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 .
Information Disclosure Statement
The information disclosure statement (IDS) submitted on 04/11/2024 is being considered by the examiner.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
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 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.
This application currently names joint inventors. In considering patentability of the claims the examiner presumes that the subject matter of the various claims was commonly owned as of the effective filing date of the claimed invention(s) absent any evidence to the contrary. Applicant is advised of the obligation under 37 CFR 1.56 to point out the inventor and effective filing dates of each claim that was not commonly owned as of the effective filing date of the later invention in order for the examiner to consider the applicability of 35 U.S.C. 102(b)(2)(C) for any potential 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(2) prior art against the later invention.
Claim(s) 1-2, 10-11, 19, 21 and 29 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Liu et al. (US. Pub. No. 2022/0248160, hereinafter “Liu”).
As to claims 19 and 1, (Currently amended) Liu discloses a foldable screen device [figure 3b, a foldable screen device 100], associated with its audio zoom method, comprising a memory [figure 1b, memory 120, 121], a processor [figure 1b, processor 110], and a computer program stored in the memory and executable by the processor [paragraph 20, The memory stores program instructions, the processor is connected to the memory through a bus, and the processor invokes the program instructions stored in the memory, to enable the apparatus to perform the method according to the first aspect], wherein the processor executes the computer program to perform operations comprising:
loading an audio zoom parameter preset in the foldable screen device [paragraph 156, locations of a horn, an earpiece, and a microphone in the sound input/output device group in the terminal device do not change, a sound effect that is input by or a sound effect that is output by using the sound input/output device group changes as the folding angle between the first screen and the second screen changes. The sound effect may include but is not limited to one or more of a stereo sound field location, a power (a rated output power, a music output power, or a peak music output power), a frequency range, and a frequency response];
receiving an audio zoom request sent by a user [paragraph 86, When making a call or sending a voice message, the user may make a sound near the microphone 170C through the mouth, to enter a sound signal to the microphone 170C, paragraph 134, a user may customize a sound adjustment condition or change a set sound adjustment condition. In an implementation, the user may set the sound adjustment condition in the terminal device according to a user requirement (for example, a usage habit), in other words, the user may customize some cases in which a sound configuration parameter group enabled by the terminal device may be switched];
obtaining a folding angle of the foldable screen device [paragraph 11, the current screen display parameter may include a current folding angle between the first screen and the second screen]; and
in response to the audio zoom request, calling an audio parameter that matches the folding angle from the audio zoom parameter, and performing audio zoom in the foldable screen device according to the audio parameter [figures 4c-d, because the folding angle is 30°, if the user directly faces the first screen, the user may receive, to a maximum extent, sound played by the horn 101 and the earpiece 102 on the first screen, but cannot receive, to a maximum extent, sound played by the horn 108 and the earpiece 109 on the second screen, because the folding angle is 0°, if the user directly faces the first screen, the user may receive, to a maximum extent, sound played by the horn 101 and the earpiece 102 on the first screen, and receive, to a maximum extent, sound played by the horn 108 and the earpiece 109 on the second screen. Therefore, when the folding angle between the first screen and the second screen is 0°, a sound input/output device group is configured by using a corresponding full-screen sound configuration parameter group. This improves the sound effect of the terminal device to a maximum extent, paragraph 203, a sound effect obtained after each sound input/output device group in the terminal device is configured by using a corresponding full-screen sound configuration parameter group when the folding angle between the first screen and the second screen is 0° is better than a sound effect obtained after each sound input/output device group in the terminal device is configured by using a corresponding full-screen sound configuration parameter group when the folding angle is an angle other than 0°].
Liu discloses multiple embodiments, it would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the invention to have modified the one embodiment with feature of receiving audio zoom parameter in the foldable screen device of another embodiment, in order to adjust a sound effect and improve intelligence and flexibility of a terminal device (paragraph 5).
As to claims 21 and 2, (New) Liu discloses the foldable screen device according to claim 19, associated with its audio zoom method, wherein the obtaining the folding angle of the foldable screen device comprises:
detecting a screen status of the foldable screen device through a Hall switch of the foldable screen device [paragraph 91, The magnetic sensor 180D includes a Hall effect sensor. The terminal device 100 may detect opening and closing of a flip cover by using the magnetic sensor 180D]; and
calculating the folding angle according to three-dimensional coordinates of the foldable screen device when the screen state is an open state [paragraph 11, the current screen display parameter may include a current folding angle between the first screen and the second screen].
As to claims 29 and 10, (New) Liu discloses the foldable screen device according to claim 19, associated with its audio zoom method, wherein the audio zoom parameter includes a plurality of audio parameters, and the performing the audio zoom in the foldable screen device according to the audio parameter comprises:
performing the audio zoom in the foldable screen device according to any one of the audio parameters [paragraph 156, locations of a horn, an earpiece, and a microphone in the sound input/output device group in the terminal device do not change, a sound effect that is input by or a sound effect that is output by using the sound input/output device group changes as the folding angle between the first screen and the second screen changes. The sound effect may include but is not limited to one or more of a stereo sound field location, a power (a rated output power, a music output power, or a peak music output power), a frequency range, and a frequency response].
As to claim 11, (Currently amended) Liu discloses the method according to claim 1, wherein the audio zoom request is instruction information requesting audio zoom during video shooting using the foldable screen device [paragraph 125-127, The kernel layer includes at least a display driver, a camera driver, an audio driver, and a sensor driver, A camera application invokes an interface at the application framework layer, so that the camera application is started. Then, the camera driver is started by invoking the kernel layer, and a static image or a video is captured by using the camera 193].
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 3-9 and 22-28 are objected to as being dependent upon a rejected base claim, but would be allowable if rewritten in independent form including all of the limitations of the base claim and any intervening claims.
The following is a statement of reasons for the indication of allowable subject matter: None of the prior art, made of record, singularly or in combination, teaches or fairly suggests the features presented in the combination limitations of dependent claims 3, 6-7, 22, 25 and 26, such as “obtaining three-dimensional coordinates of a top microphone and three-dimensional coordinates of a bottom microphone in the foldable screen device; and calculating the folding angle according to the three-dimensional coordinates of the top microphone and the three-dimensional coordinates of the bottom microphone”, recited by claims 3 and 22, respectively; “calling a first audio parameter from the audio zoom parameter when the folding angle is between 90° and 120°; calling a second audio parameter from the audio zoom parameter when the folding angle is between 120° and 150°; and calling a third audio parameter from the audio zoom parameter when the folding angle is between 150° and 180°”, recited by claims 6 and 25, respectively; and “determining a main microphone and a noise canceling microphone in the foldable screen device according to the folding angle; setting a preamplification gain value of the main microphone and a preamplification gain value of the noise canceling microphone according to audio parameters; and performing an audio algorithm on the main microphone and the noise canceling microphone that are set with the preamplification gain values to achieve the audio zoom”, recited by claims 7 and 26, respectively.
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure.
Han et al. (US. Pub. No. 2021/0250683) is considered as pertinent art to claims 1 and 19 relating to voice recording in a folding screen device as seen in figure 5.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to NAN-YING YANG whose telephone number is (571)272-2211. The examiner can normally be reached Monday-Friday, 8am-5pm, EST.
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/NAN-YING YANG/ Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2629
