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 .
Response to Amendment
This Office Action is in response to communications filed February 20, 2026. Claims 1, 4, 8 and 9 have been amended. Claims 11 and 12 have been newly added. Claims 1-12 are currently pending.
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.
Claim(s) 1-4 and 6-12 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Wawrla et al. (Wawrla; US Pub No. 2018/0112379 A1) in view of Zeckendorf et al. (Zeckendorf; US Pub No. 2017/0328777 A1).
As per claim 1, Wawrla teaches a method for operating a sensor arrangement (1) to detect a person (8) in an area of use (2) of a sanitary device (3) (Fig. 1, Sanitary Installation 1, Faucet 3, First Sensor 8, Second Sensor 13, Motion Detector 14), comprising following steps
a) activation a first sensor (4) of the sensor arrangement (1) when a second sensor (5) of the sensor arrangement (1), which differs from the first sensor (4), detects the presence of at least one person (8) in the vicinity of the sanitary device (3) (paragraph [0033], lines 9-16), wherein the activation comprises establishing a previously completely interrupted power supply to the first sensor (4) (paragraph [0039]), (paragraph [0033], line 15)…
b) detection of at least one piece of distance information about the spatial distance between the person (8) and the sanitary device (3) by means of the first sensor (4), wherein a run time measurement of a signal emitted by the first sensor (4) is performed (Fig. 1, Sanitary Installation 1, TOF Sensor 8, Spatial Regions 9, 10; paragraph [0039], lines 3-5); and
c) deactivation the first sensor (4) when the presence of at least one person (8) in the vicinity of the sanitary device (3) is no longer detected, wherein the deactivation comprises a complete interruption of the power supply to the first sensor (4) (paragraphs [0035] & [0039]).
Wawrla does not expressly teach and wherein the first sensor (4) and the second sensor (5) are arranged behind a viewing window (9) that filters out light of specific wavelengths.
Zeckendorf does not expressly and wherein the first sensor (4) and the second sensor (5) are arranged behind a viewing window (9) that filters out light of specific wavelengths (paragraph [0025]).
It would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art at the time the invention was effectively filed to implement the lens and filter device as taught by Zeckendorf, since Zeckendorf states in paragraph [0025] that such a modification would result in filtering out wavelengths not consistent with the detection of a human being.
As per claim 2, Wawrla in view of Zeckendorf further teaches the method according to claim 1, wherein the second sensor (5) has a lower electrical power consumption than the first sensor (4) (Wawrla, paragraph [0038], line 5: TOF Sensor 22 teaches the claimed first sensor, and the TOF Sensor 22 has a higher current consumption).
As per claim 3, Wawrla in view of Zeckendorf further teaches the method according to claim 1, wherein the first sensor (4) is connected to an electrical energy storage device (7) of the sanitary device (3) to establish the power supply (Wawrla, paragraph [0039]).
As per claim 4, Wawrla in view of Zeckendorf further teaches the method according to claim 1, wherein (Wawrla, paragraph [0039]: switches 23 control power supply to TOF Sensor 22).
As per claim 6, Wawrla in view of Zeckendorf further teaches the method according to claim 4, wherein the electronic switch (10) is actuated by a monitoring device (6) of the sensor arrangement (1) (Wawrla, paragraph [0033], lines 5-16; paragraph [0039], lines 1-7).
As per claim 7, Wawrla in view of Zeckendorf further teaches the method according to claim 6, wherein the monitoring device (6) actuates the electronic switch (10) depending on a sensor output of the second sensor (5) (Wawrla, paragraph [0033], lines 5-16: output of sensor 13 controls power to TOF sensor; paragraph [0039], lines 1-7).
As per claim 8, Wawrla teaches a sensor arrangement (1) for detecting a person (8) in an area of use (2) of a sanitary device (3) (Fig. 1, Sanitary Installation 1, Faucet 3, First Sensor 8, Second Sensor 13, Motion Detector 14),
- a first sensor (4), which is a ToF sensor, for detecting at least one piece of distance information about a spatial distance between a person (8) and the sanitary device (3) (Fig. 1, TOF Sensor 8, Spatial Regions 9, 10, Sanitary Fitting 2; paragraph [0038], lines 3-7);
- a second sensor (5), different from the first sensor (4), for detecting the presence of at least one person (8) in the vicinity of the sanitary device (3) (paragraph [0033], lines 1-4);
- an electronic switch (10) for establishing or interrupting a current supply from an electrical energy storage device (7) to the first sensor (4) (paragraph [0039], lines 1-6);
-a monitoring device (6) for actuating the electronic switch (10) depending on whether the second sensor (5) detects the presence of at least one person (8) in the vicinity of the sanitary device (3) (paragraph [0033]: motion detector in communication with second sensor 13, then the second sensor 13 controls switches 23 to power the operation of TOF sensor 8; paragraph [0039], lines 1-6).
Wawrla does not expressly teach and
- a viewing window (9) that filters out light of specific wavelengths and behind which the first sensor (4) and the second sensor (5) are arranged.
Zeckendorf teaches and
- a viewing window (9) that filters out light of specific wavelengths and behind which the first sensor (4) and the second sensor (5) are arranged (paragraph [0025]).
It would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art at the time the invention was effectively filed to implement the lens and filter device as taught by Zeckendorf, since Zeckendorf states in paragraph [0025] that such a modification would result in filtering out wavelengths not consistent with the detection of a human being.
As per claim 9, (see rejection of claim 1 above) the sensor arrangement (1) according to claim 8, set up for performing a method for operating a sensor arrangement (1) to detect a person (8) in an area of use (2) of a sanitary device (3), comprising following steps
a) activation a first sensor (4) of the sensor arrangement (1) when a second sensor (5) of the sensor arrangement (1), which differs from the first sensor (4), detects the presence of at least one person (8) in the vicinity of the sanitary device (3), wherein the activation comprises establishing a previously completely interrupted power supply to the first sensor (4) and wherein the first sensor (4) is a ToF sensor, and wherein the first sensor (4) and the second sensor (5) are arranged behind a viewing window (9) that filters out light of specific wavelengths;
b) detection of at least one piece of distance information about the spatial distance between the person (8) and the sanitary device (3) by means of the first sensor (4), wherein a run time measurement of a signal emitted by the first sensor (4) is performed; and
c) deactivation the first sensor (4) when the presence of at least one person (8) in the vicinity of the sanitary device (3) is no longer detected, wherein the deactivation comprises a complete interruption of the power supply to the first sensor (4).
As per claim 10, Wawrla in view of Zeckendorf further teaches a sanitary device (3) having a sensor arrangement (1) according to claim 8 (Wawrla, Fig. 1, Sanitary Installation 1, First Sensor 8, Second Sensor 13, Sensor 14).
As per claim 11, Wawrla in view of Zeckendorf further teaches the method according to claim 4, wherein the electronic switch (10) is actuated to establish or interrupt the power supply to the first sensor (4) such that the ToF sensor remains completely de-energized when not being used (Wawrla, paragraph [0039]).
As per claim 12, Wawrla in view of Zeckendorf further teaches the method according to claim 1, wherein there is no direct software command from the second sensor (5) to the first sensor (4) (Wawrla, Fig. 3, paragraph [0039]: motion sensor only controls a switch which controls power to the ToF sensor).
Claim(s) 5 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Wawrla in view of Zeckendorf as applied to claim 4 above, and further in view of Schmidt et al. (Schmidt; US Pub No. 2014/0069951 A1).
As per claim 5, Wawrla in view of Zeckendorf teaches the method according to claim 4.
Wawrla in view of Zeckendorf does not expressly teach wherein at least one transistor is used to form the electronic switch (10).
Schmidt teaches wherein at least one transistor is used to form the electronic switch (10) (paragraph [0043]).
It would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art at the time the invention was effectively filed to implement the transistor as taught by Schmidt, since Schmidt states in paragraphs [0041]-[0043] as well as it being well known in the art that transistors are active components which perform the function of switching an electrical signal.
Response to Arguments
Applicant’s arguments with respect to the above claim(s) have been considered but are moot because the new ground of rejection does not rely on any reference applied in the prior rejection of record for any teaching or matter specifically challenged in the argument.
Conclusion
Applicant's amendment necessitated the new ground(s) of rejection presented in this Office action. Accordingly, THIS ACTION IS MADE FINAL. See MPEP § 706.07(a). Applicant is reminded of the extension of time policy as set forth in 37 CFR 1.136(a).
A shortened statutory period for reply to this final action is set to expire THREE MONTHS from the mailing date of this action. In the event a first reply is filed within TWO MONTHS of the mailing date of this final action and the advisory action is not mailed until after the end of the THREE-MONTH shortened statutory period, then the shortened statutory period will expire on the date the advisory action is mailed, and any nonprovisional extension fee (37 CFR 1.17(a)) pursuant to 37 CFR 1.136(a) will be calculated from the mailing date of the advisory action. In no event, however, will the statutory period for reply expire later than SIX MONTHS from the mailing date of this final action.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to NAOMI J SMALL whose telephone number is (571)270-5184. The examiner can normally be reached Monday-Friday 8:30AM-5PM.
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/NAOMI J SMALL/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2685
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