DETAILED ACTION
Notice of Pre-AIA or AIA Status
The present application, filed on or after March 16, 2013, is being examined under the first inventor to file provisions of the AIA .
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 103 which forms the basis for all obviousness rejections set forth in this Office action:
A patent for a claimed invention may not be obtained, notwithstanding that the claimed invention is not identically disclosed as set forth in section 102, if the differences between the claimed invention and the prior art are such that the claimed invention as a whole would have been obvious before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to a person having ordinary skill in the art to which the claimed invention pertains. Patentability shall not be negated by the manner in which the invention was made.
The factual inquiries for establishing a background for determining obviousness under 35 U.S.C. 103 are summarized as follows:
1. Determining the scope and contents of the prior art.
2. Ascertaining the differences between the prior art and the claims at issue.
3. Resolving the level of ordinary skill in the pertinent art.
4. Considering objective evidence present in the application indicating obviousness or nonobviousness.
Claim(s) 1-4 and 15 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Im (US 2020/0109504 cited in IDS), and in further view of Goshgarian (US 2015/0047128).
Regarding claim 1, Im figures 1-14 teach a method for controlling a laundry treatment apparatus that includes a tub (3 water storage tub) to store water therein, a drum (42) provided inside the tub to accommodate clothes.[0075]
Im is silent to a stator to form a rotating magnetic field, and a rotor rotated by the rotating magnetic field and connected to the drum through a rotary shaft.
Goshgarian is directed towards a method to detect the type of load in a laundry treating appliance wherein figure 1 teaches motor 26 may be directly coupled with the drive shaft 28 to rotate the drum 14 at a predetermined speed and direction. The motor 26 may be a brushless permanent magnet (BPM) motor having a stator 30 and a rotor 32.
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the present invention to provide a motor with a stator, rotor, and drive shaft as taught in Goshgarian to rotate the drum.[0013]
Im teaches in figure 13 a first sensing step (S40 to S70), the state of laundry is determined from output of an output layer (see FIG. 7) of an artificial neural network pre-trained based on machine learning using a current value Iq supplied to the motor 9 for rotating the washing tub 4 during accelerated rotation of the washing tub 4 as input data of an input layer (see FIG. 7) of the artificial neural network. The step of accelerating the washing tub 4 (S40) includes a step of sensing the rotational speed V of the motor 9 (or the washing tub 4). The step of accelerating the washing tub 4 (S40) includes a step of rotating the washing tub 4 while accelerating the washing tub 5 from a first rotational speed V1 to a second rotational speed V2, which is higher than the first rotational speed V1 thereby reading on an acceleration step of accelerating the drum so that a revolutions per minute (RPM) of the drum increases to a preset reference RPM.[0174-178]
As to the limitation of a material-distinguishing step of distinguishing materials of clothes according to whether an average value of a current supplied to the stator during a time taken to reach the reference RPM is greater than or equal to a preset reference value, Im teaches step of determining the weight and state of laundry (S60 and S70) includes a step of using the current value Iq supplied to the motor 9 in a period in which the rotational speed V of the washing tub 4 is accelerated from the first rotational speed V1 to the second rotational speed V2 as input data of the input layer of the artificial neural network. More specifically, the step of determining the weight and state of laundry (S60 and S70) may include a step of selecting a current value corresponding to a period in which the rotational speed V of the washing tub 4 is accelerated from the first rotational speed V1 to the second rotational speed V2 from among current values obtained at step S70 based on the sensed speed value and a step of using the selected current value as input data of the input layer of the artificial neural network.[0179]
Im teaches a plurality of washing modes (S91 to S95) may be classified in consideration of the wear degree of laundry (hereinafter, also referred to as damage to laundry) and/or washing strength. In this embodiment, the washing modes may include first to fifth washing modes (S91 to S95). The controller may select a washing mode in which washing performance is important for hard laundry, and may select a washing mode in which damage to laundry is low for soft laundry. Factors that affect washing performance and the wear degree of laundry (hereinafter referred to as “washing affecting factors”) may include the washing motion of the washing tub (or the rotational speed of the washing tub), the amount of water that is supplied, the temperature of water that is supplied, washing cycle time, the net acting ratio of washing, and the net acting ratio of circulation thereby reading on a water supply step of supplying water to the tub; and a treating step of rotating the drum to separate foreign substances from the clothes, wherein the treating step differently controls at least one of a temperature of the water stored in the tub and the RPM of the drum depending on the material of clothes confirmed through the material-distinguishing step.[0182-184]
Regarding claim 2, Im teaches the second rotational speed may be a rotational speed at which the laundry is rotated integrally with the washing tub. The second rotational speed may be a rotational speed at which the laundry in the washing tub is rotated in the state of clinging to the washing tub without being dropped from the highest point of the washing tub. The second rotational speed may be a rotational speed at which centrifugal force applied to the laundry due to the rotation of the washing tub is greater than gravity applied to the laundry.[0032] Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the present invention for the reference RPM is set to an RPM that applies centrifugal force of 1 G to the clothes located inside the drum by optimization through routine experimentation.(MPEP 2144.05)
Regarding claim 3, Im teaches the acceleration gradient is preferably 1.5 to 2.5 rpm/s, more preferably 2.0 rpm/s thereby reading on the acceleration step includes: controlling acceleration of the drum to be maintained at 1 rpm/s to 10 rpm/s.[0144]
Regarding claim 4, although IM teaches acceleration gradient is preferably 1.5 to 2.5 rpm/s, more preferably 2.0 rpm/s. However, the present invention is not limited thereto thereby suggesting the acceleration step includes: controlling acceleration of the drum to be maintained at 3 rpm/s to 5 rpm/s to be an obvious modification by optimization through routine experimentation.(MPEP 2144.05)
Regarding claim 15, Im figures 1-14 teach a method for controlling a laundry treatment apparatus that includes a tub (3 water storage tub) to store water therein, a drum (42) provided inside the tub to accommodate clothes.[0075]
Im teaches in figure 13 a first sensing step (S40 to S70), the state of laundry is determined from output of an output layer (see FIG. 7) of an artificial neural network pre-trained based on machine learning using a current value Iq supplied to the motor 9 for rotating the washing tub 4 during accelerated rotation of the washing tub 4 as input data of an input layer (see FIG. 7) of the artificial neural network. The step of accelerating the washing tub 4 (S40) includes a step of sensing the rotational speed V of the motor 9 (or the washing tub 4). The step of accelerating the washing tub 4 (S40) includes a step of rotating the washing tub 4 while accelerating the washing tub 5 from a first rotational speed V1 to a second rotational speed V2, which is higher than the first rotational speed V1 thereby reading on the method comprising: an acceleration step of accelerating the drum so that a revolutions per minute (RPM) of the drum increases to a preset reference RPM.[0174-178]
Im is silent to a stator to form a rotating magnetic field, and a rotor rotated by the rotating magnetic field and connected to the drum through a rotary shaft.
Goshgarian is directed towards a method to detect the type of load in a laundry treating appliance wherein figure 1 teaches motor 26 may be directly coupled with the drive shaft 28 to rotate the drum 14 at a predetermined speed and direction. The motor 26 may be a brushless permanent magnet (BPM) motor having a stator 30 and a rotor 32.
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the present invention to provide a motor with a stator, rotor, and drive shaft as taught in Goshgarian to rotate the drum.[0013]
Goshgarian teaches many methods are known to estimate the size of the laundry load, one preferred method of estimating the size of the laundry load is by determination of a moment of inertia of the laundry mover with the laundry load. To determine the moment of inertia, the controller 70 may drive the laundry mover to predetermined rotational velocities and observe the acceleration and/or deceleration times. The controller 70 may convert the observed acceleration and/or deceleration times to moments of inertia and then estimate the size of the laundry load's mass based on the calculated values of the moments of inertia. to estimate the size of the laundry load, the controller 70 may integrate the motor torque profile 114 during the steady state rotational velocity phase of the speed profile to determine a value correlated to the size of the laundry load's mass. Referring now to FIG. 5, a variability chart for the integration of the motor torque profiles shown in FIG. 4 versus different sized laundry loads demonstrates that motor torque integration may be used to discriminate a light load from a heavy load. While the value of the motor torque profile integrated in the steady state rotational velocity phase (taken to be the duration of time shown in FIG. 4 from 0.75 to 2.125 s) may vary across the different load types, an overall threshold may discriminate between a heavy load and a light load thereby suggesting a material-distinguishing step of decelerating the drum so that an RPM of the drum decreases to a deceleration reference RPM lower than the reference RPM to be an obvious modification.[0045-46]
Im in view of Goshgarian suggests distinguishing materials of clothes according to whether an average value of a current supplied to the stator during a time taken to reach the deceleration reference RPM is greater than or equal to a preset reference value to be an obvious modification as Im teaches the step of determining the weight and state of laundry (S60 and S70) may include a step of selecting a current value corresponding to a period in which the rotational speed V of the washing tub 4 is accelerated from the first rotational speed V1 to the second rotational speed V2 from among current values obtained at step S70 based on the sensed speed value and a step of using the selected current value as input data of the input layer of the artificial neural network and Goshgarian teaches the controller 70 may drive the laundry mover to predetermined rotational velocities and observe the acceleration and/or deceleration times to estimate the size of the laundry load.[Im 0179][Goshgarian 0045-46]
Im teaches a plurality of washing modes (S91 to S95) may be classified in consideration of the wear degree of laundry (hereinafter, also referred to as damage to laundry) and/or washing strength. In this embodiment, the washing modes may include first to fifth washing modes (S91 to S95). The controller may select a washing mode in which washing performance is important for hard laundry, and may select a washing mode in which damage to laundry is low for soft laundry. Factors that affect washing performance and the wear degree of laundry (hereinafter referred to as “washing affecting factors”) may include the washing motion of the washing tub (or the rotational speed of the washing tub), the amount of water that is supplied, the temperature of water that is supplied, washing cycle time, the net acting ratio of washing, and the net acting ratio of circulation thereby reading on a water supply step of supplying water to the tub; and a treating step of rotating the drum to separate foreign substances from the clothes, wherein the treating step differently controls at least one of a temperature of the water stored in the tub and the RPM of the drum depending on the material of clothes confirmed through the material-distinguishing step.[0182-184]
Claim(s) 5-14 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Im (US 2020/0109504 cited in IDS) and Goshgarian (US 2015/0047128), as applied to claim 2, and in further view of Schaumann (CN 110863322A machine translation) .
Regarding claim 5, Im in view of Goshgarian is silent to using the current supplied to stator to determine determining a material to be 80% or more polyester.
Schaumann is directed towards a laundry treatment device wherein the washing machine 11 monitoring drive evaluation of data obtained by current, controller 34 can distinguish the drum of the laundry fabric 14 to the inner side 30 of the main part is what and potentially the clothes. If the clothing has been detected substantially or mainly made of synthetic fiber such as polyester, a washing process is the next can be then adapted to the information, preferably by mainly attempts to reduce the abrasion to the clothes.[page 10]
Therefore, the method of Im and Goshgarian modified by Schaumann suggests the material-distinguishing step includes: if the average value of the current supplied to the stator during the time taken to reach the reference RPM is greater than or equal to the reference value, determining a material of the clothes to be a first material in which a polyester content of the clothes put into the drum is 80% or more; and if the average value of the current supplied to the stator during the time taken to reach the reference RPM is less than the reference value, determining a material of the clothes to be a second material in which a polyester content of the clothes put into the drum is less than 80% to be an obvious modification by optimization through routine experimentation as Schaumann teaches the current supplied to drum can identify the fabric type.(MPEP 2144.05)
Regarding claim 6, Schaumann figure 1 teaches the roller 14 rotated together with the base 20 and move together relative to the induction coil 40, but this can allow heating at least to a certain extent to change the temperature of the water 14 inside of the roller, which is variable between at least about 20 degrees centigrade of room temperature and an elevated temperature about 40 degrees centigrade.[page 9] Schaumann also teaches the driving device in the processing temperature range of common clothes is shape modifiable, and may specify the driving device protrudes and thus can have a first shape at a temperature below 30 degrees centigrade. They can have a second shape at a temperature higher than 30 degrees centigrade suggesting the treating step includes: if the clothes are determined to be the clothes made of the first material, heating the water stored in the tub to 30°C using a heater provided in the tub to be an obvious modification.[page 5]
Regarding claim 7, Schaumann teaches the driving device has a third shape at the temperature of higher than 40 degrees centigrade thereby suggesting if the clothes are determined to be the clothes made of the second material, heating the water stored in the tub to 40°C to be an obvious modification.[page 5]
Regarding claim 8, Im table 2 teaches a thickness-distinguishing step of distinguishing a thickness of clothes according to whether a deviation per unit time of the current supplied to the stator during the material- distinguishing step is less than a preset reference deviation.
Regarding claim 9, Im teaches step of determining the weight and state of laundry (S60 and S70) includes a step of using the current value Iq supplied to the motor 9 in a period in which the rotational speed V of the washing tub 4 is accelerated from the first rotational speed V1 to the second rotational speed V2 as input data of the input layer of the artificial neural network. More specifically, the step of determining the weight and state of laundry (S60 and S70) may include a step of selecting a current value corresponding to a period in which the rotational speed V of the washing tub 4 is accelerated from the first rotational speed V1 to the second rotational speed V2 from among current values obtained at step S70 based on the sensed speed value and a step of using the selected current value as input data of the input layer of the artificial neural network thereby suggesting the thickness-distinguishing step includes: if the deviation per unit time of the current supplied to the stator during the material- distinguishing step is less than a preset reference deviation, determining a thickness of the clothes to be a first thickness smaller than a reference thickness; and if the deviation per unit time of the current supplied to the stator during the material- distinguishing step is greater than or equal to the reference deviation, determining a thickness of the clothes to be a second thickness larger than the reference thickness to be an obvious modification. [0179]
Regarding claim 10, Im teaches swing motion is a motion in which the washing tub 4 is rotated in alternating directions (i.e. is alternately rotated in one direction and in the opposite direction) such that laundry placed on the inner surface of the drum 42 is dropped from a position at which the laundry is located below approximately 90 degrees in the rotational direction of the washing tub 4. [0196-198] Schaumann also teaches the driving device in the processing temperature range of common clothes is shape modifiable, and may specify the driving device protrudes and thus can have a first shape at a temperature below 30 degrees centigrade. They can have a second shape at a temperature higher than 30 degrees centigrade thereby suggesting if the clothes made of the first material are confirmed to be the clothes having the first thickness, the treating step includes a heating step of heating the water to 30°C; and a step of executing a first motion in which clockwise rotation of the drum and counterclockwise rotation of the drum are alternately performed and the drum rotates at a first RPM at which centrifugal force of less than 1G occurs.[page 5]
Regarding claim 11, the method of Im and Goshgarian modified by Schaumann suggests if the clothes made of the first material are confirmed to be the clothes having the second thickness, the treating step includes: a heating step of heating the water to 30°C; and a second motion execution step of causing centrifugal force of less than 1G and rotating the drum at a second RPM higher than the first RPM.
Regarding claim 12, the method of Im and Goshgarian modified by Schaumann suggests if the clothes made of the first material are confirmed to be the clothes having the second thickness, the treating step includes: a heating step of heating the water to 30°C as Schaumann teaches the driving device in the processing temperature range of common clothes is shape modifiable, and may specify the driving device protrudes and thus can have a first shape at a temperature below 30 degrees centigrade. They can have a second shape at a temperature higher than 30 degrees centigrade.
Im teaches swing motion is a motion in which the washing tub 4 is rotated in alternating directions (i.e. is alternately rotated in one direction and in the opposite direction) such that laundry placed on the inner surface of the drum 42 is dropped from a position at which the laundry is located below approximately 90 degrees in the rotational direction of the washing tub 4. More specifically, the washing tub 4 is rotated in the counterclockwise direction and is stopped before the laundry reaches approximately 90 degrees in the counterclockwise direction of the drum 42, and the laundry is dropped to the lowest point of the drum 42 from a position at which the laundry is located below approximately 90 degrees in the counterclockwise direction of the drum 42. Subsequently, the washing tub 4 is rotated in the clockwise direction and is stopped before the laundry reaches approximately 90 degrees in the clockwise direction of the drum 42, and the laundry is dropped to the lowest point of the drum 42 from a position at which the laundry is located below approximately 90 degrees in the clockwise direction of the drum 42. The washing tub 4 is alternately rotated in the counterclockwise direction and in the clockwise direction thereby reading on a first motion execution step of alternately performing clockwise rotation of the drum and counterclockwise rotation of the drum, and rotating the drum at the first RPM at which centrifugal force of less than 1G occurs; and a second motion execution step of causing centrifugal force of less than 1G and rotating the drum at a second RPM higher than the first RPM, wherein the first motion execution step and the second motion execution step are executed alternately.[0196-197] [0031]
Regarding claim 13, Schaumann teaches the processing temperature range of common clothes is shape modifiable. may specify the driving device protrudes and thus can have a first shape at a temperature below 30 degrees centigrade. They can have a second shape at a temperature higher than 30 degrees centigrade, and may specify that there is at least one additional temperature step, wherein the driving device has a third shape at the temperature of higher than 40 degrees centigrade thereby suggesting if the clothes made of the second material are confirmed to be the clothes having the first thickness, the treating step includes: a heating step of heating the water to 40°C.[page 5] Im teaches swing motion is a motion in which the washing tub 4 is rotated in alternating directions (i.e. is alternately rotated in one direction and in the opposite direction) such that laundry placed on the inner surface of the drum 42 is dropped from a position at which the laundry is located below approximately 90 degrees in the rotational direction of the washing tub 4 thereby suggesting a first motion execution step of performing the first motion.[0196-198]
Regarding claim 14, Schaumann teaches the processing temperature range of common clothes is shape modifiable. may specify the driving device protrudes and thus can have a first shape at a temperature below 30 degrees centigrade. They can have a second shape at a temperature higher than 30 degrees centigrade, and may specify that there is at least one additional temperature step, wherein the driving device has a third shape at the temperature of higher than 40 degrees centigrade thereby suggesting if the clothes made of the second material are confirmed to be the clothes having the second thickness, the treating step includes: a heating step of heating the water to 40°C.[page 5]. Im teaches the first and second acceleration steps may further include a step of accelerating the washing tub from a first rotational speed to a second rotational speed, which is higher than the first rotational speed thereby suggesting a second motion execution step of causing centrifugal force of less than 1G and rotating the drum at a second RPM higher than the first RPM to be an obvious modification.[0031]
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to CRISTI J TATE-SIMS whose telephone number is (571)272-1722. The examiner can normally be reached M-F 9am-6pm.
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CRISTI J. TATE-SIMS
Primary Examiner
Art Unit 1711
/CRISTI J TATE-SIMS/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 1711