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 statements (IDS) were submitted on 04/17/2024 and 07/23/2024. The submissions are in compliance with the provisions of 37 CFR 1.97. Accordingly, the information disclosure statements are being considered by the examiner.
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.
Claims 1-4, 9, 14-18, and 20-22 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by Liebich et al. (DE 102016011719 A – Cited IDS – US 10715932 B2, a family publication, is used for prior art citations).
Regarding claim 1: Liebich teaches a method comprising:
receiving, by one or more processors, an occlusion effect ("OE") profile associated with an increased sound pressure level within an ear canal of a user (Fig. 1: Controller 15 in DSP, col. 10 – lines 60-67, and col. 11 – lines 1-32: a transmission function approximately reflects the Occlusion Effect GOE(F) is determined by the Controller 15; also see Fig. 5: GOE(s) curve);
determining, based on the OE profile, an OE gain profile (Fig. 1: Controller 15 in DSP and col. 11 – lines 10-32: Sensitivity function Sgew which reads on the claimed OE gain profile is determined by the Controller 15; also see Fig. 5: WA(s) curve); and
generating, based on the OE gain profile, an OE cancellation signal to equalize the OE profile (Fig. 1: signal yr(k) the output of controller 15 reads on the claimed OE cancellation signal and also see col. 10 – lines 44-67).
Regarding claim 2: Liebich teaches the method of claim 1, further comprising:
receiving, from one or more microphones, audio content including audio associated with audio within the ear canal of the user (Fig. 1: external microphone 18 and microphone signal a(k)); and
adjusting the OE cancellation signal based on the received audio content (Fig. 1: OE cancellation signal yr(k) is subtracted from microphone signal a(k) to produce audio signal y(k)/y(t) that output via speaker 2 into the user’s ear canal 5).
Regarding claim 3: Liebich teaches the method of claim 1, further comprising:
receiving, from one or more microphones, audio content including external audio (external microphone 18 and microphone signal a(k) and col. 4 – lines 10-12); and
adjusting the OE cancellation signal based on the received audio content (Fig. 1: OE cancellation signal yr(k) is subtracted from microphone signal a(k)).
Regarding claim 4: Liebich teaches the method of claim 3, further comprising adjusting an audio output based on the adjusted OE cancellation signal (Fig. 1: OE cancellation signal yr(k) is subtracted from microphone signal a(k) to produce audio signal y(k)/y(t) that output via speaker 2 into the user’s ear canal 5).
Regarding claim 9: Liebich teaches the method of claim 1, wherein the OE gain profile is determined at least by a machine-learned model (Fig. 1: Secondary path modeling 12 including in the process of determining OE gain profile and can be implemented by machined-learn model – see col. 12 – lines 4-67, col. 13- lines 1-6, and col. 14- lines 1-67).
Regarding claims 14-18: The method discussed in claims 1-4 above also supports these corresponding these corresponding system claims.
Regarding claim 20: The method discussed in claim 1 above also supports this corresponding non-transitory computer-readable medium claim.
Regarding claim 21: Liebich teaches the non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 20, wherein the OE gain profile is an inverse function of the OE profile (col. 11 – lines 10-15).
Regarding claim 22: Liebich teaches the non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 20, wherein the OE gain profile is comprised of at least one of a positive gain value or a negative gain value (Fig. 5: Positive gain values corresponding to the part that WA(s) curve lies above GOE(s) curve and negative gain values corresponding to the part that WA(s) curve lies below GOE(s) curve).
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 5-8, 10, 19, and 23 are objected to as being dependent upon a rejected base claim, but would be allowable if rewritten in independent form including all of the limitations of the base claim and any intervening claims.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to DAVID L TON whose telephone number is (571)270-7839. The examiner can normally be reached Monday - Friday 8:00 AM - 6:00 PM (EST).
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/DAVID L TON/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2695