting the first, second, and third spatial measurements to a mapper device for construction of a spatial map (see at least, “The processor is configured to generate an audio signal to send to each speaker of the plurality of speakers; output audio from each speaker of the plurality of speakers based on the audio signal; receive the audio at each microphone from each speaker of the plurality of speakers; determine a location of each speaker relative to the plurality of microphones based on the received audio at each microphone; and assign an audio channel to each speaker based on the determined location,” Doolittle [0038]).
Claim 33: Doolittle discloses the media playback system of claim 32, wherein the spatial map comprises features of the environment in addition to relative positions of the first, second, and third playback devices (see at least, “Even further, embodiments of the disclosure may be used in any situation to determine a relative location of audio-generating devices. For instance, embodiments of the disclosure could be used to identify relative locations of smoke detectors in a building by having each smoke detector generate an audio signal that is captured and analyzed by the microphone array, as described above. In some embodiments the smoke detectors may be automatically sequenced from a central control, while in other embodiments a user could manually activate the smoke detectors in succession for analysis. Many other solutions are possible,” Doolittle [0031]).
Claim 34: Doolittle discloses a method comprising:
selecting, via a first playback device of a media playback system, a second playback device as a session manager (see at least, “Firmware 114 may be included in any of the speakers 102, the center speaker 200, or as a separate device. In some embodiments, one or more of the speakers 102 or center speaker 200 may not be induced. As will be discussed in further detail below, the firmware 114 can determine the location of each speaker 102 relative to the other speakers 102 based on the recordings of each microphone 112 in each speaker 102. In some embodiments, the center speaker 200 may also include a microphone 112 (not shown),” Doolittle [0015], Doolittle FIG. 3, “FIG. 4 is a flow chart illustrating an operation for location detection of each of the speakers 102 performed by the firmware 114. The location detection may be performed for any of the embodiments shown in FIGS. 1-3, or any alternative embodiments discussed above. Before location detection starts, the microphone array 110 and firmware 114, are in wireless communication with all of the connected speakers 102 and the speakers 102 are individually identified. In some embodiments, the connected speakers 102 may also include the center speaker 200 or sub-woofer 202 shown in FIG. 2. In operation 400, the location detection begins by causing one of the speakers 102 to play a stimulus sound. Firmware 114 generates an instruction to the respective speaker 102 to play the stimulus sound…,” Doolittle [0016]);
after selecting the second playback device, broadcasting, via the second playback device, one or more first localization signals (see at least, “and when the instructions are received at the speaker 102, the speaker outputs the stimulus sound,” Doolittle [0016]);
obtaining (i) a first spatial measurement based on a response from the first playback device to the one or more first localization signals and (ii) a second spatial measurement based on a response from a third playback device to the one or more first localization signals (see at least, “After the first speaker 102 plays the stimulus sound, in operation 402, simultaneous recordings are made from each of the microphones 112. For example, as speaker 1 plays its stimulus, simultaneous recordings are made from microphones M1, M2, M3, and M4,” Doolittle [0017], “In operation 406, one or more forms of analysis may be used to determine the location of each of the speakers 102 based on the recording from each of the microphones 112. As will be understood by one skilled in the art, operation 406 may begin as soon as recordings are made from each of the microphones 112 after the first speaker plays its stimulus sound. That is, operation 406 may operate at the same time as operations 400 and 402,” Doolittle [0019]);
selecting, via the first playback device, the third playback device as a session manager (see at least, “Then, the location detection determines in operation 404 if there are additional speakers 102 remaining in the system. If yes, then the location detection returns to operation 400 and the stimulus sound is played through the next speaker 102…,” Doolittle [0018]);
after selecting the third playback device, broadcasting, via the third playback device, one or more second localization signals (see at least, “then in operation 406, the detection location determines a location of each of the speakers 102 relative to the microphone array 110 based on the recordings from each of the microphones 112 for each speaker 102,” Doolittle [0018], “In operation 406, one or more forms of analysis may be used to determine the location of each of the speakers 102 based on the recording from each of the microphones 112. As will be understood by one skilled in the art, operation 406 may begin as soon as recordings are made from each of the microphones 112 after the first speaker plays its stimulus sound. That is, operation 406 may operate at the same time as operations 400 and 402,” Doolittle [0019]);
obtaining a third spatial measurement based on a response from the second playback device to the one or more second localization signals (see at least, “then in operation 406, the detection location determines a location of each of the speakers 102 relative to the microphone array 110 based on the recordings from each of the microphones 112 for each speaker 102,” Doolittle [0018], “In operation 406, one or more forms of analysis may be used to determine the location of each of the speakers 102 based on the recording from each of the microphones 112. As will be understood by one skilled in the art, operation 406 may begin as soon as recordings are made from each of the microphones 112 after the first speaker plays its stimulus sound. That is, operation 406 may operate at the same time as operations 400 and 402,” Doolittle [0019]);
comparing the second spatial measurement with the third spatial measurement (see at least, “Embodiments of the disclosure automatically determine a relative position of speakers within a multi-speaker home theater system by analyzing, at two or more microphones, an output from individual speakers and comparing the output of each speaker to each other, as well as the microphones,” Doolittle [0010], “Another example analysis to determine the location of each of the speakers 102 may be performed on the recorded stimulus signals is an Error Minimization. An Error Minimization process makes use of a non-intuitive property of spatial geometry. First, the TOF analysis discussed above is performed and the TOF estimates generated as described above are multiplied by the speed of sound to achieve distance estimates. Assuming that the TOF measurements are accurate, a true location of the speaker 102 sits on a circle in the x-y plane whose radius is equal to the mean speaker-mic distance and whose center is the mean microphone location, i.e., the origin in the rectangular microphone array 110. Next, this circle is sampled at 360 locations. For each location, the expected vector of distances is compared to the vector of measured distances. One location will minimize the sum of squared errors between expected and measured distances, and this is reported as the location of that particular speaker 102. This process is repeated for all speakers 102,” Doolittle [0023]); and
changing a state of at least one of the playback devices based on the comparison (see at least, “Example 9 is the audio speaker system of any one of examples 1-8, wherein the processor is further configured to generate the audio signal and determine the location of each speaker during a startup of the audio speaker system and periodically during operation of the audio speaker system, and reassign an audio channel to each speaker if the determined location changes during operation of the audio speaker system,” Doolittle [0046], “In some embodiments, the firmware 114 may periodically confirm that the speakers 102 are assigned to the correct audio channel by not only performing the location detection shown in FIG. 4 during a start-up procedure, but also while audio is playing through the home theater system. For example, while audio is coming through the speakers, the microphones 114 may each record the audio from each respective speaker 102, as shown in FIG. 4, to confirm the speakers 102 are still located in the same location. This may be done by limiting the output of the audio to only a single speaker 102 at a time to perform the test,” Doolittle [0021]).
Claim 35: Doolittle discloses the method of claim 34, further comprising:
measuring characteristics of wireless signals transmitted via signal paths between each of a plurality of reference devices over a period of time, wherein the plurality of reference devices comprises at least two of the first, second, and third playback devices (see at least, “The location detection may be performed for any of the embodiments shown in FIGS. 1-3, or any alternative embodiments discussed above. Before location detection starts, the microphone array 110 and firmware 114, are in wireless communication with all of the connected speakers 102 and the speakers 102 are individually identified,” Doolittle [0016], “Another example analysis to determine the location of each of the speakers 102 may be performed on the recorded stimulus signals is an Error Minimization. An Error Minimization process makes use of a non-intuitive property of spatial geometry. First, the TOF analysis discussed above is performed and the TOF estimates generated as described above are multiplied by the speed of sound to achieve distance estimates. Assuming that the TOF measurements are accurate, a true location of the speaker 102 sits on a circle in the x-y plane whose radius is equal to the mean speaker-mic distance and whose center is the mean microphone location, i.e., the origin in the rectangular microphone array 110. Next, this circle is sampled at 360 locations. For each location, the expected vector of distances is compared to the vector of measured distances. One location will minimize the sum of squared errors between expected and measured distances, and this is reported as the location of that particular speaker 102. This process is repeated for all speakers 102,” Doolittle [0023], “Example 9 is the audio speaker system of any one of examples 1-8, wherein the processor is further configured to generate the audio signal and determine the location of each speaker during a startup of the audio speaker system and periodically during operation of the audio speaker system, and reassign an audio channel to each speaker if the determined location changes during operation of the audio speaker system,” Doolittle [0046], “In some embodiments, the firmware 114 may periodically confirm that the speakers 102 are assigned to the correct audio channel by not only performing the location detection shown in FIG. 4 during a start-up procedure, but also while audio is playing through the home theater system. For example, while audio is coming through the speakers, the microphones 114 may each record the audio from each respective speaker 102, as shown in FIG. 4, to confirm the speakers 102 are still located in the same location. This may be done by limiting the output of the audio to only a single speaker 102 at a time to perform the test,” Doolittle [0021]);
measuring characteristics of wireless signals transmitted via signal paths between a fourth playback device and each of the plurality of reference devices (see at least, “The location detection may be performed for any of the embodiments shown in FIGS. 1-3, or any alternative embodiments discussed above. Before location detection starts, the microphone array 110 and firmware 114, are in wireless communication with all of the connected speakers 102 and the speakers 102 are individually identified,” Doolittle [0016], “Further, although FIG. 1 is illustrated as including four speakers 102, and FIG. 2 is illustrated as a 5.1 system, embodiments of the disclosure may work with any number of speakers 102 in any arrangement, such as 5.1, 7.1, and 11.1 or any other speaker arrangement,” Doolittle [0030]);
normalizing the measurements to estimate characteristics of the signal paths between each of the plurality of reference devices and between the fourth playback device and each of the reference devices (see at least, “The complex-valued cross PSD may then be normalized by its magnitude at each frequency bin before it undergoes an inverse fast Fourier transform (IFFT) to yield an autocorrelation sequence for each speaker-mic pair,” Doolittle [0022]);
estimating the likelihood that the fourth playback device is in a relative location using the estimated characteristics of the signal paths between each of the plurality of reference devices and the estimated characteristics of the signal paths between the fourth playback device and each of the plurality of reference devices (see at least, “While assigning relative speaker locations in operation 408, a confidence score may be determined that represents a degree of accuracy in the initial assignments. One use of a confidence score allows the automatic assignment system to accurately select a relative location when two speakers were initially assigned the same location,” Doolittle [0024], “In addition, or as an alternative to the techniques described above, the time delay between signals received by various microphone pairs 112 in the microphone array 110 may be used to estimate the direction of the sound coming from individual speakers 102. The estimate of the angle to a speaker 102 relative to the center speaker 200 lets a specific audio channel, such as front/left, front/right, rear/left, rear/right, etc., to be assigned to that speaker 102,” Doolittle [0028]); and
updating a spatial map to include a location of the fourth playback device relative to each of the plurality of reference devices (see at least, “For example, with reference to FIGS. 1-3, if two speakers 102 happen to be initially mapped to the same relative location, the system may assign the location to the speaker 102 having the higher confidence score, which is more likely to be accurate. Another application of the confidence score is to, after the initial analysis is complete, assign final relative speaker locations beginning with the highest confidence value. In this way, if one of the location estimates is initially incorrect, it will likely have the lowest confidence score. Thus, in a four-speaker system, the first three speakers 102, all of which having higher confidence scores, will be assigned first, and the speaker 102 having the lowest confidence score is assigned the last remaining position,” Doolittle [0024]).
Claim 39: Doolittle discloses the method of claim 34, further comprising transmitting the first, second, and third spatial measurements to a mapper device for construction of a spatial map (see at least, “The processor is configured to generate an audio signal to send to each speaker of the plurality of speakers; output audio from each speaker of the plurality of speakers based on the audio signal; receive the audio at each microphone from each speaker of the plurality of speakers; determine a location of each speaker relative to the plurality of microphones based on the received audio at each microphone; and assign an audio channel to each speaker based on the determined location,” Doolittle [0038]).
Claim 40: Doolittle discloses the method of claim 39, wherein the spatial map comprises features of the environment in addition to the relative positions of the first, second, and third playback devices (see at least, “Even further, embodiments of the disclosure may be used in any situation to determine a relative location of audio-generating devices. For instance, embodiments of the disclosure could be used to identify relative locations of smoke detectors in a building by having each smoke detector generate an audio signal that is captured and analyzed by the microphone array, as described above. In some embodiments the smoke detectors may be automatically sequenced from a central control, while in other embodiments a user could manually activate the smoke detectors in succession for analysis. Many other solutions are possible,” Doolittle [0031]).
Claim 41: Doolittle discloses a tangible, non-transitory computer-readable medium storing instructions that, when executed by at least one processor cause a plurality of playback devices of a media playback system to perform operations (see at least, “Generally, program modules include routines, programs, objects, components, data structures, etc. that perform particular tasks or implement particular abstract data types when executed by a processor in a computer or other device. The computer executable instructions may be stored on a computer readable storage medium such as a hard disk, optical disk, removable storage media, solid state memory, Random Access Memory (RAM), etc. As will be appreciated by one of skill in the art, the functionality of the program modules may be combined or distributed as desired in various aspects. In addition, the functionality may be embodied in whole or in part in firmware or hardware equivalents such as integrated circuits, FPGA, and the like,” Doolittle [0032], “Computer storage media means any medium that can be used to store computer-readable information. By way of example, and not limitation, computer storage media may include RAM, ROM, Electrically Erasable Programmable Read-Only Memory (EEPROM), flash memory or other memory technology, Compact Disc Read Only Memory (CD-ROM), Digital Video Disc (DVD), or other optical disk storage, magnetic cassettes, magnetic tape, magnetic disk storage or other magnetic storage devices, and any other volatile or nonvolatile, removable or non-removable media implemented in any technology. Computer storage media excludes signals per se and transitory forms of signal transmission,” Doolittle [0033]) comprising:
selecting, via a first playback device, a second playback device as a session manager (see at least, “Firmware 114 may be included in any of the speakers 102, the center speaker 200, or as a separate device. In some embodiments, one or more of the speakers 102 or center speaker 200 may not be induced. As will be discussed in further detail below, the firmware 114 can determine the location of each speaker 102 relative to the other speakers 102 based on the recordings of each microphone 112 in each speaker 102. In some embodiments, the center speaker 200 may also include a microphone 112 (not shown),” Doolittle [0015], Doolittle FIG. 3, “FIG. 4 is a flow chart illustrating an operation for location detection of each of the speakers 102 performed by the firmware 114. The location detection may be performed for any of the embodiments shown in FIGS. 1-3, or any alternative embodiments discussed above. Before location detection starts, the microphone array 110 and firmware 114, are in wireless communication with all of the connected speakers 102 and the speakers 102 are individually identified. In some embodiments, the connected speakers 102 may also include the center speaker 200 or sub-woofer 202 shown in FIG. 2. In operation 400, the location detection begins by causing one of the speakers 102 to play a stimulus sound. Firmware 114 generates an instruction to the respective speaker 102 to play the stimulus sound…,” Doolittle [0016]);
after selecting the second playback device, broadcasting, via the second playback device, one or more first localization signals (see at least, “and when the instructions are received at the speaker 102, the speaker outputs the stimulus sound,” Doolittle [0016]);
obtaining (i) a first spatial measurement based on a response from the first playback device to the one or more first localization signals and (ii) a second spatial measurement based on a response from a third playback device to the one or more first localization signals (see at least, “After the first speaker 102 plays the stimulus sound, in operation 402, simultaneous recordings are made from each of the microphones 112. For example, as speaker 1 plays its stimulus, simultaneous recordings are made from microphones M1, M2, M3, and M4,” Doolittle [0017], “In operation 406, one or more forms of analysis may be used to determine the location of each of the speakers 102 based on the recording from each of the microphones 112. As will be understood by one skilled in the art, operation 406 may begin as soon as recordings are made from each of the microphones 112 after the first speaker plays its stimulus sound. That is, operation 406 may operate at the same time as operations 400 and 402,” Doolittle [0019]);
selecting, via the first playback device, the third playback device as a session manager; after selecting the third playback device, broadcasting, via the third playback device, one or more second localization signals (see at least, “Then, the location detection determines in operation 404 if there are additional speakers 102 remaining in the system. If yes, then the location detection returns to operation 400 and the stimulus sound is played through the next speaker 102…,” Doolittle [0018]);
obtaining a third spatial measurement based on a response from the second playback device to the one or more second localization signals (see at least, “then in operation 406, the detection location determines a location of each of the speakers 102 relative to the microphone array 110 based on the recordings from each of the microphones 112 for each speaker 102,” Doolittle [0018], “In operation 406, one or more forms of analysis may be used to determine the location of each of the speakers 102 based on the recording from each of the microphones 112. As will be understood by one skilled in the art, operation 406 may begin as soon as recordings are made from each of the microphones 112 after the first speaker plays its stimulus sound. That is, operation 406 may operate at the same time as operations 400 and 402,” Doolittle [0019]);
comparing the second spatial measurement with the third spatial measurement (see at least, “Embodiments of the disclosure automatically determine a relative position of speakers within a multi-speaker home theater system by analyzing, at two or more microphones, an output from individual speakers and comparing the output of each speaker to each other, as well as the microphones,” Doolittle [0010], “Another example analysis to determine the location of each of the speakers 102 may be performed on the recorded stimulus signals is an Error Minimization. An Error Minimization process makes use of a non-intuitive property of spatial geometry. First, the TOF analysis discussed above is performed and the TOF estimates generated as described above are multiplied by the speed of sound to achieve distance estimates. Assuming that the TOF measurements are accurate, a true location of the speaker 102 sits on a circle in the x-y plane whose radius is equal to the mean speaker-mic distance and whose center is the mean microphone location, i.e., the origin in the rectangular microphone array 110. Next, this circle is sampled at 360 locations. For each location, the expected vector of distances is compared to the vector of measured distances. One location will minimize the sum of squared errors between expected and measured distances, and this is reported as the location of that particular speaker 102. This process is repeated for all speakers 102,” Doolittle [0023]); and
changing a state of at least one of the playback devices based on the comparison (see at least, “Example 9 is the audio speaker system of any one of examples 1-8, wherein the processor is further configured to generate the audio signal and determine the location of each speaker during a startup of the audio speaker system and periodically during operation of the audio speaker system, and reassign an audio channel to each speaker if the determined location changes during operation of the audio speaker system,” Doolittle [0046], “In some embodiments, the firmware 114 may periodically confirm that the speakers 102 are assigned to the correct audio channel by not only performing the location detection shown in FIG. 4 during a start-up procedure, but also while audio is playing through the home theater system. For example, while audio is coming through the speakers, the microphones 114 may each record the audio from each respective speaker 102, as shown in FIG. 4, to confirm the speakers 102 are still located in the same location. This may be done by limiting the output of the audio to only a single speaker 102 at a time to perform the test,” Doolittle [0021]).
Claim 42: Doolittle discloses the computer-readable medium of claim 41, wherein the operations further comprise:
measuring characteristics of wireless signals transmitted via signal paths between each of a plurality of reference devices over a period of time, wherein the plurality of reference devices comprises at least two of the first, second, and third playback devices (see at least, “The location detection may be performed for any of the embodiments shown in FIGS. 1-3, or any alternative embodiments discussed above. Before location detection starts, the microphone array 110 and firmware 114, are in wireless communication with all of the connected speakers 102 and the speakers 102 are individually identified,” Doolittle [0016], “Another example analysis to determine the location of each of the speakers 102 may be performed on the recorded stimulus signals is an Error Minimization. An Error Minimization process makes use of a non-intuitive property of spatial geometry. First, the TOF analysis discussed above is performed and the TOF estimates generated as described above are multiplied by the speed of sound to achieve distance estimates. Assuming that the TOF measurements are accurate, a true location of the speaker 102 sits on a circle in the x-y plane whose radius is equal to the mean speaker-mic distance and whose center is the mean microphone location, i.e., the origin in the rectangular microphone array 110. Next, this circle is sampled at 360 locations. For each location, the expected vector of distances is compared to the vector of measured distances. One location will minimize the sum of squared errors between expected and measured distances, and this is reported as the location of that particular speaker 102. This process is repeated for all speakers 102,” Doolittle [0023], “Example 9 is the audio speaker system of any one of examples 1-8, wherein the processor is further configured to generate the audio signal and determine the location of each speaker during a startup of the audio speaker system and periodically during operation of the audio speaker system, and reassign an audio channel to each speaker if the determined location changes during operation of the audio speaker system,” Doolittle [0046], “In some embodiments, the firmware 114 may periodically confirm that the speakers 102 are assigned to the correct audio channel by not only performing the location detection shown in FIG. 4 during a start-up procedure, but also while audio is playing through the home theater system. For example, while audio is coming through the speakers, the microphones 114 may each record the audio from each respective speaker 102, as shown in FIG. 4, to confirm the speakers 102 are still located in the same location. This may be done by limiting the output of the audio to only a single speaker 102 at a time to perform the test,” Doolittle [0021]);
measuring characteristics of wireless signals transmitted via signal paths between a fourth playback device and each of the plurality of reference devices (see at least, “The location detection may be performed for any of the embodiments shown in FIGS. 1-3, or any alternative embodiments discussed above. Before location detection starts, the microphone array 110 and firmware 114, are in wireless communication with all of the connected speakers 102 and the speakers 102 are individually identified,” Doolittle [0016], “Further, although FIG. 1 is illustrated as including four speakers 102, and FIG. 2 is illustrated as a 5.1 system, embodiments of the disclosure may work with any number of speakers 102 in any arrangement, such as 5.1, 7.1, and 11.1 or any other speaker arrangement,” Doolittle [0030]);
normalizing the measurements to estimate characteristics of the signal paths between each of the plurality of reference devices and between the fourth playback device and each of the reference devices (see at least, “The complex-valued cross PSD may then be normalized by its magnitude at each frequency bin before it undergoes an inverse fast Fourier transform (IFFT) to yield an autocorrelation sequence for each speaker-mic pair,” Doolittle [0022]);
estimating the likelihood that the fourth playback device is in a relative location using the estimated characteristics of the signal paths between each of the plurality of reference devices and the estimated characteristics of the signal paths between the fourth playback device and each of the plurality of reference devices (see at least, “While assigning relative speaker locations in operation 408, a confidence score may be determined that represents a degree of accuracy in the initial assignments. One use of a confidence score allows the automatic assignment system to accurately select a relative location when two speakers were initially assigned the same location,” Doolittle [0024], “In addition, or as an alternative to the techniques described above, the time delay between signals received by various microphone pairs 112 in the microphone array 110 may be used to estimate the direction of the sound coming from individual speakers 102. The estimate of the angle to a speaker 102 relative to the center speaker 200 lets a specific audio channel, such as front/left, front/right, rear/left, rear/right, etc., to be assigned to that speaker 102,” Doolittle [0028]); and
updating a spatial map to include a location of the fourth playback device relative to each of the plurality of reference devices (see at least, “For example, with reference to FIGS. 1-3, if two speakers 102 happen to be initially mapped to the same relative location, the system may assign the location to the speaker 102 having the higher confidence score, which is more likely to be accurate. Another application of the confidence score is to, after the initial analysis is complete, assign final relative speaker locations beginning with the highest confidence value. In this way, if one of the location estimates is initially incorrect, it will likely have the lowest confidence score. Thus, in a four-speaker system, the first three speakers 102, all of which having higher confidence scores, will be assigned first, and the speaker 102 having the lowest confidence score is assigned the last remaining position,” Doolittle [0024]).
Claim 46: Doolittle discloses the computer-readable medium of claim 41, further comprising transmitting the first, second, and third spatial measurements to a mapper device for construction of a spatial map (see at least, “The processor is configured to generate an audio signal to send to each speaker of the plurality of speakers; output audio from each speaker of the plurality of speakers based on the audio signal; receive the audio at each microphone from each speaker of the plurality of speakers; determine a location of each speaker relative to the plurality of microphones based on the received audio at each microphone; and assign an audio channel to each speaker based on the determined location,” Doolittle [0038]).
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) 29, 36, and 43 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Doolittle in view of Toivanen et al. (US 2014/0169569 A1), hereinafter Toivanen.
Claim 29: Doolittle discloses the media playback of claim 27, wherein the operations further comprise: broadcasting, via the third playback device, a sound signal (see at least, “Then, the location detection determines in operation 404 if there are additional speakers 102 remaining in the system. If yes, then the location detection returns to operation 400 and the stimulus sound is played through the next speaker 102,” Doolittle [0018], “Further, although FIG. 1 is illustrated as including four speakers 102, and FIG. 2 is illustrated as a 5.1 system, embodiments of the disclosure may work with any number of speakers 102 in any arrangement, such as 5.1, 7.1, and 11.1 or any other speaker arrangement,” Doolittle [0030]); detecting the sound signal via the first playback device, (see at least, “and recordings are made from each of the microphones 112 in operation 402,” Doolittle [0018]). Doolittle does not disclose the case wherein the second playback device does not detect the sound signal; and updating a spatial map to indicate that the first playback device detected the sound signal. However, Toivanen discloses in regards to similar device discovery and constellation selection wherein the second playback device does not detect the sound signal (see at least, “If for example the file to be played back is 5: 1 surround sound but the implementing device finds only three devices, the spatial effect to be presented will be 3:1 surround sound because 5: 1 is not possible given the discovered devices,” Toivanen [0037], “In a third embodiment the discovering at block 402 of the plurality of audio devices, including at least some of the relative positions thereof and at least some of the distances therebetween, comprises receiving at a microphone audio calibration sequences from at least one loudspeaker of at least some of the plurality of audio devices and computing distance and direction from differences in the received audio calibration sequences. In this case an audio calibration sequence is used. For example, each audio device plays a sound which other audio devices having microphones can listen. The sound can include some device identification information or a training pattern, and could be sent on some frequencies outside the bounds of human hearing so as not to disrupt the device users. A further calibration sound can be the actual played content (a continual or periodic calibration while the multi-channel play back is ongoing) or a simple ring tone or some other fixed or otherwise recognizable sound. By knowing
which audio device is making the sound received at a given microphone, the receiving device can compute the relative time difference between devices from those time differences. Also, the absolute distance can be calculated so long as system latencies are understood, which is a reasonable
assumption. Then time synchronization between audio devices can be achieved by a certain training sound pattern together with some synchronized wireless transmission. An accurate common time-base would allow audio processing between devices along the lines of conventional digital signal processing (DSP) between devices, such as for example beamforming in addition to the constellation calculation,” Toivanen [0048]); and updating a spatial map to indicate that the first playback device detected the sound signal (see at least, “By allowing audio devices to find out their distance to other audio devices, a mesh of speakers can be formed. Each audio device is a "node" and the distance between two nodes is a "path". Eventually, the path between each node is known and hence the constellation of speakers can be found by calculation. The constellation might be static or in some cases as with mobile terminals it may be dynamic, and so to account for the latter case in some implementations the audio device discovery is periodically or continuously updated. There are several ways to find out the paths between the different nodes/audio devices,” Toivanen [0024], “Alternatively, each audio device could mark themselves to be identified more easily in the image, such as for example displaying a certain color that is recognizable by the image analysis software as potentially an audio device,” Toivanen [0047]), “Screen grab 306 shows the relative positions of all those discovered devices and that a constellation match has been made. In this case all six discovered devices are in the play back constellation,” Toivanen [0033], Toivanen FIG. 3. It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to include the aforementioned features of showing the relative position of all the discovered devices as taught by Toivanen in the invention of Doolittle insuring “as with mobile terminals… the audio device discovery is periodically or continuously updated,” Toivanen [0024] thereby providing an advantage in the case of mobile terminals moving or a “determined location changes during operation of the audio speaker system,” Doolittle [0046].
Claim 36: Doolittle discloses the method of claim 34, further comprising: broadcasting, via the third playback device, a sound signal (see at least, “Then, the location detection determines in operation 404 if there are additional speakers 102 remaining in the system. If yes, then the location detection returns to operation 400 and the stimulus sound is played through the next speaker 102,” Doolittle [0018], “Further, although FIG. 1 is illustrated as including four speakers 102, and FIG. 2 is illustrated as a 5.1 system, embodiments of the disclosure may work with any number of speakers 102 in any arrangement, such as 5.1, 7.1, and 11.1 or any other speaker arrangement,” Doolittle [0030]); detecting the sound signal via the first playback device, (see at least, “and recordings are made from each of the microphones 112 in operation 402,” Doolittle [0018]). Doolittle does not disclose the case wherein the second playback device does not detect the sound signal; and updating a spatial map to indicate that the first playback device detected the sound signal. However, Toivanen discloses in regards to similar device discovery and constellation selection wherein the second playback device does not detect the sound signal (see at least, “If for example the file to be played back is 5: 1 surround sound but the implementing device finds only three devices, the spatial effect to be presented will be 3:1 surround sound because 5: 1 is not possible given the discovered devices,” Toivanen [0037], “In a third embodiment the discovering at block 402 of the plurality of audio devices, including at least some of the relative positions thereof and at least some of the distances therebetween, comprises receiving at a microphone audio calibration sequences from at least one loudspeaker of at least some of the plurality of audio devices and computing distance and direction from differences in the received audio calibration sequences. In this case an audio calibration sequence is used. For example, each audio device plays a sound which other audio devices having microphones can listen. The sound can include some device identification information or a training pattern, and could be sent on some frequencies outside the bounds of human hearing so as not to disrupt the device users. A further calibration sound can be the actual played content (a continual or periodic calibration while the multi-channel play back is ongoing) or a simple ring tone or some other fixed or otherwise recognizable sound. By knowing
which audio device is making the sound received at a given microphone, the receiving device can compute the relative time difference between devices from those time differences. Also, the absolute distance can be calculated so long as system latencies are understood, which is a reasonable
assumption. Then time synchronization between audio devices can be achieved by a certain training sound pattern together with some synchronized wireless transmission. An accurate common time-base would allow audio processing between devices along the lines of conventional digital signal processing (DSP) between devices, such as for example beamforming in addition to the constellation calculation,” Toivanen [0048]); and updating a spatial map to indicate that the first playback device detected the sound signal (see at least, “By allowing audio devices to find out their distance to other audio devices, a mesh of speakers can be formed. Each audio device is a "node" and the distance between two nodes is a "path". Eventually, the path between each node is known and hence the constellation of speakers can be found by calculation. The constellation might be static or in some cases as with mobile terminals it may be dynamic, and so to account for the latter case in some implementations the audio device discovery is periodically or continuously updated. There are several ways to find out the paths between the different nodes/audio devices,” Toivanen [0024], “Alternatively, each audio device could mark themselves to be identified more easily in the image, such as for example displaying a certain color that is recognizable by the image analysis software as potentially an audio device,” Toivanen [0047]), “Screen grab 306 shows the relative positions of all those discovered devices and that a constellation match has been made. In this case all six discovered devices are in the play back constellation,” Toivanen [0033], Toivanen FIG. 3. It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to include the aforementioned features of showing the relative position of all the discovered devices as taught by Toivanen in the invention of Doolittle insuring “as with mobile terminals… the audio device discovery is periodically or continuously updated,” Toivanen [0024] thereby providing an advantage in the case of mobile terminals moving or a “determined location changes during operation of the audio speaker system,” Doolittle [0046].
Claim 43: Doolittle discloses the computer-readable medium of claim 41, wherein the operations further comprise: broadcasting, via the third playback device, a sound signal (see at least, “Then, the location detection determines in operation 404 if there are additional speakers 102 remaining in the system. If yes, then the location detection returns to operation 400 and the stimulus sound is played through the next speaker 102,” Doolittle [0018], “Further, although FIG. 1 is illustrated as including four speakers 102, and FIG. 2 is illustrated as a 5.1 system, embodiments of the disclosure may work with any number of speakers 102 in any arrangement, such as 5.1, 7.1, and 11.1 or any other speaker arrangement,” Doolittle [0030]); detecting the sound signal via the first playback device, (see at least, “and recordings are made from each of the microphones 112 in operation 402,” Doolittle [0018]). Doolittle does not disclose the case wherein the second playback device does not detect the sound signal; and updating a spatial map to indicate that the first playback device detected the sound signal. However, Toivanen discloses in regards to similar device discovery and constellation selection wherein the second playback device does not detect the sound signal (see at least, “If for example the file to be played back is 5: 1 surround sound but the implementing device finds only three devices, the spatial effect to be presented will be 3:1 surround sound because 5: 1 is not possible given the discovered devices,” Toivanen [0037], “In a third embodiment the discovering at block 402 of the plurality of audio devices, including at least some of the relative positions thereof and at least some of the distances therebetween, comprises receiving at a microphone audio calibration sequences from at least one loudspeaker of at least some of the plurality of audio devices and computing distance and direction from differences in the received audio calibration sequences. In this case an audio calibration sequence is used. For example, each audio device plays a sound which other audio devices having microphones can listen. The sound can include some device identification information or a training pattern, and could be sent on some frequencies outside the bounds of human hearing so as not to disrupt the device users. A further calibration sound can be the actual played content (a continual or periodic calibration while the multi-channel play back is ongoing) or a simple ring tone or some other fixed or otherwise recognizable sound. By knowing
which audio device is making the sound received at a given microphone, the receiving device can compute the relative time difference between devices from those time differences. Also, the absolute distance can be calculated so long as system latencies are understood, which is a reasonable
assumption. Then time synchronization between audio devices can be achieved by a certain training sound pattern together with some synchronized wireless transmission. An accurate common time-base would allow audio processing between devices along the lines of conventional digital signal processing (DSP) between devices, such as for example beamforming in addition to the constellation calculation,” Toivanen [0048]); and updating a spatial map to indicate that the first playback device detected the sound signal (see at least, “By allowing audio devices to find out their distance to other audio devices, a mesh of speakers can be formed. Each audio device is a "node" and the distance between two nodes is a "path". Eventually, the path between each node is known and hence the constellation of speakers can be found by calculation. The constellation might be static or in some cases as with mobile terminals it may be dynamic, and so to account for the latter case in some implementations the audio device discovery is periodically or continuously updated. There are several ways to find out the paths between the different nodes/audio devices,” Toivanen [0024], “Alternatively, each audio device could mark themselves to be identified more easily in the image, such as for example displaying a certain color that is recognizable by the image analysis software as potentially an audio device,” Toivanen [0047]), “Screen grab 306 shows the relative positions of all those discovered devices and that a constellation match has been made. In this case all six discovered devices are in the play back constellation,” Toivanen [0033], Toivanen FIG. 3. It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to include the aforementioned features of showing the relative position of all the discovered devices as taught by Toivanen in the invention of Doolittle insuring “as with mobile terminals… the audio device discovery is periodically or continuously updated,” Toivanen [0024] thereby providing an advantage in the case of mobile terminals moving or a “determined location changes during operation of the audio speaker system,” Doolittle [0046].
Claim(s) 30, 37, and 44 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Doolittle in view of Dabney (US 10,070,244 B1), hereinafter Dabney.
Claim 30: Doolittle discloses the media playback of claim 27, but does not disclose wherein the first and second localization signals are ultra-wideband signals. However, Dabney discloses a similar automatic loudspeaker configuration and further discloses wherein the first and second localization signals are ultra-wideband signals (see at least, “More generally, distances between a first device and a
second device may in some implementations be obtained by determining a signal energy of a signal received by the second device, such as an audio signal or a radio-frequency signal emitted by the first device. Such a signal may comprise an audio signal, a radio-frequency signals, a light signal, etc. As another example, distance determinations may be based on technologies such as ultra-wideband (UWB) communications and associated protocols that use time-of-flight measurements for distance ranging. For example, the devices 102 may communicate using a communications protocol as defined by the IEEE 802.15.4a standard, which relates to the use of direct sequence UWB for ToF distance ranging,” Dabney Column 12 Line 58 – Column 13 Line 5). It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to incorporate the aforementioned ultra-wideband localization signals as taught by Dabney in the invention of Doolittle since “Such a signal may comprise an audio signal, a radio-frequency signals, a light signal, etc.,” Dabney Column 12 Line 58 – Column 13 Line 5, and Doolittle also is open to using “Radio Frequency (RF), infrared, acoustic or other types of signals,” Doolittle [0034].
Claim 37: Doolittle discloses the method of claim 34, but does not disclose wherein the first and second localization signals are ultra-wideband signals. However, Dabney discloses a similar automatic loudspeaker configuration and further discloses wherein the first and second localization signals are ultra-wideband signals (see at least, “More generally, distances between a first device and a
second device may in some implementations be obtained by determining a signal energy of a signal received by the second device, such as an audio signal or a radio-frequency signal emitted by the first device. Such a signal may comprise an audio signal, a radio-frequency signals, a light signal, etc. As another example, distance determinations may be based on technologies such as ultra-wideband (UWB) communications and associated protocols that use time-of-flight measurements for distance ranging. For example, the devices 102 may communicate using a communications protocol as defined by the IEEE 802.15.4a standard, which relates to the use of direct sequence UWB for ToF distance ranging,” Dabney Column 12 Line 58 – Column 13 Line 5). It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to incorporate the aforementioned ultra-wideband localization signals as taught by Dabney in the invention of Doolittle since “Such a signal may comprise an audio signal, a radio-frequency signals, a light signal, etc.,” Dabney Column 12 Line 58 – Column 13 Line 5, and Doolittle also is open to using “Radio Frequency (RF), infrared, acoustic or other types of signals,” Doolittle [0034].
Claim 44: Doolittle discloses the computer-readable medium of claim 41, but does not disclose wherein the first and second localization signals are ultra-wideband signals. However, Dabney discloses a similar automatic loudspeaker configuration and further discloses wherein the first and second localization signals are ultra-wideband signals (see at least, “More generally, distances between a first device and a second device may in some implementations be obtained by determining a signal energy of a signal received by the second device, such as an audio signal or a radio-frequency signal emitted by the first device. Such a signal may comprise an audio signal, a radio-frequency signals, a light signal, etc. As another example, distance determinations may be based on technologies such as ultra-wideband (UWB) communications and associated protocols that use time-of-flight measurements for distance ranging. For example, the devices 102 may communicate using a communications protocol as defined by the IEEE 802.15.4a standard, which relates to the use of direct sequence UWB for ToF distance ranging,” Dabney Column 12 Line 58 – Column 13 Line 5). It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to incorporate the aforementioned ultra-wideband localization signals as taught by Dabney in the invention of Doolittle since “Such a signal may comprise an audio signal, a radio-frequency signals, a light signal, etc.,” Dabney Column 12 Line 58 – Column 13 Line 5, and Doolittle also is open to using “Radio Frequency (RF), infrared, acoustic or other types of signals,” Doolittle [0034].
Claim(s) 31, 38, and 45 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Doolittle in view of Satheesh et al. (US 2018/0192223 A1), hereinafter Satheesh.
Claim 31: Doolittle disclose the media playback of claim 27, but does not disclose wherein changing the state of at least one playback device comprises one or more of: grouping or ungrouping a playback device for synchronous playback, changing an EQ setting of the at least one playback device, or designating the at least one playback device for user voice control input or output. However, Satheesh discloses a similar determining of distance and angles between speakers and other home theater components and further discloses “Calibrator 218 is configured to perform various calibration functions for system 200, such as but without limitation, signal delay adjustments, signal level adjustments,
equalization, sound field rotation, etc. Calibrator 218 may utilize measurements and parameters (including mappings) determined by location controller 208 (described in further detail below) to perform one or more of its calibration functions. Calibrator 218 is configured to perform calibration functions for speakers and loudspeakers that may not be ideally placed for acoustic quality (e.g., due to shape, content, and/or available space of the acoustic space),” Satheesh [0049]. It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to incorporate the aforementioned features of Satheesh in the invention of Doolittle “In order to perform calibrations for the best possible quality audio experience given less than ideal speaker placements,” Satheesh [0049].
Claim 38: Doolittle disclose the method of claim 34, but does not disclose wherein changing the state of at least one playback device comprises one or more of: grouping or ungrouping a playback device for synchronous playback, changing an EQ setting of the at least one playback device, or designating the at least one playback device for user voice control input or output. However, Satheesh discloses a similar determining of distance and angles between speakers and other home theater components and further discloses “Calibrator 218 is configured to perform various calibration functions for system 200, such as but without limitation, signal delay adjustments, signal level adjustments, equalization, sound field rotation, etc. Calibrator 218 may utilize measurements and parameters (including mappings) determined by location controller 208 (described in further detail below) to perform one or more of its calibration functions. Calibrator 218 is configured to perform calibration functions for speakers and loudspeakers that may not be ideally placed for acoustic quality (e.g., due to shape, content, and/or available space of the acoustic space),” Satheesh [0049]. It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to incorporate the aforementioned features of Satheesh in the invention of Doolittle “In order to perform calibrations for the best possible quality audio experience given less than ideal speaker placements,” Satheesh [0049].
Claim 45: Doolittle disclose the computer-readable medium of claim 41, but does not disclose wherein changing the state of at least one playback device comprises one or more of: grouping or ungrouping a playback device for synchronous playback, changing an EQ setting of the at least one playback device, or designating the at least one playback device for user voice control input or output. However, Satheesh discloses a similar determining of distance and angles between speakers and other home theater components and further discloses “Calibrator 218 is configured to perform various calibration functions for system 200, such as but without limitation, signal delay adjustments, signal level adjustments,
equalization, sound field rotation, etc. Calibrator 218 may utilize measurements and parameters (including mappings) determined by location controller 208 (described in further detail below) to perform one or more of its calibration functions. Calibrator 218 is configured to perform calibration functions for speakers and loudspeakers that may not be ideally placed for acoustic quality (e.g., due to shape, content, and/or available space of the acoustic space),” Satheesh [0049]. It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to incorporate the aforementioned features of Satheesh in the invention of Doolittle “In order to perform calibrations for the best possible quality audio experience given less than ideal speaker placements,” Satheesh [0049].
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure.
Peng (US 12,581,240 B2) directed to “A method and system for determining an audio channel role of a sound box. The method includes: obtaining first distance information between a first sound box and M second sound boxes; obtaining second distance information between one second sound box and at least two other second sound boxes in the M second sound boxes; and determining audio channel role information of the first sound box and the M second sound boxes based on the first distance information, the second distance information, and first indication information. The first indication information is used to indicate relative locations of the first sound box and any of the M second sound boxes, and M is an integer greater than 1,” Abstract.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to JOSEPH SAUNDERS whose telephone number is (571)270-1063. The examiner can normally be reached Monday-Thursday, 9:00 a.m. - 4 p.m., EST.
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If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Carolyn R Edwards can be reached at (571)270-7136. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/JOSEPH SAUNDERS JR/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2692
/CAROLYN R EDWARDS/Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 2692
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