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 .
Status of Application
This communication is responsive to the applicant's preliminary amendment filed 05/01/2024.
Claims 1, 2, 5-13, and 16-24 are pending. Claims 3, 4, 14, and 15 have been cancelled.
Claim Objections
Claim 20 is objected to because of the following informalities: the second occurrence of variable PY[t] in the equation of lines 3-4 appears should be PZ[t]. Appropriate correction is required.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 101
35 U.S.C. 101 reads as follows:
Whoever invents or discovers any new and useful process, machine, manufacture, or composition of matter, or any new and useful improvement thereof, may obtain a patent therefor, subject to the conditions and requirements of this title.
Claims 23-24 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 101 because the claimed invention is directed to non-statutory subject matter.
Claim 23 does not fall within at least one of the four categories of patent eligible subject matter because claim 23 recites “[An] program comprising instructions”, which is “a program” per se, and that is non-statutory subject matter.
Claim 24 recites “[A] computer readable storage medium storing the program according to claim 23”, in the state of the art, transitory signals are commonplace as a medium for transmitting computer instructions and thus, in the absence of any evidence to the contrary and given a broadest reasonable interpretation, the scope of a “computer readable storage medium” covers transitory medium such as “a signal” per se. A transitory signal does not fall within the definition of a process, machine, manufacture, or composition of matters. The phrase “a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium” is suggested.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 102
The following is a quotation of the appropriate paragraphs of 35 U.S.C. 102 that form the basis for the rejections under this section made in this Office action:
A person shall be entitled to a patent unless –
(a)(1) the claimed invention was patented, described in a printed publication, or in public use, on sale or otherwise available to the public before the effective filing date of the claimed invention.
Claim(s) 1-2,5-6,10-11,19 and 21-24 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by Ma et al (US-2017/0098456, hereinafter, Ma).
Regarding claim 1, Ma discloses a method of performing content-aware audio processing for an audio signal comprising a plurality of audio components of different types (see Figs. 2, 4, 7, and para [0010], [0011]), the method comprising: source separating the audio signal into at least a voice-related audio component and a residual audio component (see para [0033]); determining a dynamic audio gain based on the voice-related audio component and the residual audio component (see para [0061]-[0063], [0089]); and performing audio level adjustment for the audio signal based on the determined audio gain (see para [0101]-[0106]).
Regarding claims 2, 5-6, see para [0064]-[0067], [0082].
Regarding claims 10-11, see Figs. 1, 8, and para [0107].
Regarding claim 19, see para [0101]-[0105].
Regarding claim 21, see para [0053], [0054] and Fig. 7.
Regarding claim 22, see Fig. 10.
Regarding claims 23 and 24, see para [0119], [0120].
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 7-9, 12, 13, 16-18 and 20 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 closest cited prior art of references as listed below fail to disclose the claimed subject matter and limitations as recited in claims 7-9, 12, 13, 16-18 and 20.
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure.
Yang et al, Geiger et al, Gaalaas, Zurek et al, Jansson et al, and Elfenbein et al, disclose various audio signal processing apparatus for enhancing voice/speech component and attenuating non-voice/speech or noise component of the audio signal that is pertinent to the instant application.
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/XU MEI/ Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2695 12/13/2025